Regardless of how experienced you are at event planning, it can still be a stressful job. There are always last minute details that need to be taken care of and mishaps that need to be attended to, which is why it helps to be as prepared as possible.
If you are looking for ways to make your first or even your 50th live business event a roaring success, here are a few tips from the live event experts at Status AV.
Tip 1: Use Your Prep Time Wisely
When you take an organised and efficient approach to event planning, you instantly reduce your stress levels.
In the days leading up to your event, be sure to carefully plan each day, keep your workspace clutter-free and making time for regular breaks. By laying the right foundation, you will have more energy and focus to tackle the most important aspects of your event, such as finding a venue, searching for corporate AV services and sourcing the perfect caterer. There are also various tools that you can use to keep your team and their tasks coordinated at all times.
Tip 2: Stick to Your Budget
To avoid slipping into the red when you’re planning an event, stick to a budget right from the start. Having to deal with or explain extra expenses is never ideal, which is why it’s best to avoid overspend. With that being said, you should always have a contingency plan in place, should anything unexpected crop up.
Tip 3: Select the Right Venue
Choosing a venue is one of the most important decisions you will make when planning an event. While your venue should always be well-suited to your audience and the type of event you’re planning, it’s even more important that the venue be safe, reliable and excellent with communication. Ask about extra features like guest WiFi if you know that this will be important to attendees. Some venues may also offer audio visual services, but very often it’s best to use a specialist third party for this if the venue doesn’t specialise in AV.
Tip 4: Make Sure Your AV is Impeccable
There is absolutely nothing worse than running into AV problems during an event or simply having inferior audio and visuals. AV can really make or break an event and determine whether attendees will be interested in spending money on future events. Take the time to research suppliers that specialise in AV for businesses and have run successful live events in the past.
Tip 5: Pay Attention to the Details
Whether it’s the contracts that you’re signing with partners and suppliers, or the plans that you are making to cover catering requirements, be sure to include as much relevant detail in your planning documents as possible. This ensures that there are no loopholes that could lead to missing resources later on. Nobody likes reading the fine print, but it will be the one thing you’ll wish you’d done if something goes wrong.
Tip 6: Plan Your Event Marketing Ahead of Time
If you want to increase event ticket sales, you’re going to need to get your marketing right, which means it can’t be rushed. Before you begin planning the finer details of your event, spend time on your event marketing strategy. Decide where and how you will be marketing your business event, and have your content and advertising ready to go. From there, you can simply automate your campaigns, so that marketing doesn’t have to be your core focus during the critical stages of event planning.
Tip 7: Avoid Last-Minute Changes
If there is one thing that seasoned event planners know, it’s that there will always be suppliers and vendors that are unreliable. To reduce the chances of last-minute programme changes or missing resources, make sure that you’re setting expectations up front. It’s also helpful to add penalties to your contracts, should a vendor try to back out at the last minute.
Tip 8: Anticipate Potential Problems
While it would be wonderful if every event ran smoothly, it’s best to plan for as many eventualities as possible. Whether it’s defective technology, bad weather or even a traffic jam, problems during your event feel less devastating when you’ve got liability insurance.
Tip 9: Always Ask for Feedback
Attendee feedback can be one of your most valuable tools, especially if you’re planning to host more events in the future. Be sure to send out a survey within 24 hours of your event, so that you can gather honest feedback while the event is still fresh in your attendee’s minds, and increase the ROI of the next one.
Tip 10: Collect as Much Data as Possible
If there is one way to ensure that your next event is successful, it’s to implement the learnings from your last one. Collecting data on everything from your expenses to your marketing and sales activities will help ensure that your next event runs smoothly. It will also help you to create a more detailed and realistic budget and boost your ROI.
As long as you carefully select the right vendors and suppliers, and plan everything well in advance, there is no reason why your live business event won’t be a great success.
Plan Your Live Event AV with the Experts at Status AV
If you’d like to ensure that the AV at your next event is music to every attendees’ ears, the experts at Status AV can help. Our team of skilled technicians can recommend the right Audio Visual equipment to suit your setting and budget, and then undertake the planning and installation, remaining on hand to help throughout the event. Get in touch with us today to start planning your live event AV.