3 Tips to ENJOY your event instead of stress about it

“Wow…I’m SO glad you thought of that – it hadn’t even crossed my mind!”

“That was the most engaged I have EVER seen our team.”

“I can’t believe how seamlessly fun was intertwined with our event theme & content.” 

“People are STILL talking about the event, and I keep seeing workbooks from the keynote talk on their desks!”

These are just a few REAL things clients have shared over the years after partnering with Elevate to bring their event to life. 

And the reason we’re comin’ right out with it in today’s blog is that aside from eliminating the plague of boring events and creating experiences people LOVE, ensuring that event planners/leaders actually get to ENJOY the event they work so hard to bring to life is truly our bread and butter 🤌

From the second a client says “we’d love to partner with Elevate!”, we’re thinking through the lens of how do we eliminate as much stress as possible so this client can, to some extent, participate in their event and enjoy the same takeaways as the rest of the team. 

Let’s cut to the real talk for a sec, though…because we’re certainly not oblivious to the fact that as an event planner, your duties and responsibilities on the day of the event will look vastly different than those in attendance. We know people will be looking to you throughout the event, and there will inevitably be troubleshooting, etc to walk through. 

Our goal is simply to work alongside you to enjoy the event as much as possible, and the BEST way we know to do that (proven successful at hundreds of events) is to eliminate as much stress as possible. 

You’ve probably heard us talk about one of our missions as an event planning company, which is to think about the details so YOU don’t have to. It’s our joy to think through all the nooks and crannies of your event, ensuring that nothing slips through the cracks. In conjunction with bringing unparalleled engagement and FUN to your event (no matter the theme, size, etc), THIS is the “secret sauce” to eliminating stress from you and your team and empowering you to show up to your event in an energized, confident manner. 

Alas, whether you’re able to join forces with us to bring your event to life OR you’ve gotta fly solo on the next one, today we’re sharing 3 Tips to ENJOY your event instead of stress about it…

Plan Ahead.

There is NO such thing as planning too far in advance for a slam-dunk event, okay? There’s just not. In fact, the sooner you can begin planning, the more margin you have which (IYKYK) is the best thing ever. 

Beginning with the bottom-shelf event details like dates and location, and following those plans with a general run of show (know what that is?) will set up for success from the get-go.

There’s a noticeable difference in the energy of someone who starts plans as soon as possible vs. those who wait until the last minute - we’re just calling it like it is.

Of course, we know there are some situations where you simply can’t plan as far in advance as you’d like to: maybe an event gets scheduled last minute, or your budget hasn’t been approved yet. Regardless, there are specific things you CAN do to start putting plans in motion, no matter the status of your timeline or budget, all of which will plant “no stress seeds” (i.e. set you up for success on the day of the event). If you need help with this, just drop us a line and we can shoot over some helpful information. 

Invest in Great Partnerships.

After producing hundreds of events, we have seen *time and time again* the TREMENDOUS benefit of investing in great partnerships. 

Here’s the deal: this one isn’t always necessary, but when there’s an opportunity to partner with an expert in something like event production, A/V, keynote speaking, emceeing, photography, videography (you get the jist), it is SO worth it.

Why? 

When you invest in great partnerships, you get to offload certain responsibilities to someone who is actually an expert in that arena. 

You’re not leaning on your VP of IT to get on stage and cue transitions in a fun and engaging way.

You’re not solely depending on the accounting intern to capture social media content. 

You’re not entrusting the theme/content to someone who has never given a keynote speech in their life.

You’re not sitting on the edge of your seat, all tensed up and crossing your fingers that you planned for all the details correctly.

See what we mean?

Partnering with the RIGHT partners (this is key) is a remarkable way to limit stress and ultimately feel less alone in the whole event process. 

Communicate, communicate, communicate.

Boy oh boy, do we LOVE the power of communication. 

And this, friends, is a key differentiating factor between event planners we see enjoying their event and those who are stressed to the max (another moment of real talk). 

Listen, we’ve all got a little “control freak” inside of us - we get it and we’d be lying if we said we didn’t feel this ourselves. But keeping everything inside/thinking you have to do everything is just not an effective way to create a great event and DEFINITELY not a way to decrease stress. 

Planning an event is a LOT of work, no matter the size, and communicating with your team + delegating to team members/partners can truly change the game in the best way possible. 

There are several ways to implement strong communication into your event planning process as well as day-of, which you can read more about HERE. 

–

The bottom line is this: being an event planner or the person on your team responsible for creating experiences people love and remember (even if “event planner isn’t your actual title) does NOT mean you should have to carry the entire load. Despite popular belief, event day doesn’t have to be a stressful, crazy situation. 

You can show up to the event you worked so hard to create in a calm, excited, and energized fashion. In fact, that’s exactly what will allow you to serve your team members/clients in the way you desire. Implementing these 3 tips will set you up for success, and if you need a little more insight OR want to partner with Elevate to help with all of this and more, we’d love nothing more than to connect. CLICK HERE to shoot an email to our team, and we’ll be in touch within 48 business hours.