Courtney’s Top 5 Edmonton Event Vendors
Courtney’s Top 5 Edmonton Event Vendors
Finding vendors that you can trust can be difficult, but lucky for you I have been in the events industry for years and I’m happy to share some of the trusted vendors I have found and use on a continuous basis for all of my event planning. It’s so important to use vendors that are reliable and that you trust as their services can really make or break the event you’re planning. You don’t want all of your hard work to go to waste just because the vendor is unreliable. Keep reading this blog where I will share my top 5 vendors ranging from your AV needs to your photography needs. In addition, I will also share some tips I’ve learned over the years to help you choose a new vendor.
AV Vendors
First, let’s cover what an AV vendor is and when you might require their professional help. The AV team is responsible for all of the audio and video equipment and setup for an event. You probably won’t require an AV vendor for your daughter’s 8th birthday (hey I could be wrong), but for the conference you’re running, you definitely will! Below are my 2 recommendations for AV vendors in the Edmonton area.
invert720
invert720 is a great local AV company in Edmonton. They truly bring events to life! “invert720 Productions is not your average live event and video production company. Quality is key, and so is the invert process. It’s never ok to paint every event with the same brush. Taking a creative approach to event production has proven that audiences at our events are engaged in the event experience – not just passive participants.”
Encore Canada
I recently worked with the team at Encore in Edmonton and they were fantastic! Not only were they quick to respond to my emails (and trust me there were many) but they were great on site as well. They quickly handled any last-minute AV changes with always a yes. I highly recommend the Encore team for your AV needs.
Florist
Finding a trusted florist that can bring your vision to mind can be difficult. There are plenty of florists in the Edmonton area that are fantastic, but how do you choose the one that’s right for you and your event?
Vienna Intentional Floral and Event Design
Rene Dunger with Vienna Intentional Floral and Event Design never fails to blow my expectations out of the water. I don’t know how she does it but I think she can read my mind. I can give her the smallest amount of direction and she is always able to create floral arrangements that are jaw-dropping. I recently had her create a Mexican-inspired archway for a vow renewal and it came out exactly how I envisioned it (check out the photos below). Rene is truly a floral artist!
Cake
Cakes aren’t common for all events, but they are especially important that they are done to perfection for your wedding. Just like florists, there are many specialty bakers and bakeries all around Edmonton.
Sweet Gi’s
Have you seen those sculpted, super detail-orientated custom cakes and thought where do I get one of those? Well, look no further than Sweet Gi’s. I have used them for almost every celebration I have done, and everyone is always so impressed.
Photographer
Finding a photographer for your event can be challenging. Photographers have different styles, editing, and specialties, so it’s important to find one who suits your event and preference.
Peak and Prairie Photography
I recently met Alex and Peggy and I immediately loved their style of photography. It’s not the posed photos with them, it’s the small, intimate, no one is watching details that I love about their style of photos. If you are looking to update your branding, need family photos, or even photographers for your event or wedding, reach out to them! I recently used them at Market 192 and I LOVE the photos, so much so that they are also doing family photos for us.
Didn’t see a vendor you’re looking for on my recommended list? Use the following tips to help you ensure the vendor you’re choosing is right for your event.
- Ask for photos- this will give you a better feel for their style
- Ask for samples (where applicable)
- Check references
- Read reviews
Need help planning your upcoming event? Send us an email and we would be happy to see where we are able to lend a helping hand!
5 Easy Steps to Help Choose Your Next Event Planner
Planit Events Inc. shares 5 easy steps to follow to help you choose an event planner for your upcoming event.
Why Fall or Winter Events May Be More Suitable for Your Organization
Planit Events Inc. shares some insight into which season is most suitable for your organization’s events!
4 Creative Ways to Market Your Upcoming Event
Planit Events Inc. shares 4 creative ways you can try to market your upcoming event!
