Conceptualizing an Event

Anticipation: This is usually through the marketing and publicity materials where the attendees will get a feel of what to expect at the event.

Arrival: This is what greets the attendees at the start of the event. As they say, first impression counts, it is therefore important to ensure that your attendees have a good start to your event. A few areas which you may wish to look into include:

• Travel Arrangements - How easy is it to make travel arrangements to attend the event? This can usually be solved by appointing an official travel agent who takes care of your attendees' flight and accommodation.
• Meet & Greet - This can be in the form of meet and greet service upon the attendees' arrival to the destination of the event. Are there nice welcome signages at the airport? Are the guests properly directed out of the airport? If you are expecting some VIP, you may wish to have a luxury car pick him/her up from the airport.
• Parking Services - If you are guests are driving in, are there sufficient parking facilities at the venue? Will there cars be safe? Is it possible to obtain complimentary parking?
• Registration - Some events encourage their attendees to pre-register before their arrival. If so, are their badges ready or so they have to wait 20 minutes to collect their badge. Some organizers will work with the official travel agent to put their badges in the rooms of the attendees when they check in.
• VIP Security - If you are expecting a famous personality, you may need to deploy more security personnel for the guest/s as well as arrange for a separate area to check in the guest/s upon arrival.

Atmosphere: What the attendee see when they enter the event venue will help to set the mood for the event experience. There are some of the physical environment which matters:

• Décor - The décor need not be elaborate. It needs however to fit in with the attendees' expectations. Basically, a event for the family is expected to be colourful with lot of family friendly decorations such as balloons, streamers, etc.
• Furnishing - To create a holistic event experience for the attendee, the décor will need to blend in with the furnishings rather than stick out like a sore thumb.
• AV Equipment, Lighting/Soundscaping, Staging - An attendee attending a concert by a high energy band will most probably expect special effects such as laser lights and pyrotechnics.
• Special Storage - Some events, such as magic shows and mega concert productions will require special storage areas and requirements.

Ambience: The theme of the event and the décor that have been put up to blend with the theme will have an impact on the overall mood of the event.

Activities: Depending on the nature of the event, there are a number of activities and entertainment which an organizer can provide. Here are some event activities which can be considered:

• Tours - this can be organized as part of the event, such as a site tour, or at the end of the event day as part of the recreation programme.
• Speakers - this is applicable for B2B events such as conferences and workshops.
• Ceremony - this is organized with the purpose of recognizing an individual's or company's contribution to a particular cause or as per predetermined criterias such a 5 year long service awards or a event preceding or at the close of an event. e.g. an opening or closing ceremony.
• Games and activities - this is applicable for celebratory events or informal corporate events such as team building.

Appetite: There are a number of F&B requirements to take note of:

• Menu & Beverage Preference/Restriction - Do you prefer sitdown or standup, buffet style, cocktail style, sitdown dinner, etc?
• Dietary Requirements - Do you have Muslims, vegetarians amongst your attendees?
• Specialty Items - Are there any special item that you need to include. If you are organizing a Halloween event, it will make sense of have a pumpkin of sorts as part of the menu.
• Special Wait Staff Attire - If it is a dress up party, you may wish to have the wait staff dress up to blend in.
  

Amenities: There are a number of giveaways in which you can offer to the event more memorable for your attendees.

• Gifts
• Awards
• Merchandise
• Conference Materials
• Prizes

• WHY - Why is the event being held? What is the objective of the event?

• WHO - Who are the stakeholders in the event? You need to try to accommodate to the preferences of various groups of people. Naturally the attendees would be the most obvious. What is their profile and what form of entertainment they would prefer. But consider the less obvious stakeholders such as the sponsors, the VIPs attending the event, your event partners, the authorities, etc.

• WHEN - When will the event be held? It can be a little ridiculous to theme an event a Christmas theme in the middle of October.

• WHERE - Where will the event be staged? Venue considerations are important. Certain venues have their own restrictions such as fire and safety restrictions, maximum floor load restrictions, height restrictions, etc.

• WHAT - What is the event content or product? What is the message that you wish for the attendees to take away with? What are the deliverables such as documentation, door gifts, etc, which you can give away to aid in the message delivery.

• Marketing Materials - The first point of contact will be the marketing materials notifying the attendee to the existence of the event. The attendee will decide if he/she wants to attend the event based on the marketing materials.

• Entrance & Atmosphere - This will be the first point of actual contact onsite at the event. This will be what greets the attendee when they arrive. If there is a string quartet playing at the entrance of the event when they arrive, the attendees would expect the event to be rather formal and business like as compared to a balloon sculpture welcoming the guests at the reception.

• Themes & Design - The event theme and design will set the mood and tone for the event. When an attendee walks into a brightly decorated room, they will anticipate some form of excitement or entertainment as part of the programme as compared to an event with just a simple backdrop.

• Food & Beverage - Food can create a lasting impression. This will add to the attendee's impression of the event. The attendees will equate poor quality food with low budget and therefore low quality of event.

• Entertainment and Activity - The organizer will need to ensure that the event activities and entertainment is appropriate for the nature of the event. For example, an activity during a dinner event will probably be a lot more fun, exciting and noisy than an activity during a conference.

• Amenities and Souvenirs - You will be surprised how important souvenirs are. Good, nice, high quality and practical souvenirs are kept by attendees for long periods of time. I still keep a very nicely designed coaster which I collected at an event 4 years back.