How I made my boss cry

The theme of this blog is event planning and I’ll be talking about a Farewell Reception I organised for my boss and a big event I’m planning for October 22.

In a bittersweet moment, I had the opportunity to organise a Farewell Reception for Clubs WA's Executive Director of 14 years, Mr Peter Seaman. It was held a couple of weeks ago at the University Club of Western Australia and aimed to be an intimate and laid-back event where Peter could say goodbye to the "VIPs" of WA's club industry. I was very nervous as this was the first event I had to organise for Clubs WA, and really the first event I've had to organise ever. Thankfully the University Club hosts thousands of events every year and are prepared for almost everything. 

Below I have listed briefly what I had to organise in the weeks leading up to the event:

• Booked the venue and confirmed day and time.
• Put together a guest list of relevant Ministers, Corporate Partners, industry representatives, supporters, State Council and staff.
• Sent out save-the-dates.
• Followed up save-the-dates with emails to Ministerial secretaries, and other VIPs.
• Drew up budget.
• Sent out official invitations.
• Bought a gift for the ED.
• Visited the venue to get an idea of room layout and AV equipment.
• Chose the food and beverage menu.
• Confirmed all attendees and the correct spelling of their names.
• Printed all names onto name tags.
• Organised everything for a registration table.
• Plus so, so much more. 

The event turned out really well and thankfully ran smoothly. Sport & Recreation Minister Tuck Waldron, Racing & Gaming Minister Mick Murray and Commissioner for Consumer Protection Anne Driscoll each made a thoughtful and personal speech about their experiences of working with Peter over the past decade or so. My boss became quite teary at one point and Mick Murray made a funny speech and both of them turned red.

Although the event was quite small, with about 60 people showing up, it was still nerve wrecking having to organise the event with absolutely no experience! But it has prepared me for my next event in October, which has an expected attendance of about 130 people.

The next event I’m organising and the one that’s causing me heaps of stress is the Clubs WA Training, AGM & Networking Event on October 22.

I’ll admit that I haven’t been given a huge amount of guidance or instruction when it comes to organising either of these events and it’s making me pretty stressed. I’ve basically organised this AGM & Networking Event by looking through the previous Events Officer’s file where she has kept hardcopy invoices of everything she ordered for last year's event, and then deciding what was useful this year.  I’m so grateful that she kept such good records of everything and I plan to do the same!

Last year’s event began at 10am with an hour long Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Clubs WA company update, followed by a luncheon, trade expo and then entertainment.

This year we have decided to tie the event in with the launch of two new training workshops, Good Governance and Workplace Relations, which will begin in the morning, followed by a Canapé Reception, AGM, Clubs WA Update, Networking Luncheon, Club Leadership Panel, and then a Social Hour. This year’s theme is training and networking and we think this will boost numbers opposed to an otherwise boring AGM.

My three biggest fears for the AGM Event are that we don’t get enough numbers, that I haven’t planned well enough, and that the event goes over-budget.

Achieving the attendance goal:

I set myself the attendance goal of 130 people but I’m quietly hoping for 150.

Other than for that fact that it would heartbreaking if no one came, our Corporate Partners (sponsors) are attending so they can network with our members, and I don’t want them to think the event was a waste of time.

Last year’s Trade Expo component felt a little pushy, and most of our sponsors have been with us for a long time so their products are well known by our members. This year, I’ve planned lots of ‘break-out’ sessions for networking. For example, rather than having a three-course sit-down meal, I thought it would be nice if we served the entrée as a ‘canapé reception on arrival’ – this way our members are able to mingle and network with other industry reps and sponsors in a more informal way – think a bigger version of  ‘water-cooler talk’.

We’re 12-days out from the event and so far we have a 110 people registered which is 23 more people than last year! I think I’m doing okay promotion wise, even though I was aiming for 130 people.

We started promoting the confirmed date of the event in May, and since then have been putting articles in our monthly newsletter/magazine, in our fortnightly email blasts, on the website and through social media. My boss told me that 6-weeks out from the event we should start calling clubs, as phone calls are so much more personal. However, when we started calling clubs 6-weeks out, the majority of people we called didn’t know much about the event.

Our monthly newsletter is only sent to one person on a club’s Board (usually the Club President or CEO) and the fortnightly emails to two or three – so from calling our members I’ve realised that the Board Members do not pass information on!

So 6-weeks out from the event, instead of convincing people to purchase tickets, we were calling people to tell them about the event, which was frustrating. I instructed everyone to follow-up any phone call they made with an email thanking people for their time and to attach a copy of our event information pack and registration form. Luckily this seems to have worked, and I’ve left a note for next year’s event organiser to make the calls much earlier – I really think this would boost the numbers!

You can have a look at some of the information that was included in the event info pack and an article about the speakers written in the monthly newsletter, by clicking on the below images.

         

Event planning

I shouldn’t admit this, but I’m one of those people who leave things to the last minute (some of you will know this ;)). I think that I know myself pretty well, and I know how long I need to get things done properly. Looking at the timelines and schedules from last year’s event I know that the previous Events Officer had written the MC Script, running sheet, staff roles etc. more than three months out from the event. While this might have suited her, she would have had to of updated the scripts and running sheets constantly in the months leading up to the event as new things were decided – and I personally feel like this would have been a waste of time. Instead, I spent a total of eight hours working on the MC Script, running sheet, room plan, assigned staff roles, and an overview running sheet for sponsors just a little over two weeks from the event, and they were all approved within two days and I may only need to make one or two tiny changes. I do believe there is such a thing as over planning!

My point here is to know how long you need to complete tasks properly, and how to work to be productive.

If you have any easy networking ideas to get people talking, please feel free to share! One idea I’m thinking of is to ask people to write three words on their name tag, for example, Cambodia, photography, cricket, travel or scrap-booking, to give people conversation starters. Maybe there’s a person who’s thinking about going to Greece and then they spot someone who has Greece written on their nametag... BOOM conversation starter!

Anyway, until next time!

You can find my past blog posts here:

1. Make us famous - P.S. there's no budget

2. Don't dread the red pen

I hope everyone else is still enjoying their internships, and if you have any tips about event planning, promotion, or networking I would love to hear from you J