The 3 Best Ways to Evaluate Your Event
The 3 Best Ways to Evaluate Your Event
In many of my blogs, I’ve shared tips and key learnings to plan an event, but I haven’t gotten the chance to go further in-depth on evaluating post-event. Evaluation is so important in many worlds, but especially in the events world. Why? Evaluation helps us understand what worked well, what did not work, what we want to do differently the next time around, and what we want to keep consistent. Over my years as an event planner in Edmonton and the surrounding area, I have found a pretty good system to help me evaluate an event that I planned and executed. I’m able to apply many of these key learnings to other events that I play a role in and I’m happy to be here today to share my learnings with you!
1. Evaluate Your Budget
This evaluation may seem like the most obvious one, but many don’t evaluate the budget unless it’s greatly exceeded. I think there is great importance in reviewing your budget post-event to see:
- What was over budget?
- What was under budget?
- Where there could have been further savings
- Where I would like to budget more for the future (i.e. on a promotional tactic that worked well)
Although this may seem tedious, go through each line item of your budget and reflect to gain a better understanding of if something could have been done differently to benefit the event more.
Not quite there yet? Check out my blog on how to set up your event budget!
2. Evaluating What Worked
This is my favorite step in the process – it’s celebrating your big wins! When you are evaluating what worked well in your event it’s important to gain insight from attendees, exhibitors (when applicable), sponsors (when applicable), special guests, or the hosting organization. These insights will help you gauge which techniques or aspects of the event helped them achieve their goal! Check out some of the questions that you can ask your different audiences below to gain insight into their successes of the event – these may not apply to all events.
Attendees:
Did you enjoy the event/conference/show?
What aspects did you enjoy the most?
What was your key takeaway from the event/conference/show?
Did you enjoy the networking?
What was unique about this event/conference/show?
Will you consider attending future events?
Exhibitors:
Did you find the event/show/conference beneficial to your business goals?
Did you gain valuable leads?
Was this the right audience for your business?
What did the event host do well for exhibitor promotion?
Were there ample networking opportunities?
Do you feel that you got or exceeded your return on investment (ROI)?
Will you consider exhibiting at future events?
Sponsors:
Did you find the event/show/conference beneficial to your business goals?
Did you gain valuable leads?
Was this the right audience for your business?
What did the event host do well for sponsor promotion?
Do you feel that you got or exceeded your return on investment (ROI)?
Will you consider sponsoring future events?
3. Evaluating What Did Not Work
This step isn’t as fun as the previous one, although it probably carries the most weight in the entire process. Finding out what did not work for your event will help you grow your event in the future. Learning about what not to do, what not to spend your budget on, and what people did not enjoy will create room for you to try new ideas in the future (check out the 2022 event trends here), or expand on what you have already implemented that is working.
I always feel like it’s beneficial to gain feedback from third parties in this situation, such as stakeholders, attendees, exhibitors, sponsors, etc. Check out what people are saying about your event through social media channels. Consider even sending a post-event survey to gain valuable insight into what your audience expects and wants to see from your event.
Planning events isn’t as easy as it may seem on the outside, so don’t be too hard on yourself if your event didn’t quite go as planned. Find those key takeaways and apply them to the next event and I can almost guarantee you will see progress. Planit Events Inc. is here for you throughout the entire event process. Feel free to reach out to us and we would be happy to help you in any way that we can!
How to Use Social Media to Promote Your Events
How to Use Social Media to Promote Your Events
Event planning and marketing go hand in hand. Without marketing, your event may not live up to its full potential. Living in 2022, the marketing world has a strong lean toward the digital side which comes with many challenges, however, once you have a grasp on using digital tools, they can come at ease and help you immensely in your event planning. As an event planner in the Edmonton and surrounding area for years, I have a few tips on using digital means to help promote your event, which I will share with you today. This blog’s focus will be on using social media to help promote your upcoming event!
