Defining and creating concepts

At core, every company is built on a good idea. The same can be said of your event concept. After all, it provides a framework for your idea, turning it into an accessible and tangible experience. Structure and feasibility represent key factors in this regard. Every subsequent step you take is defined by these two cornerstones. And a robust concept makes all your organisational decisions easier. To provide you with a compass accurate enough to guide you through the event concept planning process, let's take a closer look at how to approach things

Event concepts need to be clearly defined since they outline how an idea is to be implemented practically and address the questions of why, where, who and when. All the organizational and planning considerations surrounding your event should be contained within this concept, ideally along with a precise definition or explanation of your individual goals and sub-steps.

Basically, we recommend that two steps precede your event concept:

• First, take the time to describe your event goals. Where do you want to go, what added value should your event offer? Your defined goals should be realistic, clear, and quantifiable. Draw up a rough first event concept on this basis.
   
• Also get an overview of your available budget and set up an event accounting and controlling system. Remember, your event concept should always reflect your financial resources – which should be clear as possible from the outset

The ideal time to create your event concept is therefore determined by these two sub-steps. Do not take them lightly – if you start planning late, you run the risk of not being able to book the venues, service providers, moderators, or speakers you want since they will no longer be available.

Ideally, those chiefly responsible for each team should be actively involved in drawing up the event concept. For larger, multi-day or special events, such as international stakeholder meetings, it is also worth thinking about hiring an event manager to help you draw up the event plan – you will benefit from their in-depth knowledge.

When creating your event concept, you should address the following key points: 

• Budget 
• Target group 
• Number of participants 
• Date 
• Methods of content delivery (e.g. workshops, panel discussion, world cafés)
• Duration 
• Location
• Catering 
• Overnight accommodation if necessary 
• Transportation to and from the conference venue 
• Sponsoring and/or partner companies 
• Communication strategy

These are some of the core components of an event concept, but you can of course set your own priorities depending on the type of event. Create a hierarchy, as shown here, which prioritizes the points according to how urgent they are. This will help you address each point intuitively. Not everything has to happen at once, but each point should ideally build logically on the next. After all, you don't need to organize shuttle transport if, for example, you have not yet set a date for your event. 

Different types of events also require slightly different event concepts. An international congress, for example, requires that you find the largest fully accessible venue you can. A management meeting, on the other hand, is better suited to a smaller atmospheric venue that facilitates a mindset conducive to groundbreaking discussions between participants. Hence, when drawing up your event plan it is always best to base your choice of location on the needs of your event.

Motivated and knowledgeable employees are worth their weight in gold when it comes to event planning, but event management software can also help you draw up an event concept. 

Apps such as Cvent, vivenio or Eventbrite merge booking management, mail and social media marketing as well as CRM integration into a well-structured interface, allowing you to organize numerous processes simultaneously. Of course, using these tools involves expense and training time, so how and to what extent they make your planning more efficient depends on the type and size of your event and your individual working methods. 

Continue to step 3: Event calculation & budget planning