Event planning can be a bit stressful; from booking the event venue to inviting guests to attend, keeping track of all these is quite challenging and chances are you might even miss or forget something. But, by having an event planning checklist, all these hurdles would be a lot easier to tackle.
With that said, we have created this ultimate guide to help you plan and prepare for your next best event. And to make this a whole lot better, we have created a few event planning checklist that you can refer to.
Table of Contents
Goal Setting
Every agency or corporate event planner knows that all events, whether big or small, have an underlying purpose or goals. It does not matter whether it is an intimate dinner party or a full-blown conference meeting, all events have an end goal in sight.
So with that said, the very first thing that you need to do is to establish SPECIFIC goals. With an emphasis on “specific,” your end goal should be realistic, tangible, and clear.
For instance, if you are planning to host in-store demos, then you cannot simply say that your goal is “to gain more customers.” That goal is too obvious, and at the same time, too broad.
Keep in mind that before a customer can even buy your product, they need to be aware of your in-store demo event first. After that, they need to physically go to your store, listen to your sales pitch, and carefully inspect your products. And that is not even the end of it, afterward, they might not even buy your products the same day. Who knows, they might still need to check what their friends, families, or anyone from their circle has to say about your products.
The buying decision process has so many layers and it just keeps going on and on.
That being the case, every stage of your event plan needs to have a perceptible as well as a realistic and specific end goal in sight.
Take the in-store demo as an example again. Rather than simply say that your event goal is “to gain more customers,” you can instead break down this too broad of a goal for something that is more tangible and easy to follow.
Be perceptive and realistic. Ask sensible questions and come up with a more practical approach.
How can you gain more customers through this in-store demo event? Well, you need people to physically go to your store and you need a great sales pitch to make them want to buy your products the same day.
With that, you now have a more specific, perceptible, and achievable goal. Rather than simply state that your goal is “to gain more customers,” you can have these specific goals instead:
- Increase foot traffic and number of attendees to your in-store event
- Keep attendees engage so that they would stay longer and listen to your sales pitch more
- Make attendees want to spend the same day
Aren’t those goals more specific? On top of that, you can easily measure after the event whether you achieve these goals or not.
To make this type of goal setting a habit, here are the simple things you need to do:
Budget Setting
Budget setting should be simple and does not have to be complicated. Some often make it seem like it requires a lot of knowledge in finance when it should be as simple as writing and budgeting your weekly groceries.
Unless you are making a long-time purchase or buying big equipment that can depreciate overtime (e.g. camera, car, ice cream machine, speakers, etc.) for the event, then you do not need to worry about the budgeting process way too much.
If you run a niche business and are just planning to host a simple event, then having a simple spreadsheet that tracks all your expenses for the event is already enough.
The key thing here is to simply set out an event budget, not overspend, and just track every penny that you are spending.
The most complicated thing you would do here is research. Yes, you need to do your research and get several quotes from different suppliers if you want to effectively and efficiently spend your budget.
For our team, most of the budgeting and spending we do heavily relies on research. Our rule of thumb is to compare three quotations from different suppliers before spending and signing a contract.
This way, we can get the most out of our money, and maybe, even get a discounted price and ultimately save more money.
To help you keep on track with your budget, here is a list of questions we often ask our self before purchasing anything for an event.
Event Essentials
Whatever party themes or event ideas you can think of, there are certain things that you need to have or do in order to pull off your event’s success.
With that said, here are the top five must-haves for every type of event
Promotional Strategy
This is quite obvious already, but every type of event needs a promotional strategy. Whether it is a simple luncheon event with a few colleagues or something as big as having trade show booths for your event, you need to have some kind of event marketing or promotional strategy to get people to attend.
Without it, you would not have an attendee and people would not even know that you are hosting an event.
Keep in mind that promotion is a different story and there are many things that you need to accomplish in order to rack up more attendees or event participants. You can check out the guide on promotions event that we wrote on our blog page.
Attendance List
Once you finally generated buzz and make people excited about your event, it is time to create your list of attendees.
Having this list would give you an idea of who your event attendees are. By having this information, you would be able to plan ahead as well as create a better contingency plan if in case things went south on the actual event day.
