So you want to learn about producing an event. Hopefully by the time you reach the end of this blog it doesn’t scare you away. It is a lot of work but the end results can be very rewarding. Even if you know how to throw events, you might learn something new here just as I am always learning through posts like these. I am all for people bringing their unique ideas into the world in the form of events. I have been to some really cool stuff in the past and you may be somebody with a cool idea who doesn’t know how to get it off the ground yet. If you were waiting for somebody to tell you to try it out, here I am! This post will walk you through the essential steps of producing an event and help you turn your dream into reality.
The dream
Before you throw an event you want to make sure that you have somewhat of an idea as to why and for whom. Like stated above, maybe it has been a dream of yours to get a bunch of like-minded people together who like to collect running shoes, or a group of people who are into a specific niche or something as noble as a community effort for the homeless population. This is where creativity comes in, you do not need to be an artist to come up with a cool event, you just need to have a concrete idea but it doesn’t hurt to be a creative person.
I would suggest doing some brainstorming and attending some events in your niche first. Attend enough events and you will start to see gaps and things you feel that are missing. Keep in mind that not every gap you identify is necessarily a flaw—sometimes, what seems like a missing element might be a deliberate creative choice, or the organizer might not have had the resources to implement it. That is where you come in. You will eventually start to want to put your own spin and improve on what you have experienced. This is when you start writing your ideas down and ways you can put your own spin in your niche market. You can’t start creating until you get a feel for what is out there. Once you have a list of ideas ready, it is time for some research, feedback and tweaking.
Vibes
Now that you have some ideas forming in your head about what you want to do, I am going to assume that you are connected to the community you want to produce an event for. If not I would suggest you go back to step one and continue attending events and network for a while. You can’t throw events in a community without getting a sense of the vibes and culture. You will come off as an outsider stepping on people’s toes. Let the people get a sense of you first. This may take years and that is ok because it isn’t like you aren’t partaking in what they have to offer and having fun in the process. There are rare cases you can completely avoid all that, like when there is a complete void of events in your niche, I would still suggest talking to the people first but then if you got the resources to start providing the community the events that they are lacking, I say go ahead. With transparency and them at the table of course.
I digress, I am getting ahead of myself!
So, once you have an idea for what the people are lacking and what you can offer, it is time to take those ideas and start improving on them. Get a sense of the vibes in the community, from your networking, ask some people if they like your idea and from that you may run into people who are all about your dream and ideas and want to support you in making them a reality. This is where you can get some support from people who want to help you throw this, even if they are standing from the outside offering tips here and there. I don’t suggest you try to throw your first event by yourself. Take it from my own experiences…it will NOT be pretty.
Location Location Location
A lot of people after getting an idea of a potential event would suggest you create a budget before getting an idea for a location. You want to know how much you can afford by the time you get to picking out locations and normally they would be right. That is if you are NOT throwing an event that is directly tied to a mission or certain group. When you are doing an event specifically for a community that is found within a specific geographic area or an event with a mission, location matters greatly. I am not saying you already book the venue you want to do it at but you should compile a list of possible places within that area first. You don’t want to do an event for a group of people where the venue is 20 miles away from that specific group or community.
Let’s say you want to throw an event for urban farmers located in Boston. It wouldn’t make sense to throw the event in the neighboring city of Cambridge now would it. The optics would not bode well. Taking a group of people who do their best work in a neighborhood and having them come together in a whole other city paints a message that where they are is simply not good enough. This may sound like common sense to some people reading this but I have witnessed things like this a bit too much to not mention as caution. Find a common meeting ground, maybe one of those urban farms is big enough to host a large group of people and you hold it there. Start grabbing a list of locations.
Hit the megabucks
This is what I like to do right before I budget an event. You want to start by making what I like to call a dream list. List out all the wonderful things you would love to have at your event no matter what the perceived cost may be. Want to Heli-lift a boat on a roof? LIST IT!, Want Missy Elliot to rappel down from the ceiling onto a table? Sure, go ahead and list that. Write down the dream target audience, the dream target number etc. This is how I tier my events for progression and evolution. Essentially what you are doing is you are creating a goal for yourself.
Unless you have a boatload of money, then you can skip this section entirely and have fun.
For most of us that don’t have a boatload of money you want to create milestones for your event. Your goal can simply be to have the finest chocolates imported from Mexico for a book reading event, it doesn’t have to always involve money but at times simply a goal in securing a connection. A connection like getting the author of a book to come to your event.
I like to separate things into 3 categories, Dream Event, middle ground and reality. You can use whatever terms you want for these. These give you goals to work towards and to make your event better every year.
Reality hits like a truck
Budget time! So now that you have an idea of your dream event, you want to scale it to reality with a proper budget. It is time to find the costs of these things. It doesn’t mean you throw your boat idea out the window after finding out it costs 100 grand, you just now have something to work towards. (personally I find that idea wasteful but hey I am not here to shoot anybody’s dream down). Your goal is to get the budget down to the most realistic event you can do that doesn’t bankrupt you and it is ok to start with something really small.
