Small Business Event Planning: What to Do First

Memorable events don’t just happen.  Organizing and holding an event takes planning. Whether it’s a conference, seminar or a customer appreciation day, and whether you have three weeks to plan or an entire year, your event’s success is in the details. 

1. Decide upon your target audience before anything else.  The first step — before you do anything else — should be to clearly define who your target audience is. From this all the other decisions will fall into place in terms of format, content, prices, location etc. This structured approach will also help you to stay focused on achieving specific goals and not allowing the scope to become too broad or watered down.

2. Make a list of details — everything including lighting and public transportation, to content and refreshments.  When you decide to have an event, everything matters. From program content and lighting to transportation and parking — everything counts. And your audience will attribute everything to you and…your brand.  Making a list will ensure you don’t overlook things.

3. Have a clear business purpose for holding the event.  Before you can begin planning a successful event, be clear on why you are doing it in the first place, because every decision after that should support your main goal. Is it lead generation? Is it to create awareness of your company or a particular product?  Is is to develop customer loyalty? Or do you simply want to make money (which is okay too)?  And make sure the team is aware of the purpose, so that you don’t have “scope creep.”

4. Watch out for other industry events when scheduling.  Check the calendar. Make sure you don’t schedule your event on or too close to holidays or popular vacation times. It’s just as important to check for other events that your target attendees might be going to.

5. Be flexible with changes in size, location and other details.  As you get into the event planning process, you may find that your event changes in size, location, and many other ways than you originally envisioned. This is natural and perfectly fine as long as you don’t lose sight of the reason you’re doing all this work in the first place.  Some flexibility is necessary.

6. Know your limitations. We all know the goal is to throw a great live event. To that end, we also have to be aware of what we can or cannot realistically do — be it budget … or time-wise. If you decide to throw a live event in a week’s time, plan for a more intimate affair. If it’s a big event, prepare several months ahead. If the budget is small, you may have to counterbalance with creativity and a lot of do-it-yourself work.

7. Create SMART goals. Always start with strategy. Just like building any business, great events start with a strong, thoughtful and measurable strategy. Live events are an amazing way to share your brand, connect with your target market, get feedback on your product (and more!), but you need to know what you are trying to achieve. Stick with SMART goals and outline what you are aiming for. Then make sure that you proceed in line with reaching these goals. Below also is a video that maybe you'll be interested in watching!

How to Start an Event Planning Business With No Money 

 

For original source of the content above please visit: http://smallbiztrends.com/2013/06/small-business-event-planning-tips.html, everything listed there that surely helps your needs!

Happy reading! :)

Decorating A Wedding Tent To Make The Event Memorable

 If you are planning an outdoor wedding, a wedding tent is essential. If you want to do something unique for your wedding to make it a very special day to remember, then choosing wedding rentals is a perfect way to make your wedding event as special. Tent rentals offer you several kinds of wedding tents that allow you to have an excellent outdoor wedding, which don't have problems of the weather and they would allow you to celebrate your wedding party in any situation.

Theoretically outdoor weddings are ideal to create a special movement and romance. There are several decorative tips that works together to make your wedding as a memorable event. Lighting, flowers and accessories are all important elements while decorating the wedding tent.

Decorating a wedding tent is a matter of combining different elements such as colors, shapes and textures in order to create a visually pleasing environment. You need to choose a theme or style that fits to your budget and venue. Choose centerpieces, flowers, tablecloths, chairs, lighting, etc. You have to implement your chosen style. Wedding rentals will provide all these decorative items with innovative ideas. Tent rentals have professional decorators, who make your wedding party more memorable, that include:


• To create a magical sense, first choose the right tent theme and style. Sheer or light weight tents are pretty, and they can also give cooling effect even in hot weather.

• If you are planning to make your wedding at night, choosing clear top tent will be truly magical.

• You can use projectors to cast patterns or images onto the tent's ceiling or sides.

• Plants and potted trees add warmth to the wedding tent. Wedding rentals will provide you several types of decorative trees and plants.

• Adding lighting to a tent is very important. This would draw attention of guests away from any "ugly areas".

• Dress the ceiling with tulle swags that matches with your wedding colors. You can also hang the swags of white twinkle lights above the tulle. The fabric can be luminescent.

• Hang chandeliers and paper lanterns from the ceiling of the tent.

• Use classic statuary and urns to decorate your wedding tent.

• Wrap vines that may be faux or real around the poles of the tent.

• When decorating the interior of the wedding tent you need to create a harmony and balance. You have to take the layout of the room and placement of the windows into consideration while making your decorative efforts.

• Hang strands of beads or crystals of varying lengths inside the tent ceiling by using florist pins and fishing wire. Use aurora or clear borealis crystals, or you can also mix and match with different shades of the bride's wedding colors.

  

Cheap outdoor wedding ideas

 Original source of the helpful content above: Decorating A Wedding Tent To Make The Event Memorable