May 10, 2024 3:58:28 PM
Step 1: write the business case for your event
Many events go ahead without a business case — some very successfully! But miss this step and you risk wasting a lot of time down the track and missing opportunities to maximise your return on investment. A good business case will give the planning process direction and clarity as well as help you make decisions on content, promotion and logistics.
Business Case Questions
1. What is the business objective?
Keep your answer high level: increase sales, improve morale etc. — you can go into more detail when you define your event objectives.
2. What is the business environment?
Consider the economic environment: is your target audience doing well or is business tough? What is the political environment like — is it stable or uncertain? Consider what your competitors are doing.
Answering this will give you a sense of whether it is the right time to hold the events.
3. What are the learnings from previous events?
What worked? What failed? What was the return on investment?
Again — valuable information in deciding not only whether to hold your event but also what content you should have and how to promote it.
4. Who are the audience?
Who are they? Consider rating from 1-10: how hard will it be to get them to attend the event? What will be their motivation to attend?
5. What are the event objectives?
Or to put it another way: what do we want the audience to do as a result of attending the event?
Defining objectives can be hard and a bit confusing. Answer the question “what do I want the audience to do” and the process becomes much clearer. This is where you get granular — things like agree to a meeting, take part in focus groups or post positive comments online. It’s worth brainstorming and thinking outside the box because this will have a massive influence on content.
6. What is the return on investment (ROI)?
If the business objective is to sell then the ROI is the amount you will sell. If the objective is to build a strong company culture, then the ROI could be measure in staff retention. This question is a whole lot easier to answer if you’ve established detailed event objectives. Try to apply a value to what the audience will do and you can work out your return.
7. What is the budget?
This question is relative to your ROI. At this stage it’s not a case of working out how much the event will cost — it’s more a case of stating how much you can afford to spend to get the ROI. If you think you’ll make $50,000.00 in sales and you want a 100% ROI then your budget will be $25,000.00 to deliver the event.
8. Who are the stakeholders and will we have their support?
Your stakeholders may be the executive team — if it’s a marketing event, the stakeholders could be the sales team. Ask yourself: do you have their full support and commitment?
9. Should we have sponsors and/or exhibitors?
This may be a given with some events, but is also worth considering on small events — it can be a way to get a bigger budget for the event (as long as it doesn’t conflict with your objectives).
10. Should we hold the event?
Assess your ROI vs. business environment and likelihood of getting the audience — then you can decide if it will be worth holding the event or not.
Go to our full article on How to Plan an Event where you can download the 'Event Business Case Template'.
