The food as been served, the last toast has been made, and your guests have walked away with overflowing gift bags. Congratulations! If you've made it this far, then you've probably just pulled off the event you've been planning and stressing over for months and months. Pat yourself on the back, enjoy the post-event high, and finally get some sleep!
Just keep in mind that the event work isn't all over yet. After an event, big or small, it's understandable to want to clear your mind of all the details. If you want to make the most out of all your hard work and amplify the success of your event there are some must-do tasks after you've said goodbye to your guests.
Check all of these tasks off our list and then you can really relax. It may be difficult to wrap everything up but it will be well worth the extra effort. Once you're at the other end of this to-do list, grab yourself a cocktail and celebrate your success!
Take a quick breather. The tough part of pulling off the actual event is behind you! Get a good night sleep so your ready to push through the last day or two of event wrap-up. You're almost there!
Send thank you notes. Never forget how far a simple thank you can go. First thing you need to do the day following your event is send thank you notes to your event sponsors and partners. Make sure you let them know that the success of your event would not have been possible without their contributions. The quick turnaround on this initial thank you is important, you can send more detailed analytics or a card in the mail in the following week or two.
Share photos and recap videos from the event. In your contracting discussions with photographers, make sure you can get at least preliminary event photos first thing the morning following your event. You'll ideally want to share some of the best photos the day after your event through your social media channels. Event recap videos may take a bit longer, but quick turnaround and social sharing is important here too. Attendees will love clicking through to see if their picture was snapped and those who couldn't attend will want to see what they missed.
Collect testimonials. When your event is a success, you'll have a flood of attendees and event partners how much they enjoyed the experience. Be sure to document those notes of praise. Reach out to some specific contacts and ask if they'll give you a testimonial. Those testimonials will be great to use when you're promoting and selling your next event. Getting support from well known members of the community will boost your event credibility.
Settle up. You don't want any outstanding bills with any of your vendors so follow up with anyone you worked with to get final invoices. Once you've agreed on a final price, get the payments in motion and notify the vendor on when they should expect to receive the payment. Open communication is key and many vendors will add on an additional fee for a late payment.
Debrief with your team. Schedule a time a few days after your event to sit down with your team to talk over the event. Have everyone think of a couple of things that went really well and a couple of things that could be made better next time around. Take detailed notes during this meeting to add to your "lessons learned" document.
Document more lessons learned. Take some time to think through your planning process and your event itself. Start jotting down all of your thoughts and combine those with the notes from your debrief meeting. From there, turn those notes into recommendations for next time around about changes that should be made and items that should be focused on.
Go over analytics. Collecting and recording analytics from your event is vital. This will help you compare your event to other events in the city, track your improvement as you host more events, and will enable you to show sponsors the value of attaching their brand to your event. Track analytics that are associated with social media sharing, tickets sold, number of attendees, and sponsors obtained.
What other tasks are on your post-event to do list? Make sure to share your suggestions in the comments section. Happy event planning!