Tip 1: Establish Social Media Accounts for the Event/Organization Early On
First things first, to promote on social media, you need to have social media channels. There are two ways of going about this:
- Social media channels for the organization
- Social media channels for the event
Sometimes it may be beneficial to use the social media channels for the organization as it already may be well established. By well established I mean:
- Steady growth in followers each month
- Post regularly
- Strong engagement with followers
Don’t worry, if you don’t have social media accounts set up for the event or organization it’s not too late. It’s best to set these accounts up as soon as possible so that you can start posting and gaining a social media presence among the right audience. There are four main platforms that I typically like to focus on depending on the audience and type of event which includes Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Each of these platforms provides great benefits however explore the idea of YouTube or even TikTok too if they are relevant for your event!
Need some more help deciding which platforms to use? Check out this great HubSpot article which outlines different platforms and their pros and cons!
Tip 2: Create a Social Media Plan in Advance
Ok, now that you’ve got your social media channels, the next thing to do is create a social media plan in advance. I recommend starting to post about the upcoming event months ahead, especially if you are looking for sponsors and exhibitors! Consider posting:
- Event information (who, what, where, when, why)
- Reasons to attend the event
- Attendee information
- Exhibitor information
- Sponsor information
- Highlight special guests attending or keynote speakers
- Highlight sponsors
- Registration information
- Promotion (ticket pricing etc.)
Use your social media channels to bring awareness to your event, share the benefits of attending your event, information about the event, and much more. It’s important to share information in advance, for example, if the last day to purchase tickets is May 10, ensure you give your audience plenty of notice!
What I like to do is create a calendar using a spreadsheet to help you organize your posts. Are you going or post 1x a week or 4x a week? You can track all of this information on your spreadsheet.
Tip 3: Use a Scheduling Tool
I can’t stress this enough, but using a scheduling tool will save you so much time! Scheduling tools usually come at a cost of $10+ per month depending on the capabilities you would like included. Instead of trying to remember to create your post and share it across your platforms multiple times a week, you can schedule a few hours at the beginning of each month or an hour or two a week to schedule out in advance. I prefer scheduling for a month in advance. This frees up a lot of my time so I can focus on planning and executing the event. If I ever have any last-minute announcements to make I can quickly add them in.
Using a scheduling tool not only saves you time, but it saves you the stress of forgetting to post and messing up the social media plan you made in advance.
Tip 4: Evaluate Engagement & Find Key Takeaways
Just like it’s important to evaluate your event to find out what worked and what didn’t work, it’s just as important to do this with your social media. (Keep an eye out for the next blog this month as I’ll be sharing ideas on how to evaluate your event) It’s important to try out different ideas and methods to see which creates more engagement with your audience. This way, you can put your effort into what works for your event and not waste time on what doesn’t. It’s best to test new ideas over at least the span of a month to help you really gauge engagement. So how do you measure engagement?
- How many likes is your post getting?
- Are there any comments? If so, what are they?
- Are people sharing, re-tweeting, or saving the post?
- Is your channel gaining more followers?
I’ve been in the events industry for over a decade now and each year new waves of promotion types come about. It’s important to stay on top of trends and evaluate what works best to promote your event. If you have any questions about planning your upcoming event or you need a helping hand, feel free to reach out!
The 5 Must-Know Stages in Event Planning
The 5 Must-Know Stages in Event Planning
Wow, I can’t believe we’ve already wrapped up the first quarter of 2022 and are moving into Q2! I know in many places around the world, and in Edmonton and surrounding areas, in-person events are starting to resurface and I am so excited to see what the rest of the year holds in the events world! I thought it would be a great time to go over one of the fundamentals of event planning, the 5 stages. Going through these stages is a great way to ensure that you don’t miss out on any important pieces and you plan the right event for the right audience. In today’s blog, I will go through each step, give a few examples when applicable and send you on your way to getting started on planning your next event!
Stage 1: Research
First things first, research. It’s always important to conduct research before diving into an event. Why? Conducting research helps you understand:
- What is the event for?
- Who do I want to attend the event, or who is the target audience?
- What goal am I trying to achieve with this event?
