Timing is Everything

Anyone who has attended a meeting, conference, convention or incentive has seen the long lines at the telephone booths, people talking quietly into their cell phones during break or slipping out quietly to take care of pending business never to return. Are you scheduling your event over a particularly busy time period where your participants' minds are going to be elsewhere? For example, at the close of a sales period your sales force needs to be out signing contracts instead of being in a ballroom. Would midweek work better than scheduling your event on a Monday, or are you traditionally more quiet over Thursdays and Fridays? If your event is taking place far away, you need to take into consideration travel time, costs (airfares are lover if you are staying over a Saturday night), overnight stays enroute to the final destination and how the company will be handing requests for extensions. Do you need staff back and ready to work in the office Monday, or is there any flexibility?

Corporate Events, Fund-Raisers, Special Events
For corporate events, fund-raisers and special events either mid-week or Saturday night is the most successful for achieving maximum attendance for those form whom it is a religious day and for those who want to get away for the weekend. Many things come into play in selecting the perfect date for your event. Consideration should be given to:

* Whether it should be a daytime or evening event
* What time would it start?
* Will it be formal or informal dress?
* Will guests have time to change clothes if coming to/from work?
* Will volunteers have time to leave work and have everything ready well before guests arrive?

For most of these events, your guests may be invited to bring their partners. If the event is planned to take place during the day mid-week, it could be difficult for one of the partners to attend, and an evening event may be a better choice. Or you could look at moving it to the weekend when both may have more flexibility.

Where will your guests be coming from? Take this into consideration as you plan your start time. Will they be coming directly from work? When does their work day typically end? If they are bringing a guest will this work for them as well? Could they be caught in traffic? Are you bringing them from uptown to downtown? Both scenarios could apply depending on where each of the partners work or live. How late will your event go? Is the next day a business day where both partners may need to get up early? Partners may arrive independently, in separate cars. Is there enough parking?

If the event is black tie, will your guests have time to go home to change, or will they need to bring a change of clothes to work? Will they be in a position to leave work early?

Have you left sufficient time for your set-up crew or volunteers to travel to the event, park, have everything ready, change, eat and be ready to go at least a good half hour before the first guest is scheduled to arrive?


Pierce Events offers complete event planning, production and management services for corporate, social and non-profit events. For more information and other helpful tips visit our website at www.pierceevents.net ◦

Timing is Everything