Event organisation in Singapore is a complicated undertaking, requiring coordination of many different vendors and partners over a period of months (and for some large scale events, up to year).  A common worry amongst event companies or even businesses looking to organise events for publicity: what does the event timeline look like, when do you need to start preparing for event logistics or event marketing, how far in advance do you need to begin engaging with the different vendors?

This Ultimate Event Vendor Checklist by ThunderQuote will help you break down the phases of your event into six distinct periods, so that you won’t miss any partners out.

 

Stage 1: Event Venue, Event Company, Sponsors & Planners

Often, the first and sometimes the last vendor you source for is your event planner, or event company. The question to ask yourself is: Do you need to hire an event company? What kind of event company am I looking for?

The most important thing about hiring event companies is understanding their track record with the number of pax for the events they have handled before. Are they suitable to handle your event for 2,000 pax? Some might be inexperienced with handling such a large event and may lack the necessary logistics capabilities required.

Expected costs would be about $20,000-40,000 for simple events like a company D&D, and an excess of $100,000 up to the millions for large scale events like a trade-show or conference.

Event Venue Rental/ Booth Rental 

Once you have figured out your event objectives, the next thing to do is confirm the event venue. You might have some conference halls or convenient locations for delegates in mind, or you might want a more cosy atmosphere with smaller heartland locations. Take note that in Singapore, there aren’t many prime locations for large events and it would probably set you back a few hundred thousand for a large event hall. So be sure to know what your budget is and book far in advance to increase your probability of getting the event hall you want.

Event Sponsorship

If you need extra funding for your event, you may consider a sponsorship!

Corporate sponsorships can be very helpful to provide certain services or goody-bag items, or lucky draw prizes. A sponsor may provide you with cash or particular services – such as provided catering services or free audiovisual services. Most sponsors will want something in return for example, a promotion of their service or product or featuring their logo on banners or flyers in order to help their marketing efforts.  Therefore, be prepared to come up with a convincing proposal to get sponsors onboard.

Stage 2: Event Marketing, Technical Infrastructure and Core Content

Event Marketing

Event marketing is a good strategy to help you connect with your customers face to face. Some examples of special events held for customers are – concerts, fairs, and sporting events. Marketing efforts should begin even before your event. If you’re holding a public event, you can reach out to attendees on social media platforms. You can create a Facebook event and ask people to RSVP through that. That way, using social media monitoring you’re able to see how many people to expect or if you need more people to fill up the spaces.

During the event itself, companies use marketing techniques such as giving out samples and having interactive displays to reach out to potential customers. According to a 2012 study conducted by the Event Marketing Institute, 58% of event marketing participants purchased the marketed product after the event and 86% of these consumers became regular customers.

In order to have a successful marketing campaign, you will need to provide value to the attendees. This will include free samples, discounts, or gifts that will make customers feel like they are receiving a benefit instead of just learning about the particular product or service – which will be perceived as a live-action commercial. It would be wise to hire an event marketer who is experienced in digital marketing or content creation to handle this for you.

Event Applications 

Event applications are useful in giving increasing efficiency and making your planning job a lot easier.

Applications that you may consider are:

1. Eventbrite Organiser App
   • Eventbrite will be able to track ticket sales in real-time. This will help you make marketing decisions.
   • During the event, you can have the app running on multiple devices which enables you to check the attendees who have checked in efficiently.
   • Ticket scanning is available
   • Provide you with real time data

2. Spaces
   • Aims to collect as many followers as possible
   • Designed for small group conversations
   • Ideal social sharing platform for key team members working on an event

3. Airtime
   • You can have 6 participants on one video call to discuss things related to the project

4. Workgroup
   • Workgroup is specifically designed for cross-company project teams.
   • The idea of Workgroup is to reduce the number of emails and help you build stronger working relationships with constant communication with each other.

Stage 3: Event Creatives

Event Photographers/ Event Videographers

You will definitely need an event photographer and videographer for marketing purposes in the future. A good photographer will be able to portray emotions through photos and a good videographer will be able to convey messages in that short span of 1-2mins. You will definitely need to compare the different styles as well as the skills of these photographers /videographers to get one, which you like. So make sure you source for an event photographer or videographer which suits your event.

Photo Booth Rental

Some may ask, why do I need a photo booth at my event? Before you decide to set aside those quirky props and wigs, you must consider the reasons why a photo booth may help bring your event to the next level!

Photos are like memories, which you can keep forever. Many guests will appreciate the fact that they get to bring home a photo of themselves with their friends and children. Furthermore, photo booths provide a good escape from the event itself and helps them remember your company and the entire event in general. You can source for a Photo Booth here. 

Stage 4: Event Logistics

You will first need to find out what services are required for your event e.g. tables, chairs, a stage, or lighting and sound equipment. Go through this checklist and come up with an Event Logistics Timeline. For example, if you believe that refreshments should be served at 8.10, and the speaker is coming out at 8.30, you will need to put it in the Events Logistics Timeline. The Events logistics Timeline will include everything and anything from – number of attendees who checked in, lighting needed for a particular performance, speaker’s arrival, serving of refreshments. The document will be able to ensure that the planners and company are on the same page and there are no details, which are disregarded. Remember, spare no details!

This is an example of an Event Logistics Timeline:

Start Time	End Time	Task	Staff Assigned	Completed
8AM	8.30AM	Full AV Check	James	Yes
8.30AM	9.30AM	Food Delivery, Food Set up, Setting up of Drinks station	Janice	Yes

Stage 5: Event Manpower & Ops

Finding the correct people to work at the event is important. For example, in a road show, you may need outgoing and engaging people who would be able to  promote your service or product. You may need to search for promoters and road show manpower via Job websites such as Gumtree or JobStreet.sg  or Thunderquote – where you can compare the quotations from different vendors.

Stage 6: Post Event Marketing

Post Event Marketing

Many businesses focus only on pre-event strategies because they want the event to be completely filled up. However, it is not all about getting people to attend your event. Instead, it is generating qualified leads and shifting them into your sales or services pipeline.

Social Media Management

It is difficult to juggle and manage the different social media platforms. It is even more difficult to generate content that will capture the attention of many. One of the effective ways to manage social media is to use social media management tools to help you save time and effort. Some of the tools include Hootsuite, Agora Pulse and Social Oomph.

Email Marketing

Email Marketing may be relevant for event planners as it is essentially sending out invites to people who may attend. You will need a current customer database that you will send them to. The purpose of sending emails is to enhance the relationship between your business and the current customers and encourage them to support your event.

This event company checklist is only a guide for you with regards to planning your event. What makes a successful event is a detailed list of what is required to be done and a group of meticulous people who are passionate about events planning!

Finally here’s a list of other useful resources for planning / running your event:

• Event Marketing Trends 
• Sample Event List
• Event Guide
• CHASSE Timeline
• Cornell Tasklist
• Marriott Meeting List
• Event Management Wiki
• EventBrite Management Software
• Resource Centre for Events

For a one-size fits all software, ThunderQuote has the perfect solution for you, join our enterprise system that will allow you to easily get vendors from right within your system!

ThunderQuote is the most comprehensive business services portal in Singapore, Australia and ASEAN , where hundreds of thousands of dollars of procurement contracts are sourced every month by major companies like Singapore Press Holdings, National Trade Union Congress and more.