8.2. Event Components
Heather Beecroft
In your role as an executive assistant, you will play various roles related to event planning; you need to be prepared to do everything from scheduling a small meeting to booking training facilities/days to participating in teams planning large sector-specific conferences and retreats, both on-site and off-site.
Common Event Planning Duties
It is crucial you have an understanding of all of the duties and tasks that go into planning an event so you are able to properly manage your time. This section of the module provides a high-level list of some of the more common duties one should expect to complete when planning an event and demonstrates the importance of using a task list to keep track of this exhaustive list.
- Interview key players:
- Whose idea was this event?
- What are their expectations for this event? (informative, entertaining, team-building, etc.)
- Conduct research:
- Use the internet to find out more about similar events
- Ask people within the organization who may have been part of past events
- Pinpoint the purpose/goal of your event
- Form a committee:
- Co-workers
- Event experts
- External volunteers
- Defray costs with sponsorships (we’ll learn more about this):
- Monetary donations
- Barter a service in exchange for tickets to the event
- Donations of swag
- Choose a location:
- Onsite – is your office space large enough to handle the event you’re planning?
- Offsite – do you need to find a location somewhere else (could even be in a different city) to host the event?
- Arrange for refreshments/catering
- Negotiate with vendors
- Hire speakers and entertainers
- Sign contracts
- Plan transportation
- From airports/train stations
- To/from events off-site
- Is this free? How is it paid for?
- Send invitations:
- Save-the-date
- Invitation
- Follow-up letter/email with event details
- Arrange for accommodations:
- Block rooms for attendees to get a better rate
- Provide accommodations for speakers as part of their contract
- Book rooms for all staff to stay on-site, even if they live nearby
- Book extra rooms just in case there’s an emergency
- Make sure the equipment works
- Supervise operations while on location
- Troubleshoot problems
- Evaluate the results
And for all of those duties, plan to be invisible and do not expect any gratitude or recognition. It’s not great to hear, but sometimes, just knowing that the attendees had no idea what was going on behind the scenes is the best reward of all!
“To Do List” by Undraw, Undraw License
