Gather Your Ideas & Build a Strong Plan

Now that you have an objective, a budget, a team, and a theme, you need a place to record ideas. It's helpful to organize all of your ideas in one central place. My personal favorite is to set up a Google Doc and invite everyone to add ideas, but a Pinterest board, a notes app, or other shared idea board is also great. Choose what works best for your committee. Then, start adding ideas!

Here are some key elements to include as you brainstorm. How can each of these elements of an event contribute to the whole?

Y  Selecting a venue/location is one of the top priorities (in conjunction with the date and time) because many other aspects of the plan hinge on this.

Y  Then, consider the activity - a training, a party, a musical program, a reception, a fundraiser... which option best supports your objective? You probably already have ideas about which direction to go with this, but try to zero in on what would be most effective.

Y  Next, brainstorm what to do with the decorations. What will people see, smell, and hear as they enter the room? This sets the tone for the event.

Y  The food supports the activity. Consider a sit down meal, a light meal, snacks, drinks, or another option.

Y  Think of ways to publicize. What methods work best for your target attendees?

Y  Make sure to make notes about things that are specific to your event that are not on this list, such as hiring a photographer, printing training manuals, creating slideshow presentations, etc.

Y  You may also need to make adjustments to the budget if your expectations are incorrect or if you discover other aspects of the event you hadn't considered.

On your brainstorming document, just start linking to ideas. The more time you can spend brainstorming, the better. This gives you an opportunity to watch for more ideas. Keep following up with committee members if applicable and bounce ideas off of each other.

You've got this!

Christina
Abean Assist

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