The main question that your research needs to focus on is, ‘What goal am I trying to achieve with this event?’ By setting objectives you will be able to determine what factors you need to research to meet these goals.
An example of this could be: You want to organize an event to raise money for your local animal shelter through a gala. Some of the research you would need to conduct is who would attend, what type of event would you hold, how will you raise money, what is the charitable amount goal, and much more.
Research can be the toughest stage in event planning. Practice using SMART goals to keep your research on track. Not sure what a SMART goal is?
Check out this Planit blog post.
Stage 2: Design
Now that you’ve done your research, it’s time to start envisioning your design. What is the event going to look like? Remember to keep your SMART goals in mind throughout each of the steps. But this is where we start getting further into the details. My favorite place to start is choosing a venue. This is a great starting point to build further design details off of. Need help choosing the perfect venue for your upcoming event?
Check out this Planit blog post.
Stage 3: Plan (w/ Brand in Mind)
If you’re a regular reader of the Planit Events’ blog, you know that I talk about planning… A LOT. Planning is the fundamental core of your event, so don’t take this stage lightly. Planning includes everything big and everything small, every major and minor detail. In terms of the 5 stages, the planning stage includes finalizing the venue, the budget, and all timelines. Don’t make this stage harder for yourself than it needs to be. Numerous tools on the market are free or paid, to help you during this stage. Looking for some tools?
Check out this Planit blog post.
Planning takes the most amount of time, so if you have the resources to build a team to help, I recommend doing so. Your team can be made up of colleagues, project managers, or professional event planner(s).
Stage 4: Coordinate
Coordinating, this is where you get to see your event come to life! I’ll warn you, this is probably the most stressful stage of them all. This is where things will happen (and trust me, no matter how meticulously you plan, something will always happen) and will test your reactivity, adaptability, and adjustability. But that’s ok! After you’ve been in the events world as long as I have, you become accustomed to adapting plans quickly and having contingency plans in place. Event rental vendor backed out on you? Not a problem, you have another one you can contact. But it’s important to remember that things do happen, but you and your team can handle them. Take a deep breath, evaluate the situation and create a new plan.
Stage 5: Review & Evaluate
Reviewing and evaluating after an event tends to get forgotten about, but this is where you find your key learnings. Ask yourself the following:
- What went well with the event?
- What did not go well?
- Did I meet my objectives? Why or why not?
- What would I have done differently?
- Did I have the right contingency plans in place?
- Did my team coordinate well?
These questions will help you evaluate your event and you can take the key learnings onto your next event to make it even better.
I hope that by shedding some light on the 5 stages of event planning you can move forward confidently with your event. As always, Planit Event Inc. is at your service, whether you need help with the entirety of your event or just one of the stages. Feel free to contact us to learn how we can create the event you are looking to achieve.
Courtney’s 5 Special Event Tips
Courtney’s 5 Special Event Tips
For those of you who are returning to the Planit Blog, it’s great to see you, and for those of you who are new here, my name is Courtney and I’m the owner of Planit Events Inc. I’ve been in the events industry for many years now and I’d say that I’m just as passionate about it as the day I started. I love curating event designs and putting my client’s visions together to ensure that they have a successful event. Usually, I pick a topic to focus on for each of my blogs, but I thought I would switch things up a bit for this one. In today’s blog, I will be sharing 5 tips that I have learned throughout my experience as a professional event planner in the Edmonton and surrounding area.
Copyright Lauren Voisin Photography. All Rights Reserved 2016.
Tip 1: Plan Ahead
I apologize in advance to those who are returning, but I’ve said it once (ok, more than once) and I’ll say it again, always plan ahead! Planning your event is the core structure that your entire event relies on. Planning has the following benefits:
- Gives you time to troubleshoot when problems arise
- Allows you to potentially test out ideas
- Gives you ample time to research
So, when you are planning what things should you consider? I like to start with deciding what the event is for, who the audience is, and what my goals are. I then like to decide on a budget. This aspect can be tricky sometimes but don’t worry I’ve got you covered. Check out the Planit blog to learn how to plan out your event budget.
