Organising events doesn’t have to be stressful. Have a look at these suggestions and bear them in mind when you’re next organising an event.
Deciding on your event
Possible aims of the event
- Raising awareness of an issue
- Recruitment of new members
- Influencing decision-makers
- Raising money
- Having fun
What are you trying to achieve
First nail down exactly what you are trying to achieve with the event. This can be more than one thing but shouldn’t be overly complicated. Make sure everyone is in agreement with this before moving on to decide what sort of event you want. If you can’t agree, maybe you need more than one event.
Balcaras School make a human red ribbon for World AIDS Day 2005
What event
Deciding what event you want to run is very important. Make sure it fits with your aims and is achievable. Plan something that won’t take up too much of your time, cost too much money or be too stressful. Check that everyone involved is up for what you are planning and won’t let you down.
Possible dates to fit in with
- World AIDS Day- December 1st
- International Human Rights Day- December 10th
- Fairtrade Fortnight- first two weeks in March
- International Womens Day- March 8th
- Elections
- Parent’s evening
When
- Should it tie in with another event, for example World AIDS Day or an election.
- Can you reach a new audience? For example holding an event during parents evening.
- When is the venue you want available?
- Make sure it doesn’t clash with a big sporting fixture!
- What time will be best for everyone?
- Think how long it will take to organise, then add on a couple of weeks, its easy to underestimate problems that can arise.
Planning your event
Possible tasks for World AIDS Day party
- Book venue and anything else needed e.g. PA System
- Design, print and put out publicity
- Print and sell tickets
- Manage budget
- Co-ordinate campaign
- Check everything is ready
- Deal with attendess on the night
- Tidy up
Working out tasks
Brainstorm all the tasks involved with the event. Try and be really exhaustive with this as forgetting something at the start might cause big problems later. Allocate time to each task then delegate roles as a group.
Planning your time
The table below shows how you could log your planning so that everybody knows who’s doing what, when and how long it should take. For this example the group is organising an awareness raising party for World AIDS Day on December 1st with planning from the start of October.
Task |
How long |
When by |
Who |
Tick when done |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Booking venue and PA |
2 hours |
Oct 14 |
Rob |
|
Design and print posters and flyers |
10 hours |
Oct 21 |
Anna |
|
Design and print tickets |
3 hours |
Oct 31 |
Louise |
|
Manage budget |
10 hours |
Ongoing |
Crispin |
|
Selling tickets |
5 hours |
Nov 15 |
Rob |
|
Follow up on publicity |
3 hours |
Nov 15 |
Anna |
|
Co-ordinate campaign |
5 hours |
Ongoing |
John |
|
Check everything is ready |
3 hours |
Nov 24 |
Louise |
|
Deal with attendees on night |
3 hours |
Dec 1 |
Rob, Crispin and Anna |
|
Tidy up |
1 hour |
Dec 1 |
Everyone |
|
Send story to P&P |
2 hours |
Dec 2 |
Anna |
Following up
Making sure you follow-up on an event is really important. As well as dealing with any money raised or owed, simple things like congratulating everyone who took part, and sending your story in to the P&P office will make it all worthwhile. If you’ve collected action cards send them off straight away. This will really add to the sense of achievment after the event.
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