Event planning training manual

In this guide, five event pros from all ends of the spectrum — corporate meetings, boutique conferences, high-end agencies, and association events — weigh in on running an event from start to finish. We worked with five top event professionals who love to break boundaries, set aggressive goals, iterate year over year, and listen to their attendees. What does the ultimate event team look like?

How can you work with volunteers? Use our project plan template to keep contributors on track. This part of the event planning guide details how to be smart about choosing a date, gives you a checklist of questions to ask before you book a venue, and lists tips for cutting costs. How can you juggle the need to start promoting with the complexity of confirming the framework?

Looking for tips on finding and booking a really fantastic keynote speaker? A great speaker can set the tone of the entire event, increase message lifetime, and set you apart from other events. Guidebook even lets you get started for free. This crucial element of event planning can make or break your event. This chapter of the event planning guide shows you how to set up your event registration system, how to test it, and best practices for landing pages and forms.

What should you choose? Who should you ask? Which confusingly-designed government websites should you scrutinize? Find out in this section. Need additional support in planning your event? Check out our comprehensive event planning checklist and tips for creating an event budget. This is practically why we wrote the event planning guide. Learn specific tips for getting the most out of email, phone calls, digital ads, social media, PR, partner promotions, referrals and more.

To understand this cost, you need to know the benefits the other activities would yield as compared to your events. Events can impact the top line and bottom line of an organization. Direct revenue is the money made directly as a result of hosting an event.

Examples include ticket sales, sponsorship dollars, registration fees, onsite product sales, and advertising revenue. Direct revenue varies based on the size and scope of the event. This is the money you are hopefully calculating today to show the value of your event. Organizations market and promote their products at events which helps drive future revenue. Onsite product demos and account planning conversations help fill the sales pipeline, fuel new sales, and increase customer renewals. As those new opportunities result in new business, the dollars can be attributed to the event as attributed revenue.

Some benefits, such as brand equity, are more intangible and cannot be measured through hard dollars. Consumers like well-known and admired companies, which leads to doing business with that company. Brand equity can help propel Customer Lifetime Value, the long-term profit contribution from a customer. Your events should leave a positive impact on your attendees, driving positive brand equity.

Knowledge exchange is the accelerated learning that occurs during events. This interaction between customers, prospects and the company can help shape product development, increase learning, fine-tune marketing, and speed receptivity to sales. Your events must create an environment to share knowledge, which leads to brand equity and attributed revenue! By now, you should be able to answer the question, what is event planning.

And you know that event planning software can cut down the time spent on doing manual tasks. Event management is about pulling together an incredible experience, facilitating connections, adding leads to sales pipeline, and proving event success.

A virtual event platform is a gamechanger. From on-site badge printing to detailed data and analytics to virtual streaming options, event management software can take your event to the next level. There are so many things to think about when you plan an event. But, whether you just got thrown into planning or have been planning events your entire life, there will always be unexpected moments.

Events, as well as you script them, are unruly. Things never go quite as you plan it. Below is a quick event planning checklist to keep in mind as you go through your event. Think of this as an event planning template. In most cases, you have the least amount of control over when you can start planning your event. Try to start as early as possible to give yourself the best chance for success.

Each event is an opportunity to improve. Communicating value after the event will ensure. What is the theme? Figuring this out early will make planning easier in the long run. How big is this event and is your team large enough to handle it?

Take the time to develop a comprehensive event promotion plan. Invest the time and money in promotion to drive registration. And, consider investing in event marketing software. While this does depend on the type of event you have, there is nothing that incurs the wrath of attendees quite like running out of coffee, or worse, not having coffee. At some events, you have the ability to adapt based on attendee response. Your attendees will thank you.

While unnecessary to reiterate, things happen onsite that you could have no way of predicting. Keep your staff office stocked with sewing needles, a first aid kit, and whatever else might be helpful. Take the time when you can to get a few hours of sleep. You collected data onsite. In your mobile event app, at the check-in kiosk, during registration, an in surveys.

Data you capture onsite is invaluable. You gain insights into attendees, and potential customers, that most companies can only dream of having access to. You need to prove event success. Your stakeholders will be more impressed if you can speak their language and give concrete results. Find out more about Cvent's Event Management Software. Skip to main content. Event Planning Guide Event Marketing Events. Event Planning Guide In this guide, we talk through a basic event planning template, what it means to be a planner, and how event management software can simplify your processes.

What is Event Planning? Event Management is Event Planning People tend to call event planning by many different names.

What is Virtual Event Planning? How to Plan an Event Not sure how to plan an event, or even where to start? Building the Perfect Event It starts simply. Define Event Purpose All events have a purpose. Determine Event Size and Duration How many attendees will attend your event?

Event Budget Create a Budget No one likes to talk about money. Meeting and Event Budgeting Made Easier After the actual event, the event budget is one of the most highly scrutinized aspects of any planning process.

Event Management Software and Event Budget Technology has made event budget tracking easier than pen and paper or building out a complicated, formula heavy Excel sheet. Simple Entry Keeps things easy. Charts And Graphs People like visuals!

Take into account feedback from attendees. Is this an annual event? If attendees ranked the venue from the previous year poorly, look at the feedback to pick a venue that will resonate better. Reach out to your team, or others that have a stake in the event to brainstorm what factors are most important. Make it clear what this event requires and hopes to achieve. Get detailed! Give as much information about the event as you can. No one likes to discuss money, but you need to share your budget requirements.

The venue is one of the largest costs of an event and can make or break your budget. Make your deadlines clear. Give a date and time that provide venues enough time to respond.

