Years ago, I started a new job that included managing a major event. By major I mean about 2,500 people with mini events within the larger main event. This event had been occurring for years, so I assumed there must be an event plan somewhere that I could review.

As it turns out, there was no plan other than what existed in people’s minds who had worked on the event in years prior. In fairness, until I was hired there had never been one person responsible for the entirety of the event, which was a big factor as well.

I decided that in my first year, I would try to create a basic plan so that there was at least something to work from initially. If there was something that I knew could be improved, I changed it. If it worked well, I left it alone.

That first year was truly a building year. I asked a lot of questions. A LOT of questions. There was also a lot of trial and error since I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

I was almost as tired that first year of managing the event as I was during the newborn weeks with our son (almost). But seeing the fruit of those hours spent building an effective event and communications plan and successfully implementing it was worth every minute and the return on that investment was evident in the success of the event.

In subsequent years, I worked from that foundational plan to continue to make improvements and add in all of the minutia of the event, and the results were measurable. Staff were more prepared and less stressed, I was less tired the week of the event, attendees were adequately prepared due to strategic and improved communications, the number of questions submitted via email about the event by a subset of the target audience went from 200 to none by the second year, and the event was enjoyable for everyone. Additionally, there was a detailed plan that was passed on to the person who later began managing the event after I changed jobs so that they didn’t have to start over completely.

Many of you are in roles that require you to plan and manage events. And many of you have found yourself in the same place that I was in my first year in that particular role. There is no plan or the plan you have may not be working as well as it could. So where do you start to take the first step to creating a solid plan for your event?

First, start by working through the Pre-Planning Worksheet to define your primary goal and identify your target audience. After you’ve done that, assess the status of your plan.

Quick note: An event plan is not the same as an agenda. An event plan should include every action that needs to happen before, during and after your event; as well as deadlines, people responsible for specific tasks, etc. If there is a plan in place, here are some questions to assess the effectiveness of your existing event and communication plans:

• Do you have a detailed event and communication plan for your event?
• Does your existing event plan result in the event outcomes you want?
• Are your timelines effective, or are you scrambling to pull things together at the last minute?
• Is your event plan on one document or page? Is your communication plan on a single document?
• Is your event plan and all relevant documentation electronically filed and accessible to other key team members?
• Does your event plan include every actionable item from start to finish?
• Does your event plan incorporate deadlines from your communication plan?
• Does your communication plan include all final message content/text and social media posts?
• Is your messaging effective, or does there seem to be confusion and recurring questions about your event?

If you need help creating an effective plan for your event – or even just want to figure out if your existing plan could actually be improved – please reach out to me at rebecca@rebeccawaldrop.com. I’d love to talk with you and to help you in this process!