Unlike tropical countries, warm weather only comes around a few months annually in regions blessed with four seasons. Considering this, most people would maximize this time to enjoy a plethora of physical activities and soak in the sun’s rays outside. The period is also a perfect time to invite people, organize, and host large outdoor events.
The Pros And Cons Of Outdoor Events
The outdoors can offer unique opportunities that can energize your guests, complement your planning efforts, and accommodate flexibility. For example, it allows you to be innovative with your catering and entertainment options. Since summer is the perfect time for outdoor grill sessions, you can certainly offer your guests or clients a fun BBQ treat.
However, the outdoors also presents a set of concerns that have to be tackled ahead of the actual event date. For instance, if you’re organizing a large conference, you need to choose among different industrial tents that’d be able to cater to your expected number of participants and provide them with the necessary ventilation for maximum comfort.
An Organizer’s Guide: Tips To Achieve Outdoor Event Success
While this may discourage you, these challenges can actually spark creativity, help you make informed choices, encourage collaborative effort, and the like.
Whether you want a nature-inspired or a festival themed party, your outdoor event can be successful with proper preparation and collaboration.
You’ll need to seek help from a caterer, professional photographer, and event organizer to ensure everything will flow smoothly according to plan.
To jumpstart the preparation process, below are three tips for organizing outdoor events that you can go with.
1. Monitor The Weather
As mentioned, there are advantages associated with outdoor events. But there are also inevitable problems, such as poor weather, that can potentially spoil all of your efforts if not dealt with properly.
Considering this, make sure to be updated on weather reports as your event day approaches. Also, have spare longterm tent structures that you can set up immediately and other solutions that offer adequate coverage for your vendors, sponsors, clients, and equipment in the event that the weather turns bad.
The weather can be unpredictable even if you keep a close watch on the latest weather news. It’s a must to prepare for the big day with emergency measures.
For instance, an outdoor wedding venue can continue in the rain if you erect a marquee or a large tent before the event. With it, you can continue all your other activities inside while protecting your guests from rain and other elements.
With these alternatives prepared beforehand, you don’t have to cancel or postpone your event. Instead, you can easily move the event indoors and instruct the other organizers to lead and guide the event attendees. These portable solutions can also double to offer shade for guests who start coming in late in case of a sunny day.
Moreover, make sure to learn about the insurance options and expense liabilities if the weather has caused certain damages to the equipment, furniture pieces, and the like. This may be helpful in getting some of your money back.
Talk to an event insurance agent to determine the best plans available. Then, choose one within your budget and specific event needs. Before you sign a policy, check the coverage, deductible, and restrictions that may apply.
2. Prioritize Your Guests’ Comfort
When hosting indoor events, you might wonder how you can squeeze in your seating options, tables, podiums, and furniture items in awkward corners and tiny stations. Gladly, with outdoor settings, you don’t have to worry about partitions. You can have a spacious area to play around with the decorations and to designate areas. With this, make sure not to limit your cozy seating choices to invite guests to hang around and start to socialize.
Make sure to have enough lights to illuminate the space. If you have the budget, you can have different colors and light fixtures placed to cover the event area. Lights can directly transform the ambiance of the room, which influences your guest’s level of comfort. However, for worry-free outdoor lighting installation, make sure to hire licensed lighting experts in your locality.
If you’re hosting the event in a pavilion, make sure that an electrical team is around if the air conditioning units start to fail. Alternatively, make sure that you have electric fans, cooling stations, and mist devices available to combat the outdoor humidity.
Have a steady supply of clean, drinking water and food throughout the area, especially if more guests and clients come. Apart from this, situate your sanitation facilities away from the food area. In case of emergencies, make sure there’s a response team around or a pest control service that you can call immediately.
3. Designate Responsibilities
Another surefire way to organize a successful outdoor event is to clearly assign roles, delegate tasks, and collaborate among your fellow organizers. As the leader of the organizing committee, you’re responsible for managing your team, preparing them for their responsibilities, and designating them to their assigned zones.
During the preparation stages, assign ahead who are the ushers, who are responsible in the registration corner, who’ll check in with the food vendors, who’ll work closely with the press, and more. Make sure everyone knows each other’s assignments to make it easy for them to reach out to one another, especially if there are contingencies. It’d also be best to instruct them of the people to contact in case of unforeseen situations.
If you can, require your fellow organizers to learn basic first aid to injuries such as shocks caused by electricity and the like as you’d want your guests to feel safe during the entire event. Furthermore, set a few ground rules to ensure that everyone is in sync during the event. For example, no chitchats when clients are around or that someone should tackle a fellow organizer’s tasks if they’d want to use the bathroom.
Creating a safety and security protocol with the help of professionals, like security guards and safety officers, can help safeguard everyone. For instance, you can include warning signs in areas guests shouldn’t enter to prevent accidents. Likewise, you can prevent and address any untoward incident with complete emergency gear and equipment.
Final Thoughts
Whether your outdoor event is a wedding, conference, or bazaar, organizing one can be quite time-consuming and demanding. However, all your collaborative planning and preparation will be worth your while once you witness a successful event. Nothing compares to the smile and positive feedback you’ll receive from guests and clients after an outdoor gathering is done right.
