In the last post, I talked about creating an event planning team to focus on the event, provide space for more women to use their gifts, and to lighten the load of the women’s ministry team members who do not want to serve on both teams.
Today I want to talk about event planning timelines.
Over the years, I’ve had to work within a long planning runway and a short planning runway.
Which do you think was the source of more stress? It was always the shorter runway.
God can certainly work in any time frame; however, I’ve experienced and witnessed what happens when we plan a big event in a hurry. It’s stressful, and the results sometimes reveal the lack of planning time.
Please do your volunteers a favor and give them time to prepare the best event possible. Give them space and time to plan so they aren’t rushed and hurried. If they are stressed about the short timeline, word will probably get around to the other women in the church.
Having an event planning timeline in place provides guidance and can help keep your event plans on track.
How do we create an event planning timeline?
We need to look at the best time to book lodging, caterers, and speakers.
If you are booking a speaker, lodging, a popular caterer, or space for your event, you most likely will need to start looking more than a year before your event. Retreat centers, hotels, and speakers often book a year in advance or more. If you’re going to go on-site to visit a potential location, which I highly recommend, that will take even more time.
Many of the retreat centers we’ve booked in the North Carolina mountains give priority to the group that booked the dates the year before. If almost everyone comes back year after year, you’ll have to wait for a spot to open.
Speakers, especially those who have fuller speaking calendars, can easily book out a year or two in advance. Side note: Just because a speaker has a full speaking calendar does not mean they are a gifted, solid speaker. We’ll talk more about speakers in a future post.
The same can hold true for a popular caterer, especially if they also cater weddings.
Thinking through those details helps us to know when we need to start planning.
What else do we need to consider as we create our event planning timeline?
We need to know when payments will be due.
If you are booking a hotel, conference, or retreat center, you will be told when you must turn in your final registration numbers, payment, and room assignments.
Your caterer will have a deadline to submit final numbers.
If you are outsourcing any printing, you will need to know what the turnaround time will be.
Let’s start with the date you have to confirm your lodging number and payment.
Your registration needs to end, and payments need to be collected before those dates. You may wish to add a little space for grace for those few women who might send an email a day or two after registration has closed.
I’ve forgotten to take into account when payments were due to our retreat center, and it was stressful!
Event Planning Timeline
I’m going to quickly run through a sample event planning timeline. You will probably need to make small tweaks for your specific event, retreat, or conference.
1 year to 18 months prior to the event
- Research, select, and reserve the event location and event date
- Prayerfully select the event theme
- Prayerfully select your speaker or format for the event
6 months prior to the event
- Announce and advertise the date for your first event planning team meeting
5 months prior to the event
- Hold first event planning team meeting
- Pass along prayer requests from your speaker
4 months prior to the event
- Launch initial publicity – announce location, date, cost, and when registration will begin
- Set the schedule for the event
- Hold an event planning team meeting
3 – 4 months prior to the event
- Registration begins
- Collect initial deposits
- Hold an event planning team meeting
- Continue publicity
- Check in with your speaker
2 months prior to the event
- Hold an event planning team meeting
- Continue publicity
- Recruit discussion group leaders and prayer counselors
Four weeks prior to the event date
- Close registration, if you haven’t already
- Collect any outstanding registration fees
- Finalize menus
- Distribute your event prayer calendars
- Hold an event planning team meeting
- Touch base with your speaker and share your registration numbers with her
Three weeks prior to the event
- Submit final numbers to hotel or retreat center
- Send out a letter to event participants
- Send out information to discussion group leaders and prayer counselors
Two weeks prior to the event
- Train prayer counselors
- Touch base with your speaker
One week prior to event date
- Hold a “work meeting” to put together programs, name tags, goodie bags, pray, and anything else that needs to be done
- Send a reminder letter or note including driving and parking directions to your attendees
Whew! I know that was a lot of information. Remember, not every detail will apply to your event. Pull out the information that’s most helpful.
If you have questions about the tasks mentioned in the timeline, please know that it will be covered eventually. This series on event planning will continue well into next year. If you need the information now, please check out my Event Planning Course or the eBook Everything You Need to Know About Planning a Retreat.
That brings us to today’s Toolbox Tasks:
- Look at the deadlines for your next big event. When do you need to book your lodging, speaker, and caterer if you will be using those.
- Decide when registration needs to close.
- Based on those firm dates, create a timeline for next your big event, conference, or retreat.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, you are not alone. Event planning involves managing a lot of details. I’m going to walk slowly through each piece with you and share my best tips – most of which I learned by making mistakes.
In the next post, I’m going to tackle the topic of budgeting for an event. Be sure to subscribe to my email list here; it’s going to be packed with helpful information!
You may also want to read:
Building an Effective Event Planning Team
Building Prayer into Every Step of Your Women’s Ministry Event
Seven Benefits of Hosting Big Events in Your Women’s Ministry
Planning Purposeful Events for Your Ministry
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