Organizing an event can be a very challenging task: by nature, all events won’t run according to plan and you’ll always need to tackle various issues.

While organizing an event is definitely not a simple task, it doesn't mean it’s impossible. The key here is the planning and preparation, and below we will discuss 8 actionable tips that you should keep in mind to organize a successful event.

Without further ado, let us begin with the first one.

1.Define Your Event’s Purpose

While this might seem pretty obvious, many event organizers made the same mistake of not making the purpose of the event clear, specific, and/or realistic enough.

Having the goals properly defined can help the event organizing in several different ways:

• You’ll know which audience you should focus on
• You’ll know which event format to use to attract this audience
• You’ll know which exhibitors/speakers to invite
• Best timing, duration, location, and other details related to the event.

And so on.

Formulate your event’s objectives as early as possible and as specifically as possible: is it to launch a product; raise funds for a business project; or do you simply want to provide new knowledge for the attendees?

Also, make sure the goals are realistic and attainable not to hurt your team’s morale.

2.Plan As Early as Possible

This is especially true if you are organizing a large-scale and complex event, but don’t underestimate small events either: it’s best to plan your events as early as possible while weighing all the details.

As we know, even the smallest, simplest events can have various details and complexities: sponsorship, logistics, venue, promotion, and so on.

It’s best to create a comprehensive document, or use an event management platform like Eventtia to ensure all your team members can see the tasks of others and the overall progress of the event planning.

Be as detailed as possible and lay out the steps as clearly and specifically as possible.

3.Leverage Technology To Improve Your Service

Make sure it’s as easy as possible for your attendees to purchase your ticket and book your event.

No matter how well you’ve promoted your event to attract potential attendees, they’ll forget your event right away if it’s too difficult to find your ticket box.

Online registration and ticket booking is now a must, and you can leverage virtual event platforms like Eventtia not only to integrate a full-featured ticketing module on your website, app, and social media posts, but also for other features like mobile check-in for a more seamless access flow, managing early bird tickets and discounts, attendee tracking and management, and so on.

4.Plan the Financial Details

Obviously, funding and other financial details can often be the biggest challenge of organizing an event, so it’s very important to plan your event budget carefully.

Look at the list of tasks you’ve planned above, and consider the budget for each task. You’ll also need to plan for emergencies: always have a plan B and plan C, and prepare for these things financially in advance.

There are various event planning budget templates on the internet that you can customize according to your needs.

5.Secure Your Venue

It’s very important to physically check the venue location, and secure the location as early as possible. As with many other things in event planning, the devil is in the detail, so check various details of the venue like the availability of toilets for the disabled, logistics of your equipment, air conditioning, and so on.

Also, make sure to have a binding contract to secure the venue, and even then, it’s always wise to have a plan B for worst-case scenarios where things might go awry.

6.Think Like Your Attendees

Put yourself in your attendees’ shoes and figure out as many details as possible: how they’ll purchase their ticket, what music will be playing during the event, how is your team dressed, what food and drinks will you serve (if any), what to do during breaks, what exhibitors would interest them? And so on.

Think about everything down to the smallest detail, and aim to exceed your attendees’ expectations.

7.Build a Functional Team

If you are organizing a fairly small and simple event and are going to plan and organize the event by yourself, then you can skip this.

However, most likely you’ll need to develop a functional team to ensure the success of your event.

The key to any successful team is to carefully distribute roles and responsibilities among the team members for both the preparation stage and the actual execution of the event. For example, assign one person to be responsible for registration and ticketing, someone else for sponsorship, and another for equipment.

If possible, give each team member a detailed document listing their assigned responsibilities.

8.Promote Your Event Heavily

No matter how flawlessly you’ve planned the event, it is doomed to fail if you don’t have enough attendees at the actual event.

Event promotion can often be a very significant challenge, and you shouldn’t underestimate the time investment required for successful event promotion. It’s important to create one key promotional message that you will broadcast on all promotional channels, and keep your promotional efforts targeted.

It’s better to only use a few channels frequented by your audience rather than spreading your messages too thin by using all the available channels to no avail.

The better you understand your target audience is, the better and more effective your marketing approach will be.