You can easily have a love-hate relationship with event planning. Immense time, effort and headaches goes into planning an event that spans only a mere couple of hours. But after planning countless events ourselves, it’s safe to say that we know a thing (or two) about executing a fabulous event.
In fact, our team recently had the opportunity to help plan West Michigan Center of Art + Technology‘s (WMCAT) largest fundraiser of the year, iBall 2017, which took place on Wednesday, March 29, at the Amway.
Take a look at some of the tips we’ve gathered over the years, including tips that our team implemented when planning iBall 2017:
Establish your goals in advance
Working months in advance is crucial when planning a large event. The entire event planning process can take up to a year, depending on the event size and detail. Because of this, we recommend establishing your goals in advance. Ask yourself the tough questions, such as: What is the purpose of this event? How much money are we looking to raise? Who do we want to attend? How are we going to convince people to attend? What does our target audience enjoy?
The media is your friend
In order to get your event publicized and viewed by the masses, it is crucial that you establish relationships with various media outlets. Radio stations, news stations, bloggers, newspapers or magazines, it is essential that your event gets covered by the media.
In preparation for iBall, our team spent the majority of our efforts working with the media. We helped secure three on-air interviews at various news stations, placement in local blogs, radio station interviews and more. We secured Valerie Lego, reporter from WZZM 13, to be the event’s emcee, and invited numerous media to be our guests at the event. The media is your friend.
Don’t forget to follow-up
When planning events, there are numerous people involved in the process. In order to avoid confusion, we recommend streamlining communication as much as possible. Never underestimate the power of a quick phone call to follow-up on event details. This will save you from having one of those, “WTF do I do now?” moments on the day-of.
Use your resources to network like a pro
Network like a pro during the month’s leading up to your event. Shamelessly “plug” your event whenever possible. How do you expect people to attend your event if they don’t know about it? (i.e. this is why the media is our friend) Chances are, a large number of people are interested, or would be interested, in attending your event, they just don’t know it.
Obviously, there are many other components to planning a successful event. These are just some of the key pointers that we’ve gathered over time.
Again, thank you to WMCAT for allowing us to play a role in iBall 2017, and congrats on a successful event!
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