HOW TO…..

PLAN AND RUN EVENTS

A Guide to:

What counts as an event Researching and planning your event Budgeting your event External Contractors, Guests, Acts and Speakers Keeping your event safe Running your event

The Background

We want to encourage student groups to put on as many events as possible and will offer as much support as we can to help you create the best events you can! In Fresher’s Week alone, student groups organise in excess of 600 events for new students to participate in and that is before term even starts.

This is a guide to help you create events from start to finish.

What Are Events? An “event” is anything outside of your regular activity that you plan, budget and run for a group – this could be your members or an external audience, a trip, a festival, a social, a ball, an expedition, a showcase, fundraising or a sporting activity. If it is outside of your usual activity it counts as an event!

Some examples of events:

Trips abroad

Cultural Days such as Chinese New Year or Diwali

Balls and Dinner Dances

Expeditions

Fundraising activities such as sponsored events.

Lectures, talks and networking evenings.

Other events are longer lasting and made up of several smaller events, such as:

The Olympics

Fresher’s Week

National Student Volunteering Week

Exhibitions

Keeping Events Varied It is important to think outside of the box when planning an event – don’t get stuck in the rut of thinking just of balls and pub crawls as social activities, for example. You need to think about your members and the people you are aiming the event at. If you are an academic based society, for example, you may have postgraduate students who have different wants and needs for events than undergraduate students! As a rule, for each alcohol-related event that you offer your members, you should offer a non-alcohol related event.

If you think of the term as a whole, try and plan a range of events that cover all the areas – fun, social, educational, alcohol and non-alcohol related. And don’t forget that your events should fit in with your aims and objectives as a student group.

Remember, no idea for an event is too ridiculous, come and chat to us and we can help make it work!

Researching and Deciding on Events It is really important that you think about your event before you even start planning. So where to start? A good way to remember how to research and decide on your event is to remember the 5 W’s:

This list is not exhaustive but should be a good starting point!

WHY

•Why are you running an event? What is the purpose of it? Is it social? Ecuational? Promotional?

•Does it fit in with you aims and objectives?

WHO

•Who is the event for? What do they want? If in doubt, ask them! There is no point in putting on an event if no-one will want to attend so this research is essential!

WHAT

•Using the research you have done, you can now decide WHAT event you are going to put on. Use your imagination and think outside of the norm for your group! Will there be a theme? Is the theme realistic?

WHERE

• Where will you hold the event? Is the venue appropriate? For example, paintballing in the Forum would not be ideal but Skirmish would be great! CHECK the venue is available and remember, even with pub visits you need to let them know you're coming.

WHEN

•When will you sell tickets? Think about the timing! e.g. if you sell tickets in Fresher's Week before student loans come in, your uptake might be lower. Also think about when you will hold the event - does it fit with exams and deadlines? Is it weather appropriate? (e.g. Beach parties in November...)

Budgeting Your Event The most important thing to remember when planning an event aimed at students is value for money. This means that it is important that you should make sure you research all your costs and work hard to choose the items that will add to your event and the value for money your attendees will expect.

Before you start to budget your event you should consider:

If you intend to subsidise the event and how much by

If you are trying to raise money from the event

If an event is budgeted correctly you can start and end with a balance of zero. This means that whatever balance your society account has you can run an event.

Never announce your event ticket price before completing your budget. It is good to have an idea of how much you want to charge but do not advertise it as things can change!

Top Tips

If a quote sounds too good to be true, it might be! If there is a reputable company that you or a group you know of has worked with before, it might be worth booking them even if they are a few pounds more expensive than a new company. If in doubt, have a chat with Activities Staff.

Step by Step Guide to Budgeting

1) Research ALL of the costs associated with your event. Remember to check the quotes you receive take into account VAT at 20%.

2) Always work to maximum debit and minimum credit.

3) Work out your total expenditure.

4) Work out 10% of the total and add this to the expenditure. This will be your Contingency Fund.

