Speaker 1: Today, we're talking about how to plan an event. Well, most of us in some way gets involved in planning an event, whether it's at home, work, or in the community. But today, I want to focus on larger events. So think about conferences. So the example I'm going to share today is one of the most fun ones I was involved in, a TEDx conference. So I want to talk about the structure and the layout. I want to talk about some challenges that you might find common in events, some things we did to resolve those, and how software really helped us. So first of all, in laying out an event, there are multiple components of an event. So I'm just going to take this at a high level. So at a high level, we have the event. So it's about talking about what the show is about, any kind of operations, legal and accounting. Then we talk about the venue, so we have to plan out everything regarding the location, the logistics of that location, food and beverage and decorations there. Then we talk about marketing. So we have a website, we have social media, email marketing, any kind of print. Then we also have advertising. We leveraged radio and TV, newspapers and magazines. And then we had to plan the volunteers, which was a lot of work too. So we had contracts and we had to lay out the roles and responsibilities and we had to plan our meetings and schedule out the work and any kind of contact information. Then we had the speakers for the TEDx event. So we had to come up with the contracts for that. We had to go through curation and search for the speakers and vet them out and work with them to lay out their program, get their bio and have a practice run through. Then we had the sponsors. So again, we had contracts with them, any kind of marketing collateral that they needed from us and we needed from them, any kind of materials they needed, planning logistics for them to arrive and set up. Then we had production, again, more contracts and thinking through and planning for the audio and the video and there were multiple components of these. Then we had to set up the stage. So on the TEDx, you know that the stage is very important and there are all kinds of requirements for those. So we had to set up the stage according to the requirements and their projectors and screens and mics and the internet, any kind of batteries and backups and all kinds of cables. And then there were the attendees. So communicating with the attendees, getting their payments, sending them emails, giving them directions, badges and any kind of access. So there were more than this, but this is just kind of a high-level scope. So you can see it gets complex with the event, all the different people involved. The volunteers, speakers, sponsors, attendees, stakeholders and vendors. You can imagine how complex that gets. So with that, we ran into several challenges like the event date doesn't shift. So if anything happens or derails or goes wrong, that date can't shift. And in most events, so if you're doing a conference, that date really can't shift. So that also brings a level of stress. And just the sheer number of people that you're dealing with, even if you're dealing with a smaller event, there's still challenges because of the number of people. And then there are variables that are out of your control. So think about the weather, different kinds of inclement weather, whether it snows or rain or anything that might impact that event. And then there may be delivery of different equipment or the food or the beverage. If that doesn't show up on time, then there's big trouble. You have to think through all kinds of plans. And then order mix-ups. So think about ordering different marketing materials or ordering the food or different things and it shows up wrong. And then there's all kinds of communication. Again, thinking about communicating with all the different types of people is just a lot of challenges. So what we did is we laid a structure and a foundation, a process flow. And then we also implemented project management software, which was a huge help because the benefits of that is it helps provide a common portal for everyone involved. They get to go there to get real-time updates on what's going on. It also allows for tracking of tasks and costs. Then you can set up alerts when maybe tasks are completed or when they're late. And then when certain things need to be paid or if they're late. So also it's very valuable to have communications and collaborations. So there's nothing worse than having to go through so many emails to dig around and find information. So if somebody sends you something, a file or something like that by email, it just helps with collaborating and communicating through this common portal. Then it also provides a central repository for your files. It could be marketing documents. It could be contracts. It could be invoices. So they're all right there. And then it also allows for team reporting. So whether it's your volunteers or some of your vendor partners, then it allows people to report real-time. That also just allows efficiency for the entire event and everyone involved. And greatly, it reduces stress. So as you can see with the structure, how this project management tool can help. And if you need a tool that can help you plan your event, then sign up for our software now at ProjectManager.com.