5 Questions to Ask When Planning an Event

By Amanda Osorio

Many of us plan events over the holidays in our personal lives. And when many of us return to work, a new year will be upon us, and with it a whole new calendar of events. Some of you may even need to plan and organize those events.

If you’re like most people, your stress levels shot up just thinking about planning an event. Mine still do. But I’ve learned a few tricks along the way to help me stay organized, use my time efficiently, and ultimately pull off the big day. Here are five questions to ask yourself if you’re ever assigned the daunting task of planning your organization’s next event.

1. What is the purpose of your event and your desired outcome for the day?

Do you want to raise awareness? Showcase your work? Promote a cause? Provide general information?

By having a goal in mind, you’ll be able to set a clear vision for how you want the day to unfold. This will help you determine what is truly needed and identify what can be cut from your to-do list.

2. Who will help you do the work?

It’s the unspoken rule of event planning — there is always more work to do than you initially expect. You should always try to assemble a planning committee and enlist volunteers for your event. A committee provides a forum to brainstorm ideas. It also serves as a support team to help you set the best ideas into motion while distributing the workload.

3. How will you accomplish your desired event goal?

Organization and time management is key. Make a timeline leading up to your event, enter tasks, dependencies, and completion deadlines. This will help keep your team on track and allow you to fit in unexpected tasks as they arise (as they almost always do). Once your plan is set, try to stick to it as much as possible. Be careful not to allow your event to become larger than you intended or that your team can handle.

4. How will you reach your audience with your event info?

Step One

Determine who your target audience is (be as specific as possible).

Step Two

Tailor your message to the specific interests of, or the challenges facing, your target audience.

Step Three

Get past the content filters of your target audience by sending your communications through channels they recognize and trust — such as a professional body, a subject matter expert, or respected authority figure. To do that, you’ll need to build relationships with the people who control those distribution channels, which can include websites, e-newsletters, social media, etc.

5. How will you make the day memorable for those that attend?

We all lead busy lives — your attendees are no exception. Consider incorporating fun breaks or an overall theme into your event to make it more engaging and memorable. By all means, think outside the box, but always make sure to link the theme back to your event. And as for the actual content of your event, make sure people know how to access reference materials so they can refer back to key points missing from their notes and share what they learned with their own teams.