Stressed About Your Next Event? These Tips Will Help You Keep Your Cool

Pre-event anxiety is often due to uncertainty about the unexpected. Read on to learn how to avoid logistical nightmares, and breathe a little easier. As an event planner, you’re expected to coordinate what seems like a million different things, and something is bound to go wrong. So what do you do when the florist messes up your arrangement, or your keynote speaker gets stuck in a traffic jam? Being able to take charge during a crisis is what makes you such a successful event planner.

Collaborate with Your Team

Delegate Smaller Tasks Delegate tasks to individuals on your team. Trust in their strengths, and enable them to make decisions within their role – and save yourself from having to spend time agonizing over small details. The key to delegating is to “trust, but verify” – entrust tasks to your team based on their strengths, but set up checkpoints to make sure the work is getting done. Set-Up Checkpoints Our Cvent CONNECT team meets at least once a week to go over deliverables, align on smaller details and discuss upcoming tasks. Everyone collaborates within the same PowerPoint document and presents what they own at the meeting. This allows us to celebrate victories – and to discuss obstacles as a team. And if your entire team is working together to come up with a solution, that’s just one less thing you’ll have one your mind.

Embrace the Unexpected

Last Minute Changes – Work Them to Your Advantage We know that last minute changes are among planners’ biggest stressors. Great event professionals embrace these last minute changes, and work them to their event’s advantage. Remember Dreamforce’s Dreamboat? That innovative use of hospitality space was an idea born from a lack of hotel availability in San Francisco. Pretty brilliant, huh? Always Have a “Plan B” Let’s say your keynote gets stuck in traffic, or misses a flight on their way to speak at your event – what other entertainment can you pull up in the program so that attendees don’t notice that your keynote is late? Having an executive presentation on "standby" (have a new release ready? some exciting industry news to talk about?), or video presentation can help keep your audience engaged until your Keynote arrives.  Crisis – and stress – averted!

Bring Your Event to Life with Tech

Use Technology to Power Your Workflow Event planning technology is constantly evolving and improving. We use our own tools and technology to power Cvent CONNECT – from budgeting, to registering our attendees, to capturing leads, and getting real-time reports and analytics. Without it, we'd never be able to pull off such a complex event. Use Technology to WOW Your Attendees Along with onsite tools that make events run so much smoother (like onsite check-in & badging, mobile apps) you can also use technology to add an experiential element to your event: drones, robots and wearables are popping up everywhere. Giving your attendees a taste of the future will entice them to come back for more!

Conclusion

Taking charge of your event – and any issues that arise – is what makes you such an awesome event professional. Let us know how these tips helped you alleviate your event planning stress!