Setting Your Event Goals

Before I begin planning any event, I start with the event’s purpose and goals. For many, outlining the purpose of the event is the easiest. For instance, when I work with corporate companies, they tend to have a good understanding of why they’re hosting the event and for whom, which is the event’s purpose. I might receive a request for a launch event for a new product, and they want to invite investors, press and influencers. However, when I ask what the goals for the event are, that's where it can become unclear, for both for-profit and nonprofit organizations. That's understandable. I know the first answer that comes to mind is probably, "To make money, duh." Ultimately, everyone hopes to make money from their event. But listing that as your primary goal will create a few problems.

The first problem with profit being the sole or primary purpose of the event is that that mindset will lead to a poorly executed event. During the event process, there are opportunities to make smart budget decisions that won’t impact the quality of the event or the overall experience. However, when organizations plan with the sole purpose of making money, they often take away key design elements, thus stripping the event down to its foundations—venue, food, chairs and tables. The bare minimum does not inspire people to want to give or purchase. On the contrary, it gives the impression of "lacking" and guests often express low confidence in those organizations or businesses. After the insult of creating a visually unappealing and dull event, the drive to make money pushes hosts to be heavy-handed with call-to-actions to donate or to put in purchase orders. That's completely off-putting and makes guests less likely to spend their money. While making money from an event is always a goal, it shouldn’t be the ultimate or primary goal.?

Now that we've covered what shouldn't be your primary event goal, let's discuss more acceptable event goals. Below are the 4 primary event goals that I see most often while working with both for-profit and nonprofit organizations. As an aside, throughout each point my language will flow between corporate and nonprofit terms to portray how these goals relate to the different groups.

Brand awareness.?Events are the best way for people to learn more about who you are as a company or nonprofit. They can engage with your team and see your company’s personality, strengths and knowledge. That tells them a lot about your organization. In addition, where you host your event, the event activities you select and even your menu adds more definition to your brand identity. If you are hosting an event and you feel as though it could be an event for any company, then your event did not accomplish the goal of building brand awareness. People might attend the event and recognize your brand, but they will not remember your company, gain a deeper affiliation with it, or recommend others to patronize your organization/business.

Brand loyalty.?Perhaps your target audience is already familiar with your brand. The next step would be to build loyalty towards your company over your competitors.?Soda Company A wants you to always pick their sodas over those of Soda Company B. In the nonprofit world, it's the desire to get donors to fund your programs over similar charitable initiatives at other nonprofits. Ultimately, this is a goal to build long-term sales or donations. Throughout the event, special attention should be given to how the brand colors and characteristics of the brand identity are used in the event design and menu items. For instance, if you have a wilderness brand, then serving upscale sliders on wooden food trays makes sense rather than an event in a Greek museum. In addition, the activities should be engaging to both introverted and extroverted guests while staying true to your brand's mission and identity. This helps guests identify with your brand verses trusting they'll gravitate solely to marketing aspects of the event.

Fostering community.?As someone who was drawn to the event industry after witnessing how special dinners bring the most unlikely people together, the event goal to build community is dear to my heart. I think building community should at some level always be a goal of the event. Centering community means there's a special focus on hospitality, empathy and unity. Personally, I believe there's an innate part of us that desires community and gathering for our well-being, even if it’s only one major gathering a year. From the guest perspective, providing an experience that focuses on building community will garner a deeper appreciation of your organization and a long-term desire to see it do well.

Raising money for a specific cause.?It is perfectly fine to have the desire to raise money for a specific cause as an event goal. There's a slight difference between hosting a full event with the purpose of motivating guests to donate as a final push for a goal, versus solely wanting to maximize profits from an event. With a full-fledged event that has a message around a clear purpose and goal, guests are driven to help bridge the gap. They often come to fundraisers with the understanding of their donation funds for the year, so finding different ways to engage them in giving while also highlighting the support of their giving can be truly effective. For companies, it's slightly different. Most people are not that empathetic to a company expressing a need for more money to create a new product or service. However, there are always exceptions. Two exceptions that come to mind are investor days (where the goal is to convince analysts and investors to promote the purchase of their stock based on the company's history and credibility) and expo events (where people come ready to spend money on the latest technology or to put in purchase orders for products).

Before you plan your next event, I'd encourage you and your executive team to agree on the primary goal of the event, and then decide on the event message and structure to support said goal. If you need a professional event planner or designer, contact?Rielle Events, LLC.