As the world begins to emerge from the global pandemic, we’re seeing more businesses ditching online resources and returning to live, human interaction.
Since Christmas, the number of events we’ve been asked to be involved with has grown and clients are understanding that there’s often no substitute for bringing people together in one room.
Awards events, celebrations, or simple information sharing – more companies are emerging from behind their screens to meet together once again.
So, what’s the key elements of a great event?
Research and planning
Large or small, all events need to be properly planned.
Events with a large number of people take time to plan, but even smaller events will require the appropriate lead time to ensure you get the right guests and delegates to attend.
The first thing you should always do is set objectives: Why are you running the event? What do you hope to achieve?
Next you need to scope out your event framework: Location? What’s the timetable of your event? Guest list?
Finally, on planning, you need to look at draft content: What does your event look like? What’s the running order? What resources do you need? Who are you key speakers? Why will your guests want to attend? Is it exciting enough?
Budget
From the very outset you should have a budget and stick to it. Events can quickly run away with themselves, so a budget is vital.
Pre-event co-ordination
Often the hard work is pre-event. Once you’ve got your guest list it’s full-on administration. You need to be organised and diligent. The success of your event lies in this stage and a slick team will have checked and checked again across event headline.
Around two weeks before your event, do a run through. Organise a meeting with your team and mentally walk through everything, from initial set up to the follow up process. Often complications are highlighted at these meetings, and you will have time to correct them. A few days before the event or even on the day if that’s your only opportunity organise another run through at the venue.
Creative design and theme
Creative design, themes and resources are essential for professional events. If you’ve been to a wedding recently, you’ll know event organisers have taken this and run with it. Save the date cards, invitations, microsites providing event information, venue branding, name cards, table cards, menus, thank you cards – today’s brides and grooms are really pushing the creative design boundaries.
Corporate events are just the same but often have even bigger budgets. Work with your creative team from the outset to ensure you maximise the brand of your event and make it memorable for guests and delegates.
Video and Photography
Video and photography at the event will enable you to promote it further than the delegates in attendance. It will also help to demonstrate the success of your event.
If you have the budget hire in professionals. If not, get your best amateur and give them a detailed brief of what you need.
Social media
Event hashtags will allow your delegates to share the event with their followers. So too will your social media posts, offering free and live promoting.
Insurance
Think about insuring your event if your spend is large. If the last two years have taught us anything – weird things can definitely happen. Covid, train strikes, extreme weather – there are companies out there who will insure your event against these.
Follow-up
Your event isn’t over until you’ve done the follow-up and reporting. Do this well and you can reap even more benefits from a face-to-face event.
Need help with your events management?
At 8848 we have extensive experience of arranging, managing and delivering pop up events, press days, store openings and even big Wembley sports finals.
So, why not leave the organising and management to us? Contact us today on hello@8848agency.com to find out more on how we can assist you.