Eco-Friendly “Green” Event Planning Tips and Ideas

Happy EARTH DAY!  In celebration of Earth Day and Earth Week, we wanted to share with you some ways you can reduce your carbon footprint and make your next event eco-friendly “green.”

• Consider evites or online invitations instead of traditional paper ones, and offer your guests the option of online registration. If you must have paper invitation, be sure to use ones made with recycled paper.

• Encourage your guests to carpool to your event.  While this option maybe less realistic, asks your guests to walk, bike or take public transportation to your event instead of driving.  For larger events, offer a shuttle service to guest (budget permitting!).

• Re-purpose event decor.  Also, go to consignment stores or prop rental shop to find décor for your event. You just might me surprised with the neat things you find!  Opt for re-usable tablecloths and consider glassware instead of disposable table and flatware.  If you can, try to hold your event at a venue that has plenty of natural lighting.  It will set the perfect ambiance for your event and please your guests.

• Use a local catering company or vendor that offers organic cuisine.  Some of these companies may also offer compost services.  The amount of energy it takes to wash them at the end of a party is much less than the amount of energy spent to produce and dispose of single-use table settings. If you are hosting a large event I suggest renting the tableware from a local rental company. They deliver and pick up the dirty dishes at the end of the night!

• For beverages, consider serving craft beers or wines from a local brewery or vineyard.  And stay away from plastic water bottles, opting to use filtered tap water instead.

• Recycle, recycle, recycle! Be sure that recycling receptacles are readily available and easy to access for your guests, and make recycling a priority during post-event clean up.

8 tips to make your office’s holiday party sparkle

The holiday season is right around the corner and getting an early start to planning a corporate/office holiday party will alleviate stress for the “event planner.”  If this happen to you, check out this tips below.  Happy planning!

If you’re the “lucky” one charged with planning this year’s party, the task may seem onerous and overwhelming. With so many people to please, how do you know where to begin?

Whether it’s an on-site catered affair or an offsite bash, here are eight simple tips that will help you plan with ease, exceed your party-goers’ expectations, and make you look like the fabulous party-planning pro that you are:

1. Make a strategic (party) plan. First, ask your company’s executives and your co-workers what kind of event they would like to have and plan your menu and type of service around that. Would a buffet, sit-down dinner, or more formal station dining reception work best for your party?

If you have a diverse workforce, work with your caterer to develop a menu that is pleasing to all palates represented.

2. Theme parties aren’t just for kids’ birthdays. Instead of having a traditional holiday party, infuse some fun by creating a party theme, such as ‘winter wonderland.’ It’s a great way to add magic back into the season and create anticipatory buzz about the upcoming fête.

3. Remember your vegetarian friends. Make sure that there are a few options available to them throughout the entire menu — from hors d’oeuvres right through dinner.

4. Don’t leave them starving. I’m often asked what the rule of thumb is for the number of hors d’oeuvres per person. The answer, however, is not so cut and dried.

If your party is solely serving heavy hors d’oeuvres and nothing else, I would recommend 10 to 12 pieces per person. But if you’re planning on also serving a substantial meal later, you’ll typically be safe with four to six pieces per person.

5. Select alcohol responsibly. Alcohol is expensive and can quickly consume your entire budget if you let it.

If having an open bar, work with your caterer ahead of time to choose a few different wine and beer selections that work within your budget. That way, you will only be charged for the bottles needed rather than per glass served which can get costly if someone decides to order a pricier wine or beer.

6. Have fun with cocktails. Incorporate a few “fun” signature drinks like candy cane martinis, frostinis, pomegranate poinsettias, spiked eggnog, and — my favorite — the Scrooge-driver.

Themed “virgin” cocktails will also be much appreciated by the non-drinkers at the party.

7. Set a rain (or snow) date. Let’s face it. We live in Connecticut. Blizzards happen in October here. Need I say more?

8. Eliminate pre-holiday “stress” from your party. December is one of the most stressful, busiest times of the year. Between shopping, card sending, gift wrapping, and coordinating their own holiday plans, the office holiday party might just be one more thing your employees feel obligated to fit into their already tight December schedules.

