Event Management and Event Planning

Event Management

What is an Event?

An event can be described as a public assembly for the purpose of celebration, education, marketing or reunion. Events can be classified on the basis of their size, type and context.

What is Event Management?

Event Management is the process of analyzing, planning, marketing, producing and evaluating an event. It is a different way of promoting a product, service or idea. If an event is managed efficiently and effectively, it can be used as a very powerful promotional tool to launch or market a product or service. Events management require certain core values to deployed to every element, process and decision to justify professional approach and achieve effective and efficient results.

Market Research in Event Planning:

Market Research:

Before Organizing an event, find out wheather there is a market for your intended event or not, for example you want to organize such event there. The event will fail for sure.

Market Analysis:

If there is a market for your intended event, then do market analysis. Market analysis means finding information information about your target audience. Find out who are your target audience, there age group, sex, qualification, profession, knowledge level, income, status, likings, disliking, personality, customs, traditional, religion, lifestyles etc. Knowing your target audiences customs and religion unknowingly through our event. Find out what are desire and expectation of target audience from your intended event. All this information will help you in developing a better event plan.

Competitor Analysis:

Find out who are your competitor i.e. age, sex, qualification, knowledge level, experience in organizing events, turnover, market value, PR and market share. Find out how they promote and excute there events. What they do in there events? Why people come to there events? For this you will have to attend each and every event organized by your competitors and then create an event report. The event report will contain things like

1.      Seating and light arrangements

2.      promotional materials used

3.      blueprint of the whole venue

4.      program and food menu

5.      contact details of sponsors, partners, clients (for whom the event is organizes)

6.       service provides like videographers, DJs, Photographer…..etc

SWOT Analysis in Event Planning:

Product/services Research

If you are organizing a corporate event then it is necessary for you as an event manager to do research of the products/services promoted and sold by your corporate client.

Find out how the company promotes its products

How the company wants to build/enhance the image associated with its product as brand images

What is the market value and market share of the company and its products

SWOT Analysis:

It is a strategic planning tool which is used to identify and analyze the strength, wakness, opportunities and thread involved in your projects. SWOT analysis can also be done on your organization

Strengths:

These are the attributes of your project/Oranization which are helpful achieving project’s objectives. For e.g experienced event team, high motivational level, excellent PR, good market share etc.

Weakness:

These are those attributes of your project/organization which are harmful in achieving project’s objectives. For Example social loafing, lack of fund, inexperienced event team, low energy level, lack of media and corporate contacts etc.

Opportunities:

Those are external factors which are helpful in achieving the project’s objectives. For example little competition, favorable economic conditions, support from the local authorities, availability of the state of the art infrastructure etc…

Threats:

Those are external factors which harmful in achieving the projects objectives for example high competition, little or no support from local authorities, bad weather, poor infrastructure, high lab our rate, unavailability of raw materials etc..it is very important that you conduct SWOT analysis before developing an event plan to develop a strategy which maximizes the potential of strengths and opportunities of your project and at the same time, minimizes the impact of the weakness and threads

Events Planning – with 5W,s concept:

We follow 5 ‘W’s (i.e why, what, when, where, who) principle to create an event plan.

Why:

‘why’ means, why you want to organize the event i.e. event objective. What do you want to get from the event? For example do you want to organize the event to enhance the company’s brand image, to increase company’s sales, to promote your client’s product/services or to promote a social cause etc. defining event objectives at the very start of event planning is very important as it gives you the direction in which you should proceed to accomplish your objectives. Organising an event without clear objectives is a huge waste of both time and resources.

What:

‘what’ means what you are going to do in the event i.e. what will be the:

Event Nmae: what will be the name of the event?

Guests profile: who will be your chief guest and other guests? Your guest list must include Organizers, Sponsors, Partners, Clients and specially media people. Use your imagination to create good titles to who your guests. Like ‘guest of honor’, star guest etc. Never give special treatment to one particular guest or guest’s group.

Type of Entry: Decide how will be the entry. Entry will be by ticket, pass or invitation only.

Entry Fees: What will be the entry fees? If you are going to charge entry fees, then be prepared to pay entertainment tax. Your entry fees should be according to your target audience’s status. If you overcharge you won’t get any audience.

Promotional Campaign: How you are Going to promote your event, Organizer, Sponsors,partners and clients, pre-event, at event and post event.

Program Menu: it is the list of various activities that will occur as a part of the event.

Event Budget: To determine your event budget finds out what will be the cost for producing and marketing the event.

When: when you are going to Organize the event (i.e. date and time) keep following thing in mind while selecting date and time for the event:

1.      Select date and time according to target audience Convenience and availability. For E.g don’t organize Events during work days, examination days or festival times. The best time to organize events is during weekends like Friday and Saturday.

2.      Make sure that your event’s date and time, don’t clash with other event’s date and time specially bigger events’s date and time. For E.g, it is not a good idea to organize your event on a day.

Where: Where you are going to Organize the event, check out the venue selection tips.

Who: Who will be your Organizers, Sponsors, Partners, Client and target audience?

How many target audience you are expecting to visit the event and why? You must have very good reason to this ‘why’ as you will have to convince your prospective organizers and sponsors that why particular number of people will attend the event.

Event Marketing:

Steps involved in creating a promotional campaign for your event

Step1: setup advertising objectives.

Why you want to advertise? What is your objective of advertising? What do you want to get through advertising?

-          You want to advertise to create awareness about your event.

-          Yu want to advertise to get sponsors and clients for your events

-          You want to advertise to thank you your sponsors and clients

Step2:Decide your Promotional activities

How you are going to promote Campaign, your organizers, your sponsors, your clients and your partners, pre-event, at event and post event. Before I go any further, let’s get an idea of what is media and what is media vehicle.

Media vehicle is a specific medium: internet is media, then Facebook, twitter, instagram, snapchat…etc are media vehicles. If ‘TV’ is a media, then specific TV Program like ‘Celebrity apprentice’ is a media vehicle. Similarly if magazine is a media, then specific megazines say ‘playboy’ is a media vehicle.

How media can be used for promotion:

Promote your event, sponsors and clients through newspaper ads, magazine ads, trade journals, press release, tickets, passes, invitations, baners and posters.

How Electronic Media can be used for Promotion:

1.      Promote Your event, sponsors and clients through TV and Radi Commercials

2.      Provide free ad space on your company,s website where your sponsors and clients can promote their Products and services for particular period of time

3.      Develop an event website just to promote your upcoming event and provide a facility for online registration. All the details regarding the event must be available on the website.

4.      Use electronic signage like Visual display Signage, Plasma screen, LCD Screen, LED Screen, Projection Screen, Video walls etc to promote your sponsors and clients.

Event Evaluation:

       Event Evaluation is necessary to make you and your team more efficient and effective, the next time you organize an event. It is all about finding your mistakes and learning from them. Event Evaluation should be done immediately after the event is over or the next day. Conduct a meeting with your team members to evaluate your event.

Determine the extend to which event and advertising objectives have been achieved:

     If you are not able to achieve your event abd advertising objectives through your event, then no matter how much people enjoyed the event or how much popularity your event got, it is a complete failure on a commercial level.

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