When to Hire
Alex and Lauren reviewing the show script in the Food Lifeline warehouse for their Dress Down Hunger event!
[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Two people in patterned jackets are focused on an ipad between palettes of donated foods in a food bank distribution warehouse.]
With the fall fundraising season fast approaching, you may be asking yourself: When is the right time to hire a planner for my big event?
We meet our clients at all stages in the ideation and planning process and we’re happy to help along the way! We’ve assembled some general guidelines that may help you determine when the best time is for you to reach out and start working with a planner on your next event.
Ask yourself, “where are we, right now?”
“We’re going to do some kind of an event this year!”
You still need to decide what the event is, when to do it, and what the goals of the event are. Internally, you have a lot of work and conversation ahead, to bring all your stakeholders on board with the plan.
EVENT PLANNER? This is the *perfect time* to pay for a small amount of an event planner’s time (or, many event planners would be happy to do a short complimentary consultation to make sure you get off on a strong path). Lean on an event planner’s historical and current knowledge to help guide questions about time of year, hybrid vs. in-person vs. livestream, event style and format, and setting goals and expectations with your team and your community. You can then start discussing a larger contract for the actual event planning, if it’s a good fit!
“We've done our internal work, and our team has decided that we are doing a _____(type of event)__, about six - to - nine months from now.”
You're ready for a partner to help you orchestrate strategy, design, planning and production.
EVENT PLANNER? Yes, perfect! Now’s the time to start a serious relationship with your event planner, to bring purpose to your strategy, clarity to your process, line up the perfect venue and book the perfect vendor team. Your event planner will take you through all the steps from here to the finish line on budget, with minimal stress, and with maximum success meeting all of your goals!
“We’ve booked all our vendors, all our decisions are made. We’ve drawn the site map, planned our decor, finalized our menu, and written the script, everything is solid! We need help with the execution of the event day, because no one on our team wants that stress.”
EVENT PLANNER? All right, this is a somewhat controversial opinion … but we’re saying NO.
If you’ve already built all your plans and booked your vendors, it’s too late to get any advantages from working with a professional event planner. You’ve missed the opportunity to take advantage of our event design skills, industry connections, project management abilities, knowledge and experience. If an event professional agrees to take your ‘day of’ event management contract, they are going to be stuck carrying out a plan they didn’t write, alongside a vendor team who may or may not trust them, and this is an almost impossible situation for success. Your staff team will be constantly answering questions and filling in the knowledge gaps during the event. In the end (and we’ve learned this the hard way, a few times), you won’t feel like you had the weight lifted from your shoulders as you had hoped.
The money you’d invest in the day-of planner would be better spent on a wonderful post-event spa day (or a nice bonus or other reward) for the key staff people who step up for the stressful job of running the event.
If you find yourself in a different place or have more questions, reach out! We happily offer a free consultation to learn more about how we can help.
