Event Management Process: 7 Steps for Launching

The event management process consists of four key elements, planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. It is a dynamic process that involves a mix of technical and creative skills to complete a plan for any industry.

Whether you’re planning a small get-together for stakeholders or a product launch with hundreds of attendees, event management can boost or damage your brand’s image.

You will most likely achieve the following benefits if you manage your event successfully.

• Enhances your brand’s reputation among current and prospective attendees
• Builds success with greater exposure and new relationships
• Increase reputation and boost business sales, and leads
• Boosts brand awareness, attracts a wider audience, and accelerates growth

The global event industry was worth approximately $890 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow by more than two trillion U.S. dollars by 2028. Moreover, successful event management enables brands to achieve a 2-to-1 return on investment.

Importance of a Well-Defined Event Management Process

Event management is a multi-faceted process. With so many details to manage, event management is a challenging task. However, with a well-defined event management process, you can save time as it defines a roadmap for marketers to follow.

A systematic approach to event management can generate interest and participation, leading to increased revenue and exposure.

Key Steps in an Event Planning

Need to know key steps for planning an event? Every type of event requires planning to reduce the chaos and engage the attendees, but there are some important key steps you must consider when planning an event to go through the event seamlessly.

Step 1: Defining Event Goals and Objectives

Step 2: Establish a Budget

Step 3: Creating the Event Plan

Step 4: Securing Event Vendors and Suppliers

Step 5: Marketing the Event

Step 6: Managing Event Logistics

Step 7: Conducting Post-Event Evaluation

Step 1: Defining Event Goals and Objectives

The first and most critical planning step requires setting goals and objectives. Start by questioning why, what, and how you want to organize this event. Planning in event management demands critical thinking to ensure that every element is optimized to achieve the ultimate goal.

For example, your goal can be to raise awareness for a cause, conduct a seminar, host an annual team meeting, or organize a conference. Are you looking forward to attracting 100 or 300+ guests for the event?

Setting a quantifiable SMART goal can make it easier for you to maintain focus on the action plan and fulfill the objective.

• Specific
• Measurable
• Actionable
• Realistic
• Time-bound

Once you’ve identified your goals and objectives, it’s time to map out those in a document. It will help you refine your event scope and identify required changes.

A study indicated that you are 3x more likely to achieve goals written or visually drafted than those who just had some plans in their minds.

Step 2: Establish a Budget

One of the most important steps in the event management process is budgeting. It can be an overwhelming task to plan your marketing budget for events, but simplifying it from the beginning can help you go through the event seamlessly.

According to MPI, 33% stated that standards and processes exist for budgeting within the organization, making it easier to plan the event.

Event planning requires complete financial modeling, including income statements, cash flow statements, and balance sheets. Here we’ve covered the essential elements you must cover when planning an event to streamline budgeting. 

1. Fixed and variable costs

2. Expenses for in-person events

3. Sources of revenue

An event’s revenue sources include advertisement, exhibit fees, registration fees, sponsorship, and other concessions. There can be other sources of revenue, depending upon the type and size of the event.

Step 3: Creating the Event Plan

To get the ball rolling, you need to create a comprehensive event plan. Your event has a purpose from the start, and you must gather all the components together. At this point, you have to sort your budgeting also, and it will give a clear idea of how to move forward.

High-growth companies have achieved 30% revenue growth by increasing their investment in event planning.

While planning your event, set a detailed timeline and action plan for each task. Also, it is essential to measure event marketing ROI performance and remain on track.

Here are some key elements of an event plan that you must include:

• Sponsor and partnership
• Publicity, advertisement, and promotion
• The venue, logistics, and catering management
• Staffing
• Transportation
• Set up, décor and equipment
• Event technology
• Attendee experience
• Speakers, guests, and experts

Step 4: Securing Event Vendors and Suppliers

It is one of those event stages that most organizers dread, as it requires extensive market research and paperwork. But to help you ease the extra time and effort, you can work with the best events marketing agency and take your event to the next level.

Reliable vendors and suppliers ensure high-quality service for the event, take responsibility and ensure your event runs smoothly. Event planners must have favorable terms with the suppliers to improve the overall event and reduce additional costs.

Here are some key tips for event planning steps that require the selection of vendors and suppliers:

• Narrow down your requirements, and note everything you need from a specific vendor.
• Communicate through networking channels, and ask for recommendations from your circle.
• Review ratings and feedback on social media to further your decision.
• List down all vendors, and request a demo or sample.
• Finalize the best supplier for your event and set a deadline for the next steps.

