As an event organizer, you’re probably all too aware that event planning and management is a lot of work! There’s a lot that goes into planning and hosting an event, including what happens before and even after. Before your event, you have to make sure you know who your target audience is and what type of event will appeal to them the most. During this, there are logistics and safety measures that you need to keep in mind, plus keeping your audience engaged and interested. And even after your event ends, you’re going to have your hands full researching how to make your next event even better.
Luckily, knowing event management best practices can help you with all these details and more so that you can plan events without stress!
The Importance of Event Management
If you’re asking why event management is important, it’s a simple answer. Event management helps:
- Budget better
- Communicate with your team
- Plan your event
- Manage your attendees
- And more!
It saves you time and a whole lot of headaches dealing with all the nuances that fall around successful event planning. Event management will keep you organized and in control and will keep your event running smoothly. Of course, there’s always room for improvement in your event management strategy, and even having an event management strategy in place doesn’t guarantee that you won’t run into some hiccups along the way. But even so, having an event management strategy to turn to will help you in times of need.
Top 8 Event Management Best Practices You Should Implement
If you’re a seasoned event professional, you probably already have an event management strategy in place, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t use some improvements to optimize the different stages of event planning. There are a few (okay, more like eight) best practices you should know and implement in your event management plan to make your event the best it can be.
New event professional? No worries! We got you covered. Let’s explore the event best practices you should be following.
1. Outline Your Event Goals in Detail
Your event has a goal. What that goal is is your decision, but some common goals are improving conversion rates or providing your attendees with a memorable experience. Whatever the case may be, you should be outlining your event goals in detail — and be as specific as possible! SMART goals can help here. And if you’re not familiar with SMART, that means your goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.
As an event planner, a SMART goal could look something like this:
- Specific: Increase brand awareness and generate leads
- Measurable: Achieve a minimum of 500 new leads through email marketing sign-ups
- Achievable: Use targeted marketing campaigns to drive attendance and increase attendee engagement
- Relevant: Showcase your product at your event
- Time-bound: Achieve goal within three months after the event
Using SMART goals will help with organizing events and creating an event action plan.
2. Calculate the Required Budget in Advance
Money is a tricky subject for most people, but it doesn’t have to be for you when planning an event. Having a budget in mind will save you a lot of trouble in the long run. When you come up with a budget, the first step is to calculate the required costs. Required costs are things like venue rental fees, event insurance, administrative expenses, sponsor and keynote speaker fees, event technology, catering costs, security costs, and any costs associated with things like setting up your event website and marketing campaign.
With your required costs in mind, you should also think about including an “expect the unexpected” event budgets — because problems can easily occur without notice. Think about the what-ifs. Last-minute changes, technical difficulties, etc.
3. Plan an Event Marketing Strategy
When event planning as an event manager, an event marketing strategy will help you advertise and promote your event and create buzz among potential attendees. Your event marketing strategy should include an event planning checklist of items like:
- A website or landing page
- Promotional photos and videos
- Email campaigns
- Campaigns through social media channels
- Partnerships with influencers
Don’t forget to personalize your marketing efforts. No one wants to receive generic messages in their inbox. At the same time, you want your messaging to be cohesive and similar in tone and branding. And follow up with your attendees after your event has come to an end to build on your relationships.
4. Implement an Online Event Registration Solution
What is the first touchpoint your potential attendees are likely to have with your event? An online event registration form! Your event’s online event registration form will be the first interaction your guests will have with your event and it may even be the first impression they have of your event, too. So make sure that you have a strong online event registration solution in place.
Your event registration form’s main goal is to collect information from your potential attendees, so make sure it asks the right questions. But you also don’t want to ask too many questions, and definitely no intrusive questions that invade their privacy. For now, use your event registration to collect basic information like your attendees’ names, ages, and genders. You can collect more information about them in follow-up communications, like through surveys and the like.
When you’re choosing your event registration solution, make sure to look at things like attendee management, landing pages, customization options, payment processing, data security, integrations, and user experience.
5. Include an On-Site Check-In Software
You’ve reached the day of your event and you have everything in place. You’re ready to invite your guests in and have a good time. But not so fast. You still have to deal with the check-in process. Once upon a time, the check-in process would have staff at the entrances manually checking in attendees one by one. But now, you don’t have to rely on hiring staff to check in your guests because there’s now software and applications that do it for you.
On-site check-in software can do more than just check-in your guests. Depending on the software you use, you can also bring badges and track attendance and engagement.
6. Ensure a First-Class Experience for Attendees
The purpose of your event is to bring your attendees together and to give them a first-class and memorable experience. But how do you do that? How do you give everyone a good time? While it’s impossible to make sure everyone has a good time at your event, you can certainly make sure the majority do by tailoring your event to their preferences and interests. You wouldn’t want to throw a running event for people who aren’t athletic or a rock concert for people who are fans of country music, right? So pay attention to who your target audience is and what they like.
Of course, there’s much more to providing your attendees with a first-class event experience. You need to account for things like accessibility options and food options, especially if any of your attendees have dietary restrictions. Include immersive experiences, too, to keep your audience really engaged.
7. Make Event Safety a Priority
Yes, the purpose and priority of your event is to give a positive attendee experience. But what is your priority? To make sure they’re having a safe time. Safety and security should be at the forefront of your event management plan. Hiring a qualified security team to keep your event and your attendees safe is a good idea. Also, perform a risk assessment to identify any potential issues and come up with a plan in case they occur.
Other ways you can make event safety a priority include:
- Train your staff regarding risks
- Purchase an insurance plan
- Screen your vendors and staff
- Review health and safety protocols
- Regularly monitor your event for suspicious activities
8. Analyze Event ROI To Optimize for Future Events
Once your event has come to a close, you can review your event’s return on investment (ROI) to see how your event performed and what you can do better next time. Now, ROI doesn’t always mean money. As long as you get back what you think you invested, that is ROI. Or, at least, that’s a positive ROI. For event organizers, this could be brand visibility, expanded network connections, strengthened customer relationships, new partnerships, etc.
So, how do you measure your ROI for event success? Divide it into categories. Use terms like hard metrics and soft metrics. Hard metrics might measure things like the number of attendees at your event or how much coverage you received from the media. Soft metrics are more like how engaged your attendees were at your event and if they were in good spirits. It can be hard to track all of this, though, so it’s best to useevent management software to do it for you.
Leverage the Best Event Management Tool for Success
If you’re ready to put these best practices into action and host a successful event, you’re going to need an event management software solution at your side. And with Events.com, you’ll have access to everything discussed above and more. Plan your event from start to finish with our software and take your next event to new heights. Looking to sell more event tickets or find new sponsors? Or maybe you want to promote your event to the world? Whatever your goals, let Events.com help you launch the event of your dreams.
Try our demo today and see for yourself.
