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The How To: Event Planning

BY NICOLE FERREIRA, MACINSIDERS

Now I know you’ve all seen the millions of posters plastered on the walls around campus. Or how about the Facebook event invites or maybe just through word of mouth. McMaster has a ton of events going on all the time! I wouldn’t even doubt if we had at least one event going on somewhere on campus at least once a day. There are a lot of clubs on campus, departments and organizations so there must always be something going on. But with all of that competition, how do you make your events stand out? How do you get a huge turnout (since we all know you worked hard for your event to be a success)? Well, I might not be an expert, but I have been running enough successful events for the past two years to know a trick or two on how to pull off an awesome event.

First, know what you expect from the event. Make a list of goals you want to achieve. Do you want the club to get more attention or do you want a certain issue to gain more publicity. It actually can make a huge difference in the event. From there you’ll be able to move forward into the fun details!!

Next, you want to get working on those logistics. You don’t want to dive into the whole promotion part yet. Learn about the event. How much will it cost? Can the price be negotiated? What will the date be? Remember in elementary school when you learned about the 5 W’s? Well, they’re baaaack! Who is this event geared towards? Be specific. First years prefer certain events that upper year students might not be so keen on. I know that there doesn’t seem to be a huge difference in the age gap. However, upper years are looking to graduate and often want something that will be able to enhance their resume. Also, people vary between faculties are you catering to the engineers or more so towards the nurses. You may think well, I just want as many people as possible to come. However, when it comes to advertising you’ll need to know your main focus. What type of event is it? Is it gonna be a crazy night at Charlie West or the ultimate poker event? Are you trying to have a serious gala or a drunken fest (have fun with risk management for that sort of event by the way). Where will this event be? If it’s on campus or the surrounding area you’ll have a more successful turnout. I personally don’t want to go to Toronto to attend an event that someone is planning no matter how great it may be. I just don’t have the time, energy or patience to go so far. If it’s in the Student Centre in the middle of the day, a lot of people will walk by but will they stay? When will this event be taking place? Keep in mind that events in September and January get the biggest turn outs. How come? Well, there aren’t any assignments and people are returning from their holidays and still in party mode. Good luck with events in November and March! If you want a low key sort of event those are the ideal months since everyone tends to be crazy busy since all of the assignments are due and exams are only a few weeks away! Why are you running this event? Are you focused more on making a profit, gaining publicity, or to make students happy? Motives can definitely alter the success of the event.

Okay, let’s move onto the big part-- Advertising. Britney Spears’ latest album Circus has been very successful? Why? Well, yeah, she sure does look hot again but it’s because it’s been so pumped up! I have never in my life bought anything online but for some reason I felt compelled to buy the imported European edition of her album. Advertising can make or break your event. Don’t put up posters around campus the day less than a week before because people don’t normally stand and read them all. It tends to get overlooked during a walk-by. Also, do not spam the bulletin boards with a ton of the same poster. The MSU’s Promotions and Advertising Committee will fine you for breaking their policies so be sure to look over all of the rules in order to ensure that you don’t break them. If you want this event to be huge go all out. Put posters on every single bulletin board on campus. Make a Facebook event. Have a booth in the student center. With the student center booth make sure that there aren’t any cupcakes because people will ignore you faster than you can imagine. Students are generally pretty poor and we don’t like spending money when we don’t have to. We can survive without cupcakes. If you give free things you’ll get way more attention. Look at the MSU! Who doesn’t love those free T-shirts? Talk to people about it in lecture. Word of mouth is the most effective way to get people out to events. It is also the most time consuming so get started nice and early. Get your friends to bring their friends and so on out to your super awesome event. Networking is definitely key. One thing that has worked as an advertising technique for me personally is the Urinal Journal that I post on a biweekly basis in the washrooms at Whidden. I wouldn’t really recommend doing this outside of the residence system. However, if you are a IRC rep, CA or HPA in residence Urinal Journals are probably the best way to get students out to events. Every time they go to the washroom they’re reminded of the many things that’ll be happening around the building and campus. Lastly, MacInsiders.com is a great tool you can use to advertise your event. There are thousands of students registered for the website and check it on a regular basis. Getting the word out is really important since so much time and energy is put into these types of big projects.

On the day of your big event, hopefully everything runs smoothly. If it doesn’t, you can take it as a learning experience and change things up for next time. Not every single event run will be a massive success but they won’t all be massive failures either. I wish you the best of luck on your event!