The Top 7 Items to Check Off Your List Before Your Event
Proper preparation is key to successful event management, so make sure you can check off all these items prior to the event date.
1. Engage in a Social Media Blitz
There is no end to the ways you can leverage your social media presences to promote your event as they are literally limited only by your imagination:
- Create a #hashtag and promote it in all of your advertising materials, webpages and email newsletters
- Join all the relevant LinkedIn and Facebook groups to post updates on the unfolding of your event
- Obtain videos from your participants and place them on YouTube, taking great care to cross-channel promote the URLs
- Get really interesting images connected to your event and pin them on your specific Pinterest board
- Check Klout to find the social media influencers in your event's sector and provide them with free tickets & backstage access
2. Review All Physical Logistics
Great event management is in the mastery of the myriad of details, so ensure that absolutely everything is in order:
- Ensure that your audience expectations are realistic and your facility allows for overflow
- Reconfirm your setup as to number of chairs, tables, staging, special equipment, rentals and anything else required
- Check your schedule for setup and teardown to ensure you have enough time and loading dock space is properly allocated
- Draft an exhaustive checklist of everything from travel arrangements to permits
3. Take Care of Your Participants
All of the individuals who will be presenting at your event want to be treated like VIPs, so you should never let them down:
- Never economize on hospitality, meals or transportation, as your participants will appreciate five star hotels, gourmet restaurants and limousines… a happy participant makes for a successful event
- Assign a team of personnel to be always present around the participants to ensure that their needs are taken care of immediately
- Provide a well-stocked green room or dressing area where your participants can relax away from the crowds
4. Secure Proper Refreshment & Food Service
Even smaller events can have considerable catering requirements and even the slightest failure in this critical service can derail an entire event:
- Overbuy, as it's preferable to have extra food on hand that can later be donated to food banks than try to run out in the middle of an event to obtain more supplies
- Have health inspections scheduled well before the event to give you time to remedy any shortcomings that will prohibit you serving any food at all
- Secure all of the pertinent permits and ensure that the food service personnel are all qualified under the HACCP or other food safety regulations of your jurisdiction
5. Get More Security
Many event managers feel that they have enough security until something goes horribly wrong and then they discover that their security precautions were woefully inadequate:
- Station uniformed security officers in prominent and visible locations to send a signal to any potentially unruly attendees that no disruptions will be tolerated
- Set up a clear hierarchy and ensure that response time is instantaneous, and empower individual security officers to act while they are calling for backup.
- Train the officers to display courtesy and restraint in all but the most massive violations and to avoid violence at all costs
- Allocate security officers to safeguard your participants and your staff, with special details assigned to guard celebrities and dignitaries
6. Formulate Your Crisis Management
Event managers have to expect the unexpected at all times:
- Prepare for rescheduling or outright cancellation due to weather, disaster, fire or flood, participant no-show, or public demonstrations
- Confirm that the financial facilities exist for refunds to attendees
- Determine if you can get partial refunds from your venue or service providers
- Draft a plan to evacuate your participants to a safe area
7. Over-Insure
Your insurance premiums may take an inordinate amount of your budget but the coverage will be worth every penny should you have to file a claim or defend against an accidental injury.
- The checklists for major events can stretch to well over 10,000 items so ensure that all are confirmed and double and triple checked!