It is no secret that a properly planned, hosted and executed event can be an amazing asset to your business. It’s extremely important that when you are planning your next event, you gather as much crucial information as possible before you ever get started. Some of the most common mistakes made during event planning may seem rather obvious, but they can easily occur amidst your busy planning schedule.
What are the most common mistakes and how can you avoid them? See the bullets below and print this checklist to help you avoid making these common mistakes.
- Short Marketing Cycle – Always make sure you allot enough time to effectively market your event. Too little time means too few attendees. This article from Scribd says a good rule of thumb is 90-120 days in advance for any medium-sized event averaging around 75 attendees.
- Competing With Yourself – Avoid promoting multiple events too close together. If you send out invites for multiple events at the same time, or too close to one another, potential attendees may get confused.
- Not Delivering on Your Promises – This is a key. If you make promises or offers in your marketing, make sure you have a list that guarantees you will remember when, where and how to deliver on all activities or concepts you’ve promised.
- Losing Control of the Room – Maintaining control and order over the audience is absolutely necessary to stay on schedule. Implementing an audience response system can be amazingly helpful as it allows questions to be queued up, and asked in a timely fashion. Keep control the easy way – automate it.
- Poor Scheduling – Proper order of your speakers can directly influence the smoothness of your event. Generally, place the keynote speakers at the best times and revolve other, less important speakers or presentations around the keynote.
- Being Cheap – If people are paying good money and time to show up at your event, make sure they are getting their money’s worth. Don’t make them pay for drinks or refreshments, think about throwing in some giveaways or even donating money to charity in their name.
- Closing Your Office – Just because you’ve been doing a great deal of event planning doesn’t mean you should shut down your office. You’ll only be losing money and your customer’s confidence by doing so.
- Mismanaging the Event – A properly managed (and properly planned) event will help ensure a successful event. Time management, traffic flow and proper layout is key.
As you move forward with your event planning, remember that while it might feel overwhelming, staying organized and on plan will be instrumental. As we mentioned in the 4th tip, implementing an audience response system can be amazingly helpful in guaranteeing that everyone at the event feels like their voice is being heard and votes are being counted, without giving up the control of the room.
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