Event planning process

Having a purpose for your event will help you figure out what your event will focus on and how it will be unique.

Watch: Everything you need to know about planning events with purpose (3:24 minutes)

This video explains why it is important to study the attendee profile before creating any event. How small decisions can significantly change the outcome of your event. An example of this is trying to resonate more with the attendee's own values to complement your events.

So, you know the game and name of the event, now you need to decide on the event format. Event formats were discussed earlier in the course in module 2, however, let’s recap.

• Single Elimination- is one best of 1, who ever wins that match passes and who loses is out of the tournament
• Double Elimination- players have two chances and can play the round twice.
• Round Robin- each player plays an opponent once in a round.
• Swiss-non-eliminating tournament format that features a fixed number of rounds of competition. This means, the number of rounds at the event is the organisers decision.

Many tournaments are carried out infront of a live audience at a public venue. However, in this case, we are organising an online tournament, therefore eliminating the type of set up required if this was at a venue.

While we are doing this online, we still need to think about where production may be held or where casters will cast from. For example, will it be from your rooms with a webcam at home?

You will need to ensure the equipment you are using for the virtual platform is in good working order. Including stable internet, power, functioning cameras, and decide who has the best settings to host the event.

People are going to have to clear their schedule and make sure their tuned into the live stream or able to attend in person. When setting a date, it is very important not to leave this until the last minute. This is particularly important for booking a public venue and ensuring the availability of attendees and the team working with you.

You may also have to think about how the date lines up with other events- do your research. Check what other events are being hosted at the time you are looking at hosting your own. The last thing you will need is event clashes and a number of people not being able to attend your event.

Save the date and working with deadlines

If not selected carefully, the date chosen can affect the following:

• Attendance
• Availability of resources
• Success of the event

There are certain things that you will need to consider when it comes to creating an event. Let’s take a look at these in detail.

Let’s get down to the nitty gritty details like the event budget. While you have recently learnt budgeting in our previous modules, we are going to take another look at it and how to apply it to the context of planning your event.

Budgeting

Budgeting presumes how we are going to make the event happen. It's an effective way to measure the resources we have and how much we need to create the event we all want.

So, budgeting is a detailed breakdown of expected expenses and revenue streams. It is also used for allocating resources to various areas of team operations.

Before we continue, we want to make sure that we have understood the following terms.

• Income: What money is coming in
• Expenses: what money is going out- what we are spending
• Profit: The extra money we have made by hosting an event.

Creating a budget

Creating a budget can be tricky. We have broken down a few steps to help guide you when it come to making a budget for the event.

1. Identify your income stream

Consider: How are you going to make money?

We should not expect our first events to make us money, but that does not mean we cannot imagine how we are going to make it. Ask yourself, where is the value of our event? Where is the value for other people?

So, identifying your income stream goes hand in hand with identifying where the value of the event itself is.

What do companies gain by creating events?

• Building a Database: How? Asking for participant information before/during and after the event.
• Finding Sponsors: How? Calling. Finding Brands that share your vision and aim to the participants that you have. There is no better way than introducing yourself, your intentions and the event. Sometimes you may not get help immediately, but you will be on their radar. And once you grow, they will be easier to get.
• Social Media Growth: In eSports everything is digital, social media is a part of us. Create ingenious ways for people to share your event. Start first with family and friends. Have realistic expectations.
• Networking: Creating an event is no easy task, this is a highly appreciated and valuable skill for production teams. If you create a good clean event, you may use it in the future as leverage to get a job.

When its Paid:

• Selling Tickets: If people want to come to your event, it's because there's value in them. First, build that value. Once you have created value start thinking about capitalizing it. Remember that people relate value with price so make sure you have
• Selling Merchandising: Having physical memorabilia from an event is one of the most sold products during events. People tend to remember things better if they have something physical
• Selling Sports for Brands: Commercial Alliances or Renting Sports for brands to promote their products or services. This is a great way to have extra revenue during this event.

2. Track all possible expenses

We need a structured way to keep track of everything we will need to make this event happen.

This is probably one of the most overlooked things when starting any event. It is said that we do not value what does not cost us. Well, we are sure that after being aware of what an event costs you may appreciate your time a little more.

What is an expense?

Expenses are any value you put in to create something new. This includes everything you put into creating something.

What kinds of expenses are there in budgeting?

There are 2 ways to track expenses:

1. Fixed Expenses (No matter how many of it we make the costs remain the same, example: renting a venue)
2. Variable Expenses (It fluctuates the more people we invite to our event, example: light, water, cost of our time)

3. Calculate the total

The final step is to calculate the total. Once you have established what you want to spend and tracked the expenses, add it together and see whether or not you have come in within the budget.

If your expenses have come under budget, you may be able to put the money towards additional advertising, purchase of merchandise etc. If your expenses come in over budget however, you will need to consider what costs can be cut to ensure your budget is met.

The challenge that the Online space faces

When it comes to the online space these events need to be adapted to the capabilities of the virtual space. As it can be more challenging to deal with problems on the distance, online events tend to be more prepared and way more structured than regular events.

Luckily for us, in this technological era of fast computers and fast internet, these challenges are clearly outweighed by the benefits of creating online events.

Check a few of the advantages and disadvantages that these events could bring: