Event Planning Buyer's Guide

Special Event Planning Introduction

Running a successful major corporate event can tax a company’s time and resources. It can involve hundreds of hours of intense preparation, ongoing management, and extensive organization that most companies can’t handle. To ensure that the event is as polished as possible, companies often turn to special event planning professionals to manage all the tactical and operational responsibilities from beginning to end.

Special event planning companies apply their industry experience to create successful events. They know where to get the best rates for site venues and hotels, which service companies to subcontract with, and how to best promote your event. While event planners shoulder the workload of preparation, you can stay focused on your primary business.

Event planners can produce a wide variety of events to help meet sales objectives, raise brand awareness, and build relationships with customers, partners, or employees. Special event planning may include:

• Sales or management conferences
• Annual meetings
• Symposiums and summits
• Product launches and other PR events
• Corporate celebrations, award banquets
• Conventions and trade shows
• Strategic or educational seminars
• Charity events

This BuyerZone Special Event Planning Buyer’s Guide will detail the services an event planner can offer, how to prepare for your event, how to choose the right planner, and what everything will cost.

Once you know how the industry works, let BuyerZone connect you to corporate event planners that will compete for your business.

A note about BuyerZone’s special event planners: they only handle corporate functions for a minimum of 15 to 25 attendees. Our event planners don't plan small, intimate events like office holiday parties or personal events like weddings and anniversary parties.

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Conference and event planning basics

You can hire conference and event planning companies to coordinate a wide range of events – from a basic one-day, 25-person sales meeting with no hotel stays, to an intensive three-day seminar for 300 people featuring training sessions, multiple speakers, high-tech production, and entertainment.

Since preparation is a key component to conference and event planning, make sure to schedule events well in advance. A small event like a product announcement can be pulled off in 30 days, but you may need to plan 90 to 120 days in advance for a full-day management conference. Large companies with significant events sometimes reserve dates as much as 3 to 5 years in advance to secure the top venues and best rates.

Key benefits
One of the most important benefits a conference and event planner professional offers is complete logistics management. They begin by researching potential venues for the event based on your needs and budget, visiting the sites, and negotiating rates. If needed, they use their relationships with hotel chains to block off rooms for you and your guests at competitive prices. They also can provide your guests with ground transportation.

Your event planner will also work closely with the event venue to plan the catering. They'll coordinate with the hotel or catering hall to create banquet event orders (BEO), which detail how much food and beverage you need to order.

Event planners also provide help with the registration process. An event planner will set up an online portal for invitees to sign up for your event, select individual sessions, reserve hotel rooms, and request additional information. They'll also take registration requests through the mail, over the phone, and in-person at the event. Afterwards, they'll send attendees marketing materials and provide you with detailed reports and contact information.

Can I plan my own events?
At first glance, you may think the easy way to plan a corporate event is to seek in-house volunteers, put together an event committee, and let them make the arrangements. While this may be suitable for small, casual events with a few attendees, it won’t work for large-scale functions requiring months of intense preparation.

Simply put, conference and event planning is a full-time job. You shouldn't expect inexperienced staffers to plan a corporate event in addition to their typical job responsibilities.

A quick test to see if you even have the time to plan events in-house is to count on one hour of preparation time for each attendee. To organize for a meeting for 250, you’ll need 250 hours of dedicated work time, more than six full weeks. If your staff can’t take on that amount of work in addition to their current job functions, it’s best to hire an event planner.

Relying on in-house volunteers also means they don’t have the know-how to cover every aspect of the event or negotiate for the best rates. While you could use similar tools and software that professional event planners use such as Reg Online or ServiceCEO, you must devote even more valuable time to learning how to use its functionality.

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Preparing for event planning and production

Before you speak with an event planner, make sure you know what you want your event to accomplish. Are you trying to raise brand awareness or develop stronger relationships with clients and partners? Or are you looking to motivate staff or provide additional training? Knowing what your goals are will help you focus on seamless event planning and production.