Once you have your budget you can start to make decisions on the details. Think about the venue and how you picture the event. Need help choosing the right venue for your event? Check out the Planit blog. Work on the details from biggest to smallest.
Tip 2: Stay Organized
Now with details, it’s important to stay organized. Planning an event can become messy, fast. But if you stay organized from the start, things will be much easier for you and your team. So how do I stay organized?
- Plan out my days (ensure to make time for yourself too!)
- Use reminders on my phone and calendar to keep me on track
- Make lists and monitor them
- Use digital tools (read more about this in the Planit blog)
Organization is different for anyone, so try a few things out and see what works for you.
Tip 3: Ask for Help
Planning an event can be super overwhelming and take up a tremendous amount of your time. Don’t forget that it’s ok to ask for help! Believe it or not, most large events aren’t just put together by one lone person. Make yourself a team of friends, family, colleagues or vendors. I know sometimes we don’t always have a team available, but you can also consider hiring an event professional to ease the burden. To learn more about how hiring an event planner can help, check out the Planit blog.
Tip 4: Don’t Be Afraid to be Creative
I think sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the latest trends or get nervous to try out something completely different, but I’m here to tell you to be elaborate and think outside of the box! The best events that I have attended have always been different than the typical event and that’s what makes it so memorable. The only tip I have to give is to make sure the idea you have fits the audience that will be attending your event. Will your creative idea help you reach one of your event goals? If the answer is yes, then give it a try! Event planning in many cases is about trial and error. I didn’t find my favorite food vendors quickly, it took years of trying different ones out.
Tip 5: Always Evaluate
Last but not least, always evaluate post-event. This tends to get overlooked but it’s important to address how well your event went. Ask yourself the following when evaluating your event:
- Overall, how did the event go?
- What went well? What did not?
- Did I meet my event goals? Why or why not?
- What would I do differently next time?
- What would I do the same?
- Which aspects can I improve on for future events?
- Did I stay within the budget? Why or why not?
- What unexpected challenges came up?
- Did I deal with the challenges well?
- How did my team perform?
Although events are a lot to plan and put together, the reward of a successful event is priceless. To learn more about the services I offer at Planit Events Inc. visit our website. If you have any questions or you want to inquire about any services please feel free to reach out.
Notable Catering Trends in 2022 You Need to Try
Notable Catering Trends in 2022 that You Need to Try
Each year it’s so exciting to see the new and emerging trends in the events industry. In December I wrote a blog post that summarized the trends from the events industry in 2021 (you can check it out here). This time around I decided I would share some of the catering trends that have gained popularity and perhaps one of these trends will be fun to implement into one of your upcoming events!
Pandemic-Friendly Food Serving
The first one is a little obvious, but due to the pandemic (I swear, I will try to say this word less and less), catering has had to become creative to share food and treats safely. This led to a huge increase in individually wrapped servings, but many catering companies made light of the situation and got crafty. Take a look at some of these awesome ideas:
I do predict moving forward that this trend is here to stick around. Whether you are catering your own event or hiring a catering company, don’t be scared to be creative and have fun with it. Give your guests something to talk about!
It’s All About the Flavor
In the past, when thinking of catering for large events, many planners tended to stick with the more conservative palette for flavor, but according to studies from recent years, guests love trying new and bold flavors. Your event isn’t just about being informative or celebrating, it’s about being memorable and most importantly creating an experience for your guest. By incorporating bold flavors you’re doing just that!
Alcoholic vs Non-Alcoholic Beverages
Depending on your event and audience, you may choose to incorporate alcoholic beverages. This isn’t anything new or memorable to note, but what is, is that more are choosing to not indulge in alcohol anymore. So they’re left with the option of ordering a water, soft drink, or coffee/tea. And guess what, that’s no fun. Consider asking your bar team to add in a few fun non-alcoholic beverages, mocktails. Looking for some inspiration? Check out these fun mocktail ideas!
