What is your event? Is it a social event? A fund-raiser? A corporate event? The type of event you are hosting will shape how you plan and design it. A corporate anniversary party will be much different from a celebrity gala. The logistics and requirements alone are on separate ends of the party spectrum.
The three main types of events are social, corporate, and fund-raiser events. The most commonly thrown social events are weddings, showers, birthday parties, and bar and bat mitzvahs. When planning social events, the three event elements directly affected by what type of event you're hosting are the location, the entertainment, and your printed materials. Social events have the most flexibility for location choices. Weddings can be held anywhere from a beach, to a church, to your backyard, to a museum, to a mansion. Locations for social events are dictated only by capacity and availability.
The entertainment at a social event also has a lot of possibilities. Because guests at a social event usually all know each other (check out the "Who" section earlier on this blog), all sorts of entertainment are at your disposal. Dance bands, salsa dance instructors, face painters, and balloon artists all work at a social event but may not do so well at a corporate event.
The event element that can be the most difficult to handle for a social event is the printed materials. The invitations, "save the date" cards, place cards, escort cards, programs, and table numbers all have to accommodate a set of social rules that most people feel they need to observe. For example, if you're planning a wed- ding, the invitation must be worded in one way if the parents are paying for the wedding, a different way if the bride and groom are paying for the wedding, and yet another way if everybody's paying for the wedding. While the social rules for invitation language have eased up in recent years, wording on an invite, all the way through the program, can be a big task to take on. Corporate events, on the other hand, have their own set of unwritten rules that must be observed, and figuring out the best timing for these events is the most difficult part of the production process. Knowing that breaking point between fun and boring and appropriate yet original appears to hinge on how well you time out the entertainment and the length of speeches or how long you allow for dinner. The pace of a corporate event most definitely will make or break the event, making it a success or a bomb. We will try later to discuss the importance of event timelines and provide details about how to manage the flow of an event and create a successful event timeline.
One of the unwritten rules of corporate event planning is appropriate entertainment. For example, as event planners we have a client who, while fairly conservative, also likes to have original entertainment that the public relations world would say holds a lot of "talk value." This client is partial to entertainment that its clients will remember, perceive as high value, and then associate with our client. In essence, how we entertain and host the group will reflect directly on our client. We wanted to have a fabulous salsa band with Brazilian dancers in traditional Carnivale costumes at one of their events. However, once we saw the "traditional Carnivale costumes," we knew that the thong bottoms with feather bikini tops would be just over that corporate line of appropriateness.
Another entertainment area you need to be careful with is comedians. Some- times comedy can be too blue or not politically correct, so we always need to be mindful of whom we hire for which corporate group.
Fund-raisers can be touchy events to plan. You don't want to be too extravagant, yet you do want the party to be great enough that your guests know that they're getting something for their contributions. Fund-raisers have to walk that fine line between being wonderful enough to get people to keep attending every year and not so extravagant that it looks as if you're spending all the money raised. Budget is probably the key factor to watch when planning a fund-raiser. Two other event elements that are affected when planning a fund-raiser are the decor and entertainment choices. These two elements make a party its own. The decor and entertainment at an event can define that event.
What type of event you are putting together will show most directly how to pace your event. While the timing of any event is important, it is most crucial at a corporate function, where the atmosphere isn't quite as casual as at a family event or picnic. The timing at a corporate event often dictates the mood, but it's the entertainment that influences the tone at a social event or fund-raiser. Keep in mind what type of event you are hosting so that you can best apply your efforts to the most effective elements. Let's stop here for now,we will continue tomorrow.
Thank you and do leave your comments and questions!
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