Event managers juggle all sorts of tasks when organizing events at their venues. From menu planning to mapping out the floor layout, arranging catering, and ensuring an excellent team is on hand, they have a lot on their plates.
In this article, we’ve put together some expert tips to help busy professionals tick all the boxes in the planning process. If you want to know how to organize an event at your venue, we have you covered.
How to Organize an Event at Your Venue – 7 Tips For Event Managers
1. Line Up Your Event Tech
While most event venue managers are miracle workers, technology can really up your game and ensure you stay on top of every event detail. If you don’t already have suitable event management software lined up, now is the time to find a winning platform for your needs.
Of course, we’re big advocates for Perfect Venue. The software helps busy event managers track every aspect of the organizational process from a central dashboard. You can conveniently perform tasks such as creating, viewing, and assigning jobs on your to-do list from here.
The dashboard also acts as a communication point where you can message clients and your event team. Never lose conversation threads to different messaging platforms again.
Further supercharging your work abilities are the automations that take busy work, such as sending email reminders and updating BEOs off your plate. You can also process payments and monitor event analytics to understand your events' performance better.
All-in-all, it pays to use software that helps you stay organized. With repetitive tasks and tracking hundreds of details taken care of, you can focus on creating an outstanding experience for your clients.
2. Collect Event Details From Your Client
Next, you need to get all the essential event details from your client or the event planner. You might have a general idea of these after preparing an event proposal. But now that the contract has been signed, it’s time to firm everything up to build a comprehensive event plan.
Crucial event details can include the following:
- Event theme: Does the event have a specific theme, such as a charity event or casual cocktail party? Find out what this is so you can organize your venue to suit it accordingly.
- Confirm the number of guests: Again, you might have a ballpark for this. But, to be adequately prepared, you need to know precisely how many people will attend the occasion. The number of attendees affects catering and bar arrangements, how many people work on the day, and the venue layout, which can significantly impact event organization.
- Coordinate key participants: Work with your client to establish who will be responsible for specific event tasks. Include your assistant managers and staff in this process. Doing this early ensures effective, streamlined communication.
- Event timeline: What is the order of events for the day? Will you need to rearrange the floor plan at certain points? Perhaps you must clear out or bring in extra equipment at specific times. You also need to know when the food service will take place.
- Required equipment: Is there specific equipment, for example, audio equipment, that the client requires? If you don’t have everything available, you’ll need to hire it. Also, based on the final attendee numbers, consider whether you have enough tables, chairs, crockery, glassware, lighting, and adhoc furniture to go around. This is especially critical for larger events that might exceed your usual capacity.
Once you’ve got all the details, create relevant tasks and jobs on your event management software for team members to execute accordingly.
3. Plan Your Menus
Your next task is to plan the menus for the event date. To do this, you need to know the attendees' dietary requirements so you can discuss this with your kitchen team. If you aren’t catering in-house, liaise with the caterers to create a menu outline that meets the client’s expectations.
Once you have the menus planned, send a beautifully branded menu proposal to your client for approval. Be sure to include details of the bar and beverages on offer too.
4. Design a Floor Plan
When designing a floor plan, consider what will optimize the workflow on the day. Guests and staff should be able to move freely between the spaces without causing any bottlenecks.
With this in mind, where is best to place items such as the gift table, the speaker podium, and the dessert corner? Can servers deliver food hot from the kitchen without running into people trying to order from the bar?
Always consider tables, exhibits, and other attractions that may take up space. Finally, ensure that any exits and emergency exits are clearly marked and remain accessible.
5. Hire Furniture and Equipment
We touched on this briefly - if you need extra equipment for the event day, rent it. For example, the event might call for additional furniture and equipment, such as sign-in booths or lighting, visual, and audio equipment.
If you haven’t got a preferred vendor list to work from, it’s time to start one. Contact local businesses in your area and ask for their respective catalogs and price lists. Next time you require extra equipment for an event, you can easily access these and add the necessary items to your event budget.
6. Appoint Your Event Team
Ahead of the event date, you must assemble the perfect team. Depending on the type of event you’re hosting, the team could consist of the following:
- Assistant manager(s): Assistants take care of executing operational requirements and tasks that you assign to them.
- Check-in/Checkout staff: Receptionists, hosts, and front-of-house managers are crucial to welcoming guests, VIP guests, and potential speakers to your venue. They can assist visitors with completing attendance records, printing visitor passes, selling tickets, and providing general directions and information.
- Catering and kitchen staff: Your catering and kitchen team are responsible for preparing, serving, and clearing refreshments and meals at your event venue.
- Bar staff: Bartenders and waitrons stock fridges and prepare, serve, and clear beverages for attendees.
- Cleaning staff: You need a cleaning team to keep your venue in tip-top shape.
- Security: Depending on the client and the type of event, you may need a security team at the venue.
Create your teams, appointing team leaders or managers who can take charge and delegate tasks in each group. Capture all the contact details and team compositions in your event management software platform.
Doing this will make it easier to know who’s responsible for which tasks on the day of the event. It’ll also improve communication between you and your staff.
7. Set Evaluation Metrics For a Successful Event
What are your event goals for your venue? Exactly what would make your business a success? Is it a certain number of booked events per year? Is a specific venue capacity or a number of seats sold?
Use your event management software to monitor critical KPIs and measure the success of your events. By examining current and previous events metrics, you can identify points that didn’t meet your expectations.
You should also gather feedback from clients and event attendees post event. Send out surveys to ask their opinion on matters such as venue services, facilities, and amenities.
With all of this information, you can take action to improve your approach at the next event and boost success.
Conclusion
Now you know the ins and outs of how to organize an event. Apply these tips to make a success of your next event and boost your reputation as a great event venue.
Event planning involves a lot of tasks, and we highly recommend using technology to get a clear snapshot of the entire event execution process at any point. Grab your free trial of Perfect Venue today to effortlessly collaborate with your team and become a better event manager.
