Picture this, you spend three months planning your biggest event yet and the day comes and things start to go wrong. If you're an experienced event planner then you know this is bound to happen, but if this is your first event you might be caught off guard. Here's a list of things that can and might go wrong at your event. If you know them now, it could save you later!
Things That Go Wrong at Events
- Weather
- Run out of food
- Speaker gets stuck in traffic
- Attendees don't show up
- Not enough event space available
- Bar tab goes over budget
- Not enough seats
- Too hot/cold
- Theme fell flat
- Speaker drops out last minute
- Food doesn't meet expectations
- Fire
- Power outage
- Missing event items
- The stage isn't set up right
- Attendees are confused
- CEO is unhappy in general
- Way too much leftover food
- Speaker content is poor (offensive, not funny, dry, etc.)
- Important members are late
- AV company makes last minute changes
- Food is left out from the BEO
- Scheduling is off
- Transportation mishap (falls through, late, accident, etc.)
- Forget to share documents beforehand, like PowerPoint presentations
- The speaker goes over time
- Not enough break time between segments
- Not enough water
- DJ plays a bad set
- The event is short-staffed
- Not enough parking
- More guests arrive than RSVP'd
- Parking is too far away
- Losing attendee attention
- Epic queues
- Something in the venue breaks (pipe burst, flooding, etc.)
- Event manager for venue doesn't show up
- Main event contacts don't answer their phones or go MIA
- Road blockage right before the venue
- Attendee/staff/speaker flights get delayed
- Medical emergency
- Forget to provide dietary options for food
- Bathrooms out of order or not enough of them
- Rooming issues (not enough rooms, last minute cancellations, wrong room assignments, etc.)
- Political incident
Now that you know 45 things that can go wrong at events, you're prepared for the worst! Hopefully, you avoid most of these, but you never know what will happen.
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