Checklist for Your Event Planning - How to Plan the Perfect Event!

1. Why is event planning important?
2. Challenges of Event Planning
3. What are the advantages of a checklist for event planning
4. Don't wait until the end to create a checklist for event planning!
5. Your perfect 'recipe' - um, I mean of course your perfect checklist for the event planning
6. My 3 tips for creating a checklist for your event planning
7. Great tools for your perfect event planning
8. Stay calm, work through the checklist and rock this thing!

Bigger, more impressive, extraordinary - is today's mantra for events. Because events are no longer 'just' events. They are experiences and spectacles, that need to be created for the customer to stand out from the crowd. In order to distinguish ourselves from the competition, to remain memorable, and to ensure the customers really come and do not become a so-called "No-Show".

This became particularly clear to me during the last roadshow of the company for which I am currently working. While the registrations promised a large crowd weeks in advance, the actual number of participants was good, but not good enough for me. While I was still standing in the seminar rooms of the hotels looking at our event, the wheels in my head started to turn. Instead of the tables with the exhibited products, I saw customers trying out the products. The rooms around me slowly transformed into a location that no one could resist - and so the idea for our gigantic Roadshow 2024 was gradually born.

From the idea to the implementation, there is still a long way to go where event planning needs to be well thought out.

Why is event planning important?

Imagine you're standing at the entrance of your event location, you've probably spent weeks, if not even months planning your event, but no one has shown up yet. You get nervous and go through all the tasks of the last days in your mind. Cold sweat breaks out on your forehead and slowly in your head you start to wonder whether you actually sent the invitations or only saved them as a draft.

Of course, this is an extreme example, but it's meant to underline how important it is to keep overview when organizing an event. Especially the larger the event, the more tasks there are to coordinate and to match. Our roadshow, for example, is a kind of trade fair where we want to present our customers in the security sector with the latest products from our manufacturers, with the main focus here being on the exchange. Last year we were traveling with bag and baggage in 8 cities in just 3 weeks all over Austria. Planning-wise, this was quite a challenge. In each city we needed a hotel, with exactly the right seminar rooms, sleeping facilities for my colleagues, and the perfect location, in our case near a motorway exit and a large car park.

Without proper event planning, none of the manufacturers would know where they need to be on site, how many participants we can roughly expect, what we need accordingly in terms of snacks and drinks, where we want to have which raffle and which of our colleagues need to be when and where on site.

To avoid the organization of an event ending in total chaos and annoyance, it's important to know the challenges of event planning to know in order to be prepared for everything in advance.

Challenges of Event Planning

The first step that might prove tricky is finding the right location. Once you've found it, it's usually very popular and it can be very hard to find a suitable date. Believe me, I speak from experience.

For our Roadshow this year, I found a location that couldn't be more perfect for our needs. But geez, finding a suitable date was tiresome. Since many things are supposed to take place outdoors in good weather, the date should ideally be in summer. Of course, this doesn't apply during summer holidays. So here in Austria, a whole 8 weeks between July and September are off the table. So, there is not much left in terms of options. The main thing here is to start event planning early.

But once you've overcome this hurdle successfully, the biggest challenge when organizing the event is undoubtedly to keep an overview of every small task. And this is best done by creating a Checklist for event planning.

What are the advantages of a checklist for event planning

Ah, that wonderful feeling when you can tick off a task as soon as it's been completed. But as already mentioned, depending on the size of the event, tasks can pile up and quickly lead to a messy chaos.

Stay calm and create a checklist, that's the motto! Because with a checklist for events you can make a detailed plan and sort the tasks according to priorities. This way you won't lose anything and you'll remember to send the invitation and not let it disappear into the digital universe as a draft. At one glance, you know exactly what has been done and what is still on your agenda. It also makes it easier to delegate tasks or entire areas of responsibility to your team based on specific project roles. Because let's be honest! Organizing is especially fun when done together.

Don't wait until the end to create a checklist for event planning!

The best is commonly saved for last, but not for the checklist. It should be one of the first things, that you create. Ideally, you even have a rough framework that you can bring up during each event organization and only have to adjust.

It's like baking. You don't just randomly take any ingredients from the fridge and throw them together in hopes that an irresistible delicious result will come out at the end. No, you follow the recipe from the start. What ingredients do you need, how much and when do you add what? This is how you finally get a wonderfully delicious cake that will delight your guests.

Your perfect 'recipe' - um, I mean of course your perfect checklist for the event planning

At the beginning of a good checklist there should always be the event concept. What do you want to achieve with your event, what are your goals, who is your target group, when should the event take place, and which common thread do you choose to run through the entire event.

Then you should think about your budget. How much do you want to spend in total?

Once you have thought this through well, you can start looking for a Location. It should meet all the requirements of your event and perfectly fit your motto, your common thread.

From now on it's getting down to the nitty-gritty. The more detailed you note down everything here, the less risk there is of forgetting something.

Ask yourself questions like: Do you need sponsors or partners, do you need speakers, who need to be booked, how do you want to send the invitations to your customers, how do you want to market your event, what advertising/marketing materials do you need, what catering, do you need additional staff on site, etc. Basically, from now on it's all about the entire organization. Write down all tasks precisely and note who needs to complete them by when and who is taking over this task from your team. This gives you a better overview and know immediately who to contact if needed.

Once your event has successfully been completed, don't forget to do all the billings to ask the participants, to write thank you notes and with a summary with great pictures and possibly an event video to make everyone jealous on Social Media and Co.

Finally, remember: After the event is before the event! After your event, definitely take the time to review your checklist again. What can you change? Where did you forget something and thus adjust your recipe so that your next event becomes even more unforgettable and exclusive.

My 3 tips for creating a checklist for your event planning

I would like to give you a few tips for creating a checklist for your event planning, to make your work as easy as possible.

• Tip No. 1: You don't have to reinvent the wheel. Nowadays, there are so many great tools and free checklists on the internet that you can download templates from a large pool or simply create them yourself. This saves time and nerves
• Tip No. 2: Create a rough checklist that you just have to adjust to each event. As previously mentioned, it is very helpful to create a checklist structure. You can then refer back to this for every one of your events and modify it as necessary accordingly.
• Tip No. 3: A checklist is not set in stone! The perfect checklist hasn't come down from heaven yet. Don't get fixated on a list or template and this is then the measure of all things. Feel free to always adjust it to your requirements and needs. Only in this way can you create exclusivity and give your event a personal touch.

Great tools for your perfect event planning

OMR Reviews provides you with really good tools in the event planning area. Here are a few suggestions with which you can't go wrong and which will make your work easier:

Let's Get Digital

STREAMBOXY

EventMobi

Eventbrite

monday.com

Eventbuddy

I also like to create my checklists for events with Microsoft OneNote.

Stay calm, work through the checklist and rock this thing!

As I sit here writing these lines, I am also ticking off my checklist for our Roadshow. New items keep coming up, as instead of driving to 8 locations all across Austria, I decided to limit us to one location this year. But much bigger and more exclusive. The bar is set correspondingly high. I was able to tick off the first items on my checklist. I was able to book the Red Bull Ring as our common thread and thus as the perfect location. Now all invitations and marketing strategies are adjusted to this and adapted accordingly. I found an event magnet, in the form of a highlight, the driving on the legendary racetrack, so our customers will definitely want to come, and now it's a matter of staying calm, working through the checklist and then rocking this thing!