There is an event called "Everyday People NYC" that only started with what they called an “intimate” brunch of 200 people. They are now a global phenomenon selling out tickets all the time with tens of thousands of tickets sold. You can read about it here.
While I don’t find the idea of a 200 person brunch intimate, I have done events with 200 people and that just takes logistics and good planning so I can see why they would use the word intimate because they eventually shot up to what they are today. I say all that to say that it is ok to start small.
It is rare that you will match your budget exactly to what you have planned but without a budget you might end up spending way more than you will be comfortable with. A budget helps you remain organized and on task from beginning to the end. The goal is to not end up in debt, at least break even but always aim to make some sort of profit for the time you spent working on your event. All the hours you are going to spend up at night making that it goes off without a hitch deserves some form of compensation.
Your team!
With budgeting comes a lot of conversations and research. Research prices for everything from venue to napkins, there is no cost small enough to be negated from the budget. I made that mistake way too many times. Those small things add up and you start to be biased towards yourself, “well if I excused that 5 dollar item, 7 bucks won’t hurt.” It is a slippery slope.
Get quotes from people who have services that can help your event shine. This is where that group of people who believe in your event comes in. They can help you connect with others such as DJ’s, sound engineers and so forth and help you get a quote from them. A trade secret in the arts is that as artists we often have a different quote for inside people and charge people we don’t know full price but do not assume their rates and do not haggle. It is disrespectful. You will also have no idea if the price they offer will be fair to you or not without getting quotes from others.
You want to create a team using this budget and here are the ideal roles you should look for,
Marketing/communications coordinator- manages social media to promote the event and handles communication from attendees.
Event manager- Oversees all aspects and keep everyone else on deadline
Technical Director- oversees sound, lighting, and stage setup needs
Program manager- develops the event schedule and coordinates with the speakers and performers.
Vendor coordinator- deals with vendors needed for the space such as food in the shape of caterers and possible vendors
Registration and on site managers- manages check in procedures, day of event procedures, and possible security coordinators might be needed.
There are more roles that can be added here but this is a good list for somebody starting out. It does look expensive but if you grove yourself some room before your event you can wear many of these hats yourself.
Last tip after creating this budget is to leave some buffer room. Everything can add up to let’s say a thousand dollars but you might want to add another 300 for unforeseen expenses.
Assemble!
Your team will comprise people who simply want to help you and people you have hired from your budget. You will want to assemble your team and set up days and time you can meet up till the event date. You want to create a google drive or a place where you can share media and meeting notes. I recommend holding bi-weekly meetings in the early stages of planning. As you approach the event, transition to weekly meetings, and in the final days leading up to the event, switch to daily check-ins. Early meetings can focus on personal one on one check-ins to ensure everyone is aligned and on track. You do not have to coordinate everybody’s schedule to try and get everybody in the room at the same time. I have been a part of big festivals where I only needed to be in one meeting beforehand with everyone. It is all based on how organized you can be, how much you have to compensate everybody and your confidence in getting this event from start to finish.
DO NOT! Stress your team out with YOUR stress.
That is another mistake I have made in the past. Communicate when you start to fall off from your own task. Things like to fall like dominoes. If you miss a deadline, it can impact someone else’s work, like for example if you made it your job to secure the artists or authors before an event and a month out from the event you haven’t done so, you have added more work onto the communications and marketing person. They now have to work extra hard to get people there at the last minute. It is really easy for things to start to fall apart. This is where events often fail before they are even realized. Communication is KEY!!! It is an ongoing progression, you don’t become a perfect communicator overnight. I myself am still working on it. There are many resources out there on effective communication.
Elephant in the room
Now that you have an event, you need something for these people to do. You need to create a program for the night. I have been to events where I paid 40 dollars and the program was just music in a large room. That may rock with some people who simply want to vibe out to music but others like me who attend events for some sort of stimulation want a program. A lot of people will accept the bare minimum but Everybody will LOVE effort. Having a clear program for your event shows some sort of effort.
Outline the main activities and the times. Whether the activities are speeches, talks, performances or anything.
Have a time slot for everything and have that time slot created long before the event.
Engaged audiences are more likely to enjoy what you are offering and come back.
Word of mouth through experience is the best form of advertisement.
Make sure that your program isn’t just filled with activities though, let people have time to mingle, maybe dance and find their own fun. Include those breaks in the schedule, I say AT LEAST 15 minutes. Also create buffer time in your schedule, it is rare that schedules ever match minute for minute. Add about 7 minutes of buffer for every activity you have. Trying to rally a crowd back for the next activity is a 5 minute task in itself and do not overload the schedule or else you will not end on time. Less is more! A lesson I learn in some areas and forget in others.
