Nailing the Basics
Define the event's purpose. Having a sentence or two in your head will help you lead the event in the right direction. Are you planning it to educate your community? Persuade potential donors for funds? Celebrate a specific individual or group of individuals? Get as narrow as possible. Whatever you're doing (be it educating, persuading, celebrating, etc.), why are you doing it? Think of it as your mission statement. When you know exactly what you want to do, it's a lot easier to do it!
Set goals for the event to achieve. What exactly do you want to accomplish? Not how many people do you want to show up, not the actual fact that the event is even happening -- what do you want to come out of this? 5 people to walk away a new part of your organisation? $1,000 raised? People excited? Think of the top three things you wish would happen as a result of this event and concentrate on them becoming a reality. Maybe one goal is financial, one is social, and one is personal. It's up to you (or your boss!)
Decide on a format for your event. Events can come in a few different formats: formal dinners, casual auctions, potluck parties, or even virtual meetings. Depending on what kind of event you’re holding, one format may work better than the others. Fundraising events work best as formal dinners so your guests feel like they are appreciated for their time. Holding an event to thank your volunteers might work best as a potluck party where everyone brings their own dish. Casual auctions are nice for small fundraisers to spur guests into donating. Virtual meetings are great for guests who are spread all across the country or the world.
Choose a theme for your event. A theme can help you create hashtags and taglines for your event to make it easier to find online. Try to come up with a theme that fits the nature of your event and your organisation, while taking the goals of your event into account. If you’re holding a fundraising event for an environmental agency, your theme might be cleaning up the watershed. If you’re holding a corporate event to thank your shareholders, the theme might be profitability.
Forming a Team
Gather a team of volunteers. Talk to people in your community who know and love the cause you’re trying to support. Ask them to give up a few hours of their time before, during, and after the event to help you make it happen. Be sure to tell them everything they’ll be expected to do so they know what they’re getting into. Your “community” may be different based on what type of event you’re running. If it’s for your workplace, it could be your coworkers; if it’s for your church, it might be the congregation. If you aren't in a situation where finding volunteers is feasible, hire a crew! It all depends on the type of event you're organising. The venue may be able to provide you with one or you can go through a third-party staffing agency.
Delegate work to different people. If the event is a mega-event, let different people coordinate different activities under the supervision of one person. The team leader should be trusted by the team members, and they should probably have a little bit of experience in event planning. You can break up your team into smaller teams if you’d like certain people to focus on specific tasks. For example, you can put 1 person in charge of decorations with 2 other people helping them. Then, you can have another person in charge of the silent auction with 1 to 2 others helping them. Delegating tasks will make it much easier on you so you don’t have to do all of the work.
Communicate with your team often. In order for you all to work together, you need to keep your team up to speed. Make sure they all know what’s going on, what the timeline is, and when they need to get their tasks completed by. The more often you communicate, the smoother your event will go! Consider putting everyone on the team on a mass email or texting list so you can reach them all at the same time.
Hire or task someone to take photos of the event. You can post these photos on your website or social media pages later on. Take note of the sponsor banners, your banner, the entrance, the reception area, and the guests. If the photos look good, you can use them to advertise your event next year! It can be tempting to try and take the photos yourself, but you’ll probably have a lot on your plate. Ask a volunteer or a professional to handle photos for the day while you run around busy with other things. If the event is super formal or you need high quality photographs, it’s better to go with a professional photographer.
Hiring Speakers and Vendors
Create a budget for the event. All possible expenses, incomes, sponsors, and contingent expenses should be included. If you don't budget, you'll end up with a wad of receipts, an empty pocketbook, and no idea what the heck just happened. Be realistic from day one so no surprises are seen the day of! You may also be able to collect money from donations. Find ways to keep costs low. Consider cheaper venues (like someone's home). Remember: a small, simple gathering that goes well is always more impressive than a party thrown to the nines that's a flop.
Save all your receipts and paperwork. Organising a large event leaves a long paper trail, and you may need to save your paperwork to turn in at the end. Keep a file folder or a notebook full of your receipts to look back on at the end of your event. Order them by the date and the purpose so you know what they’re for. This is especially important if you’re getting reimbursed at the end of the event!
Contact speakers to talk at your event. Depending on what kind of event you’re hosting, you may want to have a few speakers as well as a keynote speaker give talks. If you already have some people in mind, get ahold of them as soon as you can to see if they’re available and what their rates are. If they’re coming from out of town, be prepared to cover travel or hotel expenses. Some speakers may not be available during the time you want to host your event, so make sure you have backups. Popular speakers can really draw people to your event, so choose them wisely!
Hire caterers if you plan to feed your guests. Some events don’t need to provide food and drinks, but it’s nice to provide your guests with dinner in the evening time or snacks during the day. If you do decide to provide food, hire a catering company once you have your venue nailed down and talk to them about the menu, the setup, and how early they need to be there the day of. Most catering companies need at least an hour before the event to set up and warm up the food. If you’re planning a potluck, create a signup sheet where guests can sign up for which dish they’d like to bring.
