1) Setting Your Budget Early
Event directors often have a long list of brilliant ideas for their event. However, these ideas can be dangerous if they’re too expensive to afford. Acting on too many cool ideas can prevent an event from profiting. To avoid putting your event into bankruptcy, make sure to set a budget – and follow it!
Once you’ve set your budget, make sure to communicate the budget to your team. It’s important to have everyone in the orgnaization on the same page. While some ideas may seem ‘fun’, make sure to balance what’s fun and what’s practical.
Areas to consider when budgeting include: rental costs, catering costs, transproration costs, event staff hourly fees, printing charges, etc.
2) Finding a Mentor
Even the most established event directors can benefit from a mentor. Your mentor could be someone who has managed your event previously, someone who has managed a similar event, or someone whose event has a similar goal to yours (i.e. raising money, raising awareness, etc).
A mentor is important not only to provide guidance, but also to help you avoid mistakes. Hearing what mistakes your mentor has made can help you avoid the same pitfalls at your event.
3) Making Sponsorship Fulfillment a Priority
Lots of event directors make the mistake of taking a sponsor’s money and never talking to them again. Don’t do this! Make sure to deliver on all promises to sponsors. If you want your sponsors to return each year, make sure to maintain your credibility. Fulfill promises early.
For example, one of my organizations recently sponored an event. In exchange, that event promised to write a blog post about our partnership. The event staff never wrote this blog post, and I had to follow-up twice. This experience left a bad taste in my mouth, and we will not be sponsoring that event again.
Give your sponsors the VIP treatment they deserve. If you do a good job, it will be easier for you to secure sponsors in the future.