An Event Planner Or An Event Doer?

Event Planners are busy people. Every event has
so many moving parts that it is easy for Event
Planning to turn into Event Doing. But the
danger with all of this doing is that we can lose
sight of why we are hosting the event in the first
place and what success really means.
Planning is not about doing. Planning is the
process of strategic and creative thinking about
the event and what you really want to achieve.
Planning is creating a roadmap for success. A
great plan will lead to the implementation of an
event that fulfills a vision. In this article we
explore how to get started with the planning
process.
Who Is A Planner?
THE definition of plan is a “proposed or intended
course of action”. Professional planners help to
create the vision for the event. They lead the team
in researching, designing and developing the
event to make sure it fulfills this vision.
Planners are interested in the big picture and the
small details. They don’t just do this at the start of
the event, they do it ongoing throughout the
whole life-cycle of the event and make course
corrections if the vision is not being fulfilled.
Creating a plan should happen before anything
else, even booking the venue. After all, how do
you know what kind of venue to book until you
have a vision for what the event will be?
Planning Your First Move
In this post I’m going to share with you an AIM-
Outcome process which I use as the first step in
planning any kind of event. It’s a formula that
has never failed me and can be used effectively
not just for the whole event, but also for
individual sessions.
The “AIM” in AIM-Outcome stands for:
A: Audience
I: Intention
M: Message
Let’s look at each of these components in a bit
more detail.
Audience (“It’s About The People”)
There is no ingredient in your event more
important than the people who are coming. This
seems obvious, but it is also easy to overlook. My
personal mantra, “it’s all about the people”,
keeps me focused on what’s important.
Before you do anything else, create a list of the
broad categories of people who you will be
inviting to participate. In most cases there will be
more than one category of people to consider,
from loyal fans to new listeners (for a music
concert), from established professors to students
(for an academic conference), from family
members to new friends (for a wedding) or from
shareholders to staff, existing customers,
potential customers and media (for a product
launch).
Each of these different groups of people has a
different relationship to event and a different
motivation for attending. So make sure you create
something special for all these groups of people
and that no-one would feel side-lined.
Intention (“Why Am I Here?”)
What do you want to achieve with your event?
What kind of experience do you want people to
have and why will it be worth their time,
attention and money?
The intention sets the tone or mood of the event.
For example, at a product launch we wanted the
existing customers to be acknowledged and
appreciated, and the potential customers to feel
inspired and excited. Overall, we wanted the
mood to be one of celebration.
Inside the design of the event we thought about
how we were going to create a mood of
celebration, inspiration and acknowledgement.
We created an awards ceremony for the existing
customers and an inspirational video explaining
the program for the newcomers.
Write up on a board all the different categories
of people who will be coming to your event and
ask what your intention is for each group. Once
you have created these intentions you can
brainstorm ways of fulfilling these at the event.
Message (“What Will People Remember?”)
What is the message you want to communicate at
your event? What is this event about? What will
people remember about it?
Your message is the central theme of the event. It
needs to be simple, succinct and tell the story of
your event in a single sentence. Even a wedding
has a message: “We love each other and we are
spending the rest of our lives together!”
A message is more than words, or a tag line.
Every particle of the event builds to create the
message, from the venue you choose to the way
you greet people as they arrive at the registration
table. Your whole event needs to present a single,
congruent message. Any aspect of the event that
doesn’t fit with the core message will stand out.
At the product launch, a key part of our message
was sustainability and the importance of
protecting our environment. Name badges
became an issue because we didn’t want to use
plastic so we made our own name badges out of
a reusable wooden layer. Instead of giving people
disposable souvenirs of the event we gave them
small trees and flowers for their gardens. These
small details reinforced the core message.
Outcome (“What Results Do We Want?”)
Defining the outcome of your event is critical.
Unlike the intention (which is focused on the
audience) the outcome focuses on what you as
the event organizers want to achieve. Outcomes
may be things like brand recognition, profit,
increased membership, new customers or great
memories depending on the type of event you are
organizing.
Once you have defined your outcome the next
step is to think about how that outcome will be
fulfilled. You must create the structures to make
sure you can get your desired result.
In Conclusion
Creating an event is a lot of work and there is
always plenty to do. Alongside all the activity, it
is important to remember to be the planner as
well as the doer. You are the person who makes
sure that the vision for the event is being fulfilled.
There is more to planning than the four aspects
we have outlined here: audience, intention,
message and outcome.