What makes an event successful? Is it the people who attend, the food and drinks they consume, or their actions after the event? No surprise, it’s a variety of success factors … but primarily, it’s what you do before the event that has the most impact on your event’s success:
- Strategy – define purpose, target audience, goals and objectives and budget
- Design – create an event that engages your guests to achieve results
- Venue – consider location, amenities and customer service, as well as capacity, cost and cleanliness
- Marketing – communicate what, when, where, what and how to guests – in a diverse manner (print, email, social media, blog, video, word-of-mouth) with sufficient lead-time. Really focus your message on what the event is and why this audience needs to be there.
- Team – the most important success factor, in my opinion, is your team – the production team, as well as vendors, sponsors, volunteers and front-line personnel (registration, waitstaff). Your team has the incredible responsibility of executing event details and servicing your guests (to facilitate results); therefore, everyone must be “on the same page”, work in harmony and share the same vision.
Have I overlooked an important success factor? What would you add to the list? Please leave a comment below to share your thoughts. I look forward to it!