Event planners will ask detailed questions about your event planning and production requirements, so think through these types of questions as well:

• How many people do you plan on inviting?
• Who will your audience be? (Employees? Existing customers and partners? General public?)
• How long will the event last – an afternoon, a day, a week?
• At what type of venue would you like to host the event?
• What types of activities are you planning? Presentations, panel discussions, small group workshops, team building exercises, interactive demos?
• Would you prefer a single general session or multiple sessions?
• Do you need to develop an overall theme for your event?
• How will this event tie into corporate expectations?
• Will you need any permits?
• Do you need access to local entertainment or sight-seeing tours?
• Will attendees be local or from out-of-town?
• How many meals you will need catered??
• Will you offer open bar?

Take your time answering these questions as the event planner will need to factor them into consideration when creating your event planning and production proposal.

Key considerations
Perhaps your greatest consideration for your event planning and production will be your overall budget.  Basic one-day meetings for 200 to 300 people average around $25,000, and large functions can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. You need to set clear limits on what you can spend so you're not tempted by services you can’t afford.

If the costs are too steep, there are a few ways to save money without compromising the event:

1. Charge admission – Require a flat fee for the entire event or particular event sessions.
2. Get sponsorships – Invite other companies to sponsor your event in exchange for promoting their business at the event with signage and logos.
3. Scale down – While you may not want to compromise on the venue, consider scaling back on menu options or décor.

Even with these cost-cutting measures, you still might not be able to afford an event. If your budget is stretched to the breaking point, it’s best to wait until you can afford it. If you cut too many corners or pick the least expensive option at every turn, your event may suffer and put your company in a bad light.

When should you hold your event? Select a date where you can get the maximum number of attendees. It’s best to avoid scheduling around major holidays and school vacations, while other competing events are taking place, or during typical times of potentially inclement weather.

The location of the event can often be as important as the event itself. Do you want an area where you can entertain potential clients, or do you prefer a captive audience that won’t be tempted by local distractions? An event planner can offer a wide selection of destinations, from a quiet rural resort to a hotel in the heart of a big city.

When you find out which meeting spaces are available, make sure to arrange walkthroughs of the venues to determine the best fit. If you can’t see a particular site in person, the planner should provide a detailed blueprint and explain how the event will be set up.

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Event planning management services

In addition to overall preparation, event planners provide a wide range of event planning management services to keep the entire event flowing smoothly. Many of these services will be included in your standard rate:

• On-site management: Event planning management will remain on site for the duration of your event to make sure
everything goes according to plan. Together with your appointed employees, they greet attendees, set up an information desk, distribute event collateral, and resolve problems. More importantly, they perform dry runs prior to the event to ensure everything works properly, minimizing the chances of significant problems during the event.
• Budget analysis: Event planners keep you apprised of what your expenses are through each step of the planning process. You get ongoing reports which help you reassess functions that may need to be cut in order to stay within budget.
• Direct customer service: Planners handle phone calls and respond to email inquiries about the event.
• Marketing: Planners will help you promote the event through mailings, phone calls, emails, and advertisements to generate interest.
• Post-event activities: This includes tying up all the loose ends after the event – from handing out evaluation forms and tabulating results to reconciling all accounts to ensure everything is paid in full. They also meet with you to go over the final playbook and get your feedback to prepare for future events.

Subcontracting
With everything that goes into putting an event together, even the most seasoned event planning management professionals can't do everything. To handle certain tasks, planners often foster relationships with subcontractors who can provide you with services such as:

• Print work
• Video production
• Web site development
• Graphic design (logo, printed, and online)
• Promotional products (freebies to hand out at the event)
• Offsite activities and entertainment

Although the event planner may not offer these services directly, they should monitor all of the subcontracted activities for quality and assume full responsibility if something doesn’t live up to your expectations.

Guest speakers
To bring additional cachet to your event, event planners can work with agencies that represent speakers from business, entertainment, or sports.

Depending on your speaker needs and budget, an event planner can find you the speaker that best fits your needs. They can also provide speech writing and training for company executives who need assistance delivering engaging speeches to large crowds.

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Choosing an event planning coordinator

The ultimate success of your event rests in the hands of the event planning coordinator you work with.

A thorough evaluation process should help you choose an event planning coordinator who can make your event a smashing success. On the other hand, if you rush your decision or base it on price alone, you could wind up wasting time and money on a planner who doesn't get you the results you expect.

