Presented by Student Services Event Planning 101 Presented by Student Services April 27, 2013

Why is event planning so important? Each organization usually holds at least one event per year Events attract members, provide networking opportunities, and create a legacy for the organization Events take more time and preparation than we ever anticipate The smoother your event runs, the more everyone can benefit from it Events are the things that make the student organizations world go around! Events create a legacy by leaving something for next year’s officers to aspire to or learn from, and the larger and/or most well-received events often become a yearly tradition for a club No matter how long you think it will take to plan an event, I promise you, it will take longer! It’s hard to enjoy your event if you are running around attending to last minute details. And if you are running around stressed out, your attendees may become worried for you and lose some of their attention for the event. There will always be some small things that pop up at the last minute, but me and my team have worked with clubs on hundreds events over the years, and we are here to share best practices with you! The more fiascos you can avoid, the calmer you’ll be when something small and unexpected comes up (and often it will).

Yes, you can do it! Don’t be intimidated by the number of steps in the process. We know you can be successful! My intentions today are not to scare you so that you’ll never want to have any events… please know that I believe every single one of you can host amazing events! At the end of this session, we will go over the Event Planning Checklist. It is a little long because there are quite a few steps and a distinct timeline for planning, but don’t let it overwhelm you. I’m sure some of your sessions today have touched on delegating – so be sure to do that – especially with event planning. It will make all the difference.

Objectives Types of events (location, purpose) Types of audiences or attendees A few scenarios acted out – what went wrong? Step-by-step look at the Event Planning Checklist Before I jump into the checklist itself, I’d like to give some background information on two of the most important facets – event type and audience. After we discuss those, we’ll show you some skits and see if you can figure out what’s wrong with each scenario. Then we’ll go over the Event Planning Checklist step-by-step.

Event types On-campus Meeting Speaker Fundraiser Networking event Career event Competition Off-campus Sporting event Career trek Virtual So let’s go over some of the types of events that you’ll come across, and possibly host with your organization. Step one of the Event Planning Checklist is to identify the type of event you’ll be having and the audience you’ll have. How many of you have been to a club-sponsored speaker event on your campus? How many of you have been to an off-campus networking event that was sponsored by a club? Has anyone attended a virtual club meeting or event using our video conferencing equipment, or using Adobe Connect? Great. So as you can see, the most common events are those held on-campus. These often require use of the most steps on the EPC because we have to notify so many different people. Can anyone add some on-campus types of events that I may have missed? Next we have several types of off-campus events that clubs often host as well. I may have missed some of these as well, but you get the general idea. Last but not least, we have virtual meetings or events that occur, although less often than the other two types. These are especially helpful when trying to be inclusive of students from multiple campuses, or with varying schedules. Some of the event types listed here take longer to prepare for than others. Can anyone give me an example from this list of an event that would take more prep time than most of the others? Can someone tell me one of the events on this list that would take the least amount of prep time?

Audience types Internal Carey Internal Hopkins External Club members and/or Carey students Carey faculty/staff/alumi Internal Hopkins Students from other schools at Hopkins Faculty/staff/alumni from other schools at Hopkins External Students from other schools Community professionals When it comes to audience types, there are really four of them, but I have lumped them into three categories here. First is a completely internal event – that means ‘members only’ or ‘members and potential members only.’ This requires minimal advertising and can take a little less time when preparing (depending on other factors, of course!) Second is ‘internal carey’ which can be ‘all carey students invited, or more broadly to include carey faculty, staff, and/or alumni. As you can imagine, timelines and procedures differ a little depending whether or not the audience is students only. Third is ‘internal Hopkins’ which involves the next level of advertising and a more extended timeline for preparation. Although these are considered ‘internal’ attendees, they require more prep time as far as explaining how to get to our building and in our building if the event is at our campus. This also means that you are representing our school to the wider Hopkins community and we want to look good and be well-organized! Fourth and most crucial for proper planning is ‘external’. This includes your speaker or speakers! Perhaps only members are invited, but if the speaker is external, the most care and preparation should be taken to ensure a smooth experience for everyone.

Event Planning Checklist Use the ‘Event Planning Checklist’ on www.careystudents.com to be sure you leave enough planning time and don’t miss any of the crucial steps

Thank you And don’t forget… Student Services is here to help you! You’re never ‘bothering’ us! We appreciate your hard work to provide extra-curricular activities for students!