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clipped from ezinearticles.com Event Planning Checklist Tips The key to successful event planning is being resourceful and avoiding uncertainties. The more you research your available resources, the simpler it is to overcome any obstacles to your objectives and pull off the perfect social function. When putting together any social function, business party, special event, or mini festival, you can’t begin advertising or producing promotional material until you have chosen and contracted a fitting location. Likewise, it would be putting the cart before the horse, to sign up a speaker or book your entertainment before your event visions have been brought clearly into view.

As the Mainstream Media denies Iran poses any threat to the free world while they test-fire missiles in defiance of said same free world that can reach Israel and its neighbors, it occurred to me that Iran is likely to now get a bad rap, even from the Mainstream Media, because even the most ignorant and/or liberal American can figure out that Iran possessing long-range missiles while refusing to give up its nuclear program cannot be a good thing.

So, I thought it would be a good idea to point out why Iran should NOT get a bad rap, especially when it comes to choosing a venue for your next event.

The following are the Top 10 reasons you should consider the country (or if you aren’t into the whole brevity thing: “Terrorist Sponsor Nation”) of Iran as your next event venue par excellence:

1 - No need for fireworks or pyrotechnic specialists - pyrotechnics in the form of missile tests are ongoing

2 - Comic entertainment provided by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad free of charge

3 - Plenty of parking

4 - Plenty of cheap fuel, including Nuclear

5 - Your Promotional Items can be inscribed with “I survived an Event in the Axis of Evil”

6 - No Jews to ruin your day

7 - No Dissidents to ruin your day

8 - Catering includes all-you-can-eat Hummous

9 - No chance of war according to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

10 - Security is top-notch

If you are attending a trade show soon, you will need a trade show display. The following list of vendors, in no particular order, can provide either a custom designed booth or sell you a pre-configured one from their inventory. Either way, you will want to draw attention to your trade show booth, and one of these companies will be able to provide a design that will have impact:

http://www.applerock.com

http://www.tradeshowdirect.com

http://www.godfreygroup.com

http://www.moddisplays.com

http://www.nomadicdisplay.com

http://www.exhibe.com

http://www.displays2go.com

http://www.abex.com

http://www.exhibitdeal.com

http://www.everythingdisplays.com

Sure, there are more trade show display vendor websites than just those listed above - go ahead and search online yourself if you can’t find what you need from any of the above companies.

More Trade Show Resources:

There are a ton of Event Planning sites (here is a list of top Event Planning Websites), and a lot of them have gone belly-up or have been bought out. Some of them offer event tickets and managing the process as part of the slew of services they provide.

However, a couple online event planning sites that include event tickets as part of their offerings have a model whereby they take a percentage of the ticket sales. This model seems to be working. Evidence of this is in the venture funding these sites have attracted according to the story below.

This means event tickets can be still be done online along with all of the other event planning and marketing functions, but it looks like paying for this part of the service is the only viable way for this service to continue to be offered.

For the full story:

Event ticketing companies Amiando and Eventbrite get European backing

If you want to reduce your impact on the environment and go green the next time you plan a meeting or other event, here is a great article that has 10 Easy Steps for eco-friendly meetings and includes ideas like ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’, ‘Choose a Local Destination’, etc.

Read the full article here:

Green Planning

You would be surprised how easy it is to plan a meeting while taking into consideration the impact it will have on the environment. Follow the steps in the above guide and Go Green!

Part of planning a successful event is giving away promotional items to the participants. These days, you can find promotional items that are environmentally friendly, what are called Green Gifts. These eco friendly products are sure to please both your event attendees AND the environment.

Check out the full list here:

Top 25 Environmental Gift Ideas

As you can see from the above list, it isn’t just eco friendly backpacks and water bottles that can be given away as ‘green’ products - but remember: if you want your company or organization to remembered long after the event is over, be sure to give away a product with your logo imprinted on it!

The next time you plan a business event, whether a formal dinner, seminar, conference or award recognition ceremony, the following corporate invitation websites can help you find the best style of invitation to fit the occasion. These sites cater specifically to business invitations, or have a section dedicated to corporate event invitations, whereas most of the other sites online are for wedding and other social occasion invitations.

I compiled this list so you don’t have to go hunting around for corporate function invitations the next time you need invitations for your event:

www.myexpression.com

www.paperandmore.com

www.irisb.com

www.paperstyle.com

www.invitationbox.com

www.finestationery.com

www.invitationconsultants.com

www.ballisticblue.com

www.thepartystartshere.com

www.announcingit.com

There are other corporate invitation websites other than those listed here, but these seem to offer the best user experience and professional look and feel.

If you’ve thought about becoming an event planner, this guide is sure to help.  As you go through each of these points, think about whether you have the personality, organization skills, creativity, and attention to detail that a success event planner needs to have:

10 Tips On How To Be An Excellent Event Planner

There are lots of perks to being in the event planning business - find out if you have what it takes but reading the above article.

A new Event Planner blog was just launched that should prove to be a valuable resource for those in the event planning industry or people wanting info. on how to plan and manage their own events.

From the Press Release:

“Creative Impact Group has launched a new blog section to its website designed to offer tips, advice, and resources for anyone planning an event. The website’s blog is written by industry experts and provides a wealth of advice, tips, and resources for event and meeting planners.”

I checked out the blog and there is a wealth of information there, including:

• 93 Theme Party Event Ideas
• Team Building Activities
• Hospitality Event Tips

…and more.

Check it out.

Among the more successful Social Networking sites is LinkedIn, which is like a professionals’ version of Facebook (more business oriented, less social). Among the categories listed on their site is a major section titled Conferences and Event Planning, which includes Conference Planning, Conference Venues, and Event Marketing and Promotions.

Margaret Core shared her success with marketing her BIO 2008 Convention using LinkedIn, saying “We have more than 500 new email contacts because of the Linked In page we created for our convention.”

Read the full post at:

Still Loving Linked In

(By the way, she also had a group page up on Facebook - you can see the details by following the links in the above post).