The importance of event timelines isn’t rare knowledge, but a topic that we still don’t see talked about very much is how to approach the creation of timelines when faced with a brand new event. Where do you start?
This blog post isn’t meant to be a roadmap to creating a full critical path, but we do have some tips to share. These might be helpful for event planners who are just starting out, or for folks who have hired an event planner, because even if you aren’t the one worrying about the timelines, it’s good to have an idea of what goes into it.
Platforms To Use
There are a ton of platforms out there for creating timelines – ranging from simple task managers such as Asana to full-blown project management software such as Smartsheet. While it largely depends on the complexity of the events, here at Tycoon we like to keep things simple and use Google Sheets (Microsoft Excel equivalent).
We strongly recommend using spreadsheets as opposed to Microsoft Word/Google Docs. Having each task line by line in a spreadsheet keeps things organized, and makes it easier to manipulate if things need to be moved around later on. You can also colour code things and use conditional formatting and dropdowns.
Breaking It Into Small Chunks
Timelines can seem like a monolith when you start them out – even for a simple one-day event, there are hundreds of tasks involved to put everything together. It’s helpful to group things by service area so that you’re not tackling it all at once. Some examples of categories to use are “Venue Management,” “Event Design & Programming,” and “Marketing.”
Try to keep the number of categories to 10 or less! More than that defeats the purpose of simplifying things by breaking them up. At the end of the day, the labels can be whatever you’d like, as long as the tasks are categorized in a way that makes sense to you.
Once you’ve separated the tasks out, it’s much easier to tackle each category one at a time. List out all the relevant tasks to each grouping, then place them in chronological order within the group. At this stage, it’s critical to do a thorough review of the tasks in each category to ensure that everything is being captured; you’re more likely to notice things missing when looking at each individual category by itself.
Once this is done, you can put it all together in chronological order.
Setting Deadlines
Now that you’ve got tasks listed out chronologically, it’s time to set deadlines. The best way to approach this is to work backwards – start with event day, and the deadlines closest to it. As an example, we’ll go through printing. We know that the last deadline is when we need all the printing to be delivered to the venue. For this to be possible, what is the printing company’s deadline to get final approval on the proofs? And when would the printer need the graphics by in order to get proofs to you for approval? And how long will the graphic designer need to work on everything, keeping in mind that there will likely be several rounds of edits? What information do you need to have before you get the graphic designer started on everything (sponsor logos, copy, etc.)? How long do you anticipate that you’ll take creating a graphics and printing list for the designer?
As you continue to work your way back from event day, you will have many questions to answer. If you’re unsure about some of them, start with the hard deadlines that are out of your control – in the example above, things like the printer’s deadline. Work with what you do know in order to set completion dates for the things that you don’t. Once you’ve done this for one category, continue to do this for each one.
And remember that when in doubt, it’s always better to set a deadline too early than to set it too late.
Who’s Doing What
Once you’ve got deadlines set for everything, you’re almost done, but there is one more important thing to include in the critical path. The planning team needs to be clear on who bears responsibility for each task. This isn’t necessarily the person doing the task, but rather the person who is accountable for the task being complete.
This is a helpful exercise to go through because it ensures that you and the rest of the team are on the same page about who’s doing what. For this reason, it’s important for both the event planner and the client to go through the critical path and uncover any misunderstandings early on.
Once It’s Complete
A critical path should be a living, breathing document that evolves as the event does. Keep in mind that deadlines and people responsible are not set in stone the moment the timelines are complete, and your event will suffer if things aren’t adjusted as needed. An appropriate level of flexibility is required, as well as transparency between team members.
We hope that this helped you create your event timelines, or provided some useful advice!
Your Tycoon,
Elizabeth