A well-planned event is an essential part of building community and advancing an organization’s mission. However, even the best-laid plans can be thrown off by unexpected challenges and last-minute changes. Whether it’s an inclement weather forecast or an unexpected guest speaker, being prepared for these unforeseen issues can help prevent costly mistakes and ensure that the event experience remains consistent with your objectives.
Developing an event brief captures key event logistics and details in one place to help keep planning efforts aligned with your goals. These details include key information about the event, including its format and target audience. Creating an event brief also serves as a framework for communicating with attendees, outlining how they can contribute to the success of the event.
Communicate the Event’s Goals: Capture key event objectives within the brief to ensure that promotional materials, social media posts, and other elements of the event are on target and resonate with potential attendees. Capturing core messaging and branding guidelines helps maintain consistency in tone and style and allows for a clear, concise message that will drive interest in your event.
Establish a Budget: Identifying a budget at the start of the planning process provides realistic parameters and helps avoid overspending. It also enables you to prioritize expenses by ensuring that the areas of your event that are most important to attendee value receive funding.
Ensure that Your Event is Timely: Select a date and time that align with the interests of your audience, considering things like availability, competing events, or holidays. Similarly, choose an ideal duration for your event based on your goals and objectives. For example, knowledge-sharing events may be better suited to shorter sessions, while networking-focused events are likely to benefit from longer and more intimate discussions.
Add Visuals: Images and videos are a great way to bring your event alive. They can be used in promotional materials, social media posts, and website content.
Provide Details about the Venue: Providing the name and location of your venue will make it easier for your audience to find your event on a map. It’s also helpful to include any special requirements, such as catering or audio/visual (A/V) equipment.
Share Event Highlights: Adding quotes from organizers, speakers, or other key individuals will boost your press release’s credibility and add a human element to the story.
Describe Partnership and Sponsor Roles: Adding a section identifying partnership roles will help you communicate with key stakeholders and coordinate marketing activities. You can also use this section to outline any specific commitments or incentives that you’ve secured from partners or sponsors, such as a dedicated hashtag, social media shout-outs, or discounted rates on items like event space or A/V equipment rentals.
Lastly, be sure to share information about how the event was a success and what lessons or takeaways you’ve learned. This will provide a clear sense of value for readers and can help generate interest in future events that your organization is planning.