Planning Special Events - Part One

If you are in Event Planning Business strategies needed to make an event memorable and profitable are extremely important. They require a certain amount of planning and a whole lot of commitment to achieve ultimate goal: Having a Great Event with just right number of attendees! An event, which leads to even more success, referrals, more business, and most likely more people committed to project in future.

A special event is an event with a specific purpose, such as a special occasion (celebration of a milestone, conference, party, awards ceremonies, fairs). They are different from ongoing programs.

Strategies for Success:

If a company or host has hired you, they have already determined that purpose of event is important enough to warrant expense and time necessary to put it on. If you are a volunteer leader, this must be first step in determining whether or not to pursue idea.

Do you need a team of volunteers/paid staff to execute a successful event? Involve your team in planning. This core group will help develop “theme, select location, and determine who else should be involved.

Determine purpose of event. Is it to make money? Is it to increase awareness of product or company or organization? Is it to celebrate a success or a milestone? It might be a combination of all three. Once you know purpose, you can plan accordingly.

The Top 10 Ways for Managers to Build Rapport through Listening (and stuff!)

1. Pay attention to and look at speaker.
   You're building a relationship, so make sure that you help that along by paying attention - and let them see that you are! Visual attention is so powerful that you can only grow relationship if you pay full attention by looking at them and not at anything else.

2. Periodically reflect what they have said back to them - let them say more.
   Show them that you have been listening to them by telling them what you have heard them say. And hey, this is such a great way of enabling them to have a little pause for thought and take it down to next level of their consciousness - where real work happens and they say more, much more.

3. Ask them another question about what they have told you.
   If you are interested, you want to know more, so give them a sign. By asking for more about what they're telling you, it means what they are saying is of great interest to you and they are important to you - now wouldn't you feel great if that was you?

4. Look them 'nearly' in eye, frequently.
   If you are up close to people, making eyeball to eyeball contact can be uncomfortable, intimate and intimidating if you do it too much, but eyeball to mouth (or nose or forehead!) much of time works just as well.

5. Use touch if appropriate and if that works for them.
   Touch can work if you do it in context - for example if someone touches you on arm lightly, then you can do it too, usually. It means they are tactile too. There are all sorts of problems about appropriateness of this, but in right place at right time it can work well to build rapport.

6. Laugh together.
   How many times have you heard that laughter 'brings people together'. Having a conversation where there is appropriate humour makes such a difference - don't be frightened to let yourself go just a little and get involved in fun! Be one of boys (or girls!).