5 event planning tips for beginners

1. Map your event out on a whiteboard
2. Event budget
3. A time and a place for every event
4. Iterating your event invitations
5. Visit the venue before the event

Here is the problem: they need you to plan an event, you have no experience in event management, and somehow this has landed on your shoulders.

Relax. We are here to help.

Plenty of organisations have nobody dedicated specifically to event marketing. Yet an event can make or break an entire campaign. Here are some useful tips to take you from the planning stage through to the big day.

Whatever kind of event you are planning, you need a strategy before anything else.

• What is the goal of your event?
• Are you launching a new product or service to clients?
• Do you have an event demo or references from past events?

Whether your end goal is getting in front of influential people or presenting to a group of executives, you need your strategy in writing. Look at your ideal audience, what message will land with them and how you are going to measure results.

Remember: you will not know whether your event was a success or a failure unless you have the right metrics in place from the start.

Once the goals are set, you need to work out what reaching them will cost.

In our experience it helps to list the price of every item the event needs in order to happen. That might include:

• Posters
• Invitations
• A new website
• Food
• Drinks
• Music
• Gifts
• Entertainment for guests

Think about events you have been to and picture all the small details involved. What do you absolutely need and what can you do without? Draw up a budget checklist and start working out an overall price.

Are you hosting executives or managers? Is it a presentation or a networking drinks reception? Is this event part of your demand generation strategy or your brand awareness strategy?

The answer to these questions should decide the timing and location of the event:

• If you are targeting busy executives, plan a smart breakfast.
• A networking event works better in the evening with cocktails.
• A presentation feels forced in a bar: better to hold it in a hotel or conference room.

Think about how the setting shapes people's attention span and the kind of message they expect to hear.

The invitation is one of the most important parts of the whole planning process. You do not want to send it too early or too late.

Three weeks before the event is usually about right, although if you want a slot in executives' diaries it is worth sending it even earlier. A detailed invitation suits a dinner, but be more direct if it is a demo. Include directions, public transport among them: make attending as easy as you possibly can.

It also pays to segment the guest list. Marketing automation helps enormously here: an invitation written for analysts will not land the same way in a CMO's inbox. You also need to follow up: people who have already confirmed should get different reminders, in timing and wording, from those who have not.

Visit the venue the day before your event. Picture how you want people to experience it.

• What signage needs to be in place to avoid confusion?
• Where should staff be positioned?

Ultimately it is about understanding what your guests will see from the moment they walk through the door to the moment they reach the registration desk. Get a feel for the space. The only way to anticipate how your event will land is to visit beforehand, putting yourself in your guests' shoes.

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