Here we go: you're about to start planning your next corporate event. Guest list, venue selection, key messages to convey, activities to plan, and more. Where do you start?
The answer comes down to two words: event brief.
You're in the right place to start off on the right foot. Here you'll find everything you need to put together your event brief efficiently, without missing a single detail, and with complete peace of mind.
What is an event brief?
An event brief is a clear, easy-to-understand document that lays out the details of organizing an event.
It can be used just as well by an event agency (to present its proposal to a client) as by the event's sponsor directly (as a working document to organize the event with the various stakeholders involved in the company).
It's useful for any type of event: trade shows, seminars, team building, incentive trips, openings, project launches, business travel, corporate parties, and more.
Why create a brief for your event?
When organizing an event, nothing can be left to chance. Your guests are waiting for you to get it right, and your event brief is there to help you plan every last detail.
Among the goals of a good event brief, we can mention the following:
- Clearly describe what's expected from the event and its objectives.
- Carefully plan every stage of creating the event. Your brief makes it easier to organize and divide up tasks by clarifying the steps, the resources needed, and the deadlines.
- Plan the timing to follow on the big day, by detailing how the operations of your event project will unfold.
- Align and coordinate the event's various stakeholders (both inside and outside the company). Your event brief helps synchronize the expectations of all your participants and partners (clients, teams, vendors) by giving them a clear, detailed vision.
- Reduce errors. By keeping all the essential information in a single, centralized document, you avoid misunderstandings and costly mistakes, especially on important logistical details. It also makes it easier to anticipate the unexpected.
- Manage your event budget optimally. By specifying priorities and detailing the elements of your event, it's easier to control costs and make informed financial decisions
- Streamline communication. Your event brief acts as a shared reference point for teams and partners, ensuring clear, regular communication throughout the project.
What's more, if you're a project manager at an event agency competing for a project, your brief becomes a sales presentation tool for the client. It lets you defend your event scenarios and share your overall vision with the client so they can make an informed choice.
All good reasons to take real care over your next event brief.
"A well-designed event brief is the GPS for your project: it guides you at every step, anticipates the unexpected, and aligns all stakeholders. At Digitevent, we see this tool as the key to a successful event, where every detail is under control to deliver a memorable experience."
Thierry Ottavy, event management expert at Digitevent.
9 steps to writing your event brief effectively
Take the time to go through the following nine steps to put together an event brief that's effective, complete, and easy for everyone involved in your project to understand.
1. Introduce the company and the target audience
Start your event brief with a complete introduction to your company (or your client's, if you're an agency). Your readers need to understand exactly who your organization is, what it does, and how it does it.
Be sure to cover:
- Your company's history and mission. Briefly summarize your company's history, mission, and vision to provide general context.
- Its key values. Share the organization's core values (innovation, environmental responsibility, quality, and so on) so they can be built into the event's design.
- Your brand's voice and tone. Give some pointers on the tone your brand uses in its communications. Is it formal, friendly, disruptive?
- The products to highlight, if you're organizing an event related to one or more of the company's products (a launch or a presentation).
Now you can move on to the target audience. Take care describing the demographic details of your guests: age, profession, place of residence, particular interests, and so on. But above all, don't hesitate to go into detail about their needs and expectations. What kind of experience is your target audience looking for? Specify their preferences when it comes to content, format, or communication channels.
The extra Digitevent tip
Include your past event experience in your event brief. Share a few examples of successful events, explaining what worked well. Also mention any challenges or adjustments you'd like to see, to avoid repeating past mistakes and to point toward areas for improvement.
2. Define your event's objectives
Next, tackle the "Why?" section of your event brief. Your readers need to understand why you're launching this event, through the specific objectives attached to it: building brand awareness, training, networking, bringing employees together, customer loyalty, and so on.
Also think about spelling out the main, central message you want to communicate during your event. For example, you might want to highlight your company's technological innovation, or how close it stays to its customers.
