Plan the perfect event with support from a virtual assistant 

Planning and hosting events is a great way to raise your business profile, gain new clients, and even bring your team members together. But planning an event also comes with many moving parts – and plenty of administration headaches to match. 

As a virtual assistant agency, one of the tasks we regularly support clients with is running events. Whether that’s putting on a webinar, holding a team offsite, hosting a client party, or staging an overseas conference.

Regardless of size and type, the success of an event lies in the detail… That’s where the importance of effective event planning comes in, and getting the right support can be instrumental in saving time and reducing stress.

In this blog post, we share everything you need to consider for your perfect event. Plus, discover how to ensure you have the right support so you aren’t adding more to your plate than you can handle. 

Why it’s beneficial to use an event planning virtual assistant

Planning a successful event is incredibly time-consuming. For many first-time event planners, it’s unclear how many tasks they will actually need to do, and the workload is underestimated. This ends up with people becoming overwhelmed and the event suffers for it. 

When you partner with a VA, not only will they take many of the tasks off your hands, but they’ll help you think of the things you’ve not yet considered. Our team is highly experienced with event planning and we love to help clients who want to put on a great event but don’t have the resources within their current team to make it happen.

As many of the tasks are admin-heavy, they don’t require leadership or management to get involved. Hiring a VA to help with event planning allows you to achieve the bigger picture vision, without getting bogged down by the endless tasks and things to remember. And don’t worry – they can make sure your personal style still shines through. 

Let’s look at the steps you need to work through to ensure your event is perfectly planned, with help from a VA:

How a VA can help with pre-event planning tasks

Here’s a snapshot of everything you need to do before the event to make sure it’s a success. 

1. Purpose and goals

First, you need to set clear goals – this will guide the event planning process. What are your main objectives for the event? Are you looking to… 

• Increase brand awareness
• Generate warm leads
• Build engagement with your team
• Improve your industry authority
• Promote a new product or service 

Once you’ve set clear goals, your VA can meet expectations, but if they have no clear direction their work won’t be as impactful… 

Setting goals means you can also measure your ‘success’ after the event. For example, if you want to grow an event following and build brand awareness, give attendees a great experience so they’re more likely to share their takeaways online – just like we did after attending ATOMICON. 

Let’s say you add a goal to encourage X number of attendees to share your event with their online audience. You can work backwards from this with your VA to work out how to best achieve this goal. They might also have personal experience to draw from past successful events, improving your initial planning stages and acting as a sounding board. 

2. Budget and resource allocation

Once you know what you want to achieve, you need to set a budget. Within the budget, you also need to be clear about the resources you can allocate, including team members and the time they have to support the event planning. If your internal team members have limited capacity already, hiring a VA for your event planning is definitely a worthwhile investment. 

If you have an overall event budget, your VA can create and manage this, ensuring all expenses are accounted for and that costs stay within the financial limits. A VA can also track expenditures, negotiate with vendors, and provide regular budget updates so you don’t overspend. 

3. Venue selection and logistics

After you’ve set your budget, a VA can research and recommend venues based on event size, preferred location, and any other requirements you might have. This is one major aspect of the event planning process that’s more time-consuming than people expect, so having a VA take care of this will be a weight off your shoulders. 

Your VA can also handle logistics such as confirming the venue, organising transportation and equipment, and booking accommodation for attendees or speakers. You might also want them to arrange pre- or post-event gatherings, such as meals or coffee dates.

4. Supplier coordination

Another aspect that you need to consider is coordinating your event suppliers. You will likely have a range of suppliers, all with differing needs and information requests, such as catering, AV equipment, decor, and so on. 

It can become confusing to keep track of, and there’s often supplier admin to complete too. Here, a VA can take on the management of supplier relationships, handle contract negotiations, follow up on deliverables, and ensure your suppliers hit targets on the agreed schedule. 

5. Creating a detailed event timeline

You’ll need to develop a comprehensive event timeline, including key milestones and deadlines leading up to the event. Having a well-organised and realistic timeline to keep everything on track is absolutely vital, and key to the overall success of your event. A VA can help you create this timeline and manage your progress along the way. 

6. Event special touches

To leave a lasting impression on your attendees, you’ll want to add some extra-special touches to your event. Whether it’s sourcing incredible gifts, ordering amazing branded merchandise, creating top-notch supporting materials, or organising fun-packed activities, your VA can help you with the whole process from design and implementation. 

How a VA can help with marketing your event 

Aside from the planning, depending on the type of event you are hosting, you need to consider how you want to market and promote your event. This won’t apply if it’s an internal affair such as a team offsite, but you’ll still need to consider your communication plans and team logistics.

Your VA can help with the following tasks to market your event…

1. Event branding and promotion strategy

For external events, you’ll need to develop a cohesive branding strategy including logos, themes, and messaging. This leads to promotional materials such as flyers, social media graphics, and email campaigns. All things that are incredibly time-consuming and that a VA can take off your plate.

2. Social media and online promotion

A VA can manage your social media promotion, including scheduling posts, engaging with followers, and running targeted ads if required. You may also want help from your VA in creating specific event pages on platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn or Eventbrite.

3. Email marketing and sending invitations

Finally, your VA can handle your email communications. This might include the creation and distribution of email invitations, reminders, and follow-ups. Plus, get help managing guest lists, tracking RSVPs, and ensuring timely communication with attendees. 

4. Live event support 

When the day of your event finally arrives, you will also likely need support at the event itself, either on-site or online if it’s taking place virtually. A VA can be on hand to ensure everything runs smoothly, from engaging with attendees to handling tech support and keeping speakers or activities on schedule. 

They can also be incredibly valuable when it comes to post-event follow-ups, such as:

• Collecting and analysing feedback
• Sending thank-you gifts or notes to attendees, speakers, and vendors
• Handling any follow-up enquiries or additional requests

Host successful events without the planning stress

As you can see, it takes a lot to put together a great event, and hiring a VA helps everything to run smoothly without stress – from pre-event preparation right through to post-event follow-up.

For professional event planning assistance, contact Virtually Priceless today. We’ve helped many businesses to plan and execute successful events that achieve their goals, without getting overwhelmed by the details. 

We’ve also found that many of our clients who choose to hire a VA for event planning start with a one-off project agreement, but soon see the benefits and quickly start delegating other admin tasks to help with your day-to-day.