These Small Things

As a burgeoning event planner, my imagination often runs wild thinking of the extravagant, hundred-thousand dollar budget events that I will plan in the future--events where money is no object, and I have complete freedom of creativity. But for now, I'm starting small.

On Saturday, April 3rd, I was in New Jersey for a salon grand opening. I was first introduced to the owner through a mutual acquaintance who knew I was an event planner. I was extremely excited, honored and flattered that although we never met face-to-face, he was willing to trust my judgment enough to let me plan such an occasion. After all, it was my input and insight that would to help make the salon a success. Talk about pressure! 

At first I wanted this post to be about the event itself, but I kept getting stuck. I’ve been working on this for weeks now, and it just wasn’t coming out right. After some thought (and time away), I realized that I was putting too much thought into it. After all, this blog serves not only to share tips with newbie event planners, but as a means to share my experiences as well. I am a firm believer that each experience presents a lesson to learn from, and the grand opening was no different. So, instead of breaking down the event itself, I’m going to break it down into what lessons I learned that will help me (and you!) in the future:

• Event Planning goes hand-in-hand with PR & Marketing: Almost anything can be turned into an event. However, proper research needs to be conducted beforehand. One needs to identify the target market and its needs, figure out what will attract them (marketing), identify the proper media avenues to reach this target market (public relations), and of course, plan an engaging event (event planning).

• Some types of events are self-sufficient: Although anything can be turned into an event, sometimes there’s just not much that you have to do to make it a success. In the case of a salon, grand opening festivities are a great way to attract customers, but they’re not completely necessary. For example, I had great activities and incentives prepared for customers on opening day, but I'm not quite sure if they came to the salon because of those incentives or just because there was a new salon open. As a matter of fact, it didn't appear that any of the customers knew about the raffle or prizes despite the various marketing efforts—they were just there to “check out the new salon”. Either way, we were prepared to welcome and thank them for their patronage. As my NYU professor once said, "It is always better to under-promise and over-deliver."

• Don't be afraid to take control: Although you're a newbie, that doesn't mean you're not qualified to plan an event. Skills that you may already have such as being detail-oriented, the ability to multi-task and work under tight deadlines, and oral & written communication skills (to name a few) all come in handy and are vital to event planning. The first step is believing in yourself and your capabilities. You can do it!

Even though it wasn’t a grandiose affair, the salon grand opening event was still a success. I was excited to do the best job I possibly could for one of my first solo events, and learned a lot in the process. In addition, knowing that I helped someone accomplish their dream all the while advancing towards mine, provided tremendous satisfaction for me. Although there was no hundred-thousand dollar budget this time around, I realized that sometimes the small things make the biggest impact.