Help Your Planner Win
Two of our wonderful event planners, Meera and Leela, are clearly winning during sunset on site at the waterfront for QLaw Association Banquet this past spring.
[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Two people with big smiles and their arms around each other pose in front of the sunset on a pier at the Seattle waterfront. The person on the left is wearing a royal blue dress and gold necklace. The person on the right is wearing a pink jacket, tan shirt, and pink pants with an abstract red print. Both wear pom-pom garlands around their necks as well.]
At Synchronicity, our relationships with our clients are key! We love collaborating. Whether you’re working with us, or any other event planner, here are a few of our top tips to help us help you!
Make the most of your planning meetings.
Convene the right people on your team! This will ensure that everyone’s time feels respected. Regular planning meetings should be held with a small, consistent team of people who are responsible for carrying out the event. It’s also important that this group is empowered to make decisions about the plan along the way. If your events team has to continually run decisions by another “big boss” for approval, that person should be at the meetings to make timely, informed decisions. Alternately, if there are several people attending just for informational updates, that’s a silly use of time — email updates before and after the meeting so everyone who has concerns stays updated.
Have a solid, if general, idea of your budget.
Of course, if this is a new event, we may not understand exactly how much your vision will cost until we start researching vendors. But you, as the client, need to put a clear cap on the entire project so we can get correct quotes for you the first time around. (For those currently doing a re-launch of your in-person shindig after a COVID hiatus, spoiler alert — whatever numbers were in your 2019 event budget will probably NOT cover today’s increased staffing, fuel, and food costs.)
Tell. Us. Everything!
When we get surprises on event day, we are then in the position of gracefully accommodating (or wildly improvising) rather than smoothly carrying out the plan. “Oh, of course our founder gives the welcoming remarks, and the front office staff does a Bollywood-style dance performance- that always happens, did we forget to tell you?” “Oh, my friend brought these cool vintage lanterns, can we hang them from the ceiling?” Event planners are magical and we CAN make all your dreams come true — but it’ll all be MUCH BETTER if we know (in advance!) what you’re dreaming of.
Make sure you bring us on board with enough lead time.
Being the magicians that we are, we are also often booked solid. This also often includes many of our favorite, quality event vendors. Call us as soon as you have any sense that an event is on the horizon! We do some of our most important work very early in the process; helping you clarify event goals, shape the event format, and choose a venue or event software platform. If you’ve already signed event vendor contracts or made any unchangeable decisions before bringing us on, we have fewer ways to help you build for success.
Hopefully these hot tips can make your next event planning process that much more smooth for you, and your planner! Thinking about hosting an event, but haven’t reached out? This is your sign! Check out our contact page and we’ll be in touch soon.
