6 important questions to ask yourself BEFORE you start planning your event
So you’ve decided to run your own event (or perhaps you’ve been tasked with organising your company’s corporate event). Before you start scoping out venues, or getting carried away with theme and decor ideas on Pinterest, you need to take a moment to consider 6 important questions about the people who will be attending the event.
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6 important questions to ask yourself BEFORE you start planning your event
There are lots of benefits to running your own event and it is a great addition to your marketing strategy, however, it is important to remember that your event is not about YOU! When planning an event, you need to put your own preferences, wants and opinions to one side and focus on what is important to your audience.
Before you start looking at some of the more practical things you need to consider when planning an event, such as budget, venue, dates, branding, theming etc, you need to ask yourself these 6 important questions:
1. WHO are your audience?
The very first thing to do before you start planning your event is to identify your audience. WHO will be attending the event? Is this audience your existing target audience, or are you looking to attract new customers or supporters with the event? Even if you are organising an internal business event, and the attendees are all employees, you still need to identify who those employees are. Are they all from the same department? Are they on the same level within the business?
By identifying exactly who you are inviting to the event you can make sure that your answers to the following questions are tailored specifically to that audience.
2. WHY should your audience attend your event?
Now you have identified your audience, you need to pinpoint WHY they should attend your event. Perhaps your audience are all members of the media and you are launching a hotly anticipated new product. Maybe your audience are looking to learn something new for self development. Even if you are organising an internal event which is mandatory for employees to attend, you should still give a compelling reason for those employees to attend. Whether that is the announcement of a big company update, delivery of important training or employee recognition. By identifying the motive behind why your audience should attend your event you can ensure that your content and activities reflect that.
3. WHAT will they get from it?
Once you have highlighted the motive behind why your audience should attend your event, you need to dive deeper and focus on WHAT they will get from attending the event. How will they benefit? For example, if your audience are members of the media who are interested in attending your event to find out about a new product that you are launching, they want to be able to get clear facts about the product, along with photo opportunities and possibly a sample so that they can go away and report on it.
If your audience are all employees and they are encouraged to attend the event to learn about a company update, they should get clear messages about that update, along with the opportunity to ask any questions and an instruction for the next steps that will take place within the business as a result of the update.
Basically, whatever you have identified as the motive for your audience to attend the event, you need to ensure that the event delivers on that.
4. HOW do you want them to feel?
Events can be a great driver for evoking emotion within your audience. In order for the event to be successful, you need to focus on how you want your audience to FEEL, not only whilst at the event, but after they have left.
If the purpose of your event is to deliver a key company update to your employees, you might want your audience to feel motivated, engaged and excited for the changes due to take shape. But you may also want to provide comfort and reassurance for attendees who may feel concerned about change. Therefore, you might want to consider putting measures in place to make sure that everyone feels supported, such as drop in Q&A clinics with members of your HR or Senior Leadership Team where employees can find out further information. Or perhaps allow time for teams to have smaller fireside chat sessions after the update, where managers and employees can discuss any changes openly.
If you are organising a press event and want the audience to feel excited and compelled to share information about your new product on social media or in a press release, you need to focus on creating memorable moments throughout the event to make it easy for the media to share your product, such as photo opportunities or live demonstrations. You may also want to provide samples or a gift as they depart to remind them of the feeling of excitement they had at the event, so they are still in that mindset after they have departed when they complete any press write ups or social media posts.
The important thing here is that people don’t always remember the details of the event. They may not recall every fact and feature of the new product you are promoting, or every detail of the presentation your speakers deliver, but they will remember how the event made them feel. And, if executed well, that feeling should stay with them long after the event. So make sure you really focus on how you want your audience to feel and tailor your event content, venue, décor and activities to that.
5. WHAT kind of experience do you want them to have?
Not to be confused with the previous question, this focuses more on the outcome of the practical elements of the event. When planning an event, it is important to put yourself in the shoes of your audience and look at what kind of EXPERIENCE you want them to have.
As an event planner, you want all your attendees to have a fantastic experience, that’s obvious. But to really deliver that, you need to explore what will make that experience poor, good, great, or fantastic to your audience.
Things such as event location, venue, accessibility, catering, lighting and sound etc are all important, but they are more generic factors which contribute towards the success of your event. In order to create the best experience for your audience, you need to understand what would make the experience even better for them.
Going back to our example of a press event, if your audience comprises of alot of social media content creators, bloggers or influencers, make sure that the wifi is easy to log on to and is strong. Sounds obvious but something as simple as dodgy wifi can really turn a great experience into a poor one for an audience that relies on a good internet connection.
If your internal company update creates an uneasy anticipation in your audience, try to communicate as much as possible beforehand and throughout the event. Make every step of attending the event as easy and straightforward as possible, such as providing clear instructions on how to get to the venue and what is expected of the audience throughout the event. Providing as much information as possible in this situation can help to alleviate any additional anxiety that the attendees may have, and create a much better experience for them.
Quiet corners or calming spaces are also a great addition to any event to help provide a comfortable experience for attendees who are neurodiverse or who get overwhelmed in large, crowded environments.
6. WHAT is the transformation or action they should take from attending your event?
You’ve focused on who your audience are, what the motives and benefits are for attending and what kind of experience they should have, so now you need to look at what happens AFTER the event.
Every event should have a follow-on effect or action that your audience will take with them long after the event has finished.
If your audience is a group of professionals who are attending a training event on self development, they should feel motivated and empowered to continue on that self development journey in the weeks and months after the event. With this audience, how can you help continue that transformation of personal development? Perhaps it is to provide tools or resources for the audience to continue that journey, such as a recommended reading list or prompts to complete follow-up work.
Employees who attend an internal company update event may need to take action or make a change following the announcement. What is that call to action that you want to share? Perhaps you are encouraging employees to join in with your company’s CSR activities and would like each employee to sign up to take part in a volunteering day. Maybe your audience are all senior leaders and the call to action is for them to cascade the update to their wider team. Consider what tools and support you need to provide to your audience after the event to continue the transformation or action.
Whoever your audience is and whatever the reason for attending the event, you need to identify a clear call to action or desired transformation for them. Without this, your event becomes a rather expensive one-off activity with no lasting benefit or purpose.
Summary
The success of every event is down to the effort that is put into the preparation and the planning. It can be really easy to get distracted on the practical, tangible elements of event planning and neglect the PURPOSE behind the event. Whilst looking at venues, conducting menu tastings and sourcing giveaways can be a really fun part of the event planning process, without having a strong purpose and direction, your event will not reach its full potential.
Before you start with any of the practical elements, take the time to go through the above 6 questions, focussing on what your audience wants. Remember, your event is about your audience, not you or your business!
If you’re looking for help planning your next corporate event or private party, get in touch!
