Tips for Event Planning-draft 1

Event Planning

A leader must be prepared to address several elements when planning an event to promote good attendance and ensure smooth execution. There are four preliminary questions that a leader must ask prior to planning an event.

1. What/Vision

2. Purpose/Goal

3. Organization’s purpose

4. Desired outcome

What/Vision

The what answers the question of what the leader intends to do. This is just an idea expressed in very rough form. When you seek to answer this question don’t begin to limit your idea to locations, financial or personnel restrictions. The what is a vision. When you ask this question you need to think about how your what would look like in an ideal world.

Purpose/Goal

Purpose defines the reason for your what. Purpose is a lens that focuses vision and forms the boundaries of the event. Vision/What are often times vague, unclear, and broad. Purpose narrows the scope of vision into a singular event. Purpose shapes achievable standards and goals that the event is designed to accomplish in accordance with the vision.

Organization’s purpose

Our vision and purpose might be good ideas and goals, however as a leader we represent a group of people and an organization. We need to make sure that the purpose and goals of our event are in line with the purpose and goals of the organization we serve. If the purpose and goals of our event do not match up with the purpose and goals of our organization then the event is not something we should waste time planning. However, if you feel very passionate about your what then look for another organization whose purposes line up with the purpose of your vision.

Desired Outcome/Measure of Success

When we plan an event our measure of success is usually contingent on numbers. Numbers are hard cold facts that are easily measurable. However, we must remember that we work with people not numbers. The human aspect should be a defining guideline throughout the planning process. It is fine to measure numbers when it comes to attendance and finances, but if this is our only measure of success we set ourselves up for disappointment. Moreover, measuring in finite and concrete terms is a one dimensional measure of success. Defining success in these terms limits the scope of achievement to a singular event. The purpose of answering this question is to re-expand the scope of the event into vision. You need to frame the event within the context of long-term goals defined by the Organization’s purpose.

Additional Considerations

If you can answer all of the preliminary questions and the event is still a go then now is the time to start thinking about the who. The who is usually predetermined by the organizational goals and the composition of the organization itself. Things to consider when defining the who would be target age group, special interest group, skills, financial standing. Essentially you want to know why these people will be attracted to your event. Who and why are you doing the event. If you are doing a fundraiser then you want to target people that have a lot of money. If you are doing an evangelistic event you are targeting people without relationships with Jesus. If you are doing a community service event then all the people helping are united by the common desire to serve people. And the people being served are united by having a common specific need that must be met. As stated before, most of this will be determined by the goals of the organization.

Every event needs a place to be held. Determining where an event will be held is linked to the who. You want the place to be accessible to your who. The where also needs to match the mood or atmosphere of the what. All locations have a character about them and set the attitude and mood of the event so it is important to make sure that the location contributes to the goals of the what. For example, if you were to plan a memorial service for a fallen soldier then you probably wouldn’t want to hold the service in an amusement park that has a bunch of anti-military posters hanging around. I know it’s an extreme example but it underscores the importance of where you hold an event. Other things you may need to think about would be cost. If you can find a venue that is cheap or free and contributes to the type of atmosphere you need for your event then that’s awesome. However, this is rarely the case. You will need to make concessions to fit your budget. You have to decide which things you are willing to concede in order to put the event on. In all your planning you need to constantly be evaluating the decisions you make in view of the purpose of the event and the purpose of the organization. There will be several things you think about that are great ideas but aren’t necessary to accomplish the purpose of the event.

Take an instance in which an evangelistic event is planned and the purpose is to preach the gospel and bring people to make a decision to follow Christ. You have to choose between two venues. One location is a softball field, it has the ability to house a lot of people, but is really expensive. Moreover, there is no privacy or place for people that do make decisions to congregate privately and meet with a counselor to talk them through their decision. The other location is a church with an auditorium that doesn’t have the seating capacity of the softball field, but it does have several rooms people that make decisions can go to and meet with counselors for follow up.

In this example there are several things the planner must consider. The goal of the event is to preach the gospel and bring people to a point of decision. This will happen in both venues. Which one is better? If the organization values large numbers then the softball field maybe a better location. If the goal and value of the organization is to do discipleship and follow-up then perhaps the church is the better venue. All of this to say that you need to always base all decisions your event planning in view of the goals of the event and of the organization.

Event Planning Outline

What:

Who:

Where:

When:

Purpose:

Organization’s Purpose:

Desired Outcome/Measure of Success:

Timeline: