What it Takes to be a Successful Event Planner

Staging a successful meeting or event is an opportunity to highlight your organization. If all goes well, and according to plan, attendees will come away with a positive impression of your organization and the event. Event planning can also play a key role in the overall financial well-being of your organization. For example, many organizations rely on the revenue generated from both large and small-scale events to support a major share of the costs of day-to-day operations. These organizations include projected estimates of meeting revenue in their annual budgets. A poorly executed event one year could result in a drop in attendance the following year and this could have negative budgetary impacts. To grow an audience of “repeat customers” with brand loyalty to their organization, event planners strive to produce meetings that are high quality, flawlessly orchestrated, and which provide value to attendees. Maggie Daniels, professor in the Tourism and Events Management program within the School of Sport, Recreation, and Tourism Management (SRTM) at George Mason University, recently offered several tips on how event planners can ensure a successful meeting.

When planning your meeting, start with the basics.

When planning a meeting, one of the first things you should do is determine the objective and purpose of the event and identify how it can promote your organization’s brand. Developing an appropriate theme for the meeting can accomplish these first steps.

A theme should capture the interest of your potential audience.

The event theme must also attract the interest of potential attendees. Every event needs a “hook” that captures the attention of your target audience, one which is persuasive and effectively conveys why these individuals should attend your event over any other options that may be available to them. Once you have made that initial connection and sparked the interest of your targeted audience, an effective marketing and promotional campaign aimed at increasing meeting attendance can be implemented.

The designation of a main point person to oversee all aspects of the meeting can help instill accountability among team members.

No matter how large or small, all events include a myriad of details that can only be effectively addressed through the coordination of project team members working alongside a diverse set of vendors and service providers. A successful event requires these elements to come together seamlessly as part of a team effort. To facilitate this, one person needs to be designated as the key coordinator of the event—someone who is detail-oriented and possesses the strong managerial and people skills necessary to ensure that every team member is doing their job the way they are supposed to be doing it.

The selection of a point person to oversee the organization and coordination of the meeting can ensure accountability among all staff involved in the event’s production. Clear goals and responsibilities should be communicated to all team members, thereby minimizing the potential for any mishap or oversight later in the meeting planning process.

Develop a production schedule for your meeting.

Particularly for large-scale events, meeting planners should develop a production schedule which provides a step-by-step roadmap for implementing the proceedings. The production schedule should be detailed so that it can be deployed by another staff member if the event coordinator is called away from their duties for whatever reason. The production schedule should allow for the seamless continuation of the meeting in the absence of the key event coordinator.

Pay attention to contractual minimums.

When working with contractors and vendors, event planners need to be aware of “minimums” which are the minimal levels of spending they must agree to under contract to secure food, beverages, or other services in support of the meeting. Event planners will sometimes become over-confident in anticipating higher attendance at the meeting than what materializes. They may order more food and services than is necessary, forgetting that there are always a certain number of “no shows” at every event. This can result in an unnecessary expenditure that will reduce projected revenues generated from the meeting.

To learn more about degree offerings in the Tourism and Events Management program within George Mason University’s School of Sport, Recreation, and Tourism Management (SRTM), please visit the program website.