Use a Template to Help with Event Planning Ideas

Sometimes it’s the event planning ideas that determine which event planning companies that meeting planners select. Which is funny because when you ask a lot of event planners what they think the number one decision maker for meeting planners is, most of the time the first answer is budgets. However, while budgets are a crucial part of the decision-making process, often times it’s the event planning ideas that determine the winning proposal.

You Need to Be Objective When Developing Event Planning Ideas

Human nature always tempts us to promote ideas based on our personal preferences. We’ve all heard the saying you can’t see the trees for the forest. Well with event planning ideas we do sometimes get wrapped up in proposing venues and suppliers to our clients based on our own personal preferences. A very common mistake. As you develop in the event planning industry it becomes easier to be more objective. For me, in my early days I developed a template to help determine what event ideas I would propose to my clients. An easy way to develop your template for event planning is to think about some of the crucial questions that you should be asking your client at the proposal stage.

Some of the questions on my event planning templates are:

• the age range of the group
• the group make up (i.e. male-female)
• the relationship with in the group (i.e. are they all coworkers or are their supervisors and workers mixed together)
• where (location) would the organizer like the event to be held in
• what style of venue (i.e. an attraction, museum or gallery, sports facility, restaurant bar, boat cruise etc.)
• what type of event is the client looking for (i.e. a reception, food and beverage function, a sporting event, a standup event etc.)
• when is the event being held (this can be crucial because certain venues are only available at certain times and will help narrow down your selection)
• capacity (this too can help narrow your selection down)
• does the client want the venue to be exclusive (private for their group only)

Of course a good event planner needs to know what’s available in their market. It’s very easy to become comfortable in your job and work with only a few venues or suppliers. I have to admit it’s always nice when you work with the same supplier over and over as you get to know each other’s work style. It’s also good to help establish credit with those suppliers. However what you have to ask yourself is-are you really providing your client with the best available options in your area.

If you need help developing your own event planning templates you may want to check out Microsoft office event templates. Here you’ll find a whole range of templates to select from based on the type event. In addition to Microsoft you may also want to check out Google docs. Here you’ll also find event management templates (this site has some very good wedding templates to choose from as well).

Download, or Print, Our Event Planning Checklist Here.

Looking for a party planner checklist instead? Check out our party planning checklist page here.

Event planning ideas may seem like an easy task at the onset. Event planning, like many industries, is one that requires a degree of creativity. Often it’s the creativity that wins contracts more than budgets themselves. As an event planner you have to be very careful not to assume that the group wants to do things that you would like to do. Developing and event planning templates or checklist will help you present event planning ideas that are based on the clients preferences.