Preparing for a Year of Events – Getting Organized
As the new year begins, it’s time to set the stage for your most successful year of events yet.
Whether your events are small and intimate or large-scale productions, the key to success lies in preparation and alignment with your business goals.
Table of Contents:
In this blog, we’ll walk you through actionable steps to help you organize your events for the year and introduce you to a downloadable event planner/tracker designed to simplify the process.
Step 1: Define Your Business Goals
Before diving into planning, ensure your events align with your overall business objectives. Ask yourself:
- Are you trying to build brand awareness? Focus on events that reach new audiences, such as trade shows, conferences, or sponsorships.
- Are you working on driving consideration? Plan events that showcase your expertise, like webinars, workshops, or client roundtables.
- Are you strengthening customer loyalty? Consider hosting exclusive appreciation events, such as VIP dinners or community-building experiences.
By defining the purpose of your events, you’ll ensure each one supports your broader goals, whether it’s awareness, consideration, or loyalty.
Step 2: Categorize and Tier Your Events
Not all events are created equal. To stay organized, classify your events into categories and prioritize them based on their expected impact and resources needed. Use our downloadable Event Planner to:
- Classify & Tier Your Events: Group them by type, such as internal, client-facing, or industry-facing events. We’ve developed a simple tiering system for our clients that gives us an indication immediately of the level of Marketing that we need to properly support the event. Our tiering system includes:
- Tier 1: Speaking engagement (with or without Sponsorship)
- Most of the time these are events that we are also sponsoring but we also categorize any of our Client’s C-Suite speaking engagements as a Tier 1 event to be heavily supported by Marketing.
- Tier 2: Sponsorship only
- This is where our client has either purchased a booth or some branding experience at the event for their company.
- Tier 3: Attending the event
- Tier 3 is where one of the client’s employees attends the event, and we may have to provide Marketing to support that attendee.
- Set Priorities: For the Tiers, there is usually an implied priority level to the event as high, medium, or low priority based on ROI potential and alignment with business objectives.
- Allocate Resources: Determine budgets, team capacity, and timelines for each event tier. Priorities based on ROI also equate to when you should start Marketing for the event and the level of Marketing resources/spend should relate to the potential ROI.
This approach ensures you are focusing your resources on the events that deliver the highest return on investment. We will talk about ROI in future blogs.
Step 3: Create a Yearly Calendar
A yearly calendar is essential for staying on track and ensuring you prioritize the right opportunities. If you're unsure where to start or which events to attend, begin by researching relevant industry events. Check trade publications, online directories, and social media groups within your industry for recommendations. Reach out to your network to learn which events have been successful for others in your field. Focus on events that align with your business goals and target audience to maximize their impact. Once you have your list of events that you want to attend, map out:
- Key Dates: Add industry conferences, product launches, and major holidays that could influence attendance.
- Event Deadlines: Include milestones for planning, such as when to secure venues, finalize speakers, or launch promotions.
- Overlap Checks: Ensure no overlap between events targeting the same audience, which could dilute their impact.
- Identify Your Team Members Attending: For each conference, start documenting who on the team will be traveling for the event. Give the team a head’s up so you will know quickly if there are any personal conflicts for travel.
Step 4: Focus on Details That Drive Success
When planning, attention to detail is crucial. Consider:
- Audience: Tailor each event to meet the needs and interests of your target audience. We work with our clients to create specific Marketing and content assets relevant to the conference and the target roles that will also be attending.
- KPIs: Define clear key performance indicators for each event (e.g., number and types of attendees, leads generated, or customer satisfaction scores).
- Engagement: Brainstorm creative ways to engage your audience, such as interactive booths, social media tie-ins, specialized content, or gamified elements.
Step 5: Use Our Event Planner/Tracker to Stay on Top
To make your planning seamless, we’re providing a free, customizable Event Planner in Excel. This tool will help you:
- Centralize Your Planning: Track all your events in one place, from budgets to timelines.
- Monitor Progress: Stay updated on task statuses with clear visual indicators.
- Evaluate Success: Post-event, use the tracker to record outcomes and ROI, so you can refine your strategy for the future.
Download the Event Planner here.
Step 6: Review and Adjust
Finally, review your plan quarterly. Business priorities can shift, and so can your events. Use this time to:
- Remove low-performing or non-aligned events from your calendar. This happens all the time – someone wants to go to an event and then it becomes clear that the audience is just not the right fit and should be removed from the event calendar.
- Assess new requested events. Our clients team members (usually sales requests to attend or sponsor events throughout the year. These requests are assessed monthly. We do our homework on them and provide guidance for our clients to decide if they wish to invest in the new conference vs another on the list.
- Double down on events that exceed expectations.
- Incorporate feedback from your team and attendees to improve future planning.
Why Event Management Matters
Well-planned events do not just fill the calendar—they drive bona fide business results. With the right preparation and tools, your events can build awareness, foster meaningful relationships, and create lasting loyalty.
Let 2025 be the year you turn your event strategy into a growth engine for your business. Download our Event Planner and take the first step toward event success today!
Ready to Organize Your Events?
Start planning smarter. Download Your Event Planner Now and take charge of your 2025 event strategy.
If there’s anything you would add to our planner, let us know in the comments, we’re always updating our tools.