The written event plan can be as short as one page or as long as a book. It depends on the level of detail or scale in the planning. This level of detail will depend on factors as
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Complexity of the event
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Scale of the event
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Familiarity of the event management, staff and suppliers with the type of event
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Legal and stakeholder requirements
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Time
The process of writing a plan aids in structuring the event. The plan is also a communication tool and a project baseline from which the event can be measured. It is not ‘carved in stone’, however, and will need to be revised as the event life cycle proceeds.
There is a risk that the written plan will become the master of the event rather that a tool for staging a successful event. The ASSESS-PLAN-IMPLEMENT-EVALUATE procedure is an oversimplification of the complexity of the overlapping processes. This is why, sometimes, event managers are reluctant to create mission statements and objectives. As the project management stages are very volatile and fluid, something committed to a plan on paper can become a millstone around the necks of the staff. Hence, it is important to revisit the plan and keep revising to keep the event on track.
The project management process applied to event management has a number of advantages. These include the following:
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Establishing a systematic approach to events. This means that clients and sponsors can learn from each event and identify areas for improvement, thus developing better events. Establishing schedules, tasks and responsibilities that fit into an overall system lets all parties involved know what they have to do and by when they have to do it.
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Depersonalizing the event. This means the event is executed as a result of the skills and knowledge of several individuals and several teams rather than just one person or a core group. No one person can take credit for the success of the event. The planning and implementation must be independent of any one person.
For instance, the success of an event doesn’t only depend on the best available Christmas party DJ in London. Every other individual including the organising company and all the other artists and performers contribute to the success.
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Facilitating clear communication. Using common terminology throughout the event and the stakeholders enables effective decision making. The event management team will have to communicate with the finance and marketing departments and systematic use of language in meetings and documents offers a transparent system of communicating.
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Ensuring accountability. This means that the document outputs of the project management process mean that the event will be fully accountable to the stakeholders.
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Increasing the visibility of event planning: too often, the corporate event management team is not seen to be working. The most visible result of the planning process is the event itself. All the hard work that is put into an event is not often visible to the client. A project management approach with the right reporting and documentation makes the entire process visible to the client.