Planning big company events is not an endeavor that should be taken lightly. More often than not certain tasks and details are forgotten up until the opening day. This may yield a poor experience to those attending. To circumvent this issue, it is necessary to have a good grasp of pure project management. To this end, we advise our would-be managers to follow 3 steps when planning for a big event: two brainstorming sessions and a retro-planning session.

Starting with the first brainstorming session, the manager should gather a group of people comprised of experienced event planners and individuals with no experience. The purpose of this session is to register every relevant task that each person suggests. The less experienced people are needed to propose creative and out-of-the box ideas which may be interesting to consider. The manager should then define the costs of execution of each task regarding time and price. This is to ensure that, when planning the event, every cost is accounted for. After this first session, the project manager should hold a second brainstorming session with a different group of both experienced and inexperienced members. This second session serves to register tasks that the first group did not put forward. Therefore, both sessions should provide the manager with a comprehensive list of responsibilities to consider for the event.

Once each task is duly registered, the manager can start creating a timeline of when these should be executed. However, contrary to what may seem natural, we advise the manager to start at the end of the timeline and work their way backwards. This retrospective approach will make it easier to identify the prior necessities that each task will require as well as how much time and resources they will take up. Much like solving a pencil maze, a path will reveal itself when one begins at the end and backtracks to the starting point.

This style of project management can be helpful for occasions other than just event planning. When scrambling for ideas, consider enlisting the help of both professionals and amateurs, since their different experiences will result in diverse types of suggestions. Also, we propose that you start with your desired result and work backwards – it will help you identify all the possible obstacles that may arise during the process.

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