The Christmas festivities are over, and we are now in the final quarter of the financial year. After organising the work Christmas party, you were probably hoping now you could sit back and relax for a while. But planning events takes a lot of time and attention. There’s so much to consider and organise. Your next big event is likely to be your end of year function. Leaving the planning of this to the last-minute will not only cause you stress, but you could also lose out on booking your preferred venues and suppliers. Here are four reasons why you should start planning your end of year function now.
Limited options
A lot of organisations book their events months, or even years in advance. Leaving your event until the last-minute limits the options available for venues and suppliers. If you want to secure a particular venue, you may find they’re already booked up or perhaps don’t have the size or times available that you need.
The same goes for suppliers. If you want to book a specific speaker, entertainer, event planner or decorator, they could also be booked out by the organisations that have already planned and booked their events.
Book early to avoid disappointment!
Low attendance
If you’ve left the planning until the last-minute, the chances are you’ve also not advised your attendees of the date and may find they already have plans or personal commitments, such as childcare to consider. This can lead to a poor turnout. You’ll probably also be tied in on numbers at this point too so will have to pay for the delegates even if they can’t make it.
The results – an unsuccessful event and poor return on investment.
Everything becomes more expensive
With a lot of companies and venues being booked up, it limits your options, but you’ll also find that a lot of things become more expensive nearer to the date when booking last-minute. Suppliers tend to spread their bookings throughout the year. They may be able to accommodate a last-minute request, however, to pull everything together at the last-minute adds extra hours and strain on them, so they will charge you for it! This can lead to overspending of your budget or having to cut things out of your plans to accommodate the unexpected increases in costs.
You won’t have time to think of everything
Time is a big aspect of why you shouldn’t organise an event last-minute. If you’re rushing around, trying to pull an event together at the last-minute, it adds additional stress and strain to the organisation. However, it can also mean that things get forgotten or missed. You can find yourself thinking of the bigger things but then overlook the finer details. The more time you have, the better to properly organise and plan every tiny detail of your event.
So, what do you need to be thinking about now for your year end function or next event?
When?
Picking the date is one of the first things you should organise. Will you hold it straight after the financial year? Are there any other big commitments or meetings? Does it clash with school holidays when some employees will be off? What day of the week would work best? During the week or weekend? Will it be during the day or an evening?
Consider all the options before deciding on a date and it’s always a good idea to have a couple of potential dates if you can if you have a specific venue in mind.
How much?
Setting a budget is another very important aspect to planning your event. Depending on the size of your budget, depends on the type of event you can hold, where and how many people can attend. Speak to your finance department to gain an idea of budget or if it’s your first event, you could speak to an event organiser to ask for an approximate cost of how much should be budgeted per head.
What?
Will it be a formal cocktail celebration or a simple sit-down dinner and dance? Would you have any team building exercises? Are there any other meetings that need to happen around the event?
Who?
Is the event open to all employees or limited to certain departments? Is there a rota of who attends each year? Do you have remote or field-based staff? How many employees will be invited?
Where?
Once you’ve decided who is going to come, it can then dictate where the event will be held. If all employees are local and reasonably central to the offices, then picking somewhere fairly local is a good idea. However, if you have employees who commute in from different areas or if you have field-based employees, it’s important to consider the logistics of how they would get to the event and home again after. Would they need any overnight accommodate if travelling far?
If you’re looking for support in organising and running your next event but don’t want the stress or hassle then get in touch with VASS. We have a team of experienced event managers who can take care of all the details, leaving you the chance to sit back, relax and enjoy! Call us now on 020 3370 4075 to find out more.