You have the event plan etched in your brain and you have briefed your staff for the umpteenth time. You find yourself pacing the floor, just wondering when something will crop up and ruin your plans.
As event planners, there is always that nagging feeling that something will go awry on event day. That is because things you never anticipated to happen have happened! But the best event planners are those that can sooth those nerves and not allow it to consume their spark and energy on event day.
These are a few ways you can minimise stress on event day so that you can remain focused on executing a great event and enjoy the process more.
1. Consider a Plan C
Plan B is not enough.
Although there is no need to put too much effort into executing contingency plans, you should still think about all the possible things that could crop up and devise mini plans to deal with them.
For instance, consider what happens if you have an over or undersubscribed event. Know what you need to compromise ahead of time and your priorities so that you can make decisions on the fly when bad occurrences force you to scrap some of your plans.
Give yourself buffer time to deal with last minute things that crop up. The key thing is to think of the worst case scenario (that is likely) and a solution to it. If luck stays on your side, then use the buffer time as time to take a breather. Remaining calm can help you prevent careless mistakes and minimise stress.
2. Consistent face-to-face communication
Run through important details with staff and third-party suppliers or partners in person as much as possible. Remember, physical contact > skype > phone calls > whatsapp, texts and emails > social media.
A lot of stress and unexpected problems crop up because of miscommunication or lack of communication. Ensure that you clear any misunderstandings, set expectations and verify assumptions through face-to-face communication. Even if you do use online methods of communication, always follow up with a couple of face-to-face meeting or Skype (if it’s impossible to meet physically).
3. Keep up with social media
Social media and email response rates are vital evidences for event planners to stay up to date with public sentiments about the event and pre-empt problems.
Keeping updated constantly gives event planners the opportunity to solve the problems and correct negative sentiments in time. Consistently engage your audience up to event day so that you won’t get shocked by a sudden drop in attendance. Moreover, engaging your audience effectively can increase event awareness as well as keep your event in your event-goers’ memory.
4. Event management software
There are plenty of free and paid software providers in the market. Event management software can help event planners focus on the most critical aspects of the event. By outsourcing tedious, repetitive and yet essential processes, event planners are relieved of the stress of overseeing these tasks and can be more flexible and creative in making the event memorable.
Event management software such as EventNook offers a fully integrated online to onsite registration solution, helping you deal with the stress of event ticketing, event registration, onsite event check-in and event tactical promotion. You can easily set-up event micro-sites without having to code while the user-friendly iPad app dashboard helps you monitor event attendance easily.
5. Have a good night sleep and a full breakfast
Noone wants to work with a stressed out, overtired and hungry event planner. Do yourself and your team a favour by taking care of your well-being. This will help you stay alert so that you are able to think on the spot and remain undaunted in the face of unexpected problems
Minimise event stress today with EventNook’s online ticketing and registration solution!
Whether it’s free or paid, EventNook can help you with online event registration, event ticketing and onsite event registration and check-in!
Try it Free and for Free events!
EventNook 