Communication, communication, communication.
Regardless of how organizers manage the event planning process, there's no question about the importance of communication -- the communication of roles, responsibilities, and timelines.
In the newest Run of Show Weekly video, Splash’s CEO Ben Hindman outlines the event planning stages and tactics for ensuring team alignment for every event you throw.
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Today we're gonna dive deep into event operations. I wanna walk through a seven-week process for making sure that everyone is on the exact same page, and that your event has maximum potential for success.
I remember it like it was yesterday. I was standing outside a big concert at Art Basel in Miami and my technology was powering the check-in process.
I was nearly on the edge. I couldn't believe that I was in this situation. The whole process had been such a mess. I got a call a couple of weeks earlier from a PR company that was representing a really desirable brand to work with, and they said, "Hey, would you get involved and help us plan this?" And I, of course, said, "Yes. I really wanna do it." I didn't ask a lot of questions, and I jumped in. Before I knew it, I was in one of the most challenging team processes of my entire life.
The day after that event, I was recapping all of the different challenges that I had gone through with all of the different personalities that were involved. And so I started to develop a framework for how to think about all of the event processes that we'd go through from that point on.
What we're gonna do today is walk through this framework for each stage of an event planning process and how you can make sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you understand who is doing what, and at which stage in the process you're at. We're gonna walk through six different stages of the event planning process, and we're gonna outline how to think about each of those stages.
As I started to outline the process of planning an event, there was something pretty surprising that I discovered. Almost every single event planning team follows nearly the exact same process. Some do it to varying degrees of effectiveness and so many timelines could be extended or contracted based off of the event type that you're planning. For the most part, we all do pretty much the same thing.
Let's walk through each of those steps:
During this phase, we're setting objectives. We're coming up with the idea of the event. We're asking the hard questions. We're setting KPIs.
This is the segment where we know what we're gonna build and we start to execute against that. We create checklists and to-dos, we start to line up talent, and vendors, and venues.
At this stage, we start to lay the groundwork for the promotional assets such as the invitation or the event website, or even the post-event collateral.
At this point, we start to send out emails, collect RSVPs, start replying with confirmations, and start continuing to ensure that people will actually attend the event. Then, the RSVPs start rolling in.
This is when you start to engage with attendees, most importantly the VIP attendees, and you start to segment out lists and try to make sure they actually attend the event. The engagement phase actually rolls through the event. This is making sure that you're engaging with the people on site, and then making sure that you're engaging with the people after the event with great post-event follow-up emails.
This is day zero, D-Day. This stage, we all know well. It usually starts about a day before the event and ends about a day after the event with low-down. This includes everything from setting up the tables, to the stage, to the signage, to checking people in, engaging with them on site, doing the entire run of show, and breaking down.
This is where we start tracking and analyzing all of the different data points that come through throughout the entire process. Our data shows that most events take about seven weeks of preparation, planning, and execution, so you really want to be spreading these events out across that entire seven-week timeline.
After you've outlined every single step in the process, your next step is to figure out who the major players are. This might be someone who's actually at your organization, or an agency, or even a freelancer. You're trying to figure out who's involved. I find that a really great framework for figuring this out and defining it in a very visible and transparent way is something called the RACI model. It's a great model that I see some of the top event planners that we work with use.
(1) Responsible is the person who ensures that the work gets done.
(2) Accountable is the person that actually executes the work. Who presses "play," clicks "go," presses "send."
(3) Consulted is the person who gives approval that this work has been completed.
(4) Informed is the person who's an FYI for that stage.
A quick example: during the promotional stage, the person who is responsible might be your demand gen person. This is somebody who has to make sure that the right people are invited and we get the right RSVPs. The person accountable is the person who actually presses "send." That might be your marketing ops person or a promoter that's involved in the event. Consulted, is a leader in the promotional stage or VP marketing or VP sales. This is somebody who needs to make sure the right guest list is being promoted.
Probably informed for the promotional stage is your CEO or a salesperson who just needs to know that we're sending out invitations, or your client's RSVP. That's how you RACI. And your job is to RACI each of these different segments. This process is something that we call roleing [SP] up, R-O-L-E, roleing up. I found that identifying who is involved and what they need to do at early, early stages in the process, is paramount to having a great event. You really want to understand the players and what they're supposed to do, and to communicate that early and often.
The next step in this process is called rolling out -- that's identifying when. We know who and we know what they need to do, but when do they need to do it?
As you can see, this rolling out process looks a lot like a Gantt chart. We've layered on top of themselves all of these different stages. You want the promotional phase and the creative phase to overlap because we're going to learn a lot in the very early stages of our promotions. We're going to know how we might need to tweak things, and you need that creative team involved in the process. You do want to create deadlines. Make sure that everything has a clear beginning and a clear end, otherwise, I found things just don't get done.
1. Get everyone involved early
I can't tell you how often I see people overlook getting the entire team, or at least as many people who fall under the responsible category as possible involved in the process early and often. If you can, get everyone in the room during the ideation stage. If not the ideation stage, make sure they're in the creative stage. I love the old adage, "If they plan the fight, they won't fight the plan." So you wanna get them involved.
2. Use data
Use data. I like to use data at different stages of the process. You can use data and measurement as an energizing tool, as your energizing bunny. The best way to feed this bunny is with carrots. But, you might also use the stick. What I meant to say is you can use a dashboard to show people how many RSVPs somebody is driving and get them really excited, or you can show them where you're not hitting, what's not working for you as a way to get people onboard and focused on their goal. I do find that using data at every single stage helps you sprint this marathon that is an event.
3. Communicate a lot
Last but not least, you want to communicate. Communicate a lot. I always would say to my event planning team, "Our entire job, not just part of our job, our entire job is communication, both with our attendees externally and with our team internally." Setting up a communication cadence early in the process, makes this whole machine work.
You have a ton of event data at your fingertips, but what do you do with it and who do you give it to? Check out our tactics for empowering your team with data.
Ben Hindman is co-founder and CEO of Splash, the country's fastest-growing event marketing platform that helps businesses and brands more effectively market through their events. An event planner turned tech entrepreneur, events are in Ben’s DNA. Prior to starting Splash, Ben was the Director of Events at Thrillist, where he produced large-scale events from concerts to mystery fly-aways.
