BEM – Events Planning (B)Lim Sei Kee @ cK

1. Why is finding out about the environment and circumstances of your event important?

2. How can you identify the stakeholders (those people and groups that would take part or be interested in some way) for an event?

3. Why is doing this important, and what might happen if you do not identify them all?

4. Why is clarity of objectives key to running a successful event?

Questions for review[NOTE: Elaborate your answers]

Still remember objectives? Environmental search? Information-gathering?

What about demand and operational planning?

What is the most important resource for event managers?

TIME!

The plan should now be starting to have some shape.

The organizers should have been able to quantify the size of the event.

Identifying similar events may also have given some feel for the prices people are willing to pay.

Price: (a) what it will cost to put on your event and (b) whether it has to be profitable.

It is absolutely essential to sit down and list all the items required and cost them properly.

Financial Planning

The serious mistake is for organizers to start off with a ticket price they have picked out of thin air:

‘I think tickets should be…’

Based on no reasoning whatsoever = to land the event in serious financial difficulties.

If you decide the ticket price before the costing has been done, you end up cutting back all the things that make the event special.

The ticket price has to be based on accurate

costings, and only then considered in the light of competition and what the market will pay (which should be based on some realistic data)

A further financial issue that should be included

with the budget and cashflow statement, is a calculation about the break-even point of the event.

For example, say ticket prices are $10 and costs are $500. For the event to break-even, this means that 50 tickets have to be sold.

What if the venue only seats 45? = You could not make a profit.

In essence, once the full costs of the event are known, the ticket price can be calculated, bearing in mind that enough tickets have to be sold to cover all eventualities.

Breakdown and bottleneck costs can be very severe, and not apparent until they occur.

These failure costs can be thought of as falling into 3 categories:

A) Cost risks related to quality management and standards

B) Cost risks related to the expense of putting on the event

C) Cost risks related to the effective timing and scheduling of events

For the quality of an event to be assured, both adequate

time and money have to be put in; if this is not done, the outcome may not be as intended.

Golden rule: pay enough attention to the services being provided for the event and what the guests are saying.

In doing so, the cost of solving a problem as it develops may be less than the cost of trying to put the damage right afterwards.

All events require marketing planning.

But think what you do when you invite your friends to a party – you want to make it sound good so people will come, so you are, in effect, doing some marketing.

Marketing Planning

Research(who is our market? What will they pay? What are their interests? Etc);

Internal marketing, within the organization, both in respect of the people involved in preparing the event and in respect of those people within the organization whom the event would be for;

External marketing, for public events or events where some external public relations would be a benefit.

We are looking at several marketing-related activities:

For some kinds of activities, such as product launches, the budget available for promoting the event might be very large indeed.

For other events, such as a village fete, there might be a modest budget, so, the marketing for it might have to be based in effective public relations rather than on advertising or expensive promotional tools.

A) Find out total income, marketing can have so much (after which the marketing team will take fright and probably have to see what they can get for limited money)

B) Look at the event objectives and work up a marketing budget based on what needs to be done.

How to find out the available budget?

The next stage will be planning the marketing effort in terms of time.

We can call this a marketing action plan, or even a launch plan.

It is a schedule of activities leading up to the event (other activities may take place afterwards, such as getting pictures of the event in the local newspapers).

The marketing team will need to identify the key lead times for each activity.

Suppose a printed programme is required.

It will be important to find out not only how long it will take to collect the information to include,

but also how long the programme will take to print; how long to be proof-read and checked; and how long to be delivered.

In consequence, the key to the marketing programme is to allow enough time and to know who is making relevant decisions and when.

Things that often appear simple are not, or take much longer than expected.

It is essential to find out, genuinely, how long marketing and public relations matter will take, and then to plan accordingly.

These may include, for example,

printing: of tickets, posters, menus, programmes, banners, etc;

ordering of equipment: often the specialized the longer the lead time;

advertising and promotion: even local radio may need two or three weeks notification of an event to ensure it is given good coverage;

liaison issues: where relevant, with police, highway departments, health and safety, especially where large numbers of the public may be attending.

Lead-time issues

In essence, the longer the lead time before an event the better, although this it not to say it is impossible to put on an event very quickly, but to do so may need professional help or may result in higher costs.

Planning, and the planning process, plays a key role in the organization and management of special events.

Even the simplest of events, such as a birthday or dinner party, will need to be planned, or at least given some forethought.

The larger and more complex events become, the more detailed and systematic the planning will have to be.

Getting It Together

Care, time and effort at the planning stage of an event will yield many benefits, the most important of which is ensuring the most positive outcome for the event.

Summary