An offline event planning and execution form to help you sort out your thoughts!

I have been collecting cases and organizing materials recently. Prepare to write an article about how to plan and execute offline activities . After this month, I will be entering my eighth year of work. In these 8 years, I have participated in many offline activities. Some are self-hosted, some are participated in, and some are observed through video. Some activities may appear to be smooth and peaceful at the front stage, but in fact there are many problems in the execution behind the scenes.

So after observing a lot, I gradually sorted out some experience in doing offline activities. Today I would like to organize these experiences and discuss them with you. 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.

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 event, it will be easier to stimulate your own initiative when doing subsequent planning. Otherwise, it is easy to end up with a set of programmed processes every time you do an event, and it will be difficult to judge 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, various companies 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 event, when reviewing it, we should use a series of criteria to evaluate "whether an event is well organized or not. What are the good aspects of the event? What are the bad aspects of the event? "

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, once we have a clear idea of the purpose and form, we then need to solve many detailed problems:

Time and location of the event;
The process and creative highlights of the event;
Make corresponding arrangements according to the theme and creative points of the event;
If you plan to bring in sponsors, then make a plan for the sponsors' returns.
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.
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.

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

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 indoor and outdoor areas. Hundreds of people participate in a press conference, and any inadequate arrangement 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. The second table is called the staff contact table

It is particularly important to note here that the content to be shot by photographers and videographers must be planned in advance, and pre-shooting communication must be conducted based on the media and channels of dissemination to prevent the photographer from acting on his own and missing out on 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.