It’s going to require a lot of planning, discipline, and grunt work on your part to make sure that everything works out for the best. Even then, it’s not always going to be a guarantee that you’re going to find yourself where you want to be with regards to your career goals.
Event Design and Conceptualization
Now that you’ve done all of your due diligence and preliminary consultations, you have to start designing, developing, and conceptualizing the event together with your stage production company. If you are a truly creative individual, then this is where you would be able to showcase your strengths. Based on all of the research that you’ve conducted and information that you’ve gathered, you must now come up with a rough concept of what the event is going to look like. If you have a team that is working with you, then consult them on their ideas as well. Most importantly, while you are conceptualizing the event, you need to consult your research from time to time just to make sure that all of your plans are in line and feasible.
Organization and Preparation
If you and your client reach an agreement on your event proposal and design, then you have to start making the initial preparations to lay the groundwork of your event. This is the phase wherein you start booking venues, hiring contractors, and contacting suppliers. A lot of the work that comprises this phase involves you being on the phone and setting appointments or booking slots with people. This is a process that can be made a lot easier when you have dedicated staff members who are paid to do this work for you. However, if you have to do this on your own, expect to have a lot of conversations with many different people. And it’s not enough that you merely book these contractors or suppliers. You have to make sure that they are doing everything that they need to do in order to be ready for the event itself. This means you have to conduct regular follow-ups and progress reports. It’s during this phase where a lot of the actual grunt work takes place.
Coordination and Management
On the day of the event itself, it’s all a matter of execution. If you did your job right during the previous phases, then you’ve already done a huge bulk of the work. However, as the cliché goes, it isn’t over until the fat lady sings. There is still a chance that certain expectations won’t be met on the day itself. This is why you have to be firing on all cylinders. As an annual dinner planner, you need to stay alert by making sure that all of the members of your team are doing what they’re supposed to be doing. Think of the event as a movie and you are the director who is getting everyone in line. Should any complications or emergencies arise, you have to be equipped to deal with them and make sure that the event as a whole is not compromised.
