Do you plan events for the corporate world like product launches, conferences, seminars, etc? If so, look into these seven practices of successful event planners. You can easily dismiss these points as trivial or as something that doesn’t apply to you, as I did at one time. Slowly however, I learned to apply them as I saw I events become unraveled right before my very eyes, because I chose to ignore these simple guidelines. This has been learned the hard way, and although they’re pretty basic, most event planners agree this is the main stuff you need to be aware of for successful event planning.
- Be certain that information flows freely across your teamLook, event planning is rarely done in isolation. In most cases you’ll have a team of individuals who you’ve delegated various responsibilities to. It can be very easy to generate assumptions that everyone knows what the focus of the event is, and exactly how what they’re doing fits in with what everyone else is doing. But both assumptions may be totally incorrect.
At the start of your event planning effort, take time to share your event’s objective along with your “Plan B” policy with every single one on your staff. Make sure you huddle in with all of them to explain this. Have regular meetings to assess the progress on an ongoing basis to ensure that everyone is cognizant of all aspects of the event. Continue reading
There is one area we still have not talked about in my blogs. Spiritualism. Although many of you Alexandrites may not choose to work presentations of this type into your shows, the subject has recently gained much interest lately. Priests of ancient times made deception a science and an art so as to convince their followers that there was life after death. They preyed on the superstitious fears of the masses with cleverly concealed apparatus in their temples to make it seem that the spirits spoke to them. In certain parts of Greece you may even still find speaking tubes, trap doors, secret passageways, syphons, trick altars, etc., by means of which they controlled the speaking idols, fire-spitting, water-projecting, and food-eating gods. These excite the admiration of the modern magician and almost cause him to turn green with envy, so clever and such good magic are these contraptions.
Recently I’ve watched some performance mentalists and although I don’t perform this type of entertainment, I have some “Thoughts On Thought Reading or Mentalism”; that is the art of presenting seemingly paranormal effects in an entertaining manner. Its essence lies in the performer’s ability to successfully suspend the disbelief of his audience. Fortunately, there is already substantial belief among the public in psychic and other paranormal phenomena, but it is a large mistake to assume that simple public acceptance of the possibility of E.S.P. is sufficient to carry a successful performance of mentalism. Such a view has been the cause of many a bad act. And, believe me, there are plenty of bad mentalism acts around today.
Over the past year, I have covered the top event blunders that can make an event go awry. This week we come to number 25. Mediocre entertainment is worse than bad entertainment. At least with bad entertainment guests will have something to talk about. Seriously, you want stellar entertainment. Nothing but a home run will do. The truth about most events is that a year from now most people won’t remember the decorations, the food or the venue. All of this will disappear like a phantom just weeks after the event. The entertainment, however, will make or break just about any event.
You need to have the right attitude; not just to perform magic but to sell yourself. Now, I know you’ve learned some great magic, even purchased some apparatus and begun performing shows. But are you getting booked for shows? The reason I ask is that I’ve received a few emails from you Alexandrites who have decided to start performing professionally. I congratulate you for taking the steps necessary to get there. But you’ve told me that you are having a hard time getting shows and making money. I’d like to try to fix that here.
Some event planners still operate from the mindset that once the event is over, that’s it. On to the next one. This is one of the biggest misconceptions about event planning! The event is just the start to building relationships, and relationships are the lifeblood of any business. Just about anybody can get a customer once. The real value is in the second, third and fourth event they use your services for; and by not fostering these relationships you can miss out on potential sponsors or clients. Too many people walk away from networking events feeling good, but doing nothing. You need to take some decisive actions.