Consider holding off your party until January when everyone can relax and appreciate the party a little bit more.

Source – Hartford Business, MARY-BETH CORRACCIO

Succeeding at the Subtle Art of Venue Negotiation

 

Choosing the right venue for your event is the first step towards achieving the objective of your occasion. And since most planners are working with a budget, it is important to find the right balance of price, quality and accessibility.

The good news is that most cities offer a wide-range of event spaces to choose from. Each site offers their own unique set of advantages and drawbacks, which makes it critical for planners to master the ability to negotiate through the extremes. The guidelines below will help you gain maximum leverage on all of your site visits.

Know Your Options
There are several pieces of information you need in order to negotiate effectively. The date, time and projected attendance of your event are the obvious ones. From there I recommend having two alternative dates to work with. Get these dates approved with your speakers and committee members in advance so that you can move quickly if needed. Reservation opportunities can disappear fast and you don’t want to be stuck waiting for calls from your key decision makers.

Change Your Perspective
The sales staff at the hotel or banquet center has one main objective: To fill their property with paying customers each and every day. Planners are often so focused on their own needs that they lose sight of this fact. While meeting the expectations of your group is important, negotiating with “tunnel vision” can cause you to overlook second and third options that could provide a significant discount. Your best position is to keep your event date open for discussion. Remember, the dates your sales person needs to fill will be considerably easier to negotiate prices on.

Big Picture Bidding Strategies
No one wants to be surprised with unforeseen costs, which is why you really can’t dig deep enough into your price comparisons. Expense categories like room rental, food and speaker fees are expected and planners usually have them accounted for. But what about incremental items like audio/visual, parking, transportation and security? Not only can these expenses cut into your budget, but many of them are eligible for negotiation during the contract process.

Production Costs and Profit Margins
Your sales contact is going to lead off with their list prices for everything. It is basically up to you to identify what items have the best potential for savings. Things like food and staffing are tricky to negotiate because they have fixed costs attached that the venue has to pay. However, rental fees on items like hotel rooms, audio/visual equipment and facility usage are much less formula-driven. In other words, their prices are not directly tied to expenses. These are the items that offer you the largest amount of wiggle room for price discussions.

Price vs. Quality
There is a running joke in the restaurant industry that says a customer can choose two of the following three features: Price, Quality or Speed. The point is, you can’t have it all unless you are willing to pay for it. I would say this joke also applies well to the event business. It is quite possible to negotiate your way out of a successful event if you cut the margins too thin. Tread carefully when it comes to things like food quality and staffing levels. Ignoring your site coordinator’s recommendations because of cost could have you living on the edge of your seat during the event.

Work With the Venue
I’ve worked with several customers who opted to take a “me against them” approach to planning their function. In my opinion you’ll get a lot more out of your experience by maintaining an open dialogue about everything. Don’t be afraid to share your budget numbers or cost concerns with your venue coordinator. Remember, they want your business now and in the future! Tell them how you love the way their lighting package brightens the room, but you simply can’t afford it on your budget. If they enjoy working with you then you just might find those lights “accidentally left on” for your event.

Source – By Geoff Beers, About.com

 

An Event Proposal Template You Can Use

 

Every event needs an event proposal. Here’s how to build a great event proposal template that you can utilize time and time again, it’s great because it’s simple and because you can modify it to fit any of your event needs.

Whether you’re planning a small department party or a grand charity gala the most appropriate way to present your event to clients or management is by creating an event proposal. This is the most serious and professional way to go about planning your event and actually the most appropriate way to keep your own organizational sanity.

What is an Event Proposal?
An event proposal is basically the business plan of your event. It starts with an “executive summary” and goes on to cover every detail of the event.