Seek out donations if you plan to host an auction. Hosting an auction is a great way to raise money for a nonprofit during your event. If you'll be hosting a silent auction at your event, reach out to local businesses to see if they'd be willing to donate some of their products for your cause. Make sure you tell them what your organisation is and what their services or product would be helping. You can auction off gift baskets, gift cards, coupons, vacation packages, or art pieces.
Finding a Venue
Decide on a time for the event. This is the most important thing when it comes to your event. What time and what place will make people say, "Yeah, I'll go to that!"? You want a time when everyone will be free and a place that's a convenient location, and something you can afford to book! Check your community's calendar and consider your audience. If you're working with a bunch of stay-at-home moms, during the day and in the neighborhood is your best bet (maybe with some babysitting offered, too). If you're channeling students, do a weeknight downtown. If you can, go where they already are.
Contact the venue to book your date. Once you figure out when you’d like to hold your event, think about the best place for everyone to gather. This could be a community center, an outdoor area, your office, or even someone’s home. Once you know where you’d like to go, contact the owner of the space to get permission to host your gathering there. You may have to put a deposit down to hold your spot at the venue. Try to pick a central location so your guests can get there easily.
Get a permit if your area requires one. If you’re hosting your event outside on public land, you may have to apply for a permit to do so. Contact your state or county office to see if you need to apply for a permit, and make sure you note the size and parameters of your event. Permits usually aren’t expensive, but the cost does vary based on where you are located. Public parks often require permits to host events.
Arrange tables and chairs at the venue. If you’re renting out a building, it may not have tables and chairs provided. Make sure your guests will be able to sit and that you’ll have somewhere to put food or drinks, if you’re serving them. Contact a furniture rental company to ask about renting out the items for the night. The amount of seating you need depends on the number of guests you’re going to have. While this can be tough to estimate early-on, you should try to get a good read on how many people might attend as it gets closer to the date of the event.
Advertising the Event
Create a poster with all the info for your event on it. It should include the date, time, venue, keynote speaker, name of the event, and theme or tag-line for the event. Make sure the colors pop, the design is eye-catching, and that people don’t have to hunt for the relevant information. Make sure you can print out physical copies to hand out around town as well.
Post the event on social media. If your company or group has a social media page, advertise your event a few months ahead of time so people can start marking their calendars. As the date gets closer and closer, post reminders for people so they can sign up or buy tickets if they need to. In the age of technology, social media is the best way to reach the most amount of people. You can use Facebook, Instagram, and even Twitter. To reach more people on social media, consider running an ad campaign.
Email the event to relevant people. If your company or group has a mailing list, send out the event poster as an attachment to anyone on the newsletter. Try not to spam people with info about the event, and keep the message short and simple. People who are on an email list are interested in knowing more about your company and events, so they’re more likely to go.
Ramp up the advertising as the event gets closer. In the days and weeks leading to the event, really push the event poster to make sure as many people see it as possible. Keep emphasizing how much fun the event will be and what people might learn, achieve, or get if they attend. The more people hear about the event, the more likely they are to go! For example, you could make a countdown timer on Instagram a few days before the event. Or, you could post the link to buy tickets at 50% off 1 to 2 days before the event.
Managing the Day of the Event
Arrive early to the venue with your team members and volunteers. Check that everyone is there and all electronic equipment is in working order. Any last minute questions? If there's time, give a little pep talk to the team (and yourself too). Make sure the organisers are wearing a distinct badge or some other noticeable implement so that participants can find help if needed.
Set up the decorations, signs, tables, and chairs. Make sure everything is accounted for. Do you need balloons on the mailbox? A poster board on the corner? What about on the doors and through the hallway? If your guests have to wander through a veritable labyrinth, the more signs, the better. Welcome banners and other info in front of the building will be especially useful. You want people to be able to see from the street that that's the place they should be. No questions about it! Make a reception and registration counter. When guests walk in the door, they should see exactly what they need to do. Put on some music! It can kill any awkwardness that otherwise might be flitting about.
Clean up the venue when the event is over. Take down the banners, break down the tables, and grab everything you brought in. You want to leave the place as good as when you found it, especially if you paid for the venue and want to ever come back. They may charge fees that could otherwise be avoided. Divvy up the jobs between your team members so it all goes as quickly and painlessly as possible. Check to make sure nothing valuable has been left behind, and if so, form a lost and found. If you have damaged something, let the venue's contact person know. It's best to be honest and forthright.
Thank your team members and wrap up any paperwork you have left. Depending on your event, this could range from absolutely nothing to a long-list of thank yous and receipts. Here are some ideas to get you started: Thank all of the team members, especially sponsors and volunteers. You couldn't have done it without them! Finalize and settle the accounts. This should be done as quickly as possible. The fewer loose strings, the better. Distribute any souvenirs or other publications to relevant people. Deliver the receipts to sponsors and others. Post the photos on your event website.
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