Guide to annual event planning 2024: Effectively track, manage and resource all events in one template
If you’ve landed here, you may be looking for a way to:
👉 Map-out your year and easily see how your year is shaping up
👉 Keep track of your projects, and who’s running them on your team or externally?
👉 Communicate to your stakeholders easily the status of each project, giving a snapshot of your budgets, attendance and targets?
👉 Create a format that gives you data and easy tracking, to make subsequent years so much easier.
Well at Planit, we’ve created the perfect template for you to do just that.
Our Founder Joseph swears by it, having previously had to manage over 80 + events a year with teams of 9+, this is the first tool he introduces to any business.
“Having an annual snapshot of all projects, where they are, who’s running them and the targets is invaluable when reporting to your senior stakeholders. Showing it to your team and giving them ownership, empowers them and helps them connect to the bigger goals and also a way to showcase how they’re driving their projects forward”
So let’s dive in, when it comes to mapping out your year, we’ve made sure it’s simple but effective, breaking our template by month with key columns with required information.
Month & Year - Key to showing stakeholders why you need extra resource, if they put 8 events in one month!
Project Name - We’d suggest highlighting this name so it syncs up with finance & procurement for easy tracking
Location - Great to see a breakdown of markets, if you ever need inspiration for a new location check-out our resources here:
Lead Time (Days) - Another method to show stakeholders a pattern of lead time, perhaps they always drop in last minute? This will help you show a pattern and re-inforce if you need external support at points
Client / Stakeholder - Super important to know who is the key sign-off and responsible
Type of event - Is this a Company kick-off? Incentive? Conference? Product launch? We want to ensure anyone looking at this document knows what events are happening and when
Objective - This is key to highlight at the start of any project, but also track to re-inforce in portfolio reviews, are we still meeting our objective? Has it changed?
Traffic Light system - This is brilliant for team management, is the project in danger? Does it need attention? This provides a weekly or bi-weekly check-in point to review status and highlight if action is required.
Project Lead - Who in your team is responsible for the project?
External Event Support - Do you need help from us at Planit? Or other external suppliers, place them here.
Venue / AV / Catering / Content & Production - It's good to show where all your events are taking place, having sight of the amount of business you bring to one supplier, provides you with buying power and better leverage. Can you negotiate more if you notice it’s the same brand? Are you being sustainable and sourcing local?
The final section is all surrounding numbers, targets and the key is tracking them on a weekly basis which would be the responsibility of your project manager. It also gives you the opportunity to show stakeholders when you are achieving above and beyond.