After being deprived of the opportunity to organize events for the duration of confinement, the events that bring so much hope have resumed their place. They have been enriched by the contributions of webinars which also make it possible to involve people who cannot travel, such as speakers who carry out their interventions by videoconference.
If we were tired of the events that follow one another, today the return of events appears in a new light. Nothing replaces the riches of human relationships and events are one of their cornerstones. Organizing an event or events is part of the life of any company that wishes to develop its notoriety among its customers, partners or financiers, unite its teams to develop their cohesion and involve them in the overall strategy of the company, in the face of competition. However, events have a certain cost and it is obvious that they must be prepared in advance in order to reap the benefits of the investment.
Organizing an event cannot be improvised. Preparing it requires bringing together many skills: brainstorming behind the event and organization. Whether you are an SME, a VSE or a large company, the pattern is the same. The difference lies in human resources which may be limited to the manager and his partner or be supported by a competent communications team.
An entrepreneur is by his very nature an organizer, but his organization is often linked to his intuition and his skills linked to his business, true guides in his journey. Then, he mobilizes all the resources and develops other skills to achieve the goal he has set for himself.
Surround yourself with the right people
The realization of an event and its success depend on human resources. This is why it is necessary to know what are the necessary qualities that we will need to succeed in this event.
Often when organizing an event we evoke tensions between people and these tensions do not come only from the importance of the work to be accomplished but from differences in behavior in the way of approaching the work. Indeed, in a team you can meet two types of people:
- those who will approach the organization of the event with a global vision
- those who will focus on the details.
With these two types of personalities and thanks to their differences it is possible to create a real synergy or a real cacophony…
To better understand what is at stake in this step, let’s make a comparison between the Japanese and the French. When you want to do business with the Japanese, you come up against an opposing concept: the French start from a global vision to go towards detail and the Japanese from detail to go towards a global vision. Ignorance of this cultural difference has caused numerous negotiations to fail, leaving everyone disillusioned. Understanding this difference has enabled French companies to establish themselves over the long term. To make an event a success, as event manager you must understand the different facets of the organization.
Method for organizing an event
So you want to create an event but whatever the size of your event, the method is the same.
During the first steering committee, with the team you have formed, you will need to provide answers to the fundamental questions:
Why this event? What is its objective?
Is the event intended to develop awareness, unite staff and build customer loyalty…
Identifying the objective is fundamental. There is no point in moving on to the next step until it is clearly defined.
For whom? What is the target?
- salespeople
- administrative
- financiers
- women
- men
- young people…
interests which may be very distant. You need to define your target precisely to satisfy everyone. This step will require you to refine the ideas.
How ? With what type of event?
The choice of event: meeting, convention, party…. will have to appeal to all your audiences and make sense. We don’t do an event for the sake of an event.
How much ? What is my budget?
Financial resources will have a prohibitive impact on your choice but they will at the same time be a source of creativity: carrying out an event with little money requires ingenuity.
Retro-planning
Once the choice has been made, it will be necessary to go into detail with reverse planning, the tool for any organization of an event.
It is broken down into three parts:
- Before the event
- During the event
- After the event.
List all needs
The first step in organizing an event is to list all the needs without trying to budget for them, without trying to say who will be responsible for them:
Accommodation, transport, space layout, reception, speakers, catering, decoration, request to be made to the prefecture, partners, media, press kit, press release, badges, etc.
The second step is around each need to decline it precisely.
Reception: table, flowers, badge, tablecloth, hostess, listing
The third step is to build a table that will allow you to follow the organization of the event. You can adapt this table to your needs. At each meeting, you will complete it. You will thus be able to check that each step is carried out correctly and you will not have last minute worries due to negligence, forgetfulness, etc.
You will thus be able to have an overall vision of the event and a detailed vision that you can constantly update as you organize the event.
