How to organise a stand out event in Nigeria

Organizing an event can be a bit overwhelming irrespective of the size, especially if you are not armed with necessary skill set. Organizing an event in Nigeria, especially in a busy city like Lagos, requires a more tactical approach in order to make it successful. Not an expert event planner? These steps would help you organize an event that would stand out.

Have a vision

Vision is the ability to see. It gives you a clear sense of direction. What do you really want to achieve? What are the things you desire to have? Is there a particular thing you want that would help achieve the purpose? Write them down. Answering all these would really help you strategically plan.

Choose a date and venue

This is the first and most important aspect of planning any event, after the first step above. A lot of attention is required when securing the perfect venue, especially in Lagos. Once you have noted the vision, you would be able to determine the best venue. You can save a considerable amount of time by first listing out venues that suits the vision. There are a lot of websites in Nigeria that you can visit to get details of venues (such as OgaVenue). Once you have made a list, narrow it down based on your preferences. Then you can decide to visit the venues to confirm all your preferences and make further requests or inquiries. The kind of audience you are targeting would also help you determine the perfect date and time to fix it. If you are organizing an event for working class persons you shouldn't fix it on a weekday, rather choose weekend. If it's a conference, you can choose Saturday morning to evening. If it's a concert, either Sunday or Saturday evening would be appropriate in any part of Nigeria. Just ensure you consider your audiences and invited guests as well for the date and time.

Create a team

Irrespective of the size of the event you are organizing, there are so many aspects of it that needs equal amount of attention. You can decide to get volunteers, hire or gather your friends/family to help you do one or two things while you monitor. Ensure your team members have different skills that are necessary for the roles you would be assigning to them. Make sure you always keep them up to speed with any update. You can also get an event planning software or apps on your mobile devices to help you keep track of things. Discover How To Build The Right Event Team In Nigeria

Have a budget

This is a critical part of organizing any event whether you have funding or not. You need to prepare a budget. Your budget should detail all possible expenses, income, sponsors and contingent expenses. It should also detail ways which you plan to either keep certain costs low or get full funding. You have to be as realistic as possible with your budget, especially in Nigeria where prices of goods/services fluctuate a lot. If you have to make inquiries about certain items in your expense list so you can get an accurate figure, please do so. You can also get a rough idea or exact figure of audience by requesting that they register ahead. This would help you plan a budget that will help you cater for their needs.

 Be realistic with logistics

Logistics is the heart of any event. It requires effectively coordinating all vendors and managing all expenses that would go with it, setting up technical support that would facilitate all aspects, transportation and accommodation (if need be) and assessing and managing possible risks and so on. It is important to note that even the best logistics plan can go out of control in real-life, so you need to be a little flexible to give room for unforeseen hitches and be smart about fixing it without straining  your budget.

Organise your team

Organizing an event requires that you also be organised in the way you approach every aspect of the event. Create a timeline of things to be done or goals to be accomplished  and set a deadline to each. Ensure you know who is suppose to handle each listed goal or task. Give yourself adequate time. Six months is the recommended period for planning. So your timeline should cover all the tasks you must do six-months-to, five-months-to, and so on till you get to three-days-to.

Once you've done all these, be sure to publicise your event.