Companies with advanced supplier collaboration tend to beat industry trends by 2x in growth and other metrics such as costs and revenue.

Step 5: Marketing the Event

Marketing the event is another critical step in event management, adding valuable opportunities to stay on top of the game. More than 80% of marketers believe that events are crucial to a company’s success, and 31% believe it is the most effective channel for marketing.

Marketing the event allows you to sell out your event and leverage the experience to archive business goals. Incorporating the right event marketing elements for successful event branding lets you get your brand noticed in the industry. Having a clearly defined marketing plan can ensure success.

We’ve compiled a list of key elements you must put together to create a marketing plan for the event.

• Understand your audience/target market
• Set the goal for marketing
• Identify your USP for the event
• Incorporate strong theme and brand elements
• Create multiple touchpoints
• Set event content and campaign
• Promote your event in the right places
• Establish last-minute promotional tactics
• Set performance evaluation metrics
• Start marketing your event!

Also, you must effectively use event marketing strategies to attract more attendees, increase event registration and generate more leads. Here are some strategies you can use to market your event:

1. Event landing page – For example, Oracle creates an event landing page for each event around the year. It helps the attendee get all the information related to the event in one place and register for the event instantly. Similarly, Oracle uses landing pages to promote virtual events.

SOURCE: Oracle

2. Leverage keynote speakers and guests – For example, Digital Futures highlighted all the key speakers in their Instagram posts to promote your events through industry experts and professionals.

SOURCE: Instagram

3. Spark FOMO – For example, GITEX 2022 visuals and experience is used for marketing for GITEX 2023, an exciting professional event that can’t be missed if they are passionate and active in the global tech industry.

SOURCE: Instagram

Step 6: Managing Event Logistics

Event logistics is one of the most crucial steps that require flawless management. Event logistics involves venue, catering, transportation, merchandise, technology, and coordination. As an essential part of the guide to event marketing, event logistics is the backbone of any successful event.

Managing events requires forethought and continuous monitoring of different areas. Successful event logistics management ensures event execution and improves the experience for attendees. Communication is a crucial element that plays a significant role in staying on top of every update and mitigating real-time issues.

Whether you’re organizing an in-person or virtual event, you need to streamline your processes. Here are five key tips that you can use to manage event logistics.

1. Communicate duties and delegate responsibilities
2. Create groups and send updates regularly
3. Plan the event budget meticulously
4. Get creative with event experiential aspect
5. Prioritize the use of event technology

During the pandemic, 73.6% of event planners worked on their information and technology skills to enhance their event logistics management and adapt to accelerating event demands post-pandemic.

Step 7: Conducting Post-Event Evaluation

As we have covered all the steps in the event management process, post-event evaluation is the last but most important step to measure the event’s success. Sitting down and conducting a post-event evaluation helps you reflect and prepare.

As an event marketer, you must identify areas requiring additional effort for the next event. Event evaluation is the answer to determine what went right and what went wrong. Event evaluation helps you improve your processes and enhance marketing for the next event.

To get valuable insights and actionable tactics, here are some great tips for conducting a post-event evaluation:

• Choose the right evaluation measure, such as registration numbers, revenue, budget, or social media mentions.
• Ask the right questions during and after the event.
• Collect post-event feedback from attendees and stakeholders.
• Review the tactics used for the event planning, and identify areas for improvement.
• Analyze and interpret results from the evaluation.
• Communicate results with all the stakeholders involved in event planning and execution.
• Follow-up with stakeholders to ensure feedback is taken into action.

After putting time and effort into event planning, it is essential to prioritize post-event evaluation. Then, take advantage of this final step and build an improved event plan to attract more attendees for the next event.

Remember, always be quick to send in your post-event survey, and ensure you do it within 24 hours of the event. Also, be mindful to keep the survey short, as participants don’t like to spend time filling out feedback forms. According to a study, 84% of event marketers find managing and analyzing post-event dates challenging, and only 16% feel they are on top of their evaluation game.

Final Words

The event management process requires extensive planning and step-by-step conceptualization of event activities. Once the idea is defined, event planning begins. Each step is vital to ensure the event’s success and achieve desired outcomes.

It is a complex process, but with the right event marketing agency, you can efficiently conduct multiple events for your business. Ensure to maintain effective communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills across the event planning steps to meet the objectives successfully.

By following a well-defined event management process, you can increase the likelihood of a successful event that meets and exceeds the expectation of the attendees and stakeholders.