5 Elements of Strategic Event Management

Events, both in-person and virtual ones, can be very effective in fulfilling organizational goals like generating leads, supporting a product launch, and building brand awareness, among others. However, planning and organizing a successful event is easier said than done.

To be successful, an event shouldn’t only attract enough attendees, but also have to make sure it’s attracting the right type of attendees and maintaining a high level of engagement.

This is where strategic event management comes in.

Strategic event management refers to the discipline of effectively planning, organizing, marketing, and measuring an event to ensure success.

In this guide, we will discuss the five core aspects of strategic event management that are essential for organizing a successful event.

Five Elements of Strategic Event Management

1. Event Purpose and Objectives

The first element of strategic event management is the identification of the event’s purpose, and from this identified purpose, we can also break down the objective(s) of the event.

For some events, the purpose might be obvious: generating more leads, more preorders for the event’s featured product, and so on. However, for some other events, it might not be so obvious. It’s best to identify an end outcome you’d like the event to accomplish, and reverse engineer this outcome.

Once you’ve identified the event’s purpose, use the S.M.A.R.T goals principle to define your event’s objectives. Your event’s objectives should be:

• Specific: clear and specific, easy to explain to every stakeholder
• Measurable: you can attach KPIs and metrics to track the event’s progress against this objective
• Attainable: realistic to achieve, important to maintain your team’s morale
• Relevant: relevant for the event’s purpose and also for your organization’s mission
• Time-bound: has a clear timeline

Why is this an important element of strategic event management? Identifying your event’s purpose and objective will also dictate other aspects of the event planning: your target audience, the type of the event, the event’s content, and so on.

2. Event Budget

It’s very important to estimate at least a high-level budget as early as possible in the event planning stage. If you don’t know how much you have to spend and what to spend on, you simply won’t be able to organize a successful event.

As early as possible you should identify:

• What funds are available for this event at the moment?
• How much is the acceptable cost for this event to be successful?
• Will you need to look for additional funding? From investors? Sponsorship? Who are the potential sources to approach?
• Potential revenue profitability of the event

At first, your event budget shouldn’t be set in stone, and you can always go back to it and make adjustments on the later event planning stages. Your event budget should include:

• Venue costs (for in-person events)
• Platform/technology (especially for virtual events)
• Speakers/talent
• Catering
• Experiential elements
• Production/creative
• Marketing
• Contingencies

As we know, no event will go 100% according to plan, so it’s important to include contingencies in your budget. Allocate at least 20% of your total budget for contingencies so you can prepare yourself ahead of the surprises.

3. Branding

There are many reasons behind successful events, but most successful events have one thing in common: a strong and unique identity.

Your event should have its own personality besides simply being a part of your company (whether you are an event organizer or an organization hosting events as a part of your marketing strategy).

Start with a unique, easy-to-pronounce, and easy-to-remember event name, then you should also develop strong branding elements like logo, website, social media personality, and event design.

Consider the following when establishing your event’s brand identity:

• What is the overall theme of the event?
• How can you maintain consistency of branding throughout the event? From marketing before the event until the post-event phase.
• Does your technology stack have the right customization features to allow branding consistency?
• How are you going to promote the event and communicate your event’s core message?

Also, make sure your event’s brand identity reflects the purpose and objectives of the event.

4. Technology and Tools

In modern events, using the right technology is a very important aspect of ensuring a successful event.

It’s best to Invest in an all-in-one event management solution that allows you to manage everything from team collaboration, registration, attendee tracking/management, and marketing campaigns, among others. Having an all-in-one solution will help you avoid having too many tools that are disconnected from each other.

You should choose the right tools depending on the event’s type. For example, if you are going to hold a virtual conference, then make sure to choose a capable virtual event platform that can reliably host the event.

Consider:

• What features will you absolutely need for the event’s success?
• Whether your existing tools already offer these features or will you need to invest in new tools
• Can the different tools you use integrate well with each other? Or are there any all-in-one solutions available?

5. Team

Don’t underestimate the importance of your team.

It’s very important to allocate tasks and responsibilities carefully, not only at the preparation and promotional stages of the event but also during and after the event.

Who’s going to be responsible for registration? Who’s going to manage catering? Who is in charge of managing sponsorships?

Here are some important roles in an event team:

• Event manager: responsible for supervising the whole event and managing the event budget.
• Event technologists: responsible for the entire event and marketing technology stack. Also in charge of cybersecurity.
• Venue manager: the go-to person for anything that happens at the venue.
• Scheduling: make sure the event’s schedule is up to date and everyone is on track
• Marketing: responsible for promoting the event via various channels.
• Registration: making sure the whole registration process is running smoothly, including ticket pricing and sales.
• Sponsorship: sell sponsorship opportunities and maintain relationships with secured sponsors.

Give each team member a detailed document listing their responsibilities and who to contact for any problem to ensure smooth collaboration.

Wrapping Up

Although there are definitely other important aspects of planning an event, the five above are the most important elements to consider if you want to plan, manage, and host a successful event.

By strategically using these five strategic event management pillars you can effectively encourage your team to work together in designing an attractive and effective event to maximize attendance.