Why do I need to have an event proposal?
You need an event proposal so that everyone on your team and everyone you’re working for are clear on what the event is about, know all the details of the event and can refer to it if any questions arise during your absence.
Imagine a situation when a venue calls to confirm the dates for an event you’re organizing and you’re out of the office and can’t be reached. The event proposal is something that your team can refer to for this vital information. Yes this seems unlikely however it has happened in the past especially for events that are happening far in advance or when multiple events are running at the same time.

Keep in mind that the event proposal will be viewed by many different stakeholders; marketers, finance, potential sponsors etc. Each with their own goals and targets, therefore the proposal should be general enough to paint the overall picture yet specific for each party to be able to make decisions based on the details provided in the proposal. Click here for an example of how your stakeholders will be reading and analyzing the event proposal.

Event Proposal Template in Detail:

I find it most useful to use my own custom made event template based on a number of templates I’ve used in the past and a number of non event planning templates. When you’re presenting your event idea listen and note the questions you are being asked, then incorporate them into the event proposal.

You’ll find a great event proposal sample here.

Introduction: In this section you are introducing your event, this is where you “write to impress.”  Use this space to sell your event by introducing the event concept, the event title and outline the event program.

Venue/Entertainment/Food & Beverage: This section will expand on your introduction and cover the main questions about the event; this is where you answer the 4W’s [Who, What, Where and When.]

Event Logistics: This is one of the more complex parts of the event proposal template and I suggest using an event planning template to complete this section. In this section you will explain how exactly you are going to attain what you’re promising in the first two sections. For example: how much are tickets going to cost, how are the invitations/registrations going to be managed, will this be an evening or daytime event? Will you be purchasing event liability insurance or just event cancellation insurance? Provide a detailed description of all products, giveaways, brochures, flyers, etc. intended for distribution at the event.

Finance: Your budget proposal, your anticipated expenses and anticipated revenue from the event. This is the place to state how you are going to report on the finances and how often.

Marketing: Present a general marketing strategy for your event or how you are going to work with the marketing department to market the event. Talk about your target audience and what need you are fulfilling with your event and why you think it is going to be successful. In addition: list PR companies, media coverage, celebrities and sponsors that you are going to be working with. Note: depending on the size of the event you might need to create and use a sponsorship proposal template when working with event sponsors.

Additional Points to Mention:

Key people: Who is on your team? What departments will you be working with and who is accountable for what. List all the key people who are going to be involved in producing this event and get approval for these names. You don’t want to be planning an event mid way and discovering that your marketing manager is tied up in two other events. Click here for more great tips on event proposals.

Important to Remember: The physical appearance of the proposal is important. Make it presentable, something that you wouldn’t be ashamed to show to a company CEO. It should be professional, appealing, exciting and to the point.

Source – Event Management Tales

 

Top 9 Catering Considerations When Planning an Event Menu

When planning the food and beverage for any event, it’s important for event planners to consider several “not-so-obvious” catering menu planning items to help ensure a successful program. Consider the following when planning your menu:

1. Know Your Guest Profile

What is the profile of the guests being invited to the event? For example, most business people attend many events throughout the year, and the phrase “rubber chicken circuit” is common among political, business and fundraising circles (and others). To prevent your event from having this description, consider the following:

• The professional level of your guest.
• The frequency your guest attends similar events.
• The location where guests reside.
• The ethnic background of your guests.

2. Know Your Guest Preferences

Understanding the profile of your guest, this allows the event planner to begin considering what menu options to offer. The following will help you better plan to meet their needs:

• Older groups of attendees may prefer a milder menu.
• Attendees concerned about health may prefer more seafood and vegetable options.
• Younger or middle-aged attendees may prefer spicier, more adventurous meals.

The idea here is to consider what your guests will enjoy the most based on the type of event you are planning.

3. Provide Menu Choices

Anyone planning an event should offer several choices so that all guests will be pleased with what’s available. Some general guidelines:

• Offer at least two choices of entrees (three is better).
• Offer three or more salad dressing options.
• Serve all condiments on the side.
• Offer two dessert options: one very indulgent, one healthy.

