How To Pull Off a Great Event

This post is going to give you 7 keys to help you pull off a great event.

This is my second year on the Campbell River Canada Day organizing team and during the process I’ve listened and learned a lot about what goes into a great event. If you’re on any kind of planning team or wanting to pull off a memorable and fantastic event, here’s are 7 keys I believe will help you to do just that.

1. Set a purpose.
   • If you’re going to pull off a “great” event, then your purpose has to be big. Aim for the stars. Don’t be shy. Write it down and talk about it regularly. Sometimes you may have more specific purposes for various aspects of your event (if its multi-faceted), but essentially, your event will have one big raison d’être. This will help to remind your team when things go a little sideways as well as provide you with a great evaluation tool.
2. Get a dedicated team of influencers together.
   • The members of your team need to have at least 2 qualities beyond the other reasons you have them on your team: 1) Dedication & 2) Influence. They need to be dedicated to the event, and bring things to the table that will benefit the purpose of the event, not having their own agenda. They also need to be influencers: people who have a lot of clout locally and among their peers. If you add people who are dedicated but lack influence, you add 1 person to the team, but if you bring an influencer on the team then your essentially adding a whole network of people to support your great event (either as volunteers, attendees or other).
3. Rally some awareness.
   • Press-releases for the media, ads in a paper and radio spots all have their place in getting the word out, so be sure to stick to your traditional media. However, no event will be great these days without a social media presence. Acquire a website, nail down a Facebook page, get a hashtag going on Twitter and let the power of social media do its thing. Be sure to visit Campbell River Canada Day’s website, like our Facebook Page & follow us on Twitter.
4. Get a great sponsor.
   • Don’t think that having a great sponsor just means getting someone to give a bunch of money. One thing that I’ve noticed is that there is a difference between a sponsor and a GREAT Sponsor. A great sponsor has their finger on the pulse of the event & knows where the funds and manpower is most needed and freely contributes their area of expertise to the team as a resource. You can easily pinpoint the difference by listening to how they talk. A mere sponsor asks, “What do I get out of it?” A GREAT Sponsor asks, “How can I help?”
5. Plan everything.
   • Meet, meet and meet again. Remember what I said about dedication? You’ll need it because to pull off a great event, you need to meet with the team over and over again to make sure that everything is planned and organized into systems and schedules so that streamlining and efficiency can find their groove on the big day. Who’s picking up what? Where do we set up when? Details can be scary, but a good wrangling of the logistics beast can set the team’s mind at ease offering more clarity and a stress-free environment.
6. Set the plan in motion.
   • The big day arrives and the plan gets in motion. With a dedicated team of influencers, you know your event is poised and ready to go. I always say a prayer before I head out recognizing that today is a day that the Lord has made and whatever happens today is a part of HIS plan (even if its not a part of mine). Bottom line is that you can’t slow the calendar down and your event’s day will arrive – be ready to set the plan in motion.
7. Review for next time.
   • You absolutely need to review and recap your event with your entire team. Where were the successes? Celebrate those. Where were the failures? Evaluate what happened and what needs to happen for next time. Then when you go to plan the next great event, you can start with the successes, setting those plans in motion and spend the time needed on the issues that need a bit more work.

Have your say, leave a comment:

What have you found to be helpful in pulling off a great event?