Tools for Successful Events

20 Apr Tools for Successful Events

Event Planning might seem like an exciting and exhilarating field to get into – getting to pick menus, work on décor, deciding on entertainment and making an empty room into something beautiful. Don’t let it fool you – events look effortless and fun; but, event coordinating requires an organized mind, paying strict attention to detail, working long days, multi-tasking abilities, and a variety of other tasks to ensure that you event is a success.

Over the years, Zynger Events, one of the premier event planning companies in Los Angeles, has come up with a couple of tools that help us to succeed at what we do – event production from start to finish. One of the tools that we use to ensure a successful event is what we call a “Critical Timeline”.

Critical Timelines

A critical timeline is not just a check list to be followed, but, a tool that event planners use to help them determine which items are most important and the necessary steps to complete before moving onto the next task. Even smaller events require a timeline, and remember, no detail is too small to not be included. Use your own list, put it on your computer, on a blackboard, written up on a wall, or, use an online tool to keep track of what needs to be done.  Be sure to review your timeline on a weekly basis, check in with those that have assigned tasks and continue to get updates and update the timeline as things progress.

These timelines are helpful when it comes to assigning tasks, which is also a valuable tool in managing your event, and controlling the logistics. Seeing the tasks written down and accounted for, can help you properly manage assigning workloads to staff (or volunteers) and will let you assign the right things to the right person depending on what needs to be done and that person’s experience.

The other importance of using a timeline, is being sure that you stick to using it and following it as outlined. If you’re working on Activity C, and don’t understand why it’s not falling into place – it’s probably because you didn’t work on Activity A & B – be sure to loop back and review your timeline and allow for some grace period when putting it together.

Start planning your event at least 12 months out, start with the major steps like determining your audience, what message you want to convey (i.e.: the purpose of the event), venue location, dates and who your partners are. Move forward writing down month by month, when, what, and who is responsible for the next task.

For your convenience, we posted a copy of our “Event Critical Timeline” tool as an Excel spreadsheet that you can view and download here: https://zynger.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Event%20Critical%20Timeline%20Zynger.xlsx

An event planning company – Zynger Events – has the experience, knowledge and expertise to help you create a detailed critical timeline for your next event. Be sure to hire a professional event production team like Zynger to help you plan your next event.

By: Ryan Zynger, owner
Zynger Events