4. Incorporate Seasonal and Fresh Items

When selecting the menu, the time of year should play a large factor in determining food and beverage. Take into consideration which items are in season for spring or winter menus. Another important factor is to consider the region or location of the event and popular food items from the area. Incorporate fresh seafood or regionally grown produce.

5. Select a Menu that Fits the Event Schedule

Sometimes the clock will be the greatest guide to determining the menu for an event. Some examples:

• Box lunches are best if you have 30 minutes or on the go.
• Plated meals usually requires at least 1.5 hours.
• Buffets may be finished in about 1 hour.
• Cocktail receptions require a minimum of 1 hour before dinner.
• Working breakfasts or lunches should incorporate menu items that can hold up for longer periods of time than others.

6. Anticipate Special Needs

Before any event, it is critical for an event planner to find out if any of the guests have a special need so that the catering manager can address those needs prior to the event. Considerations include:

• Food allergies
• Religious requirements
• Dietary restrictions

7. Allow for a Comfortable Room Setup

Choose the appropriate room layout that supports your event objectives. If you’re serving a meal, the tables will be filled with used dishes and glassware, in addition to binders, notepads and pens. That’s why it’s important to choose the best room setup, and allow space for people to move. Examples:

• Boardroom setup should be for a maximum of 15 guests.
• U-shape and rectangle table layout to promote discussion.
• Classroom style is great for a presentation.
• Banquet style promotes small group discussions.

Regardless of the setup, allow for people to spread out. Tip: Setup for 8 in a 10 person banquet table.

8. Create Ethnic or Regional Menus

I’m a huge fan of planning events that have ethnic-specific themes. This allows an event planner and the executive chef to work together to bring region-specific and international foods into your event, and this will definitely please guests. Common ethnic catering includes the following:

• Asian/Chinese/Japanese
• French
• German
• Greek
• Italian
• Mexican
• Middle Eastern

Source – Rob Hard, About.com

Event Team Management

You need a team to organize an event. You can’t do everything by yourself. So I don’t need to tell you further, how important a team is for your event. Event mismanagement is mostly about team mismanagement.

Do the following things for effective team management:

Know your team

Just knowing the names, faces and job profile of your team members is not enough. You must have good knowledge of their personality, life style, likings, disliking, family background, status, educational qualification, knowledge level, customs, religion and especially there needs and wants. By needs and wants I mean their physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs, cognitive needs and self actualization needs.

Every person has different needs and different priority to fulfill them. While for some getting recognition is more important than job security. For others job security is more important. Determine the needs of your team members and fulfill them in order to get optimum results from them.

Physiological needs

The need to have food, water, warmth, shelter and other things necessary for survival.

Your team members will not feel anything, if these needs are met but can cause them discomfort, sickness and pain if these needs are not full filled. So as an event manager it is your job to make sure that all the physiological needs of your team are met from time to time. Just imagine how a team member who hasn’t eaten anything all day will perform his duty in the evening and you will get my point.

Safety needs

It includes need to be safe from physical and psychological harm. It also includes job security and financial security.

As an event manager you have to ensure safety of your team especially women. A person can’t give his best in an unsafe environment.

To protect your team from psychological harm, make sure there are no internal conflicts (like ego clashes, altercations, conflict of interest etc) among team members. If there are conflicts, then resolve them judiciously.

Providing job security to your team is also very important. At no point any team member should feel that his job is under threat either by your actions or by someone else actions.

Take care of your team beyond the work place. If any team member is facing a financial problem, then help him as much as you can.

Social needs

It is the need to feel a sense of belonging and acceptance. Need to love and be loved by friends, intimate partner, family and social groups like your team.

To fulfill this need, there must be cordial relationship between you and the team and among the team members. A team member will not perform his best if he has considerable family problems. Try whatever you can to reduce his family problems. If you can’t do much at least accept his problems and empathize with him. Try to reduce his stress by giving him a day off or engaging him in the sport he likes the most. Ask you team members to be as supportive to him as possible. All this will help.

People who have strong social needs should not be placed in a job where they have minimum interaction with people. They are the best for marketing or PR type jobs.

