Welcome to the Event Planning UK website. This website is designed for use by event planners, people looking to become event planners and individuals planning their own events.
Event Planning Worldwide
Although this is primarily focused on event planning in the UK much of what is covered here applies worldwide. The ideas, tips and processes will apply wherever an event is being held however some of the legalities may apply to the UK only and some of the companies mentioned throughout the website may only supply to customers in the UK in which case you will need to search out a similar supplier who is more local to you.
If you like a product supplied by a UK company then they may be able to ship abroad but please bear in mind that there may be weight restrictions, especially if goods are being sent to you by airmail, but sometimes there are lighter alternatives. Take balloons for example; balloons are quite light but a reel of ribbon and ready-made weights are relatively heavy and would push the package over the 2kg airmail weight restriction but some companies will supply you with d.i.y. decorating kits that include balloons, cut ribbon lengths and flat packed box weights (that you would then fill with a small sandwich bag of sand or stones) and as a result the package is much lighter and able to be sent to you by airmail. So it may be worth contacting suppliers by e-mail to see what they could recommend. However don’t forget that you will probably incur additional postage costs and the delivery times quoted will obviously be longer.
So What is an Event?
It’s when groups of people get together or are brought together, to celebrate or achieve something,
An event can be one of several things:
A Social Gathering – a family celebration, birthday party, wedding, graduation etc
A Corporate Affair – product launch, corporate training, office parties, team building etc
Entertainment Events – festivals, concerts, fashion shows
Charity Event – charity football match, golf day, fun run, auction.
What kind of event are you planning?
First you need to ask yourself why you are organising this event? What are you trying to achieve? Is it for fun, to increase sales or to raise money?
Below are a few things that you will need to take into consideration for each of the different event types. You will find more information in greater detail throughout the website as I continue to add more content.
A Family Occasion
Most people will be looking to organise a family get together to celebrate a special milestone in a family member’s life such as a birthday, graduation or wedding or perhaps a religious celebration such as a Christening, Holy Communion or Bar Mitzvah but sadly sometimes people will looking to arrange a funeral after the death of a loved one.
Whatever the occasion they all have a special meaning and you will want to arrange the best party you can for the person or people at the centre of the event. This doesn’t mean spending more money than you can afford, in fact just the opposite, you can’t have a good time if you’re worrying about paying for it. Planning an event can be great fun and very rewarding but you need to have a clear vision of what you want to achieve and how much you want to spend otherwise it can stop being fun and become stressful. The best way to ensure that everyone can relax and enjoy the occasion is to have a budget that you can afford and stick to it. It’s better to hire a village hall, have friends and family muck in to create a buffet, get an outside bar and hire a local disco than overspend by hiring a hotel and paying for them to lay on food. However if your budget allows then hire a hotel and let them do the work so you can just turn up 10 minutes before the guests and have fun!
A Corporate Event
If you have been given the job of organising a corporate event then quite a lot of the work may have been done for you already. You may have to find a venue that suits your needs but you will most likely have been given instructions on the location, eg. Proximity to the office, close to the station, airport, somewhere with parking, you will most probably have been given either a list of guests or a list to invite guests from with a total number to invite or cater for if paid guests. You will almost certainly have been given a budget and because it’s not your money it is easier to stick to that budget. There is no guilt about having to make a decision based on hard cash like there is when planning an event for a loved one.
A wedding fair, job fair or trade show would most probably come under the Corporate Umberella. These kinds of events are usually free for people to attend, sometimes an entrance fee is charged for trade fairs but this would depend on how much the stallholders were prepared to pay as a trade-off for the possibility of encouraging more potential customers through the door. Wedding fairs and job fairs are often sponsored by companies that have a chance of benefitting from the fair in some way eg for job fairs this could be companies that are regularly enlisting new staff, recruitment agencies and local job centres. If you are looking to organise a wedding fair then you want to approach venues that actively promote weddings in order to arrange a reduced fee as they also stand to benefit from the number of prospective brides viewing their amenities.
A Concert/Entertaiment Event
With a concert or festival it is all about finding the right venue. Are you looking for a recognised venue or hoping to keep costs down by using public or private land however with this option there are, of course, laws to be considered here as local inhabitants have the right to enjoy their day or evening too so if you don’t want to run the risk of being shut down by the police you will need to comply with a few rules! The other thing to be considered is whether you are planning to hold your event outdoors or indoors. I can’t speak for other parts of the world but here in the UK if there is one thing you can’t rely on it’s the weather. Well actually that’s not completely true, we can rely on it being completely unpredictable! If you are planning an outdoor event then you really do need a plan B, even if Plan B is for everyone and everything to get wet, you have to know what is going to happen if it rains!
Financially, your success or failure with this kind of event will be determined by the price of the ticket. Charge too much and you might not get enough people attending, too little and you won’t cover your costs. Are you doing this as a money making venture or is it just a fun breakeven affair? You need to work out the cost of the venue, the bands, advertising, staff, portable loos etc. and divide this by the number your venue will hold to get a break even ticket price but you also have to allow for the possibility of unsold tickets. Will you have other ways to make money if ticket sales are light? If you have hired a farmer’s field will there be car parking money? If there’s a bar or food are you charging them for a pitch or getting a cut of the takings? Are you selling merchandise? A lot of questions but you have to get it right otherwise you could be finish up responsible for unpaid bills!
Charity Events
Here the idea is definitely to make money but you have to ensure that everyone has a good time or benefits in some way so that it becomes a win win situation. There are so many ways to raise money now and most people are happy to give if they are getting something in return or it doesn’t cost them anything. What gets people down is continually being asked to donate for no return.
People can give their time by helping to organise and help out at the event, ask local businesses to donate a prize for a raffle or auction in exchange for advertising or, if appropriate, a free/reduced stall fee. Better still strike up relationships with local businesses where you can use their services at a reduced rate regularly, many would appreciate the extra work. If you need a venue then pubs, clubs and hotels may be happy to offer their facilities for free on a quiet trading night if people are going to be buying drink or food.
If you are planning a fundraising event then local schools are often happy to open their doors for a small fee to cover any necessary staff. If the event can involve pupils then parents or the PTA may happily get involved and supply extra free pairs of hands!
How can I help?
Your comments are welcome and please let me know below if there is something you were particularly hoping to find some information about.
