Be it a conference, a concert or a festival, organising and hosting a successful event is not easy. Or at least, it can be easy if you get all the small details right. The reality is that getting people to attend and managing a line-up of performers or speakers is the easy part – it is the actual user experience on the day that is critical if you want to host another event in the future. Because as compelling as the speakers are, or as plentiful as the free food and drink may be, the over-riding memory that delegates will take away with them, was how smoothly was it run. So, if planning an event is something that is on your radar in eth near future, here are a few things that you will need to consider.
Access control
This might sound like a silly thing to have on the list, but it is so frequently overlooked and not catered for. In planning an event you need to plan for a worst-case scenario and make sure that you are equipped to handle it. So, if you are hosting an event that is anticipating 1000 delegates, you should
have plans in place to be able to handle the situation if they all arrive at the same time. How will they be identified? How many people are available to check them in or verify their tickets? Where do they queue? Is there enough parking for them all? You cannot just put your head in the sand and hope for the best. One very simple way of making the process simple is to find a supplier of wristbands Australia has several. It makes the whole entrance process very easy. Let them in if they have a wristband. No entry if they don’t. It makes pass-outs simple and with different colour bands you can easily identify normal guests from VIPs or from media.
Toilets
Just because the venue that you are using has toilets, don’t expect that they will suffice for the number of people you are expecting. You need to do some calculations – especially if there are going to be an unusually high number of female delegates. Men can go to the toilet standing up and urinals are many and plenty – the turn-over of visitors at a men’s bathrooms are a lot quicker than at the ladies. Factor this in and then either look to hire additional facilities or find a different venue.
Security
This is very important. All too often people think that security is not necessary, but it always is. No matter who the crowd is and how passive you think they are going to be, you always have to plan for the worst-case scenario. Security is there to help with any eventuality. They are not necessarily bouncers. They may be needed to help evacuate the building in the event of a fire scare or they may need to chaperone a drunken delegate out of the building. It is not always about access control only. Make sure that you have enough trained security on sight – it creates a feeling of event calm and control that your attendees will appreciate.
