6 tables to help you sort out offline event planning and execution!

The planning of offline activities is similar to the planning of online activities.

Most of the time in the planning stage, you need to consider 6W1H:

why——what——who——where——when——Which——How

Translated it becomes:

Why - What to do - Who - Where - When - What channel - How to do it

Well, Northeastern dialect is so easy to understand.

In order to make it easier for everyone to remember and skillfully apply these common logics like me.

I made a special logo for the official account, you have already seen it.

Yes, it is the fox icon in the picture below.

The six triangles that make up the torso represent six Ws, and the eyes represent an H.

The torso and head in the middle are a funnel shape, representing two points:

First, time is limited, so we must make good use of it;

The second is that propaganda has a critical point. Once it passes the critical point, the communication enters a new level.

Hope you like it.

Now, let’s get back to the topic and continue to look at the content of the offline activities. In my opinion, when doing an offline event, we can roughly divide it into two parts.

The first part is the planning of the event.

The second part is the execution part of the activity.

Considering that there are thousands of types of activities in the world, most of the offline activities discussed in this article today are offline activities held by Internet companies.

When making an event planning proposal, we need to convince ourselves of the following. Why convince yourself? Because I feel that only if I write a plan and convince myself can I infect others.

First of all, we need to think clearly about why we want to hold an event? What is the purpose of the activity? What goals do you hope to achieve through this activity?

As a planner, this is why it is so important. Many novice planners habitually accept instructions from their superiors and bosses and decide to organize an event on the spur of the moment. However, why we should organize an event, what role this event can play, and whether it can play the corresponding role as the boss said, actually need to be further explored.

Moreover, when you have clearly defined the purpose of the activity, it will be easier to stimulate your subjective initiative when doing subsequent planning. Otherwise, it is easy to do an activity and end up with a set of programmed processes every time, and it is difficult to evaluate whether the final effect is good or bad.

Most companies consider doing an event from the following perspectives:

• Brand enterprises: expand new users, promote the activity of old users, and increase brand awareness.
• Enterprises on the platform: expand the platform brand's visibility and market share on the B-end and C-end, and help the B-end and C-end match resources.
• Party B Company: Further contact with potential Party A customers through forums, sharing sessions, exchanges, banquets, etc., and highlight the company's new research results and professionalism. Create opportunities for collaboration.

Based on these different purposes,

Companies of all kinds will try to achieve their goals through various activities.

We roughly have the following form:

• Individual: weddings, parties
• Internal: Annual meeting, team building
• External: media communication meetings, salons, investment promotion meetings/order meetings, new product launches, summits, forums, pop-up stores, exhibitions

When we have a general understanding of the purpose and form.

The next concept that needs to be introduced is standard.

After each activity, we should evaluate it through a series of criteria when reviewing it.

“Whether an event is well run or not.

What is good is good, what is bad is bad."

The above sentence is a sentence that a leader I respect very much likes to say, and it has high practical application value.

For example, we can judge whether most offline activities are qualified from three aspects.

• The first aspect is sales. If an event has a sales link, then dimensions such as sales scale, sales volume, average order value, and profit are very necessary.
• The second aspect is the communication dimension, which involves calculating the investment costs based on different channels and media, and comparing it with the average level of the platform to obtain the amount of communication.
• The third aspect is whether the experience of offline activities is good enough. Whether the activity is orderly, the process is smooth, and whether the evaluation of participants is satisfactory without any jams or embarrassing points.

We will discuss the above three points in more depth later.

Let’s go back to the event planning part.

When planning an event,

When we are clear about the purpose and form,

We need to solve many detailed problems next:

1. Time and location of the event;
2. The process and creative highlights of the event;
3. Make corresponding arrangements according to the theme and creative points of the event;
4. If you plan to bring in sponsors, then make a plan for the sponsors' returns.
5. For example, the amount of communication, the channels of communication, the number of materials placed on site, the number of times the host broadcasts, etc.
6. Participating guests and KOLs and users to be invited;

Today’s article will not go into the details of event planning. I would like to focus on sharing with you the preparations needed for event execution.

According to simple statistics, there are probably several tables that we often use when executing activities.

1. Material list for event site layout;
2. Staff contact form;
3. The flow chart for the day of the event (the time node chart for the early stage is calculated separately);
4. List of guests to be invited (a seating chart is also required in practice);
5. Activity communication rhythm table (early warm-up, mid-term preparation, late communication);
6. Activity effect statistics table;

I have systematically sorted out the above tables based on the activities I have participated in, so the following tables can be said to be a universal and complete activity template.

