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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.

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

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.

Hiring a professional guest speaker is an important step in planning an event.

Most events feature guest speakers, or at least one professional guest speaker. Sometimes, the main feature of your event is the celebrity guest speaker, so finding one is usually on the event planning agenda.

The following list of event speaker directories and bureaus should provide a thorough resource the next time you are trying to locate the best person for your event. There are lots more than only the ones listed below, but you’ll have your hands full with these to get your started:

www.allamericanspeakers.com - Professional motivational speakers, sports speakers, celebrity speakers, famous keynote speakers, sports figures, best selling authors, corporate business speakers, celebrity chefs, top celebrity talent and comedians

www.totalaccessspeakers.com - Motivational Speakers, Business Speakers, Keynote Speakers, Celebrity Speakers

www.internationalspeakers.com - Internationally Acclaimed Motivational and Celebrity Speakers

www.ovationtalent.com - A fresh approach to solving a number of breakdowns in the current field of speaker management and representation.

speakerresource.com - Provides motivational speakers, celebrity speakers, and professional keynote speakers for any business, association, school or college

speakersrus.com - A Speakers Bureau that will help you find the perfect keynote speaker or entertainer for your event.

www.isbspeakers.com - International and National Professional Public Speakers Bureau for Motivational, Keynote and Christian Speakers

www.leighbureau.com - The world’s longest-established premium speakers bureau

www.speakers.ca - Canada’s leading Speakers Bureau

www.bigspeak.com - Motivational Speakers, Keynote Speakers, Consultants and Trainers.

www.playingfieldpromotions.com - A leading speakers bureau specializing in bookings of celebrity sports speakers, baseball speakers, Olympic speakers, motivational sports speakers and athlete personal appearances and endorsements.

www.nationalgeographic.com/speakers - National Geographic speakers are leaders in the worlds of science, photography, journalism, exploration and adventure.

www.insightbureau.com - Asian and global speakers, moderators, advisors on Asian and global economy, insights for business conferences, client meetings and confidential strategy and planning meetings.

www.dynamicspeakers.com - Sales motivation, keynote speakers, public speakers, personal growth, staff development, personal development, management consulting, motivational speakers, motivational, seminars, management training

premierespeakers.com - Motivational speakers, keynote speakers, or professional speaker

www.speakerservices.com - Free and fee speakers for events, conferences, seminars and banquets.

Whether the purpose is simply to entertain, or your event is geared towards motivating or inspiring your event participants, there are guest speaker bureaus available online that make locating the right talent for your event easy.

Everyone is getting on the Web 2.0 bandwagon, which includes using social media and social marketing to promote events.  Websites like Facebook and MySpace get more traffic than Google on any given day, and that is fertile ground for promoting an event since events are social activities anyway.

So the question is:  How do you utilize social media to do event promotion and event marketing?  Read the following article:

How to Leverage Social Media to Build Hype

Not every event can benefit from what social media has to offer, but the above article will get you started in tapping into the communities of people that would be interested in your event.  Social media sites like HubPages and Squidoo can also be used to create an event information page with interactive Web 2.0 goodness that provides a social, collaborative atmosphere leading up to your event and getting feedback after your event.

Event Planning involves a myriad of details that are not so easy to remember. Wouldn’t it be nice to have an Event Planning Checklist you can refer to when planning your next event? This handy event planning guide will surely help keep track of all the steps necessary when gearing up for your next event:

Event Planning Checklist

The best thing about this checklist is it gives you time frames and a schedule to adhere to so you know when to accomplish each of the steps along the way.  Don’t forget the promotional items imprinted with your company or event logo, etc.

Event managers and event coordinators need to be responsible for a lot of details in order to create and manage a successful event. When you hire an Event Manager, what do you look for? True, attention to detail can make or break your event, but since you are outsourcing all of this to a professional, why not choose someone that also provides great customer service and is flexible to your needs, as well as understanding and accessible?

Here’s a great article on what makes a Successful Event Manager

Using the guidelines and recommendations found there, you should be able to choose an Event Manager that fulfills all of your needs and executes flawlessly.