We’re not historians, but we like to think that social events have existed for as long as society itself has. We’re sure there are many examples of event planners in history, but the most famous one has to be Cleopatra. It’s said that every event had a purpose, whether it be finding potential suitors or discussing matters of state with other politicians.
Organising these events wasn’t easy – sending out invitations alone took weeks, or months, as they were hand-delivered. That said, Cleopatra had access to free labour from hundreds of servants who would have sped up the process.
Event planning today
These days, it feels like event planners have fewer parties to liaise with and longer DIY to-do lists to get the job done – especially for online events.
In fact, many organisers who have adapted their skill set for online functions no longer call themselves event planners. The new, updated description is Digital Event Manager. DEMs still have the duties of the classic planner – liaising, organising, and logistics – with the added tasks of a digital marketer.
Let’s take a look at how some aspects of event planning have changed over time, and how organisers have adapted.
The invitation
As we mentioned above, invitations were hand-delivered back in the day. This then evolved into snail mail, then email, and now social media.
Previously, event organisers would contact a stationery supplier, get the invitations designed and printed by professionals, and send them off in the mail. A modern-day DEM, on the other hand, might design and build the emailer themselves. Even if the design is outsourced, they’re still familiar with platforms like Mailchimp and know how to manage them.
The same goes for social media. Both LinkedIn and Facebook have tools to advertise events, which planners need to take full advantage of.
The venue
Online events have, of course, become extremely popular, which means event planners today are much more tech-savvy than they’ve ever needed to be. Planners have to consider all aspects of the audio and visual experience; what kind of background should the speakers have? Should there be music? How do we incorporate branding into this?
Technology has made answering these questions all too easy. There’s no need to spend money on web hosting, designers, and developers when DEMs can use tools to host online events and webinars with ease. To stay competitive, event planners need to have these tools in their arsenal.
Data management
The way we collect data has also changed, thanks to technology. As such, clients expect to see more than the number of attendees in your report of the success of the event. They want to see guest engagement, brand awareness, sales, web traffic, return on investment, the whole nine yards.
Measuring the ROI from virtual events can be challenging, but lucking there are tools out there that make this easy for digital event planners. You just need to know how to use them.
In these three aspects alone we can see that event organising has come a long way from Cleopatra’s time! If you’re looking for an all-in-one platform that can evolve your planning even further, book a demo with us today to see how.