event planning

bordercars

at the last minute due to a serious illness, the couple that were working on risk assessment and event plan have resigned from our committee. it has been put into my court to produce the event plan, there are lots of templates, but having never done this before its a bit daunting, has anyone got any experience of and could let me have or point me to a sample plan so i can see the basics of formulating.

paddyrg

How big is the event? Makes a huge difference.

If it's a biggie, get a company like MRL to write your event plan.

"The Purple Book" is a wonderful starting point http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/hsg195.pdf (free)

Bonkeymonkey

First of all - no panic - you gonna be alright.

Ideally obtain some mind-mapping tool that can help you spread out your ideas comfortably.

Here is a basic layout you will need to come up with:

Stage 1

Reason for the Event
Date of the Event
Concept of the Event
Number of Attendees
Duration of the Event
Available Budget
Location

Stage 2

Create a theme which will make the duration of the event pleasant for the attendees. You will need to choose elements for entertainment (live jazz trio is always awesome at any gathering), and the flow of the evening.

Once that is set up, consider if you will need assistance, such as security personnel, bar staff (food, swedish table?) as a major part of the budget. At the very first meeting gather everyone's emails to mail updates on the planning and any changes - you will see how much this actually saves.

Stage 3 - Once that is planned, begin the proper promotion of your event by getting some envelopes online that are custom made for the occasion, and send a short brief, instructing the audience of what is to be expected from them (attire-wise) and from the event (duration, sequence of events, etc). This will look classy, hip, and will leave everyone with a cool memory afterwards.

Ideally you will have two assistants for anything larget than a group of 35, but otherwise - welcome to the world of parties .

phill99

Just look upon it as a big barbecue. Just s ale up all the things that go into organising that - invitations, catering, music, entertainment, supplies, etc.

Dragonista

I work in corporate events but would be really freaked out to have to plan one all on my own, well done you!

The most important things are the legal requirements: PLI (public liability insurance), PPL (license to play recorded music), risk assessment, ensuring you have a first aider on site, TEN (temporary events notice, inc. license to serve alcohol and food).

bordercars

this is our 2nd year, not sure what happened last year, smaller event but this year is quite a bit larger. town carnival ( pop 10000 ) everything in place bar the formal written plan. we have 5 floats, road closure in place, 1st aid, tens, PL, ( could go on ) basically the event is in our opinion in place. it is following our SAG's meeting this plan. I run my own business and it really seems no more than a business plan. its the wording that has to be used, example here for the opening paragraph....


Provide a paragraph here that provides an executive summary of the event.
Please keep in mind that you are trying to provide someone who knows nothing about your event with as much information as possible in a succinct paragraph or two.

paddyrg

It's like a business plan, yes, in many ways - the point of it is to make sure you know how to handle issues and exceptions. Are police invited, for instance? Who is paying for that? At what point do you make the decision to hand over from your private stewards and security to the police? What is the process for that? Who has the authority for that decision, etc.

bordercars

I hear what you are saying paddyrg. whilst im not saying its simple, this is how i would cover lost children, then follows an official version given to us.

at the first aid point we would have a sign for lost children, all stewards ( in hi viz ) would be aware where to take them. the first aid point would have 2 CRB checked persons, and would not be in a one on one situation. pa would announce we had a lost child. not released unless child confirmed person collecting them and child was happy to leave.

the above is our common sense view with a little police advice. here is the official line

Lost children
816 Prepare a 'lost child' policy that identifies arrangements for the safe care of lost children until they are reunited with parent/guardian.
817 There should be a clearly advertised collection point for lost children, supervised at all times with fully briefed workers. Ensure that lost children are not left in the sole care of a single worker (see paragraph 804). If there is a children's area on site, this will be the best place for the care of lost children. In some circumstances it may be necessary to make an announcement over the PA system. Take care to ensure that announcements do not refer to children specifically or give personal details, descriptions or names.
818 If a child is reluctant to go with a parent or collecting adult seek a second opinion from the police. The parent's or guardian's signature and proof of identity should also be obtained. Once a child has been reunited with their parent or guardian, inform stewards and police immediately if they have been involved.