On top of that, an attendance list is also great for lead generation. Simply having this list would give you enough access to tap on this new set of people who might be interested to check out or buy your products.
Delegation Checklist
Another essential that you need is a list of task delegations you assigned for each of your team members.
For this one, we highly encourage you to summarize and create a brief list of all tasks assigned to each of your event staff. This way, you would know who is accountable for each element of the event.
And as we all know, no matter how perfect your event planning was, every event is still bound to face a problem along the way.
So by simply having this delegation list, you would be able to pinpoint the main cause of the problem as well as easily work and help the people who are in charge of solving the same problem.
Event Program
Many people often think that event programs are usually reserve for conference or assembly type of events. But, contrary to that, even a simple luncheon or dinner party needs to have an event program.
You need to think of a few activities for your event. Even if it is just a simple dinner party with a few partners from your firm, you need to bring something to the table in order to make the event more exciting and worthy of attending.
Without cohesive and planned activities, attendees might bail your event early and they might not even consider attending the next one you are hosting.
Party Favor
As we all know, incentives are always a great motivator.
So to encourage more people to attend your event, you need to provide something in exchange for their time and attendance. Simply asking them to come to your event without any incentive is a big shot in the dark.
That being said, party favors are a must-have for every type of event.
Remember that party favors can come in many forms. It can be a small gift, tokens, vouchers, discount codes, or even any catering food ideas that you can think of.
It does not always have to be extravagant or something that your audience can take home. Other times, party favors are catering, live performance, meet-and-greet, and many more.
Your Event Team
We have mentioned before that a delegation list for your staff is one of the essential things you need in order to pull off a successful event.
But, there are a few things that you need to take note of when it comes to formulating your team as well as your overall event management.
One of the most important things that you should NOT do is simply ask random employees to handle the event planning process for you. No matter how skilled these random employees are, dumping this big task to them whilst they work on other projects for your business or company is completely unreasonable. So to overcome this hurdle, you can simply hire a staffing team or an event agency to help you.
But if you happen to be a corporate or an agency event organizer and you already have a team behind you, then delegating tasks would be a piece of cake. With that, here are some of the things that you should delegate properly and be on the lookout for:
- Promotions team (digital, traditional, social media, and native adverts)
- RSVPs and Attendance List
- Entertainment and catering point of contact
- Communication with vendor and suppliers (esp. for the marketing collaterals)
- Licenses, contracts, reports, and other types of paperwork
- Field Team responsibilities (setting up tables, booths, sound system, etc.)
- Customer-facing roles
- Documentation team
Reaching your Goals
Now that you finally have a complete event planning checklist, you can now easily track and monitor your progress. By doing this, you would be able to achieve your event’s goals in no time.
But, keep in mind that even though you managed to pull off a successful event, your work still does not end there.
There are still a few things that you need to do in order to fully call your event a success.
To make this a lot easier, here are a few questions that you can work around.
Did you meet all the goals you set out before?
You might have remembered that we asked you before to list out all your plans along with a corresponding goal. Now that the event is finally over, did you managed to tick all of the goals that you have previously listed before?
If so, then your event probably went well and everything goes according to your initial plan.
What went well and what could you have done better next?
Try to reevaluate all the what-ifs of your event. Even if the event was a success, try to think of other scenarios that would make this event a lot better.
Any learnings or tips that you can apply for your future events?
Asking this question is particularly helpful if you are planning to host another event in the future. For instance, switching to a new supplier might not be a great idea and you could have just stick to the existing one you have.
There are a few elements in the event planning process that are just a hit or miss. You just need to try it out for yourself and hopefully learn from it.
Are there any promotional material or resources that you can reuse for your next event?
This question might save you tons of money for your next event. For example, if you purchase big equipment or signed a long-term contract with a supplier on the previous event, then you can just simply reuse it for your next event and save a lot of money and effort.
How is the guests/attendees’ overall experience?
At the end of the day, the attendees’ overall experience is the most important.
Did they have fun at your event?
Did they manage to get to know your products at the event?
If given a chance, do you think they would attend your event again?
Ultimately, with all the goals that you set out, the success of your event all boils down to the experience of your attendees.
