As we move into the 2012 event planning season, many organizers are still facing tight budgets, all the while, expected to deliver great results. Below are some old and new ideas that can help bring your event planning and execution in focus, without breaking the proverbial bank.

Before you secure the city, venue, or send out event invitations, make certain you know your client’s vision of the event. Spend time exploring what they want and what was missing from the previous year’s meeting. Brainstorm about creative options and then send them an email confirming what you heard them say.

Once you understand your client’s vision, start the process of learning more about what the attendee wants. You are competing with a lot of other events, so spend the time and money to secure top-notch speakers and facilitators. Create a conference agenda that you would be excited to attend. 

Travel budgets are still tight, so if you think a segment of your potential audience cannot travel, give them an opportunity to be a part of the conference by live-streaming it right to their desktop. Videotaping the event and then offering it later, for a cost, is another way to allow individuals to gain knowledge about the conference. If you choose to offer a hybrid platform, rent Wi-Fi Network Arrays to boost the bandwidth and minimize video buffering.

Have goals for everything related to the event: the number of local and remote attendees you want, revenue and profit objectives, number of exhibitors, clicks on the website, and so on. Without measurements, it will be difficult to determine if you are successful or not.

Reaching out to other organizations, associations, and companies that are not direct competitors but do attract the same profile of attendee, can save you significant dollars on marketing, venue expenses, renting audio visual equipment, and sponsorships. The attendee can extend their travel arrangements by 1 or 2 days, but they can sell it to management as the opportunity to go to 2 events for the price of 1 airline ticket.

Call on those potential sponsors that will make a dent in your budget and they will reap the most benefit from the barter. It has to be a "win-win" for both parties in order to work.

Start with a detailed budget and then plug in all expenses as they occur. If you are starting to see cost overruns, contact the client immediately and ask for their guidance. 

It’s great to bring in top-notch speakers for your event, but if they just come in, speak, and leave, the attendee is left with no opportunity to personally approach them about their talk. Creating VIP networking events is one more reason a participant will want to attend your event and allows your guests to dialog with the speaker on a more informal basis. 

Are you event planning in California? Contact AV Event Solutions for great rates on interactive technology tool rentals, including Wi-Fi network arrays. They can also provide you with qualified project managers and technicians to make any event run more smoothly.