the first post was asking for help in writing, is the wording on my take of it good or would you use the 2nd version. if using the second, that is the only example of wording we have and there are many sections to fill in. i dont want to cut and paste, but would like to see a couple of example forms already done to i have all the "i's" dotted and "t's' crossed.

phill99

bordercars wrote: »

I hear what you are saying paddyrg. whilst im not saying its simple, this is how i would cover lost children, then follows an official version given to us.

at the first aid point we would have a sign for lost children, all stewards ( in hi viz ) would be aware where to take them. the first aid point would have 2 CRB checked persons, and would not be in a one on one situation. pa would announce we had a lost child. not released unless child confirmed person collecting them and child was happy to leave.

the above is our common sense view with a little police advice. here is the official line

Lost children
816 Prepare a 'lost child' policy that identifies arrangements for the safe care of lost children until they are reunited with parent/guardian.
817 There should be a clearly advertised collection point for lost children, supervised at all times with fully briefed workers. Ensure that lost children are not left in the sole care of a single worker (see paragraph 804). If there is a children's area on site, this will be the best place for the care of lost children. In some circumstances it may be necessary to make an announcement over the PA system. Take care to ensure that announcements do not refer to children specifically or give personal details, descriptions or names.
818 If a child is reluctant to go with a parent or collecting adult seek a second opinion from the police. The parent's or guardian's signature and proof of identity should also be obtained. Once a child has been reunited with their parent or guardian, inform stewards and police immediately if they have been involved.

the first post was asking for help in writing, is the wording on my take of it good or would you use the 2nd version. if using the second, that is the only example of wording we have and there are many sections to fill in. i dont want to cut and paste, but would like to see a couple of example forms already done to i have all the "i's" dotted and "t's' crossed.

And they wonder why people don't want to get involved in organising such events.

paddyrg

It will depend who the audience is, but having a clear plan with all the detail is typically more important than highfalutin language.

However, the last thing you want to do is go into the event without a SAG signoff or you'll hit licensing issues - if you're slightly out of your depth especially with a bigger gig, try getting a day's consulting maybe from someone who's done this before?

A professional will get you through your SAG effortlessly as they've seen it all before, already have pretty much all the copy/paste procedural stuff in place, deal with all the suppliers for structures, etc for their own risk assessments, blah, blah. It'll also make the council feel reassured to hear someone who's done more, far bigger events is overseeing yours.

I worked for a startup festival last year who didn't get professional advice for their event plan until it was too late and the plan had been rejected twice - in the end there was no time left, licensing problems meant the event cancelled 24h before punters arrived, both promoters lost/remorgaged their houses. I've also worked on hugely complex 80k+ capacity events with no licensing problems where the plans were all professionally created. It has advantages. I can nominate someone if it helps.

Savvy_Sue

wrt Lost Children, I think 'best practice' says you don't take Lost Children to the First Aid station, but somewhere separate and clearly signed. This is because it may be distressing if you have a Lost Child present when someone comes in dripping blood etc. And also because you can't expect First Aiders to take care of Lost Children AND do First Aid, so you need separate identified people anyway.

As it happens, DH noticed a very young child who looked lost at an event we attended last weekend. He pointed the child out to me, I couldn't see an adult in pursuit, so I gently shepherded said child to the Lost Children tent. The helpers promptly sat the child down and offered a puzzle to distract them, and asked me where I'd found said child. I don't think they were announcing over the PA but as it was mostly inaudible I couldn't rightly say. Child wasn't there a few minutes later so presumably was 'found'.

I'd suggest that if you're having regular announcements, you say where Lost Children / Lost Parents should go to be reunited.

BTW, Legoland don't have Lost Children, it's the parents who get lost, so they call it Lost Parents.