Start your search by considering the level of service you need. Basically, you have two choices:

1.   Site selection companies – These companies concentrate solely on researching event venues and hotel rates. Site selection companies offer a focused approach to event planning, but leave you to come up with additional resources to plan the other aspects of the event.
2.   Full-service companies – If you need a team of planners to do everything from event logistics to marketing, choose a full-service company. These all-inclusive providers are costlier than site selection companies, but you get the simplicity of dealing with a single company for all the preparation. Make sure you meet the entire staff and learn who will work on each aspect of your event.

Strong event planning coordinator attributes
Once you determine which type of event planning coordinator best fits your plans, look at individual attributes like these to help make your decision:

• Project experience – Whatever type of event you're planning – a complex affair for hundreds or thousands of attendees or a smaller event with specific service or production needs – make sure the event planner you choose has relevant experience.
• The proposal – Pay special attention to how event planners handle your proposal: Is the proposal easy to read with clearly outlined fees? Does it reflect the ideas and concerns you presented to them? Do they provide applicable solutions to your concerns?
• Communication – Before you select a planner, it’s important to feel comfortable with that person since you’ll likely work closely together for several months. Take the time to meet with the planner as often as necessary so you can voice concerns and ask follow-up questions
• Certified status – If you want to find the most reputable event planners, look for those who work with industry organizations like the International Special Events Society (ISES) to become Certified Special Events Professionals (CSEP). This honor is practice-based – ISES professionals observe event planners to ensure they demonstrated the skill and knowledge to become certified.
• Honesty – An event planner should be upfront with you throughout your working relationship. If your vision for an event isn’t realistic, they should let you know right away. They should also let you know if any of your ideas are off the mark or unethical. Event planners can draw upon years of experience to judge what does and doesn’t work, and they shouldn’t sit idly by just because you’re footing the bill.
• Problem solving – Almost any corporate event will have its share of problems, whether small or large. Look for an event planner who can quickly, creatively and calmly solve problems before they impact you or your audience. Ask for specific examples of problem solving in their past experience.
• Specific industry focus – While few event planners work exclusively with a particular industry planners may have direct experience working with businesses similar to yours. This affords you access to proven concepts that can help you develop more focused events.
• Address your weaknesses – Find companies that are strongest in the areas where you need the most help whether it’s finding a location, setting the agenda, or executing the details.

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Working with a special event planner

No matter how friendly or professional a special event planner appears, it can be difficult to take his word at face value – and you shouldn’t. To help ease your concerns, an event planner should maintain an event playbook throughout the planning process.

Event planners will use the playbook to detail all of their responsibilities for the upcoming event and track their progress along the way. This includes verifying that the venue is reserved for the selected dates, producing a list of the subcontracting services and rates, and managing the registration process.

The special event planner will keep you in the loop as they update the playbook so you know they are completing jobs on time. After the event, the planner submits the completed playbook to you for your records. You can then refer to the playbook if there are discrepancies with the billing or problems with specific aspects of the event.

Service contracts
The special event planner should also provide you with a contract that clearly outlines all their responsibilities before, during, and after the event. In the contract, the event planning company should outline all the costs and responsibilities, ensuring that there are no surprises when you receive the final bill.

One of the key elements of the contract is a service-level agreement which includes specific performance clauses. If the special event planner falls below a certain level of service, you are typically entitled to some form of discount or other compensation.

Contracts are usually set up on a per-event basis. However, if you are going to use the event planner to schedule multiple events, you may be able to negotiate a discount.

Post-event activities
Once the event is over, you should review your total bill and the final playbook to make sure everything is in order. This is also a great opportunity to sit down with your event planner and review the results of the attendee surveys and feedback reports to determine if there are ways to improve future events.

Regardless how your attendees felt about the event, you’re the one footing the bill so make sure you were satisfied with how it turned out. Don’t hesitate to let your event planner know if his or her work didn’t live up to your expectations. Since much of their business is built on repeat customers and referrals, they will want to keep you happy so you’ll consider them for your future event planning needs.

