The unfortunate truth for most planners is that the most stressful day of the year is the actual day of their event. It doesn’t have to be this way. There are a few tools you can use again and again to organize your event. Whether your event is across the country or a mile down the road, these key components will leave you stress-free and feeling prepared for any event scenario.
Why the Right Production Team Matters for Your Big Event
Production is the largest piece of the event-planning puzzle. The attendees you’ve flown in, the VIPs you’ve booked, and the venue simply don’t matter if your production partner is lacking. An event is based on the premise of capturing attendees’ attention and conveying a message — if this audience cannot see your speakers or hear their message, the event is a failure.
The stakes are relative to each unique situation but are always high. While important, having the proper production gear in the room is not enough. The real key is having the right people control the gear. The key to a great event lies within the technical details and those who control them. Here are the 4 steps to successful event planning:
1: Recognize and Accept the Stakes
Success for an event is not a singular concept, it is measured differently by each vendor, presenter, client, venue, and attendee. From an AV standpoint, there are some obvious criteria: If a technical problem did arise during the show, was it handled well and solved quickly? Was everyone able to see and hear the message? Did the transitions flow or was it stop-and-go?
You should expect more from the basic criteria in the room though. It’s not just about the two-hour event, it’s also about the months of planning and hours of pre-production where the AV company should act as an extension of your team. No matter how compressed or extended the planning timeline may be, there is a unifying arc that you can, and should, plan on.
Recognizing the stakes is the first step in setting expectations internally and with third parties.
2: Set Expectations For Your Event
We all know that presentations will change, the program will be modified, and external factors will influence internal decisions. Plan on these inevitabilities, limit them with deadlines, and build a roadmap where everyone knows the timeline.
Planning is an ambiguous word that means different things to different people. The basic understanding is that arrangements will be made in advance for the desired outcome. The final outcome may not be what we had planned for, but the simple act of having a systematic approach to a goal helps ensure our success.
Set expectations early so that 3 months into planning, your AV partner, the venue, and the client are all in sync. In the absence of a proactive planner, each party will follow its own timeline which can lead to a build-up of potential problems with no solutions come event day.