Finally, include in this section how you plan to measure your event's success. To do this, define your performance indicators: number of attendees, satisfaction rate, ROI, and so on.
The extra Digitevent tip
If your event has several objectives, rank them. The idea is to set a priority order for your different goals, based on which ones bring the most value to your company or to the department involved in the event. To do this, reach out to the various departments your event will affect (HR for internal events, sales and marketing for external ones, and so on), and gather their needs. This will let you set your event priorities more clearly, and build an event around a brief that's genuinely ROI-focused.
3. Detail your event's concept and theme
Now it's time to dig into your creative ideas for the event. First, simply describe its central theme: is it one of your values? A new product you want to unveil in style? A new achievement to celebrate with your employees?
Then describe the experience you want your event to deliver. What messages and emotions do you want to convey? Specify the atmosphere, staging, style, and creative angle.
The extra Digitevent tip
At this stage of your event brief, think storytelling. The most captivating events are the ones that inspire attendees and boost their engagement. So play on strong themes (such as "the pursuit of excellence" or "looking ahead to the future"), or simply on a problem your audience faces that your event will help solve. Picture your attendees as the main characters in a great story that you need to tell over the course of the event.
4. Set your estimated budget
Every good brief includes a projected event budget. So lay out your financial resources, with an overall budget envelope as well as a breakdown into sub-categories: venue, catering, decor, communications, and so on.
For an effective estimated budget, list all the essential expense categories (venue rental, catering, technical equipment, entertainment, communications, transport, accommodation, and so on). Then rank each category by priority based on your event objectives. This ranking lets you make adjustments as needed, and keep an eye on the categories most likely to fluctuate, such as catering, if your number of attendees changes.
The extra Digitevent tip
Don't forget to set aside a contingency budget, an amount dedicated to the unexpected. It's generally recommended to allocate 10 to 15% of the budget to these event emergencies (which aren't rare!).
5. Choose your event's venue and dates
At this stage, it's time to draw up a set of specifications for the venue where the event will take place.
In it, be sure to describe:
- The capacity of the venue you need, based on the expected number of guests. If it's a remote event, indicate the capacity required from the video conferencing software.
- The event's accessibility, in terms of location.
- The types of equipment needed: is it a seated event? A sit-down meal? Standing?
Then specify the date and time your event will take place, taking into account your target audience's availability and any competing events.
The extra Digitevent tip
With corporate social responsibility more of a priority for companies than ever, don't forget to specify at this stage whether you want your event to take place at a venue with CSR certification, or as close as possible to your audience to limit their travel (and therefore your event's carbon footprint).
6. Develop your event's program and schedule
What will your guests be doing during your event? That's what this part of your event brief needs to answer. Make a list of the activities you'll offer them and, if possible, plan out the general schedule (sessions, breaks, entertainment).
Also detail here the speakers to include in the program. If possible, indicate their speaking times and the type of activities they'll be leading (talks, workshops, panel discussions).
The extra Digitevent tip
If you don't yet have a clear idea for your event's schedule, start with a common thread to guide it. This could be, for example, the launch of your new product, or networking among attendees. Then build your different activity ideas around that thread. To be impactful and memorable, your event should be structured around key moments, starting with a captivating opening and ending with an inspiring closing.
7. Describe your logistical and technical needs
This is the moment to get into the technical details of your event brief. Take the time to list them one by one, to ensure your event is organized down to the last detail.
Be sure to include in your event brief:
- The equipment you'll need. Draw up a list of the equipment required, in terms of sound, lighting, and projection.
- The infrastructure you need. Identify specific requirements, such as a good internet connection, exhibition spaces, accessibility for people with reduced mobility, recycling facilities for a zero-waste event, or the use of sustainable materials for your event furniture.
The extra Digitevent tip
Use this part of your brief to plan the security measures to put in place for your event.
- For an in-person event, think about evacuation plans, event monitoring, access control, and crowd management.
- For a remote event, state your expectations regarding personal data management and GDPR.
