How to Organize an Event
Organizing an event can be a very enjoyable and rewarding experience. Although there is more work involved than most of your participants might realize, making your first event evolve from an idea into reality is ultimately very gratifying for event directors. Below are some of the most important steps to consider when planning, promoting, and executing your first event.
Planning an Event
When planning your event it is important to consider your options for a location at which the event will be held, the characteristics of the experience that you wish to have, whether or not you will implement a theme to your event, and if it will be associated with a charitable cause.
Create an Online Event Registration Form
You can increase your participation if you simplify your registration process. When picking an online registration provider make sure it utilizes a simple checkout process that doesn't require accounts for participants. Fewer pages in your registration process makes it easier to complete registration forms, and you will make more money. Online fees can vary widely among different providers. Compare top event registration providers rates, and benefits.
Create a Registration Form
Event Location
You should organize your event in a location where a sizable portion of your prospective participants live. Depending on the expected size of your event, you may also need to consider how many hotels are in the area to accommodate your participants. As it pertains to picking a location, many event directors also factor in the scenery around potential venues.
How to Plan a Charity Event
You might consider organizing an event with a charitable cause. Charitable events have become increasingly popular in the past few years. They range from concerts and festivals to sporting events. Your customer service and your theme can help bring extra participants out. Charitable cause events have a similar effect of bringing out participation from people that may not have otherwise considered your event. If you decide to do a theme you should consider the expenses associated with that theme, and make adjustments to your event to fit your theme. For example, if you want to make a Halloween event then you might consider holding the event in the evening. When deciding if you should involve a charity you might want to reach out to a few charities to see which ones would help you the most with volunteers and promotion of the event. Learn how to create a charity event fundraiser here.
Promoting Your Event
When promoting your concert, festival, sporting or other event you want to come up with a good name, and a strategic advertising plan.
How to Pick an Event Name
When planning the name for your event, find out which names are already taken in your local area, and nationally so you will know what event names may still be available. Similar to a business, your event name will give a feeling and imply an experience. If you named your event the “Boston Explosive Extravaganza”, it would have a different feeling than a name like the “Boston Fireworks Show”. Names absolutely matter. If you want a serious event you should pick a serious name. If you are planning a fun event you should pick a name that sounds fun. In some instances it may be wise to name your event after you have picked a experience or theme. View tips on how to grow event participation.
How to Advertise an Event
When advertising your concert, festival, or sports event you should consider who your target audience is. If you are creating a charity event you might market through channels outside of your usual interest groups in addition to traditional targeting. For example, you may want to have the charity you benefit utilize their social media and their email list to promote your event. Sometimes the charity will be willing to distribute posters and do other volunteer work to help you promote your event. If you have a live concert you might want to advertise at other events with live music. When marketing your event you should consider putting posters or fliers up at all the retail stores within the radius that you believe most participants will be willing to travel. Sometimes you can find property owners at busy intersections that will allow you to put up a banner on their fence. This can be an inexpensive way to get the word out about your event. Some events will put up dozens of signs to promote their event.
A great way to promote any type of event is to advertise at other similar events. Some events will let you put fliers in their schwag bags, or maybe you could pay to have a booth at their event to talk with participants directly. Sometimes you can do an email trade with another event (they email your participants if you can email their participants). There are limitless ways that you can advertise your event. The most important thing to consider is who your main audience is and where or what is the best means of getting in front of them. The second most important thing is what message to present to this audience. You need to give them a message that is compelling and concise. You may want to create a press release about your new event, or if it is not new, make a press release about any changes you have for this year. It is wise to try to have your event listed on every online event calendar you can find. Start by including your event on our calendar today.
How to Execute Event Creation
The execution of an event is bringing all the details together from your planning stages, and making them actually happen. Below is a long list of things to do when creating an event:
Event Sponsorship
Spend some time contacting local businesses to see if they would be willing to provide products or services that might help improve the quality of your event. Some of these local businesses may even be willing to contribute money for your event sponsorship. It might be wise to make a marketing flier with tiered sponsorship levels that they can pay for. Some sponsors may be more likely to sponsor your event if you benefit a charity that they are connected to.
Event Permits
Make sure you check with your local government to determine what permits are required for the type of event you want to create. You will most likely be required to provide insurance coverage of your event to receive a permit, and you will want coverage to protect your company or whomever is responsible for putting on the event.
Food
Depending on how long your event last, you may consider having food at the event. Participants will appreciate food that correlates with the kind of experience you are providing. For example, if your event is a baseball tournament you may want to sell hot dogs. Often you can find a local market or restaurant to provide food for your event in trade for sponsorship.
