Event Planning Checklist

If you had to compare yourself to one of these two characters from the hugely popular sitcom, Friends, who would you be, Monica or Rachel? Don't worry, this is not one of those social networking sites quizzes but a question, the answer to which, would determine how important it would be for you to read this article. See, if your answer to the question is Monica, then you probably have a well-thought event planning checklist and guidelines with almost everything on it ticked off, but if your answer is Rachel, and you have an event to plan, reading this article maybe a good idea, unless you want a demonic version of your parent, partner, friend or sibling, breathing down your neck on d-day.

Checklist for Event Planning

The best solution to ensure that you have everything you need on the day of the event, is to note everything down on an event planning checklist. Templates of event planning checklists are available online on many sites, but most of these have a fixed pattern which may be difficult to modify depending on your own individual needs. In this article, we will try to give you a list of the main pointers that you cannot afford to miss out when you are drafting your own checklist for event planning.

Decide the Dates
Depending on the event that you are organizing you will need to choose a couple of dates that you could have the event on. If the event you are organizing is a conference or a seminar, then choosing a bank holiday would be a terrible mistake, as there would be a huge chance that many of your potential attendees will decline the invitation, but at the same time, if you are organizing a wedding, it would be a better idea to do so on a weekend, as more people would be able to attend.

Create the Budget
The budget for an event is probably the most important thing that you need to decide upon while planning an event, for it is this sum of money that will decide how much you can spend on your event and how the finances should be planned for each necessary item on the list. You will have to take out money for the venue, the catering (if you plan to have it), publicity, printing and many other such expenses. Any decision you take for the event will depend on the budget allocated for that particular category.

Choose the Venue
Once you have decided on the budget and the possible days for the event, you can start your recce for possible venues. The things you need to keep in mind while choosing the venue is the number of guests you are expected to have, the location of the venue, the services provided by the venue managers, etc.

Plan Logistics
There are many logistical details that you need to plan and check. These include the setup and support that you need which would include the tables, chairs, etc. the transportation, a team for coordination of the event, emergency services that you may need, and any other miscellaneous things that may come up on the day the event is being held.

Plan Publicity
If the event is not a personal party like a wedding, baby shower or anniversary, but one that depends on attendance and people buying passes, then an important responsibility that you will have while planning the event is working on your publicity campaign. You can send out invitations to last year's invitees to generate a pre-event buzz about the event. You can promote your event in various newspapers and magazines and also post details on the concerned websites and social netwroking sites. Radio channels and local event listings are other good mediums for the publicity of an event. The publicity of the event is as important after it is over to ensure that you give out press releases about the event to the newspapers in town.

Evaluate the Event
This should be the most important point to be ticked off after the event is over. You need to return everything that was rented, settle the bills and most importantly ensure that you get proper post event publicity to ensure that people talk about it for a while to come.

If the event is special, event planning checklist will only ensure that it is a huge success. This will get you more business, if you run an event management company or if you are interested in one of the careers in event planning. Even if you do not manage events commercially, organizing a party that has guests in awe is always a good thing to see.