Marketing
Marketing only happens when you have a solid plan. Consistency is key. It is better to start small and work your way up than it is to bite more than you can chew and have to scale down in your marketing. What I mean by that is, You don’t want to print a thousand flyers and suddenly realize that you now have to go pass out a thousand flyers and hang them up without a team large enough to help you do so. You do not want to commit to posting 7 days a week for your event without a plan for what you are posting everyday till then. You do not want to say you will start posting every day then get burnt out and have to take days off until you end up hating posting.
Start small when it comes to events so that your marketing doesn’t swallow you up.
Marketing is a huge part of the game. Businesses spend anywhere from 10 to 20 percent of their budget on marketing alone for their events.
Do not be surprised if it ends up being as such but be ready to do all the work you can to make sure every penny of that marketing budget was used properly. Ask my favorite marketing expert Joseph who has produced events with me. If you do not abide by the deadlines for materials due such as logos and press stuff, he still gets paid the same but now is forced to work magic to make something happen last minute. oftentimes you will find yourself being the main roadblock between an event being successful or not. If something is in the way of your roadmap and schedule, then move around it by either hiring someone else or having contingency plans on hand at all times.
Securing partnerships are also huge in effective marketing. That is where those connections I spoke about earlier start to come into play again. Having others vouch your event will allow you to tap into their pool of audience in order to grow yours. Be creative in what you can offer somebody through a partnership, sometimes people want to partner strictly about the mission of what you do. If there is one thing that I with McKersin Consulting excel at, it is community connections and partnerships. I can’t make a single move in anything I do without the community I have built up over the years.
A lot more goes into marketing than this but do not take it from me, hit up Joseph and pick his brain. There are successful marketing firms such as his that do JUST THIS work. That is how important marketing is.
Day of
If all goes well with your marketing and logistics leading up to the event, you will have hopefully reached the day of! The more time you allot to get the event done, the less stress you will have for the event on the day of. You can tell how much time you need by your level of stress on the day of. If you see yourself stressed then that tells you for the next one, you need to give yourself double the amount of time. As you get more efficient you can start to dial in to how long you actually need.
Day of logistics are dependent on following a timeline and communication. It is best to have an event coordinator helping you with this part. You have to ensure that everybody gets to the venue in time for their tech time, their set up, etc. I would suggest booking venues that allow you 3 hours of setup before an event, 2 hours being the least. Anything less than two hours is hopefully an event without much tech and seating.
Remain calm and positive. There are now a lot of humans and moving pieces, it will be the busiest day for you in this whole process. The mantra I keep in my head on the day of events is,
“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.”
It works whether you are spiritual, religious or not. Understanding that something is no longer within your control takes a lot of strength but it will happen and you will have to simply move on to the things you CAN change. A table broke while setting up and you are now down a table. That table is gone, you still have an event coming up in a few hours and you need to move on to things within your power and adapt.
Being flexible and being open to change and flowing is the key to a successful event. Let others provide feedback on what can make the process go by more smoothly. Do not try and macho your way into day of logistics. It is not realistic for things to go one hundred percent your way, too many unforeseen elements come up for that.
Keep an open line of communication at all times.
Be calm and patient.
Be open to change and flowing
Be willing to accept the things you can’t change
Find the courage to change the things you can
And BREATH.
Your creation is coming to life.
Post event
Now that your event is over, it will seem surreal. All those months of hard work, over just like that. The first time will trip you out. Essentially, months into minutes! A lot of people do not know what goes into making events and are unaware of the long nights making sure that the event went off without a hitch. Now that the event is over, you want to take time out for reflection and evaluation. Remember, your goal is still to get that boat flown in with that helicopter.
At your event, it would be good to interact with others and grab their information because this would be a good time for you to apply those connections. Give people a few days for the event to simmer. Ask a few of those people for their testimonials on how the event went and some feedback. Ask your friends. Ask the people who initially trusted you from the beginning of the process, ask your contracted staff and so forth. Take your ego out of it. It is hard to take your ego out of something you spent HOURS building but it is necessary for growth!
Most often the thing that prevents people from scaling up is THEMSELVES. Do NOT be the reason why you don’t grow. Review what went well so that you can replicate it for the next event and build up from there. Sometimes the things that went well were things that happened entirely by accident.
Waiting For My Invite
As you may have learned, producing an event is no easy task but I can guarantee that if you follow my steps, the process will be a whole lot easier than winging it. Create a checklist with all these steps and feel free to scaffold them as much as you want. Creating events requires you remain adaptable and open to growth. Whether you are new or not to producing events, if these tips helped you out, feel free to invite me to your next event wherever they may be! I am always down for new experiences and meeting new faces. Hopefully I provided you tips on How To Make Your Dream Event Come True.
With Love and Respect,
-McKersin
My question of the week comes in two this week;
Which part of the event planning process do you find most exciting or daunting?
and
What aspects of this guide would you like to see expanded or explored further in future posts?
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