5) If you are substituting the event minus this from the total expenditure.

6) Divide the total expenditure (including the contingency fund) by the number of people attending your event.

7) Don’t forget that all student group income pays VAT at 20%. This means that if your ticket price is £10 to break even you will need to add 20% to get £10. Your ticket price would be £12. Check out the “How To Guide” particularly written to help you understand VAT and student groups.

Example Budget Item Credit Debit Notes

Venue £500 (inc. VAT) Barlow Castle

Food £600 (inc. VAT) £5 per head x 120 people

Inflatables £250 (inc. VAT) “Bouncefun” company

Drink - Champagne £240 (inc. VAT) £2 ph, 1 glass reception

Drink - Wine £720 (inc. VAT) £6 per head half bottle

Band £300 (inc. VAT)

DJ £250 (inc. VAT)

SUBTOTAL ONE £2860.00

Contingency £280 10% total expenditure

SUBTOTAL TWO £3140.00

Subsidy £500 £500 Society account

SUBTOTAL THREE £2640.00

Ticket Price One £2640 £2640 divided by 120 guests = £22 per ticket.

Ticket Price Two £22 + VAT = £26.40

TOTAL £2640 £3140 NET = £500.00

External Contractors

You will find that the more events you do, the more you work with external contractors for things such as food, venues, security, entertainment, travel, accommodation and printing. When working with or booking external contractors you need to make sure you:

Check if the company is reputable. If in doubt, ask other student groups if they have used them or come and speak to anyone in the Activities & Volunteering Office.

ALWAYS check the small print of any contract before signing it. Some venues, for example, state you must pay 100% of the booking if it is cancelled within 6 months. If in doubt, Activities staff are more than happy to look over contracts for you.

Make a note of when the contracts need signing by and when payments need to be made. It can be damaging to both your event and the long term reputation of your group if payments and contracts are late!

Before any contractor works at your event you MUST make sure you have seen a copy of the company’s Public Liability Insurance. This is the insurance that covers the company if any of their equipment causes injury or damage to any person or equipment at your event. In short, the company gets sued, you don’t!

Keeping Your Event Safe As Event Organisers, it is your responsibility to keep your event safe for both yourselves as organisers and for your guests as well.

There are three stages to keeping your event safe:

Before the event – this happens at the budgeting and planning stages.

Risk Assessment – this incorporates all the safety measures you have planned

At the event – following the pre-planned risk assessment to keep everyone safe.

Speakers, Acts and Guests We like to encourage student groups to books speakers, acts and special guests to come to your events and exhibitions, but you need to make sure you keep an eye out for hidden costs when you do! Hidden costs for speakers can include the obvious like travel and accommodation, but even with this you need to set limits.

Travel and Accommodation The Students’ Guild would recommend that you offer up to £100 cover for travel – this should cover an advance return standard train fare across the UK. We would also recommend you offer to pay for one night’s accommodation based on the cost of one night’s stay at Reed Hall - £45 a night bed and breakfast.

Riders With Acts and Artists you must check the contract for the Rider. The Rider is a list of requirements that that Act has. The Rider normally splits into two categories – Technical and “Princess”. The Rider can increase your costs so make sure you check it.

Technical Rider – this includes things such as specific PA systems, light, sound, speakers etc. The contract should list what the artist or act will bring themselves and what they expect you to provide for them. If you are unsure, ExeTech (the student technical society) are a great starting point.

“Princess” Rider – please note this is not an official term but just a good way to remember the difference! This is the list of all additional things the artist or act require – it may be as simple as an iron and ironing board, it may be beers or it may be a bowl of “Smarties” with all the blue ones removed!

NOTE: When an act or artist state their charge for booking, make you sure you budget for the cost of the booking and any additional requirement through their riders.

Before the Event

Risk Assessments

While in the planning stages of your event it is important to think about what you need to do to keep your event safe. This is especially important if those safety precautions will impact upon your budget.