Esteem needs

It is the need to get respect, recognition, fame and status.

Some people have stronger esteem needs than the other. You will have to identify those team members who have strong esteem needs and then find ways to fulfill those needs. For e.g. if a person is working very hard to get recognition among the team members and you are not giving him the recognition he deserves (by openly praising him or giving him promotion) then sooner or later his motivation level will go down and he will not give optimum results or worst will not perform and quit.

Cognitive needs

It is the need to understand, learn, discover and explore.

People who have strong cognitive needs should not be placed in a job which is monotonous and which doesn’t offer any possibility of intellectual growth. Frankly speaking, people with strong cognitive needs are not suitable for event management jobs.

Self Actualization need

It is the need to be the best. It is the need to become everything, one is capable of becoming.

Very few people have that such type of need. If you have some one in you team with this need, then you have both advantage and disadvantage. The advantage is that you can always expect optimum results from him. The disadvantage is that he will tirelessly seek for the position of leadership and if he didn’t get it, then he will leave you soon and may even become your competitor.

Source – Event Education

How to Plan a Business Grand Opening, Part 1: Time and Place

A grand opening event is a great way to introduce your new company or location. It is also an excellent reason to throw a party. This is not any regular party, though. Planning will be crucial. A corporation likely has a corporate event planner, but a small business owner may be doing the planning themselves. You should give yourself around a month’s preparation time to plan your business grand opening.

Regardless of who is planning the event, the days leading up to your grand opening may be especially stressful. Chances are that no matter what you do, there will be unavoidable pitfalls. For this reason, I have created this how-to article based on research and my own experience in order to make the road to your business grand opening as smooth as possible.

I found it easiest to work in this order, but you may feel more comfortable planning your event in a different order. Just make sure you cover all your bases.

Where is the Business Grand Opening Event Taking Place?

Grand openings typically take place at the business’s store, restaurant, factory, etc. However, in some instances the business may opt to throw a business or brand launch party rather than a traditional grand opening. In such a scenario, you will need to choose a location for the event. Make sure to get started early, as the closer it gets to your grand opening date, the harder, and possibly more expensive, it will be to book a venue. Plus, you need to know the venue before you can send out invitations and you ideally want to send out your invitations 6-8 weeks prior to your grand opening.

When is the Business Grand Opening Event?

The key thing to consider when picking a date is the list of attendees. If you are a restaurant, do you want to target employees who work during the week or are you trying to attract families who go out to eat?

As a general rule, it is recommended that your grand opening not be on a weekend or holiday. You may needlessly lose attendees. Locals often go on vacation during these times and employees may elect to skip the event rather than come in on their time off.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are the best days to plan events. If the grand opening event is planned during the day, it is easier to take time off work in the middle of the week rather than on Mondays or Fridays which are usually the busiest days of the week.

Consider the weather. You may be planning your grand opening months in advance. Go on whether sites and look at weather trends for the date you are selecting. What will be the average temperature? What are the chances that it will rain?

Lastly, as always consider your business. Everything I have said deserves consideration, but in the end it is you who knows what you are doing and who you are trying to reach best. Maybe it is best that you throw your business grand opening event on a Friday or Saturday. If you are opening a camp, the best time to have your grand opening event would obviously be on a Saturday or Sunday, when kids don’t have to go to school.

What Time is the Business Grand Opening Event?

Breakfast? Lunch? Dinner? The time the event is being held will greatly affect the theme of your grand opening. For example, if the event is at night there may be lighting concerns, or it may be too cold to have it take place outdoors. If you hold the event at around noon, how hot is it going to get?

Planning your grand opening at night is risky, especially if you’re planning a formal event. You do not want people to have to go home to change in order to attend your event. Even people who actually plan on attending may go home with the intent to change, but get complacent once they are home.  To prevent this needless loss of attendees, plan your event so that people can attend straight from work. If your heart is set on throwing a fancy grand opening, go ahead and throw it. However, keep in mind that whenever you are asking people to go out of their way to come to your event, there must be something to entice them to do so.

