Before you start planning any kind of event, the first thing to do is define your event goals and objectives. Many planners dive right into planning without even considering this crucial bit of information.
Don’t make this mistake! Setting event goals and objectives will actually make planning your event much easier.
We’ll start with the steps to setting goals for an event, and then we’ll give you a few examples of great event goals for a bit of inspiration.
The terms “goals” and “objectives” are often used interchangeably. However, they each have distinct meanings:
When determining the goals behind the event, you are simply documenting the purpose of the event. Why is the event taking place?
Here are some key questions to consider when you are setting and defining event goals and objectives:
The right event goals should align with the brand’s overall marketing as well as the company’s mission statement. For event planners, remembering the big picture can be really helpful since their minds are normally focused on a million little tasks and deadlines.
Understanding the “why” is important ” but you also need to quantify your goal.
When working with performance goals, focus on what you can control. For example, you can’t really control how many of your attendees choose to return for next year’s conference. But you can assess the number of sales made before, during, and after the conference. And how many qualified leads you obtained. And how many of those leads your team followed up with in the months after. The list can go on and on.
It may seem obvious, but when decision-makers look to measure the success of the event, they may suggest things that are simply out of your control. That’s why the way you phrase your goals can be so important when communicating expectations to your higher-ups.
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When setting goals, work with SMART goals, which are:
For instance, saying you want to “host the best marketing conference ever” is not very specific or measurable. A goal to “plan a week-long country music festival by the end of the month” is time-based and specific, but it’s probably not attainable or realistic.
It’s great to reach for the stars when setting your goals, but think realistically of what you can actually achieve. Write down lots of ideas for the goal first. Then, narrow the list and combine the ideas to come up with one solid goal.
If you’re not sure what these “smart” goals should look out, check out the examples later in this post.
Regardless of your objective, one or more of these main event KPIs should be a great fit for your needs:
Event software is especially helpful for measuring these KPIs, so make sure you have a reliable platform ready to go ahead of time with all the features needed to capture your chosen data.
The next step is thinking through your event strategy. Once you know your event goal ” and you’re confident and passionate about those goals ” it’s time to figure out how you’re going to reach them.
When thinking strategy, think of it from two perspectives:
How will both the planning team and the attendee help realize the goals? Start to ask yourself questions such as:
You may find that your strategy might involve some mini-goals. Mini-goals and milestones are what you might need to set to get your ultimate goal ” that is OK.
As you brainstorm, map out your event plan. This plan can be an outline, a project plan, or another document. It should highlight the goal you set and detail the actions you’ll take to reach those goals.
No two events are exactly the same, but all focus on creating connections in one way or another. Maybe attendees connect with each other, with content, or with an idea.
You need to think about how to create those connections. For instance, if the goal of the event is to teach attendees, you need to think about what attendees are learning, why they’re learning it, and how you want to teach them.
With these answers, you can start to build out the essential items like speakers and content.
Finally, make sure that your goals are transparent to your attendees so that they are assisting you with accomplishing your vision along the way.
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Real-world examples can help you see what’s possible. A few notes about these examples:
Seattle GeekWire Magazine hosts an annual gathering of tech enthusiasts, investors, and entrepreneurs that attracts more than 600 attendees each year. Their one day only event is jam-packed with speakers, startup demos, and networking. Because they are one of the few industry events of its kind, networking is the #1 priority for most attendees.
Find a solution that helps attendees network with one another while also measuring event effectiveness.
With this in mind, event planners wanted to find a unique way to enhance attendee experience that was both on brand and enjoyable for attendees.
Which is why they came up with smart event badges that allowed users to scan each other’s badges to acquire virtual business cards along with a number of other cool features.
And because their solution was inherently linked to data-gathering software, they were able to track participation and other event KPIs at the same time.
MAISON&OBJET, an event geared toward lifestyle-related professionals, hosts four main events every year and has an international audience.
Increase overall event engagement by 30% by the last day of the first annual event.
To encourage event engagement and more engagement in future events, the planners decided to focus on bringing people together both on and offline.
Their solution: a mobile event app that gathers the community together before, during, and after each iteration.
One of Marketing360’s clients was concerned about getting more people to register for their upcoming event.
Because the agency had done a similar event the year before, they knew how many conversions they previously achieved and decided to choose a modest (but realistic) goal.
Achieve 5% more event ticketing website visitor conversions than the previous year.
Through an enhanced design and strategically placed conversion tools, they ended up with a total of 6.84% more conversions.
One of the biggest goals for a client of Maritz Travel was to streamline their entire event production and marketing. Sounds like a common (and generic) goal ” but they turned it into something much more strategic.
Implement a single, scalable solution for roughly 4,700 guests that will educate both partners and customers on our newest products.
When you figure out event objectives and goals for your event, all other planning seems to just be pieces to the puzzle. Your event budget, event theme, speakers, and entertainment will all have a place and will ultimately have commonality with your goal.
It’s also important you learn how to replicate success, grow from challenges, and innovate for future events on the back of the goals you’ve defined. Following an event, you have all the knowledge from what just took place fresh in your mind. What worked and what didn’t work, feedback from your stakeholders and how it can be improved. Here’s a simple framework to build upon for future events.
Start by answering the questions created at the front-end of the project during the pre-event strategy phase:
The answers to the above questions should be gathered throughout the lifecycle of the event. A post-event debrief document should be established at the front-end of the project to capture feedback throughout the event process. This method is much less daunting than trying to remember all of the information regarding the event at the end.
During multi-day events, mini-daily debriefs are important not only for making in-the-moment adjustments but also for capturing the successes and challenges of the event itself.
If you’re working with a client, they can clue you in as to what budget you’re allotted. Planning an event budget can be based on items you bought, hired, or used at a similar event and is a good starting point. Your basic budget should include costs to cover the venue, staffing, service fees, catering, AV, event production, entertainment, furniture, decor, and technology. You might also want to invest some money into your event marketing efforts if it’s an especially large event. Don’t forget to leave
Don’t forget to leave a little bit of wiggle room in case you need it. My rule of thumb: 15% over the total budget should help offset any costs you might have missed during budgeting.
Your event VIPs could be keynote speakers, celebrities, dignitaries, or event stakeholders. By making sure VIPs are included in the event planning strategy early, you can set milestones prior to the event to make sure they have the information they need in order to be a part of your event. For speakers, they may want special microphones or presentation equipment that may not have been part of the budget. But, by knowing what your VIPs will require ahead of time can help you can plan for the unexpected.
When it comes to events, there is always the potential for something to go wrong. It’s not the end of the world, provided you have a crisis management plan to deal with it. Having a list of people involved with the event and their contact information can help direct issues that arise to the right person. Similarly for outdoor events, creating a backup plan to point to in the case of inclement weather is never a bad idea.
It might be a good idea to hire an event security company to assist you in overseeing the event. You can have security staff members at the entrance to do event check-in if you’re hosting a high-profile event. You can also have roaming security staff dotted throughout the venue to be at the ready in case anything happens.
Up next, discover the best floor layout apps for events to bring your event goals to life, and check out a helpful event planning checklist you can customize for your objectives.
Do you struggle with finding the true purpose of your event? Let us know at @socialtables.
An event goal is a specific and measurable result from an event. Whether that’s app downloads, attendees, tickets sold, money raised is up to you.
What is the goal of an event planner?Event planners’ goals are to design and execute memorable events that fulfill their clients’ and attendees’ wishes.
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