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Event Planning Services Pricing

It’s easy to experience sticker shock when you get an event planning services proposal. Depending on whether or not your event will include hotel accommodations, a big-name guest speaker, or multiple subcontractors, your event could cost as much as $200,000 or as little as $10,000.

For example, a three-day conference for 500 attendees who book their own hotel rooms could run $100,000. Absorb the costs of the accommodations, though, and you could spend as much as $160,000 to $200,000. However, a no-frills, one-day meeting for 100 attendees may only cost $7,000 to $10,000.

As part of overall costs, event planning services companies typically charge 15% to 20% of the total costs of an event for their services. For smaller events, event planners may require a fixed rate of $5,000 to $10,000 or more. They may also require a 10% to 20% deposit. It’s important to understand exactly what you get for your money before making the investment.

Event planning services cost breakdown
Basic event planning services typically include everything you need to hold a standard meeting – the meeting venue, food and beverage, general audio/visual maintenance, event set up, and post-event tear down. Expect to pay $50 to $65 per attendee to cover these costs.

Your costs increase significantly as you add services that require subcontractors. Add $165 to $190 per attendee for such services as basic video production, stage setup, design, printed materials, promotional products, training sessions, and more.

It’s important to note that these rates can fluctuate greatly depending on where you host your event. For both basic and subcontractor services, you’ll pay about $20 to $30 more per attendee in major metropolitan cities and $15 to $20 less per attendee in rural areas.

To save money, you can have your staff perform some responsibilities, such as registration and on-site management. While this may reduce your overall costs, it means that you’ll spend more time and resources performing these management tasks instead of focusing on your business.

Guest speaker fees
Prices for professional speakers can range from $2,500 to hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on availability, celebrity status, and skill set.

Since speakers can add greatly to your costs, you'll have to carefully weigh the benefits before making the investment. Will he or she make the event more memorable? Are sponsors likely to pay more so they can reap the promotional benefits of being associated with a notable name?

In some cases, the best speaker for an event may already work for your company. For $750 to $2,000, event planners can provide one-time speech consultations for your executives who need to brush up their public speaking skills. For more elaborate coaching, executives can undergo speech writing or team building training over multiple sessions for an additional $10,000 to $15,000.

Additional costs
You may also be responsible for various other fees. Many may already be included in a full-service event planner’s estimate. If they’re not, find out which of these services are included and which are negotiable:

• Hotels: $100 to $200 per room per night
• Team building event: $50 to $75 per hour project management fee (includes 20 to 25 hours of preparation and coordination)
• Custom web site for event registration: $5,000 to $7,000
• Video production: $3,000 to $50,000
• Security: $1,000 to $2,000 per day
• Rigging and electrical work: $3,000 to $10,000 per day based on complexity. Piping and draping for exhibit booths, for example, will be closer to the high-end
• On-site registration: $5,000 to $6,000
• Event planner expenses: $500 to $700 to cover air travel, hotels, and expenses for the on-site event manager and event planner

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Event Planning Tips

Unusual requests. Some businesses want to offer audiences something special from a professional dance troupe to live exotic animals. While this event planning tip would certainly grab your audience’s attention, such a request can add tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars to your total costs.

Air travel. Most event planners only handle ground transportation (limousines or buses traveling to and from the airport) and don’t coordinate air travel. In most instances, the attendees will make their own travel arrangements for the event. If you are part of a large company, you may have an internal group that coordinates your air travel; otherwise, you’ll have to work out a deal with external travel agents.

Consider the age of your attendees. Choose activities or entertainment that appeals to all, whether it’s the theme, music, or even speakers. It’s important to follow this event planning tip so you avoid activities or events that seem too “hip” for the older crowd or “ho hum” for the younger demographic.

Free perks. Since many hotels have to meet a specific quota, it may be difficult to get a volume discount beyond the standard corporate rate. Instead, your event planner might be able to leverage alternative perks for your patronage such as suite upgrades, limousine transportation, or free tickets to local events.

Speaking of perks… Here’s a final event planning tip: check with the event planner early on to find out who gets to keep any perks that a hotel or event venue provides. Some event planners have it in their contract that they have “first dibs” but you may be able to negotiate those benefits for yourself.

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