Remember to give a time frame of how long you expect the event to last. Invitees might need to adjust their plans in order to schedule your business grand opening into their calendar. For this reason, it is also important that invitees know well in advance about your event so that they have scheduled your event into their calendar before anything else comes up.  As a general rule, you do not want to have your grand opening event take place any earlier than 8 am or later than 10 pm.

Source – UPrinting

10 Tips for Event Planners

This is obviously not an all-inclusive list, but here are some tips that can guide you in planning events for your clients.

Key elements for consideration before you start planning any event.

1. Key Objectives

• Be sure to set out and understand the objectives of the event.
• Consider what you are trying to achieve and how you will achieve this.
• Who are you trying to target and where do you need to be to reach them?
• Be sure to identify the unique selling point (USP) of your event and make sure you shout about it when marketing and advertising!
• Be original – don’t aim to copy other similar events.

2. Budget

• Decide on your budget and set it out in an easy to follow format. An Excel spreadsheet is more than adequate for this.
• Keep this budget sheet up to date and review regularly.
• Carry out a cost analysis to establish how much of the budget needs to be allocated to specific tasks. It’s no use planning a gala dinner dance if you have allocated 75% of your budget to the entertainer and then can’t afford to feed all of the guests.
• Be sure to set aside an element of the budget as a contingency – (approx 10% should be sufficient).

3. Team

• Establish a Planning Team and nominate one person as Project Manager to coordinate and oversee the progress and budget planning.
• Make sure everyone else knows who this person is and ask them to provide regular updates on their activities to the Project Manager.
• Agree a schedule of regular planning meetings. Make sure these meetings are minuted and clear action points assigned.
• Be certain to allocate timelines to each activity and set clear deadlines to avoid any creep in the overall project timeline.

4. Venue

• Compile a list of venue ‘must haves’ and appoint one person to research suitable venues.
• Be sure to check availability dates, seating and catering capacity, facilities and parking and any other events that might be taking place on the same day.
• Produce a shortlist for inspection and book the venue before announcing any dates to your attendees

5. Action Plan

Set out key procedures for the following:

• Advertising/Ticket processing.
• Invitations/Location Map/Parking Permits
• Dress Code/Theme
• Delegate/Guest arrival and/or registration.
• Managing entertainers/speakers/sponsors/exhibitors and guests.

6. Catering

• Source caterer and ask for referrals from previous satisfied clients.
• Wherever possible ask to attend a tasting before making your final choice from the menus available
• Make sure they can accommodate the date you require.
• Establish menu and any special diet menus.
• Check available facilities for catering at venue.
• Agree timings and numbers of servers with caterers. Hire additional staff if necessary.
• Keep caterer up to date with guest numbers and dietary requirements.

7. Guests/Delegates

• Ensure all guests receive tickets/passes/parking permits in advance of the event.
• Check for any special dietary requirements.
• Check parking and accessibility for any wheelchair users, disabled or infirm.

8. Entertainment/Speakers

• Secure any entertainment, special guests or keynote speakers early on to avoid disappointment.
• Make sure the venue can accommodate their set up requirements.
• Check any licence requirements for the type of entertainment you are planning.
• Provide all entertainers/speakers with a clear itinerary of how the event will progress. Make sure they understand what is expected of them, at what time, and for how long.

9. Check, Double Check and Check again.

• Use checklists, plan ahead and don’t leave anything to the last-minute
• Always double-check rather than guess.
• Make sure that all bookings with caterers, entertainers, flower arrangers, key speakers are confirmed in writing and always, wherever possible, hold back a final balance payment until they arrive at the venue on the day.

10. On The Day

• Make sure that one person is ‘in charge’ on the day.   Yourself or someone from your team should serve as the point of contact for all onsite staff, contractors, caterers etc. Whoever you decide to use it is vital that you have one person who can stage manage every aspect of the ‘on the day’ activities.
• Be sure to signpost the venue well so that guests/delegates understand where they need to go.

Source –  Heather Noble, Salt Solutions