Think Green
Moving into 2022 more individuals and organizations are moving towards becoming more green. This is great, however, it can pose a bit of a challenge and this may require you to be a bit more creative about your catering. So how can you move towards a more green-friendly option?
- Not using disposable plates, cutlery, or glassware
- Cloth napkins
- Responsible sourcing of ingredients
The key message from this blog that I would love for you to take away is, make your event an experience for your guest and I can assure you they will be returning in years to come. And of course, if you need help along your event journey, or perhaps you’re looking to pizazz things up a bit, Planit Events Inc. is here for you! Send us a message and we would be happy to see how we can help your vision come to life.
How to Create Contingency Plans that Guarantee Success
How to Create Contingency Plans that Guarantee Success
Before we get started, it’s important to know what a contingency plan is and why they are important to have in place for your upcoming event. A contingency plan is any “backup” plan that you have in place in case of any unforeseen circumstances. Some examples of unforeseen circumstances in the events world include:
- Budgeting issues
- Catering canceling
- Bathrooms failing (trust me I’ve seen this before)
- Time delays
- And much more…
In the events world, so many things can go wrong due to so many independent factors so it is best to be prepared with contingency plans ahead of time so that when something does happen you are prepared and the event can continue like nothing even happened in the first place.
Step 1: Create a List of Risks
The first step in creating contingency plans is to decide which elements of your event are potential risks. It is crucial to be extra diligent during this step because even though it may be unlikely that part of your event may fail due to unforeseen circumstances, it is still a possibility. Some things to consider putting on your list may include:
- Failure of specific guests (especially speaking ones) to arrive on time
- Weather, for both indoor and outdoor events. Even though your event is indoors, will the road conditions to get to your event be a potential risk?
- Injuries or accidents
- Team members calling in sick
Step 2: Rank the Risks
The second step is to rank the risks in order of how large of an effect it will have on the event’s success. For example, weather for an outdoor event may have a larger impact than the special speaking guests arriving 15 minutes late. I like to use a scale ranging from 1 to 5, with 1 being a low risk and 5 being high risk.
Step 3: Creating the Contingency Plans
Step three is one of the more crucial steps – making the plans. This step can sometimes take a little sprinkle (or a big sprinkle) of creativity. To develop contingency plans you need to think outside of the box. For example, at a wedding I attended a few years ago, everything was going smoothly until it wasn’t. The toilets at the hall started to fail and it was a very short time before not a single toilet worked, and there was an open bar to boot so as you can imagine it was a less than ideal situation. So, where’s the contingency plan? Porta-potties were quickly delivered just in time to save the day! Not a pretty problem, I know, but contingency plans need to be in place, or problems like these can end up being disasters.
If you’re planning an outdoor event, especially in the Edmonton area, we know the weather can be… let’s say a little unpredictable. Has it snowed in May? Absolutely. Weather is one of the more tricky elements to create a contingency plan for. Will your event continue rain or shine? Do you have tents as backup just in case of bad weather? Will your guests still want to continue with the event? All of these questions must be considered when developing your contingency plans.
Step 4: Briefing Your Team
What’s almost just as important as the contingency plans themselves? Your team! Don’t forget to include your team members in the plans, whether it’s solely the ones they’re involved in or all of the plans to increase overlap. Ensure you notify team members of the following:
- Their role in any plan they are involved in
- Where they can find a written copy of the plan
- Who they can contact for additional support
- Any additional details that may assist them
Planit Events Inc. is at your service. If you want to run a successful event without the hassle of all the nitty-gritty planning, send us a message, we would love to chat about turning your vision into a reality. My numerous years in the industry have allowed me to face many challenges and become a great event planner over the years, and I would be happy to share my skills with you to ensure your event is just as perfect as you are envisioning it.
If you’re looking for more event planning resources, check out my blog page!