Event planing tips

“Who put me in charge?”

That is a direct quote from me once every two weeks while I’m planning events. I was somehow gifted with the position as Philanthropy Vice President for Alpha Xi Delta at Ohio Northern. At first I was so excited to get the position, and don’t get me wrong I am still excited, but it comes with a lot of learning. I thought planning was easy and it comes naturally. I’m wrong as I usually am. The little details that come into planning a big non-profit event are so overwhelming. 

I am currently planning a large food event called Fuzzie Fiesta. It is a delicious taco bar that I am praying makes enough money to meet our goals! I want to share some of my new found wisdom with everyone about planning college events. I want everyone in the world to be less stressed than I’ve been the last three months.

1. Plan ahead

When I say plan ahead, I mean ahead, like six months in advance. I thought I could plan an entire event in three months and it was straight chaos. I was constantly rushing to try and get things done. There were little details I kept missing and I had no idea how to get on top of it. No matter what the first time you plan an event it will be a bit of a mess. Everything is new and there are no guidelines. Trying to have as many situations mentally planned out ahead of time will help you keep your sanity. 

Recently I planned an entire taco tuesday night for my philanthropy. Alpha Xi has never held a taco event before. I had no idea what amount of food to get or how many people would be coming so I completely guessed. I had over 10 pounds of toppings and 25 pounds of meat. I should have had more because we ran out so quick. I was constantly sending people to the grocery store to get more of everything. If the next VP decides to do this event they will be able to calculate out how much food is needed ahead of time based on what I did for this event.

2. Don’t panic

I am the Queen of panicking all the time. I am always worried about certain things that could happen or couldn’t happen and I find myself second guessing my own event. Trying to create new events that have never been done before is terrifying. When I first thought about it I assumed it was simple but it is really not. 

My very first event as a VP was Xi Man which is a male style pageant. An event like Xi Man has never been done before for us and I was allowed in the venue we were using until the day of. The entire sound board and projector was not working. We needed both of these things to basically to the entire event. 

When I say I panicked, I mean almost-in-tears-can’t-breath-yelling-a-bit panic.   

I had to figure out how to make it work in a little under an hour and get the show on the road. Finally I was able to get IT to the venue and got everything worked out as needed. I didn’t need to panic at all. Everything turned out fine and I still took 5-years off my life by panicking. Figuring out how to leave the stress out of your event will help keep everyone happy.

Not panicking throughout the event can put on a look that you totally know what you are doing and no one should question your decisions. People who are panicking lose all control of their event and it can mean a spiral of bad things. 

Deeping breathing and positive thoughts will keep you cool, calm and collected throughout the day. As Bob Ross would say, “No mistakes only happy accidents”.

3. Enlist help

No one can be in 12 places on one time. If they could they wouldn’t be holding philanthropy events they would be millionaires. That was the first major mistake I made this semester was thinking I could handle everything alone. Starting out I was an independent white women and I needed no one. 3 months later and I realized other people are good and I neeeeed the help and as much of it as I can get.  

One of my first big events I held I spent nine straight hours setting up, cooking, cleaning and making decorations. I was so stressed and upset and I wanted to die. Drowning in so much work I think I may have had a slight mental breakdown. 

At the end of that event I decided to finally ask for help cleaning everything I spent 9 hours setting up. I had a group of 12 girls helping and it got done in 20 freaking minutes. 

20 MINUTES.

Why was I not smart enough to try that in the beginning? Why did I do this all by myself? I have no idea but I am so glad I had people to help in the end. The event definitely became a learning lesson on how to use my resources.

Now these are only three tips to start out. Being young and in charge of something as big as a full scale event can be really overwhelming. It has this large learning curve that involves watching previous people and trial and error. The trial and error of it all can be really scary in the end. Having something completely fail is so sad and it hurts more than anything.

In the end just remember to always ask for help, be confident and plan ahead and you will succeed!