So much effort goes into promoting and planning your up-coming events, but this can easily be overlooked by poor onsite management. We have put together our 5 top tips to ensure your event is absolutely unforgettable (for all the right reasons!) and a huge success.
As an event owner you are responsible for the smooth operations during the event. If your event is rather large, you may have hired some onsite staff to help in which case you can delegate specific roles accordingly. A key way to avoid disappointment on the day is to prepare for everything that may go wrong!
Tip 1: Keep the check-in queues moving fast!
Nobody likes queuing – especially in bad weather conditions, so it’s important to keep the queue moving fast and get all attendees checked in as quickly and efficiently as possible. Of course, you need to ensure that everybody has purchased a ticket, but complicated systematic procedures can create queues that will immediately give attendees a negative impression – before the event has even started! You need a clear structure on how you will go about this process. It varies slightly depending on such event, for example – The majority of live music events will need to do bag searches prior to entry, rather than having the ticket checking and bag searching at the same station – it’s a good idea to delegate these roles separately in order to keep people moving.
Tip 2: Hire good and experienced onsite event staff
You will do so much planning and organising for your event – but something is bound to go wrong! This is why it’s crucial to have experienced members of staff in place who can confidently tackle anything that comes their way. For example, if you are an event owner of a local restaurant with an upcoming event – it may be worth seeking some highly experienced hospitality staff who can take care of a range of tasks – from cooking up the dishes to providing consistently friendly customer service. TOP TIP: Ensure all staff members have each others contact details – just incase they are needed!
Tip 3: Encourage a social buzz for your event
You’ve probably spent weeks if not months promoting your event on social media but now that the day is finally here it’s important to keep up the momentum during the event. A great way to get attendees posting on social media is simply to display login details for the WiFi and share your social media handles on any printed or digital screens around the event. EXTRA TIP: Create an event hashtag. For example, if your event is all things cocktail, you could encourage followers to post online and use the hashtag #cocktailsfortwo. Not only will this generate a social buzz, you’ll also be able to review people’s responses to the event and reviews.
Tip 4: Give all attendees a free gift (or 2!)
This is a great way to make your attendees feel really valued and special. Consider sending people home with a small goody bag or you could hold a giveaway. If your event has sponsors, you could utilise their brand to supply small gifts that will not only give you as an event credibility, but also promotion for the sponsor – so it’s a win-win! . Touching on a previous point about delegating jobs, having someone specifically in charge of handing out bags will ensure everything runs smoothly.
Tip 5: Use our FREE event management checklist
As an event owner you have so much to plan and organise,it never ends. But a great way to help you stay organised and reduce your stress levels is by using our FREE event checklist (JOSH – you could link this up so they download our one). This technique will allow you to start thinking logically about deadlines and costs to ensure everything adds up correctly. Some things will need to be planned immediately – like hiring a venue and promoting your event – these can be highlighted in your checklist to increase urgency.
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