And to secure entry at your event, what could be better than an event management platform like Digitevent? Our software includes a simplified guest check-in feature, accessible on mobile and tablet, to make life easier for your welcome staff.
8. Define your communication and promotion strategy
It's time to define the communication plan for your event, which will help boost its visibility. Choose the channels that will reach your audience effectively, based on where they get their information: social media, email, press, and so on.
Also plan a promotional calendar that details your action plan before, during, and after the event to maximize its visibility.
Finally, also specify how you plan to manage registrations and invitations. At this stage of your event brief, you can already choose an online registration platform. Also plan reminders and confirmations for registered guests.
The extra Digitevent tip
With Digitevent, manage your guest list easily, on a user-friendly, intuitive platform. Automate your reminders to cut down on no-shows and engage your attendees ahead of the event.
9. Plan KPIs for post-event evaluation
The last step of your event brief, and not the least important: preparing how you'll measure your event's performance. This should be based on the event objectives you set in step two.
Be sure to include:
- Satisfaction surveys, to gather attendee feedback after the event.
- Performance indicators to track in order to measure the event's impact and success: number of attendees, engagement, feedback, and more.
To do this, don't hesitate to rely on an event management platform that gives you access to comprehensive dashboards. There, you can view all the KPIs related to your event, such as registrations, peak attendance times, guest engagement, or your attendance rate.
The extra Digitevent tip
Is CSR central to your communications? Build it into your post-event evaluation. For example, state in your brief that you want to measure your event's environmental impact using a carbon footprint calculator.
Extra tips for a successful event brief
Don't leave without reading the following key tips, which will help you put together a well-honed event brief, and in turn organize a quality event.
Involve all stakeholders before you start drafting the brief
Alone you go faster. Together you go further. Gather input from all the stakeholders in your event. Talk with some of your clients, suppliers, and partners to build their expectations into your event brief. This builds buy-in and reduces adjustments later on.
Also clarify everyone's responsibilities in organizing the event. State who's responsible for each aspect. This reduces confusion and encourages ownership.
Co-build your event brief between sponsor and organizer
Best practice: create a collaborative event brief, where each stakeholder can add their own needs and expectations.
- On one hand, the event's sponsor (the client for an agency, or the internal client for an in-house event organizer) includes the criteria and requirements expected for the event, along with their specific challenges.
- On the other hand, the organizer (the event agency or the in-house organizer) includes the information needed for the event project to run smoothly, along with their expertise in event communications.
This way, your event brief is truly complete.
Check that your event brief covers the 5W method
The 5W method is useful for making sure your event brief answers all the key questions needed to organize it.
Use it as a checklist to make sure your brief includes:
- The "What", meaning your event's format
- The "Why", meaning your event's objectives, and the challenges it needs to address
- The "Where", meaning your event's location
- The "When", meaning your event's dates and times
- The "Who", meaning your event's target audience
Use a simple format
The simpler your event brief, the easier it will be for all your stakeholders to understand, and the more effective it will be. So stick to the essentials. Be direct in your descriptions. Use simple sentences and limit technical jargon to avoid misunderstandings.
Also, organize your brief into sections. Structure your document with clear headings to make it easier to read, each one matching the 9 steps described in this article.
Finally, simplify the language you use. Write in an accessible style so that everyone involved clearly understands your expectations and ideas.
Use visual elements to make your brief easier to understand
What better way to make a document easier to understand than with visual elements? Include some in your event brief: they'll help your readers clearly grasp what you expect.
Be sure to include:
- Moodboards and reference images (photos or sketches) to illustrate the desired theme and visual atmosphere
- Tables to list your budget or logistics information
- Gantt charts to illustrate deadlines
- Org charts to introduce your team members
And don't forget that managing an event means thinking about a multitude of details, each just as important as the next for the overall experience your attendees have. So use a comprehensive event management platform that makes your life easier from start to finish.
Discover Digitevent, the event software that lets you expertly manage all your corporate events, from invitations to attendee engagement on the big day.
