Ideas to Plan Your Events In 2020

How many times have you found yourself distressed and hopeless, nibbling on your fingernails because your event planner just canceled the last minute? How many times have you wracked your brain for ideas to plan a grand birthday or anniversary event for someone special? Happens way too often. Usually, the worst thing about this isn’t the planning part but the part where your creative streak kind of just… leaves your body. It’s okay. It’s normal. Happens to all of us.

Here’s a tip: panicking won’t help.

I have gathered some tips and ideas on how to manage events — formal, informal, business events, parties and such — to ensure an amazing experience, both, for yourself and your audience. Panic free, too.

First and foremost, though, it is important to keep in mind the type of event that needs to be planned. Whether it’s an informal event, like a birthday party or a casual party with friends or a formal event, like business events and annual dinners. The general idea of planning remains the same, set a date, set a budget and a guest list but other details could easily be tampered with — according to the kind of event being planned — to make the event exciting.

Here are eight ideas you can look into and possibly benefit from by implementing them to plan your events:

Set the date

Of course, choosing an appropriate day and time to ensure the availability of the guests is imperative. However, it does not, in any way, mean that you should trample over your personal plans to accommodate them. It is as important for the host to be stress-free as it is for the guests to be comfortable. It is also extremely necessary for the host to feel energetic and willing to be entertaining, so to choose the date, you should make sure you wouldn’t be troubled about other things on that particular day. For corporate gatherings, however, the organization’s availability should be placed at the utmost priority.

 Choose and arrange a venue

While informal events can be held literally anywhere, from backyards, front yards and inside the house, formal meetings need to be arranged at a professional-looking venue. It does not mean that the atmosphere should be tense and strained, rather, when looking for a venue, it should be kept in mind that the atmosphere should be calm and relaxing and not loud and noisy like informal events.

Establish a budget

This particular area is where many of us flatline, throwing the whole event in the drain. Establishing and maintaining a budget should be the most important aspect of event planning, whether formal or informal. The main expenses included in the budget should be:

• The venue.
• Foods, drinks and refreshments.
• Staff.
• Décor.
• Entertainment.
• Equipment.

Apart from these, extra expenses should also be included in the budget for emergency cases, to ensure nothing goes wrong.

Establish a theme

Establishing a theme is a fun way to add some extra entertainment and lightening the mood of the event, if it is a formal gathering. It is a great way to unwind and ensure the guests remain interested and amused. Charity events are often themed as masquerades. While there’s not much that can be done in business events, you can surely make intimate gatherings even more entertaining by making them thematic.

Publicity plans

While informal events definitely don’t require you to come up with a publicity scheme, formal and semi-formal or general public events could turn out to be a huge success if you and your team manage to employ the correct publicity plans to attract masses and accumulate a large audience. This is especially profitable in charity and fundraising events. For this to be fruitful, you should know how to target the general public towards such events. Advertise, strategies and have fun.

Make a schedule

Make a list of all the things you have planned to do during the event and make a schedule to make sure everything occurs on time. Keep each segment of your event precise and short to avoid boring the audience. Also, ensure that the schedule is followed to make sure that the event begins and ends on time.

Target interests

No matter what kind of event you are planning, it is best to target the interests of the audience that you’re expecting. Keep in mind the age group you are trying to attract and entertain. For instance, If it is an event meant for children, make sure you include activities and programs to entertain such an audience. It would take some burden off your shoulders as a host for a few minutes and keep the audience interested.

Post-event assessment

That must have been a long day, managing the whole event — successfully so, after adopting all of the ideas mentioned above. Thank yous’ are in order to show your gratitude to everyone who attended. It is also a good time to assess the guests’ reactions and evaluate just how successful you have been as a host. You can even take some time out after the whole event to critique yourself. Make notes of the affairs you think you could have managed better and improve on them in your next event planning.

Events don’t always have to be a success and you’re not always expected to be the best manager, but with time, practice and strategic planning, event planning could definitely be a non-stressful and interesting task. You just have to figure out how to put the whole event together and voila! You’re a professional event planner.

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