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| Path: Main Street : Resources & Library : Research Articles : Feature Article |
Taking your event to the next level
By Judy Allen, author of the professional bestselling event planning series
July 16, 2007
How do we know when to take our event to the next level? (e.g. add an auction or other mini-events to the main attraction)
What you are looking to do is grow your events and have each one build toward the next. You don’t want to start out with a splash and then have to go backward as it sends the wrong message to guests, suppliers who donate their goods and services, and your corporate sponsors.
You also must design your events to grow with your guest list. As guests change over the years, so must your events. If you are still holding casual events when they should have graduated to more sophisticated fare, you may start to lose your support base.
What you need to start doing is to prepare an executive summary of each event so that you can use that as a planning resource as to what worked and what did not. An executive summary is an invaluable tool and it is important to do it immediately after your event while everything is still fresh in your mind. If you leave it too long, people come and go, especially volunteers, and you may lose important insight that will help you to better target your guests' needs and meet their event expectations.
As you grow your event, is it also important to grow your event planning knowledge You can do that by attending seminars, joining event-planning associations, taking part in industry tradeshows, reading trade magazines, online publications, and professional event planning books. There is an art to successful event execution and you need to develop the talent to deliver the results before you take on more than you have before. Remember, each event you do is a marketing tool for the next one and will help you sell your guests, suppliers and sponsors on the value of taking part.
Judy Allen is the author several bestselling books about event planning: Event Planning, The Business of Event Planning, Event Planning Ethics and Etiquette, Marketing Your Event Planning Business, and Time Management for Event Planners. For paid professional event planning consulting - event design, site selection critique, venue and supplier contract review, budget analysis, strategic planning, event logistical and timing requirements, and on-site orchestration - contact Judy directly at Judy Allen Productions.
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