Guide to Event Planning: 4-6 months ahead
This is the exciting stage! Can you feel it. This is the time to get organised. Can you feel it?
As with Part 1, every event is different, so this is just a basic guide to motivate you and to keep you on track. Let get straight into it.
Build Out Your Tracking Documents
- Some people love Excel / Numbers and some don’t (like me😉) Look if you don’t like this powerful bit of software it’s worth finding someone to help set it up for you. It’s well worth it to keep you on track.
- Populate your event tracking spreadsheets to manage your event plan, bookings and communications with all your stakeholders, suppliers, entertainment and volunteers.
Venue and Logistics Planning
- Determine exact requirements for all the big operational elements such as marquees, A/V, equipment, staging, furniture, amenities etc.
- We are happy to supply you with a list of suppliers that we have used in the past. Just reach out.
Create a Media Kit
- Develop and produce invitations, programs, posters, tickets, etc.
- Develop media list & prepare News Release, Media Advisory, Backgrounder and all media kit materials (e.g. speaker info, photos, etc.).
- Create social media pages – release program ‘teasers’ about the program content and key speakers.
- Supply us with all this information so we can add it to out website and social media channels.
Draft a Site Plan
- Get accurate measurements of the event site or venue and start drafting your site map. Use your site map to plan for crowd flow, and bump-in and -out logistics.
- Show this to the venue early to ensure there are no unforeseen obstacles in the layout.
- Remember, every venue is different and offers some unique challenges.
Tentatively Book All Your Event Elements.
- At this stage, it may seem like your event is still a long way off, however larger events require larger bookings and sometimes suppliers become unavailable. Don’t delay!
Draw Up A Risk Management Plan
- Conduct a general risk assessment on your event, and start planning all the risk management actions you may need to take during planning and then implementation.
Funding
- Now that you have an idea of the concept, format and general costs, you can complete funding applications.
- Research for available grants at both a local and state government level.
- Make sure you have a compelling opener for why your event should be supported and what the benefits would be to the community.
- We can emphasize this enough… READ THE GRANT PROPOSAL IN FULL AND CALL THE GRANT PROVIDER WITH AND QUESTIONS.
Permits
- Make contact with the relevant permit and approvals stakeholders.
- The earlier you do this the less stressed you will be later on. Depending on the time of year, this could be a lengthy process, so don’t procrastinate. DO IT NOW!
Event Brief
- You should have started a draft of your Event Brief right at the beginning in the initial planning in Part 1. That’s great – now it’s time to update it with everything we have gathered in Part 2. Good Job!
