Event Planning Basics: Staying Organized While Avoiding Management Headaches

Once you choose a venue, caterers, event planners, and perhaps even line up speakers, you'll need to entice people to attend your event. This doesn't happen on its own. It occurs as the result of effective promotion, automation of certain tasks, and keeping a close eye on your progress. These factors can mean the difference between filling the venue and watching it remain half-empty.

This article will describe some of the details that often get lost in the shuffle when event organizers try to build attendance for a large event. We'll take a look at registration, promotion, payment options, and other facets that will play a major role in your program's success.

Awareness and exposure of your event is the most important part of increasing attendance. In other words, you need to reach out and invite potential attendees. Ideally, you should have an email platform through which you can communicate with them. Begin building your contact lists long before the event is scheduled to occur. For example, add a field on your website where people can enter their names and email addresses to be notified of upcoming conferences and trade shows. Then, when the time comes, you can easily send them personalized invites.

To register attendees, integrate online registration with your company's website to automate to the process. This removes much of the manual effort involved with inputting information, which in turn reduces errors. It also allows people to sign up at their leisure.

Another effective way to increase attendance is to handle invitations and registration through an automated system. This is helpful because an automated online solution will give you the tools you need to track your event's progress. For example, you'll see the percentage of invites that were delivered to bad email addresses or be able to monitor what percentage of your expected turnout has already registered. Tracking emails and registrations will provide clues that suggest when and how you should increase your efforts to promote the event. Also, with this information you’ll be able to forecast whether you will hit revenue goals, as well as plan for on-site items like meeting room accommodations and food and beverage minimums.

Your event website is the face of your organization and most likely the first place potential attendees will go to learn about your event. Making sure they have all the information they need will go a long way in compelling them to register. Your website should clearly describe what people can expect to see or learn when they arrive. Spell out the benefits of attending your event. If popular industry speakers are scheduled to give presentations, list them and the topics they intend to cover. If the number of people in attendance is a draw, post how many you expect to attend. Also, include details about any promotions you are offering to boost early registration. If you are organizing special activities for attendees (i.e. golf outings, lunch with keynote speakers, etc.), describe them as well. Advertise anything you think will be interesting to attendees and make sure they have an easy way to register once you have caught their attention.

Don’t forget that your website should only represent one component of a broad marketing campaign to boost registrations. You can also send direct mail, buy advertising in related trade journals, and encourage registered attendees to invite their associates. The more you promote the affair, the higher your attendance numbers will be.

Accepting payment and sending confirmations can also be accomplished through the event's website. There's no need to do either task manually. Doing them manually wastes time, and opens the door to numerous errors that can influence attendance. Instead, use the site to automate both functions.

Another benefit of using an automated payment platform is that it allows attendees to reserve a spot whenever it is convenient for them to do so. They don't need to speak with someone personally in the middle of the day.

Automated confirmations can deliver important details about the event to each newly-registered attendee. The system can be programmed to send the confirmations moments after the attendee has paid to reserve his spot. The details should include the venue's address, time of the event, and links to the hotel's website to direct questions regarding parking, directions, and accommodations. Because automated systems are highly efficient and convenient, they consistently increase attendance at events.

A key advantage of automating the tasks discussed above is that you'll gain insight into areas that can be improved. By comparing results from two different events, you'll be able to identify trends. For example, is there a higher percentage of cancellations than last time? Are more attendees registering early to take advantage of a specific promotion? The only way to know is to track your results, a task made simple through automation.

Managing the ramp-up to a successful event is easier using online tools than doing so manually. For most planners, automating the effort leads to better results and far fewer head. By using an automated system to track the successes or shortcomings of past events, you will continually improve and increase the quality of your gatherings, parties, and seminars. This will lead to better event reviews and higher attendance rates in the future for your business or organization.