A proper event strategy prevents ad hoc events, reduces the risk of unnecessary discussions, and increases the impact of events. The size of your organisation is not important: if you organise more than one event per year, a coherent approach is beneficial. But what does a proper event strategy include? And how do you make sure that other stakeholders embrace it?
1. Collect the facts
First make an overview of the events your company organises. Does your organisation have different locations, perhaps even spread across several countries? Include all events in the overview, so that you get a clear picture of the impact and size of events. Make time for a thorough analysis, despite the fact that you often get sucked into the daily routines.
2. Work together
Find out which teams or departments within your organisation initiate events. Make sure you involve all these stakeholders in the creation of the overall strategy. What is their take on events? Try to identify goals, objectives, costs and revenues of all events.
3. Keep questioning!
Take the time to figure out what really is important to each stakeholder. Finding the common interest will be a lot easier if this is clear. Also clarify what is important for you and your department. What do you need to achieve your own objectives? Working from a shared vision is essential for the event strategy to succeed, so look for the common ground!
4. Determine the strategy
Discover the coherence between all events and determine whether they reinforce each other or not. Maintain a critical eye: for some objectives, events are simply not the proper channel. Work closely together with Marketing (Communication), and make events part of the bigger picture. Next, determine the main objective, image, key message and conditions all individual events must meet. The overall event strategy becomes the indicator to assess all events in the organisation. Uniform, recognisable events are more likely to get the target group into action.
5. Translate and apply
Make an annual plan that incorporates all the organisation’s events, and determine the budget. Then it’s time to put the strategy to practice: elaborate the target audience, objectives, message and action points for each event. Remember to make things measurable: how will you determine the success of an event? What indicators will you use? You can only measure the results, if you determine your goals in advance. Each individual event should contribute to the overall strategy.
6. Analyse the results
Find out which teams or departments within your organisation initiate events. Make sure you involve all these stakeholders in the creation of the overall strategy. What is their take on events? Try to identify goals, objectives, costs and revenues of all events.
7. Report regularly
Inform all teams about the progression periodically. Even if things don’t go as planned! Reports of individual events contain valuable client information. Share this information with the other stakeholders! It will strengthen the collaboration and make events a relevant part of the marketing (communication) mix. Keeping the other stakeholders involved strengthens the relationship.
8. Repeat and redress!
Step 4, 5, 6 and 7 are a continuous process. Just like the organisation as a whole, the event strategy is constantly evolving. A critical eye is the key to success – never stop measuring and adjusting to ensure the best result.
Also read our last article about the importance of a proper event strategy!
Connecting the Dots 03: Events start with strategy
To support event professionals with the formulation of a solid event strategy, Momice will organise the third edition of Connecting the Dots in October. Because Connecting the Dots is a Dutch-language event, it is less suitable for English speaking attendees. However, we feel the articles we write about these topics will still be relevant to all event professionals! Do you want to learn more about event strategy or the previous topics of Connecting the Dots? Please read more here!