Let’s look at them separately.

1) Material list for event site layout;

As the name suggests, one of the most labor-intensive aspects of most offline activities is the layout of the venue and the preparation of related materials.

Many venues are divided into inner and outer fields.

Hundreds of people attend a press conference.

Any inadequacy of arrangements may cause delays in the overall process.

In June 2015, the Mavericks held a press conference at 751 Cans.

The event was originally scheduled to start at 2:30, but at 1:30 we suddenly discovered that the seating chart for the guests was not prepared.

There are no guest names on the seats.

So at 2 o'clock the boss asked someone to start drawing the seating chart. By 2:30, we found that it would actually take another hour to post the printed seating chart.

There was no advance arrangement of etiquette in the process to guide everyone to their designated seats.

So, as someone in charge of the backstage, I made a temporary decision not to put names on the seats.

After entering, everyone can form groups and take seats freely.

So the event went on as usual without any further delay.

As it turned out, the guests and media friends basically just said hello and then a large group of them took their seats nearby.

If we really do as we hope and everyone finds their names and takes their seats, there is no way we can guarantee that the event will start normally.

2) Staff contact form

It is particularly worth noting here that the content that photographers and videographers shoot should be planned in advance.

Pre-shooting communication needs to be carried out according to the media and channels to be disseminated, in case the photographer acts on his own and misses some important scenes.

At the same time, if there is a live broadcast at the event, it is best to rehearse in advance.

To determine whether there is a network on site and whether the network meets the standards.

As well as whether the director is proficient in control, whether smooth image switching between several camera positions can be achieved through the console, and whether the sound is clear.

Whether a host has been arranged in advance for interaction with the live broadcast audience.

We once had a situation where we didn’t have a host for the live broadcast when we were doing an event, and the audience just left after watching it because they found it boring.

We also encountered the situation where the venue was unable to rehearse in advance, which resulted in difficulties in using the on-site console and an accident where the live broadcast had no sound.

The most important thing to pay attention to when doing an activity is to have two to three friends to take overall control.

The role of the general controller is to carry out detailed division of labor among the people under his management.

An event involves a lot of staff.

Therefore, it is imperative that everyone knows each other’s contact information clearly.

This way, no extra time will be wasted when you are on the scene.

3) Activity flow chart

The following example is a flow chart for the event day.

It is mainly used to inform the participants of the event so that they can clearly know the event process.

In addition, in theory there should also be a table for preparation work before the event.

We will exclude this for today, because activity preparation is actually a summary of the various types of content listed in the other tables today.

Knowing the activity process clearly will help the staff to prepare for various tasks in advance.

For guests participating in speeches and performances, they can also be prepared in advance without panicking.

Especially for large-scale events, the best way to avoid mistakes is to rehearse in advance.

Only after previews and rehearsals can we avoid mistakes to the greatest extent possible in the formal activities.

For example, temporary props are not prepared enough, or you find that the content of the speech needs to be adjusted during the speech.

For example, during the award ceremony, we found that we had not thought through in advance the coordination between the person going on stage to receive the award and the presenter, which resulted in the presenter not being able to find who was receiving the award.

For example, we have seen countless times in the news that celebrities have had disputes with security guards for their fans because the security guards were too conscientious.

Inadequately prepared offline activities always lead to endless troubles.

Just like Murphy's Law says, the more you worry about something, the more likely it is to happen.

4) List of invited guests

For invited guests, the most important thing is to make them feel that the event is going smoothly.

Even in some events, it is not necessary for the guests to arrive at the very beginning, just prepare a few special links and time points.

Otherwise, the most important guests will have to wait the longest. Then the experience must be terrible.

During the invitation process, details such as transportation methods and parking plans should also be taken care of.

In order to ensure that the event is not delayed, it is best for us to ask for the emergency contact information of a few guests, just in case.

5) Series of tables – activity communication rhythm table.

We need to make good communication plans in the three stages before, during and after the event.

Early stage

Mid-term

Later

6) Activity effect statistics table

As mentioned above, the activity effect is what we care about most.

How much reading, traffic and conversion leads do different channels bring in a certain period of time?

After multiple observations along the same dimension,

We can use data to track the effectiveness of an activity as soon as it begins.

The ultimate goal, of course, is to find more efficient and valuable channels and keep digging deep into them.

Author: Wang Weichen (Xia Fox)

Source: Wang Weichen (Xia Fox)