Pull a template from online. Be ready to answer any questions venues may have about the proposal or event. Step Three: Evaluate Proposals Create a spreadsheet to assess proposals Create a list of any factors that are less concrete — your qualitative factors Pay close attention to meeting rooms — do the sizes and layouts make sense for your event?

Promotion Across Channels with Automation If no one knows about your event, how will they register? Personalize Invitations to Increase Attendance Treat your invites like targeted e-marketing campaigns by segmenting audiences by contact type and job role with a clear call-to-action that will resonate with them, getting more people to RSVP.

Increase Your Online Visibility to Create a Goldmine Employ a user-friendly event registration system to create both an easy online registration process and targeted event website. Engage at Every Stage Use social media, viral marketing videos, pics, contests, teaser campaigns and promotions to drum up interest before your event.

Be Great and Integrate Events are a key piece of the marketing mix and therefore your event management system should integrate with your other sales and marketing tech stack and tools such as your CRM system, e-marketing solution, and social media tools.

Registration Website A registration site is built for one thing — registration. Event Website An event website is more dynamic.

Regardless of the type of site you build, it should be: Responsive Branded Contain all of the event info Be accessible and easy to read How to Detect Problems Bounce Rates The higher a bounce rate is, the worse it is.

Building an Event Agenda Your entertainment and speakers are the main sources of inspiration at your event. Direct Costs These are costs most familiar to event planners. Indirect Costs Indirect costs offer a more complete view of the investments to run an event. Opportunity Costs Events have an opportunity cost. Identifying Benefits Events can impact the top line and bottom line of an organization.

Direct Revenue Direct revenue is the money made directly as a result of hosting an event. Attributed Revenue Organizations market and promote their products at events which helps drive future revenue. Brand Equity Some benefits, such as brand equity, are more intangible and cannot be measured through hard dollars. Knowledge Exchange Knowledge exchange is the accelerated learning that occurs during events.

Your scheduling guy coordinates meetings at the event, and he lives to make attendees into successful networkers. Creative designers put together all visual design for printed and web materials like schedules, collateral, registration and signage, and anything needed for the mobile event app.

To break it down: they make you look good. You may want to work with an event design agency. This person or team makes the right people aware of the event, create offers and timing strategy to boost registration, oversee branding, communicate with registrants, coordinate social media amplification and media relations, and send and measure follow-up materials. This team makes sure a guest has everything he needs to get the most out of the event, from maps, schedules, speaker info, and how to network.

They build out and update the mobile event app. These folks own registration setup, work with a software provider, produce and manage badges, generate reports, and make sure the registration process pre-event and during the event is running smoothly. This team member works to map out booth spaces, sell sponsorship opportunities, maintain relationships with sponsors, and explore community organization relationships. They have killer timing and great people skills. A project plan is more than just a to-do list.

You should be able to justify every action item by mapping it to your top-level event goals. Project management tools streamline event management and organization. Utilize these tools to keep all of the moving pieces accounted for. With the ability to assign and monitor projects, a project manager can maintain an accurate view of progress and timelines with these tools:. Choosing your venue and date for your event are two major considerations that will shape the rest of your project plan.

Start researching venues as early as possible. The event marketplace is crowded, so finding a time when there will be venue availability is important. Look for budget, thematic fit, location is it central, easy for transportation? Are there restrooms conveniently located throughout the venue?

Half of event planners negotiate a discount off of published rates, and of those who do, organizers most commonly negotiate free WiFi, AV, or parking, according to EventManager.

When people think of your event, you want a strong personality to shine. Additionally, a strong event brand provides a vision and helps to steer the direction of your event.

Additionally, think about how your brand will come across online and in real life. Lastly, consider how you will weave your event brand into the individual elements of your event. With these branding elements solidified, you should use them across all platforms including, your event website, social media, emails, tickets and registration, and your event app.

Want more on branding? Check out our Guide to Event Branding. Set your agenda as early as possible! Is there a keynote speaker? Will there be an extra day or evening planned just for your sponsors? As you answer these preliminary questions, you can begin to build a high-level view of your event program. You can make changes to the schedule after you have begun to market your event and registration begins to grow.

Technology makes this easy to quickly make updates to the schedule on your website and mobile app. Your attendees will want to know what to expect, so it is best if you have the basic framework confirmed as early as possible. Additionally, the schedule is an important selling point for sponsors as well! In addition to the core event program, there are a number of other program aspects to think about.

If your event is a full day or multiple day event, you should also think about planning:. Speakers, sponsors, and exhibitors are common ways to add value for your attendees and can offset costs.

Here are two ways to add speakers:. If you have an engaged community, hosting an open call for session submissions is a great way to utilize your partners and customers as speakers. Typically an open call will require individuals to submit a session abstract that outlines the session topic and value proposition. With this, your team will review submitted abstracts, select speakers, and communicate with those who have been selected and those who were not.

Reversely, if you have individuals in mind, you can invite them to speak at your event. In reaching out to a prospective speaker, provide a compelling snapshot of the event and audience, and also convey your enthusiasm for them participating in the event.

Keep in mind, invited speakers often expect compensation as well as travel and lodging provided. Create a speaker agreement that includes necessary information like presentation expectations, content deadlines, available technology onsite, and compensation. Be clear about your expectations upfront, so there are no surprises the day before the event! Continue communicating beyond sending initial confirmation communication and speaker agreement.

Make sure to provide materials as you develop them. Requiring speakers to submit their final presentations, send a reminder to ensure each speaker gets it to you on time. Build a list of sponsors you want to participate in your event. Before reaching out to them, conduct research to understand how they would benefit from participating in your event.