Seminars and events have always been implemented as a holistic experience to participants. Thus, event management requires extensive planning and preparation with most work implemented at least a few months before the actual event. Most of the time, seminars seem to run like clockwork with all events flowing smoothly according to schedule. In reality however, much groundwork has been worked on with the purpose of developing the right atmosphere in addition to a beneficial experience to participants.
1. Establishing the theme of the event
Each event follows a theme and purpose which will drive the event set-up, the target audiences or the participants, the guests and the marketing approach. In general, a business event such as an international conference for a particular industry will appeal to participants conducting businesses within that industry as well as sponsors who gain mileage out of publicizing their products during the event.
Apart from that, the theme of the seminar will also determine the type of marketing channels to be used to for publicity. This also holds true for the event management team who will need the event theme to correctly identify target participants and companies to sell the event to.
2. Selecting a venue
Venue selection is highly dependent on the scale of the event. Usually this is determined by the number of participants, the presence of any guests of honor (such as royalty or politicians) the activities during the event, or if there are additional floor space required for exhibition purposes.
A typical seminar of about 100 – 200 can be comfortably implemented in a hotel seminar room, possibly in a theater style setting or classroom setting. However, larger scale events with participant numbers scaling between 500 – 1000 may require a large hall, ballroom, auditorium or a convention center.
3. Seminar Marketing and Publicity
Seminar marketing is by far the most critical and often most challenging task in event planning, and is often regarded as the most critical factor of an event’s success. The right marketing strategy and seminar positioning must be adopted in order to draw adequate event sign-ups.
Most of the time, event organizers who have large budgets will turn to above the line marketing such as newspaper and magazine advertisements as well as radio and television advertising to publicize the event. Press releases about the event may also be sent in to major newspapers, in order to create the awareness of the upcoming event.
4. Collaboration with sponsors
Getting reputable sponsors to participate in an event will help boost the creditability of the event, as well as reduce costs. Sponsors can also help with marketing, as they also help publicize your event to their customers.
5. Managing People and working with speakers
A seminar will not be successful without the people running it, as well as the speakers sharing their knowledge to the participants. Invite speakers who are of caliber and reputation to the event, and who will provide the participants with relevant information to their work, industry or business. Prepare the speakers beforehand and work with them on their Power point presentations as well as pre-inform them of the logistics processes, timing as well as the expected audience size.
Event management process requires a good team of people handling tasks on ushering, registration, customer service as well as handling financials. Familiarize the team with any required event protocol to eliminate the possibility of confusion or error.
6. Actual Day – Preparation, Registration, Ushering, Feedback
All seminar planning and preparations, constituting 80% of total work involved, cascade to the actual event which may last only for a few hours or a few days. On the day before the event, visit the venue to ensure that everything is in order according the requirements and specifications. Microphones, projectors, audio and video systems must be all checked to be in excellent working order.
On the actual day, staff should be present at the venue at least 1 ½ hours before commencement. Registrations must be made at the door to ensure authorized access. Name tags, door gifts and event schedules or booklets will be given out at this point and ushers will show participants to their seats in the event hall.
Staff will also be responsible for providing advice or help to participants during the event. Feedback forms should be distributed and then collected from participants to determine the satisfaction level on all aspects of the event experience.
Finally, a turnkey event registration software will help to ease and fasten the preparation stages – to announce seminar theme and venue, market online, gain registrations and receive attendees’ feedbacks.
A sample of a similar solution is PG Events. No special knowledge and programming experience is required. It’s easy and clear for everyone. Don’t miss an opportunity to launch your Event registration web-site!
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event management event registration software planning seminar planning
