Do you have an event-plan for 2020, Mr. Fix?

May I be excused but 80% of companies in Ukraine plan their events sometime in December, at best in November, if the end of the financial year of the company coincides with the calendar one.

But there are 10% of lucky ones who start planning their events in October-November, and another 10% of superstars who do strategic event planning and arrange event-marketing plans sometime in August-September.

Nowadays, many companies, in response to the rapid changes in business, are forced to reduce the time they spent on event preparation. Still, outstanding companies that work on strategic planning early and take into consideration how to organize their activities effectively in August receive not only calm sleep throughout the year and high performance but also significant benefits, such as:

1) Effective budget arrangement and distribution. Fixing and booking to minimize additional costs. Booking and fixing the cost of locations, hosts and entertaining teams for 4 – 6 months beforehand would help to spare the budget as in Ukraine we exist in a situation where we highly depend on economic storms and political situation, which affect formation of prices. And fluctuations in worth occur at 20%, and even at 30%.

2) Time to create quality and effective content. Enough time to work on the concept, all the meaningful and informative details, key messages to minimize annoying mistakes that can affect the final result of the project and simply “destroy” creative solutions of the tasks. The concept and informative component, or Event Content Performance, as we call it at the agency, should be given time to mature and develop into logical. Therefore, even 3 months is not enough for this purpose.

3) Ability to choose providers carefully. When planning tenders in advance, you get more quality offers and, most importantly, solutions from event agencies. In general, it gives more time to analyze the market, new technologies, new suppliers and have more effective, high-quality and progressive solutions.

4) Complex digital or visual decisions take time. WOW and effective digital products/installations for events or videos cannot be made in a couple of days/weeks. For some, it may take 4 to 6 months. And not because programmers are slow, but because there are processes that simply cannot be accelerated and early planning helps to work through the details carefully.

In general, any planning is better than none. So what if you got to planning your event by the time you are unpacking Christmas presents? First tip, start planning after the winter holiday string.

Well, if seriously, the tips are very simple and useful:

1) Identify the PROBLEMS / “PAINS” that you need to solve with the help of given tools rather than the goals of your event. For example, we must define NO GOAL “We want a bright event that will impress our partners and they will love us even more and order more products”, but rather openly admit the PROBLEM “Sales are not as high as we want them to be, maybe because sales managers do not dedicate enough attention into making clients fall in love with products, building emotional relationships with customers; therefore, we need an event that will not only impress them with some wonderful food, but will assist in bringing the managers closer to customers, to immerse in our product”. I mean, by basing the strategy on a problem, not a goal, will speed up the search for the best solution, which is usually even more relevant if you don’t have a lot of time to think and plan your work in an accelerated mode.

2) Indication of the final result you want to get is MANDATORY. The result should have 2 components: quantitative and qualitative/emotional. For example, for a marketing event of a new product presentation quantitative is an increase in product sales, while emotional consists of 90% of participants of the event post on their Instagram pages and stories mentioning tags of the event because they want to be WOW-impressed.

3) Generate a key event message. Yes, that is the only thought you want to convey with the event toolkit. The opinion that participants or guests should leave your event with. Because the key message is the basis of effective Event Content Performance – the concept, history and information effectiveness of the event.

4) Organize brainstorming. Plan with colleagues from other departments or with an event agency. The synergy of different expert opinions, independent opinions and the atmosphere of creativity can reveal unexpected brilliant decisions and ideas. In Ukraine the practice of joint brainstorming with event partners is not very widespread at the stage of strategic planning. For some reason, agencies are getting involved at the stage of project implementation. Sadly it is so, however, event professionals with experience could have offered solutions that had been successful in other segments and could be possibly useful again. They also are familiar with all innovations and new technologies and could propose a fresh external point of view on the situation, which is important when looking for non-obvious solutions. But it is important to keep in mind that at this meeting you should already clearly state the three preceding points: THE PROBLEM, THE FINAL RESULT, AND THE KEY MESSAGE to send the creative wave in the right direction.

5) Involve event planning consultants if you are short on time or need to structure your thoughts. Communicating with an expert helps you to look at the problem and tasks from a different angle, more strategically, by lifting your head from the “sea of operational issues”. If you look practically, just 2 hours of such discussion helps you to simply see the effective and necessary solutions that were not previously taken into account. For example, as the head of an event agency, I often negotiate with consultants if I find myself in a state of sharp decline in solving a problem.

6) To choose partners, create for yourself a list of “My Partner” criteria that are important to you (work efficiency, impressive portfolio, reliable recommendations, flexibility, healthy budgeting, creativity, emotional compliance etc). The list will help you quickly identify the necessary partners. And take the time to meet with potential suppliers in person, whether it is an event agency or a production company even before the tender or your partnership. At the first meeting, you will understand more or less whether this firm will cope with your tasks. Frankly speaking, it will save you a lot of time and nerves. And it’s better to have 3 strong bids than 10 blind presentations that are beyond your expectations.

7) Consider the forecasts of the economic and political situation in our country. First of all, list the events that are planned in your field in 2020 by other market players that may affect your activities and your upcoming events. Of course, no outlook will protect against unexpected events, and in our country everything is possible, but it will help to include plan “B” and minimize risks in strategic planning.

This is by no means the entire list of strategic planning components, but the basic ones that should be entirely worked out regardless of whether you plan for your next financial year in August or January.

Written and published here by Ivan Khorosh, founder and owner of Bee Bee Event Agency 

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