Tips For Planning Your First Event
Planning your first event? Weâve been there -- so, listen up!
Last semester, we (Molly and I) planned an event called Read My Lips. The event was a lip-sync competition featuring some of our universityâs favorite single/duo acts. We found our inspiration for the fundraiser from an on-going Jimmy Fallon lip-sync battle. The dual charity and Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) fundraiser was meant to begin a tradition at Indiana Wesleyan University.
It was a first-ever event, and I had minimal experience in event planning. Leading a committee of 12 students, I was unsure where to begin, but with 4 weeks until the show, I knew I had to begin planning immediately.
Check out the Read My Lips Facebook event page!
Check out the Read My Lips photo album!
When planning for a university, organization or client, you are likely to encounter some challenging obstacles and regulations. Obviously, you can't avoid all potential hiccups, but you can take steps to plan your event to run as smoothly as possible. Typically, the more planning you do, the less disasters you will encounter.Â
1. Research
Yes, research. I know, it isn't the most glamorous part of the process, but it certainly needs to be done. If you contact others who have planned similar events before, you can gain insight on the "do's" and "dont's" of event planning.Â
2. Learn Strengths/Weaknesses
The cool thing about planning an event is that you are normally leading a group for it. Learn your group's strengths and weaknesses. Find which committee member is the best writer to write the support letters and invitations, and find the member who is best with numbers to help manage the budget costs. This will ultimately help you delegate better and help your event be a success.
3. Set Goals & Deadlines
As obvious as it will seem, you need to plan. By planning I mean, setting goals and deadlines. In order to accomplish your tasks, you need to set dates to complete each part of your event. Also, make sure you assign each committee member a task and deadline before you walk out of your weekly meetings.
4. Stay Organized
Before walking into my committee meetings, I made sure to have an agenda to distribute to each of my committee members. This was not only helpful for them, but it helped me remember the topics I needed to address. The agenda also helped me document the conversations and decisions that the committee made in the previous week. When you have multiple groups to oversee, make sure you are keeping track of them. When I planned Read My Lips, I had to oversee and communicate with multiple groups: the PRSSA committee, the photographers, the jazz band, the Student Activities Committee, the volunteers, the sponsors and various other groups. Thank goodness I had Molly to help handle the social media promotions and oversee the performers involved. I highly recommend making a Google doc. for all of your lists. Share it with your committee and have them add to it whenever things change.
5. Promote, Promote, Promote!
One of the most difficult parts about planning a first-ever event is molding the eventâs reputation and credibility. In Molly and I's case, we had to find ways to attract college students. First, we carefully selected the lip-sync candidates. These individuals were social and able to get the word out. They also had wide social circles. We created the Facebook event page, and Molly helped managed the daily social media promotions that featured a contestant each day. We also had posters, and we promoted the event with a table in the student center with pre-sale tickets. I wrote a daily development (a daily email from our school sharing news about the week), and I set up a time to be interviewed by our school newspaper.Â
6. Evaluate
One of my favorite parts of this event was getting the final results. Make sure you document how many guests attended your event. In my case, we had to count the final donations and attendance. Compare your final numbers to your original goals. See what kind of progress you made. If you are planning this event for a specific organization or client, give them the results. Let them see on paper how much publicity you generated for their company/organization. For us, we broke the fall semester record, and we brought in several hundred dollars for the event!
7. ALWAYS Send Thank You Letters!
For Read My Lips, we had to connect with countless different groups of people. We had multiple volunteers, photographers, musicians, candidates, etc. Never forget to write thank you letters. No matter how the event turned out, you need to always thank those who took the time for you and your event.Â
 It wonât be perfect
If you are anything like me, you will notice every minor detail that could have been better. You will think to yourself, "if only that light was over a little more" or âthis part of the show should have gone longer.â If you are the perfectionist I am, you will torture yourself with ways you could have done better. This is a blessing and a curse, but remember: nothing is perfect. Learn from your mistakes and move on!
You Donât Attend Your Own Event
Unfortunately, you don't get the luxury of being a guest at your own event. You won't get to sit back, relax and enjoy the show. I think I can speak on behalf of most event planners when I say that event planning isn't for people who just like to attend cool events and parties. You have to love to manage, delegate, think quick and make decisions.
Good luck with your event planning endeavors!