Core elements to always consider are:

Do we need to book security?

Do we need to book first aid?

Do we need to book marshals?

Use your common sense, if you think the event requires security, budget for it. If you think the event needs first aid, budget for it. There are no set rules for what each event needs in terms of additional safety measures so if in any doubt, check with Activities and Volunteering Staff.

As a starting point you may want to consider:

Will the event involve large amounts of alcohol? (Security and First Aid)

Will the event take place in a licensed premise where security is a condition of the license?

Does the event have the general public present, including children? (First Aid)

Is the event featuring any contentious speakers? (Security)

Are you expecting lots of people at an event with multiple areas? (Marshals)

We know that risk assessments, as a general rule, make you roll your eyes, but they are not as complicated as they first appear and we have a lot of them pre-made for you.

What are risk assessments?

Everyone performs risk assessments every day without even thinking about it. When you cross the road, you look both ways before you cross the street to prevent you from being hit by a car – that is a risk assessment. This is the same with your events. Identify what could cause harm, identify how to prevent this from happening and then act upon it.

Why do we have to do risk assessments?

We have to do risk assessments for event by law. This is not something the Students’ Guild does for fun or to irritate societies but a requirement for all people organising something for other people to attend. Completing, reading and adhering to a risk assessment is what covers your student group on insurance and proves that you have shown due diligence in protecting the attendees at your event.

How do we do risk assessments?

The Activities and Volunteering Office have generic risk assessments which have already been completed for the most common student group events. Check out www.exeterguild.org to download them, read them, sign them and then simply email them to guildactivities@ex.ac.uk with the details of your event or drop them into the office. However, these are not exhaustive. If your event does not fit any of the generic risk assessments drop in or book a meeting with Activities Staff and we will take details of your event and write the risk assessment for you.

YOU MUST TO A RISK ASSESSMENT FOR EVERY EVENT YOU DO TO BE COVERED BY THE GUILD.

At The Event

Running Your Event You need to think about how you are going to run the event. Core questions to ask:

Can you plan the event yourself?

Do you need to assign specific tasks to a subcommittee?

How are you going to manage anyone else involved?

How are you going to keep track of their progress?

Most events will need more than one person actively involved to keep them running smoothly. Equally you need someone who has ultimate responsibility. Don’t try and take on too much but make sure that the delegation is productive. If you would like help with this, pop in and chat to any of the Activities Team.

A great way of doing this – and keeping track on over all planning and event progress – is to create two timelines.

Timeline One – this is a list of everything that needs doing prior to the event – from researching costs and booking contracts to collecting decor and sending out publicity. It should note the date completion is required, as well as who is responsible for it.

Timeline Two – this is the event day timetable. It should list everything that needs to happen on the day, with times for completion. It should also have a person assigned to each thing ensuring the item is completed. This should enable you to finish the set up in good time, but the timeline should continue into the event itself.

As mentioned previously, if this is your event, you are in charge and it is your responsibility. This means that you should not be drinking alcohol unless you have agreed, in advance, with the venue that they will take responsibility for managing the event. Even if this is the case, remember that your attitude and behaviour as event organiser will shape the behaviour of those around you!

Don’t Forget Every event you do must have the budget and risk assessment signed off by an Activities Staff member to ensure you and your student group are covered.

Need Help? If you are in any doubt of how or when to run your events, are confused by budgets and VAT, or would like help writing/planning your budget, please do come into the Activities Office anytime Monday-Friday 10am-4pm or email guildactivities@ex.ac.uk. We would also encourage you to book onto the “Basic Events Management” training course which will be running throughout the year. To enquire about the course, email guildactivities@ex.ac.uk.

At your event – whatever it may be – you need to simply follow the risk assessment to the letter and use your common sense. Remember, it is much more difficult to do this if you are under the influence of alcohol so, if you are running and responsible for the event, you should not be drinking!