Event management
Just like any other event, whether it's a school fair, children's birthday party or social event – if everyone has a role and you’ve got a checklist to work through then you'll be able to achieve your goals and have a good time doing it.
The majority of work for an event is in the planning. If you’re well-organised and have everything prepared and ready to go on the day, then everyone will be able to enjoy the events more, knowing what has to be done and that everything is planned for.
It might be a good idea to plan and identify several events in advance as part of you club planning and marketing plan.
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Planning your events
This part of the event management is about deciding and planning what kind of event your club wants to have. The following action points will help you do this:
- Bring the ideas together - have a meeting to decide what kind of event your club wants to have and how the event might work.
- Know the purpose of the exercise - is it to raise money, increase your membership or reward your volunteers?
- Prepare a timeline - what needs to happen before the event, during the event and after the event.
- Identify resources - what will you need?
- People
- Equipment
- Facilities
- Work out the costs - do you have a budget for your event and does it fit within it?
- Know your goals - what are the aims and benefits for your club? Think about tying this back into planning for your club.
- How will you measure your success?
- What is to be achieved?
- Who is it for?
- Who can help?
- What is it called?
- How much will it cost?
Preparation
This part of the process details the 'what, where, how, who and when' parts of your event.
- Make the bookings necessary (travel and transport, accommodation, venue hire, equipment etc).
- Make the phone calls, write the letters and send the emails.
- Confirm all bookings and arrangements.
- Send out the invitations.
- Confirm all resources and people - staff and volunteers. Depending on the size of your event your may want to give your volunteers an event job description. The guide for managing event volunteers gives more detailed and useful information on how to do this.
- Set and work to the budget.
- Write and work to an event checklist.
- Write a run-sheet of the event. This lets people know who needs to be where, what they are going to do and when they’ll be doing it. Don’t forget to put contact phone numbers for people on the day.
- Plan a contingency if possible. If it’s an outside event is there a wet-weather contingency?
- Plan for your guests and VIPs – what they require, and special considerations.
- Good volunteers can be crucial for your event and they can provide valuable assistance in pre-event planning right through to the delivery stage. A guide for managing volunteers at events is available in the resources section.
- Marketing and promotion - make sure you put your event on your website, promote it through posters or flyers if relevant and don’t forget the media if it’s a big event. The marketing and promotion section of Club Kit has more information on how to do this successfully.
Once you have all of these taken care of – you’ll be well prepared and ready to go!
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Presentation
At this point the event should run smoothly because time and effort has been put in during planning and preparation.
On the day of your event remember to:
- Arrive in plenty of time to check everything before your guests or attendees arrive. Remember to do a health and safety check.
- Alter your run-sheet if anything has changed and advise people accordingly.
- Advise people if there is a change of plan or you have to revert to a contingency because of the weather.
- Take note of things that were done well and thank everyone for contributing.
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Evaluation
Get together with your club and evaluate what worked really well, what could be better next time.
Take the time to review your event and think about any changes that you could make for the next event.
- Where did you go wrong?
- What were your successes?
- How can you improve it?
- Did the event achieve its goal, or purpose?
This is a great time to acknowledge and thank everyone’s efforts.
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Resources and more information
Your local council may have guidelines on running events in your area. Visit your local council’s website, or call them for more information, resources and training.
An event management training programme called Get Set Go is available from Wellington City Council. This council-run event management training programme is available to all potential event managers.
Other resources you can use to plan and run your events include:
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