When should you start planning your event?

 

• planning around other people's schedule
• The communication checklist!

 

 

Ok, so you have an idea about what you'd like your event to be, but how soon can you have it? Well, that depends! If you plan it for too soon, there won't be enough promotion of the event, it will be harder to get participators last minute, etc. If it's too far in the future you might lose your sense of excitement about doing it and change your mind about having the event at all. I'd like to think that the perfect amount of time, depending on how much it takes to prepare for it, is 1-3 months from the start of planning to the actual event. Certainly a movie night or potluck at your house can be a week or two, but if you're dealing with getting workshop instructors or bands or discussing with a place about having your event there, you'll be doing a lot of coordinating of schedules, and  you'll probably be dealing with people who are slow at communicating or are flakey.

Be absolutely certain about the schedules of all the integral people - the people at the hosting space, the performers/instructors/whatever, and your target audience/group of participators. Try to be on top of communicating and being aware of other people who may be doing something the same day, and if your event takes place on that same day then try to work out having one event earlier than the other.

 

We're going to reiterate this point over and over in this zine: the most important part of organizing an event is communicating well. Here's a checklist to help remind you of what to bug eveyone about:

 

((put this list at front or back of zine!))

 

• date.
• start time, rough ending time, and when it HAS to be over.
• door price, or estimated amount of donations taken (be sure to make sure you know who will collect money!).
• payment and how the money is going to be distributed.
• name and exact location of venue, along with directions if needed.
• contact info: the best way for all parties to get a hold of each other - give your number, and get theirs.
• other participants and the order & schedule of the night
• what kinds of ammenities are needed and what you can offer (showers, food, place to sleep & for how long, etc)
• venue/space standards (smoking, drinking, meat, drugs, dogs, appropriate language, etc etc etc - what's allowed & what's not?)

 

If you're communicating via email, be sure to CC a copy of this info to yourself, just in case!