Pulling off a successful event is a great feeling. But if you’re serious about making it happen the way you want it to, you need to ask your event planner the right questions. Doing so will ensure that you get the right service.
Knowing what to ask, though, can be challenging. It’s not always clear how you should approach them. After all, you’re not a seasoned event planner and your experience in managing events may be quite limited.
In this post, we look at ten questions you should ask to figure out whether your event planner is as good as you think they are.
1. What type of events do you like planning?
Event planners are just people. And because of this, they have preferences for the type of work they do. As someone looking to hire them, you should take note of this. The more they enjoy a particular type of event, the more passion and effort they are likely to put into making it a success. Look for an event planner whose interests align with the type of event you want to pull off.
2. How did you deal with a difficult client in the past?
Event clients aren’t always the easiest customers to please – and there are good reasons for this. The quality of an event reflects on them personally, so there is a strong incentive to get things right.
For this reason, it’s always a good idea to find out how your event planner will react if you start to make things difficult for them. Try to find out if they have the determination to see things through, even when the going gets tough.
3. What do you do when things go wrong?
Event planning doesn’t always go 100% smoothly. There’s often something that goes doesn’t go to plan. What matters is how you deal with unforeseen mishaps.
Seasoned professionals know this, which is why they always incorporate the possibility of failure and create back up plans for things that might not work out as expected.
4. How do you make sure that you meet project deadlines?
Anyone planning an event must ensure that their event planner can meet deadlines. The best way to do this is to ask them how they prioritise. Seasoned planners always focus on the most event-critical task first and then work their way down the list. Look to see whether the event planner has a good method to prioritise and effective time management skills.
5. Did you ever plan two or more events at the same time?
This question probes your event planner’s multitasking abilities. Planners who can do this successfully are rare. The ability to manage several projects simultaneously is a trait of highly talented, in-demand planners who can keep multiple plates spinning, no matter how complicated things get.
6. How do you cope with stress when planning an event?
Knowing how to plan an event is one thing but dealing with all the stress involved is quite another. Event planning careers aren’t for the faint hearted.
For this reason, you’ll want to avoid planners who get flustered and start making mistakes. Look for those who discuss the stressful situations they’ve faced in the past in cool, calm, and collected terms. Choose professionals with a calming inner toolkit and maintain a healthy work-life balance, despite the pressures they face.
7. What do you do if an event goes over budget?
Planning an event can go over budget, so you want to know whether your event planner can keep expenses under control.
Good answers to this question centre around meticulous cost itemisation. Event planners should create detailed lists containing everything that requires money (including things you would never come up with yourself).
8. Can you negotiate budgets?
This question helps you determine whether your event planner is someone who can advocate for you aggressively and bring down vendor prices. You want a person who can fight your corner but who also understands if a price is fair or not. Planners who try to drive prices into the ground can negatively impact event quality.
9. How do you know if an event has been successful?
Questions like this help you figure out whether you are on the same page as your event planner. Ideally, their answer should relate to how closely the event fulfils your goals and how they will achieve them (such as having key performance indicators (KPIs)).
10. What software or tools do you use to help you plan an event?
This is a great way to distinguish between seasoned professionals and less qualified planners. Professionals will nearly always use event planning software to log their progress and ensure they remain on track to deliver. Amateurs take more of an ad hoc ‘pen and paper’ approach.
Asking these 10 questions will help ensure your event planner works to a standard that vastly improves the outcome of your event. At E10 Events, we offer event packages that you suit all requirements. Click here to enquire about venue hire or give our team a call on 020 8926 1006.