Event Shirts
Many events provide their participants with an event shirt. Try to find a shirt vendor that will allow you to make a shirt order a couple weeks before your event, and then make a smaller follow-up order a few days before your event. This can help a first year event because you won’t know exactly how many people are going to sign up on event week. Newer events can double in size in the last couple weeks. This makes ordering shirts tricky. Some shirt vendors will be more willing to commit to meet your last-minute needs than others, so price is not the only factor you should consider when choosing a company for screen printing your event shirts.
Awards
Many events have awards for age division winners. Sometimes these awards are just for first place, but they often go three to five deep. Make sure your awards match the look and feel of your brand. People who win awards will often have these displayed in a prominent location that provides a promotional opportunity for your event.
Portable Restrooms
Restrooms are a very important part of any event. The longer the duration of your event the more important they become. Even with a small outdoor event you should consider having portable restrooms. These units can be very pricey when purchased in small quantities, so shop around to find a good price. You may want to have your event in a park that has restroom facilities to avoid some of this expense. With a large concert or festival you will want to have the restrooms abundantly placed. With these larger events it is also common to have restrooms in multiple locations.
How to Find Volunteers for Your Event
Finding volunteers for your concert, festival, or sporting event can be a challenge. There are many community organizations that need volunteer hours. Here are some ideas to check with: student volunteer organizations, businesses, scout troops, troubled youth groups, cheerleading squads, youth organizations, other event volunteer email lists, etc. Often it is good to have some sort of gift or party for your volunteers, so they will be more excited to continue to volunteer for years to come. Consider using our entirely FREE-to-use volunteer registration form.
When to Open Event Registration
Events that open registration early usually have greater participation. Participants that visit your event website throughout the year may not think to come back in six months & register. Many event directors choose to open registration when it is convenient for themselves, but the ideal time to open registrations is immediately after the previous instance of the event, usually one year before. This ensures that your participants will be able to sign up as soon as they are ready. Also, it is important to remember that your greatest source of event growth is friend and family referrals from your participants that have already signed up. The earlier you can have people signed up for your event, the more time they have to talk about your event.
There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing an event registration service provider. Keep in mind that the registration process is the most important part of your customer’s online experience. The online fees impact the total cost of managing your event, so the lower the fees the better. Make sure that the registration service provider you choose keeps the registration process as clean and simple as possible. Many registration services will add additional pages to the registration process to promote unrelated offers from other companies. However, participants prefer a simple and clean registration process free of distracting content. The fewer pages to click through, the better. When consumers are required to click through more pages, you get more dropouts. Using a simple registration service provider will ensure that participants will through the payment quickly, and your event participation will grow. Most customers will see the registration pages as an extension to your own site, so choosing the best registration experience will help to maximize your brand. StrideEvents.com is the leader in simplified event registration. We offer very low fees with a full set of features that help you to dramatically grow your event with ease.
Event Safety
Coordinate the police and security for your event. Make sure that you have the proper traffic safety devices like cones, and crowd control barricades if your venue requires them.
What Medical Considerations are Needed When Planning an Event
The nature of your event and the number of participants will determine the amount of medical personnel needed. Larger events such as festivals should have EMTs on site, and a medical tent in a prominent location with doctors and nurses handy to help with minor medical problems. Most smaller events do not need much medical attention. It may be wise to consult with a medical professional in your area to see what the specific needs of your event may be.
How to Create an Event Website
There are many strategies to creating an event website for a concert, festival, or sports event. Some people have friends or relatives that know web design. Some events contact website companies to see if they will trade web development for sponsorship. Some events use a free website blog service to host the information about the event. An example of a free website design company is http://www.weebly.com. Make sure that your event website has lots of information. Information you might include on your website could include: pricing, registration deadlines, hotel information, event date/start time, photos, video, etc. Post a FREE online event listing.
Venue Clean up
Clean up is often a job that is overlooked. This job is actually one of your most important jobs. Events can be banned from communities if they are not left as clean as they were found. It is generally a good idea to have fresh bodies of people in charge of cleanup that didn’t have to help with the set up. At the end of an event both you and your other volunteers will be exhausted, so try to have fresh people come in to help cleanup.
Other Supplies Needed to Organize a Event
You may want some or all of the following supplies: safety pins, zip ties, draw-string schwag bags, directional signs, trash boxes, awards stand, light tower generators, sound system, tents, tables, chairs, cups, coolers, etc. There are many other supplies that could be considered depending on what type of event you are doing. It is wise to make a list of these items, and many of them can be rented. When renting supplies you often pay far less than purchasing them, and you don’t have to store them all year.
Let us help you make your event a huge success. Our event-expert staff can advise you along the way, and our simple registration platform will increase your participation. Start today by making an account.
