Six Top Tips for Creating the Perfect Event Brief

Whether your event is for 50 or 5,000, it’s important to create a detailed event brief – this will not only ensure you’re able to gather accurate costings and information from event partners, but it will also provide a comprehensive overview of your objectives and support you to develop an effective and measurable event from start to finish.

National Account Managers, Werner Van Wyk and Hannah Wyss share their six top tips for creating the perfect event brief below, supporting you to take those first steps in the planning process and sharing this with your event partner.

1. Has the event happened before? If so, what worked and what didn’t?

Event evaluations can take your event from strength to strength. Through this, you’ll be able to understand the impact of your event as well as providing evidence of successes and ways to improve your project performance.

It’s important to gather as much information, feedback, and data as possible before you start the planning process. This includes venues, event partners, catering, transport and more, as this will allow you to identify areas that delivered the necessary outcome and that need improvement, or adjustment. 

2. Know your intent, strategic direction, and purpose

Defining a clear set of goals and objectives for your event is vital from the outset – they may develop and become more refined as time goes on, but the foundations will remain.

Think audience, topics, business objectives, incentives, and of course the challenges that come with planning your event. This will allow event partners to provide solutions and options.

It’s vital you get the bigger picture from attendees and/or employees. Communicate with them around your strategy. Produce surveys and polls to understand where they’re currently ‘at’ when it comes to attending face-to-face, virtual or hybrid events.

3. Identify the best event format based on objectives and audience

How do you know which approach is the best for your event? This depends on several factors from event size and budget, through to timeline, agenda, geography of attendees and overall objectives.

Live events have the most effective form of communication and experience, virtual events deliver a faster turnaround and wider reach, while hybrid events provide the flexibility to reach the biggest number of attendees.

4. Harness the power of virtual experiences

There’s no getting away from the power of virtual events. We’ve worked closely with our clients to establish what works and what doesn’t across the last 14mths and with so many options at your fingertips, you’d be wrong if you thought you no longer need virtual events.

And let’s not forget that the digital content created can be repurposed and accessed even after the event and support future initiatives – keep connectivity front of mind and you can’t go wrong!

We believe virtual and digital elements are a vital part of any event experience and need to be integrated into your event and communications strategy. The value of face-to-face communication will never disappear, but even before the COVID-19 pandemic, Cisco predicted 82% of all internet traffic by 2022 will be consuming videos.

5. Shape your content plan

Content is king. Once you’ve decided on your event format and agenda, it’s important to apply this when shaping your overall content plan and brief. Without this, you risk receiving content that doesn’t meet your expectations, as well as budget. What has fallen short previously? What are your key messages, tone of voice and can you share brand guidelines and event identity?

We can support you across creative concept, graphic design, animations to Keynote and PowerPoint, through to marcomms material, distribution, website build and content – but what content will you manage in-house? What are the areas where you’ll need support?

6. Outline your budget

We understand this can sometimes be overwhelming. Before you do this, it’s important to dedicate time to lay the foundation for your event, through all of the above.  

If you can, evaluate the areas you over or underspent or overspent on. Remember, events can sometimes be unpredictable, but it’s important to engage with an event partner that can provide detailed costings.

Areas to think about when outlining your event budget:

  • Venue(s)
  • Speakers
  • Signage and branding
  • Content
  • Catering
  • Event staff
  • Furniture and other equipment
  • Attendee experience
  • Marketing 
  • Event technology
  • Logistics
  • Health & Safety

The bottom line…

Our National Account Managers and Project Managers are highly experienced in assessing, planning, and delivering engaging and effective events. For further details on how we can help your business realise your event and communications strategy now and, in the future, contact us.

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