Struggling With Event Planning? Hire A Virtual Assistant to Ease Woes

One of the key ways to build a brand reputation is to attend and host industry events. These events are where you can mingle with your peers, spy on your competitors, and impress potential investors and partners. But when you have a lot on your plate, it can be difficult to find new business events or plan your own event to promote your company. However, if you hire a virtual assistant for event planning, it can be a game-changer! But before we explain how an event planner virtual assistant can help you organize a coveted industry event, let’s briefly review the challenges you may encounter while registering and planning for such a gala.

According to a report by Allied Market Research, the events industry is expected to grow significantly in the next few years, reaching a value of $1,552.9 billion by 2028.

Event Management is a broad field that covers two main categories: private events and corporate events. Private events are those that are organized for personal or social purposes, such as weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, etc. Corporate events are those that are organized for business or professional purposes, such as conferences, seminars, trade shows, product launches, etc.

You may have noticed how every detail of a corporate event is carefully planned if you have attended one yourself. From comfortable seats and layouts that allow easy movement to bright stages that highlight the speakers, these are all crucial steps to leave a lasting impression on the attendees.

Event planning is a profession that requires a lot of creativity and dedication. It involves designing and delivering events that will wow the clients and their guests. It means handling everything from the vision to the reality, from the preparation stage to the execution, and from pre-event activities to the aftermath. It also means working in tandem with different suppliers and vendors to ensure a seamless build-up for the event. It requires keeping the clients happy and making everything look smooth. 

A skilled virtual assistant (even better if you hire a virtual assistant team!) can be of tremendous value. They can assist you with various tasks relevant to event planning and make the work more manageable.

Here are some common event planning challenges.

Organizing a corporate event requires a lot of coordination and attention to detail. You want to ensure that everything goes according to plan and that your guests are well taken care of. This involves having enough staff for various tasks such as hospitality, decoration, catering, etc. To make the most of these events, businesses need to prepare in advance.

A virtual planning assistant can be a great help in this regard. They can handle all the aspects of event management.

Planning a budget for an important event can be tricky. You don't want to compromise on quality because of limited funds. One way to mitigate this is to compare your previous years' budgets and see how they can help you plan better.

Nevertheless, this is a time-consuming affair. That's why virtual assistant services can prove to be a great asset for you. They can help you manage your budgeting tasks efficiently and effectively.

Many people tend to underestimate how long it takes to finish a task. This is called the "Planning fallacy" and it can affect the success of industry events. There are so many things to do and plan for an event that it can be overwhelming. The solution is easy! Hire an event planning virtual assistant who can help you with all your tasks. They can save you time, money, and stress.

You have done it! You have sold out your event and filled every seat. You feel proud and excited, but also a bit nervous. How are you going to manage all these people? How are you going to feed them, seat them, and entertain them? You wish you had planned for this scenario, but you didn't expect it to happen.

Don't worry, you are not alone. While you can be the bull of your business, lack of event planning experience can catch you off-guard. Many event planners face this challenge, and they have learned it the hard way. Experienced event planners know the signs to look for and the steps to take to avoid chaos and confusion.

There is nothing like enjoying an outdoor event on lush grounds. But, what if you encounter some unexpected problems? For example, what if the guests get stuck in parade traffic or can't find a parking spot nearby? Or what if you have to lower the music volume because the neighbors or the police object to it? Well, these are extreme cases, but they definitely make a point - you can't control everything that happens at your event. However, you can certainly prepare for them with virtual assistant services! 

Here are a few basic ways to research a local area:

• Google events calendars for the event’s city and neighborhood.
• Asking venue managers for local zoning laws that you will have to abide by.
• Reaching out to area event planners to gather details about particular areas or event spaces.

Virtual event assistants come with a treasure trove of experience in arranging sales meetings, seminars, business meetings, industrial conferences, and more. Here is a list of the services they offer!

The image of an organization depends a lot on the quality of its corporate events, no matter how many people attend them. Virtual assistants can help you plan and execute a successful corporate event or party. They can handle various tasks such as venue selection, budget management, guest list, invitations, catering, entertainment, etc.

Planning an event is a Herculean task that is why most corporations refrain from micromanaging. They leverage the expertise of suppliers, contractors, and vendors to make sure the event becomes a success. With virtual assistants behind the scenes, managing vendor proposals, collecting references, negotiating and briefing them about the event requirements become a cakewalk!

PR is an essential promotional strategy that gives your brand the maximum visibility and exposure. With experienced marketing virtual assistants supporting you, handling event PR activities is no more a tough nut to crack. Their PR initiatives will assist you in inducing public interest. They can aid you with PR research, press releases, tracking PR activities to improve outreach.

One of the key factors that can make or break an event is the venue. A good venue is always in high demand, convenient to reach, and favored by the regulars. If you are struggling to find the right venue that fits your budget, event size, and the number of attendees, then you should definitely consider hiring virtual event planners. They can find the ideal venue that matches your location preference and attendee capacity.

If you already have a ticketing solution and need some extra help, virtual assistants can work on them and sync with your solution in no time. 

Don’t have a ticket management mechanism in place? No problem!

Modern event virtual assistants are well versed with this requirement and offer ticket management solutions to handle everything!

Sometimes, you may need to hire someone who can help you with specific aspects of your event, without being directly involved in it. In that case, you may want to opt for virtual event coordinating services. A virtual event coordinator can make sure that everything goes according to plan and that each vendor delivers their service on time and with quality.

30,000 new products make a debut in the market (a conservative estimate according to Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen). The horror is that 28,500 of them, or 95 percent, fail! One possible reason for this high failure rate is that many new products are not properly launched.

While a lot of effort goes into the design and production of new products, the marketing launch plan is often neglected or delayed. By the time it becomes a priority, it is too late to make an impact. 

The ultimate aim of any product launch event is to create a buzz around it and keep people interested for a long time. A product launch event can have different purposes, such as awareness, product distribution, media coverage, outreach, etc. Virtual event planners can assist you with all of these along with post-event follow-up and more.

A 24X7 virtual assistant service can plan and execute events, regardless of their scale or size, while pitching in ideas to make them a rousing success. If you are looking to delegate a custom event to virtual event planning assistants, you can ensure that it gets conducted professionally and demand accountability. A virtual event planning team will be able to execute all sorts of custom event planning, regardless of the services mentioned above or not!

Here are the top benefits of outsourcing event planning services:

By collaborating with the right virtual assistants, you can stay competitive by leveraging the capabilities and simplifying the entire event management process. Cherry on the cake? There can be a drastic decrement in the overall expenditure!

Everyone wants everything on-demand now! Where there is often a dearth of capable resources, hiring them full-time acts like a double whammy. Thanks to the visa restrictions, the problem exacerbated further. However, outsourcing event planning services can mitigate all these problems! Not only can you leverage a unique pool of skilled and experienced on-demand resources but also you do so on-demand!

Thanks to a round-the-clock service and time-zone difference, virtual event planners can meticulously plan and organize any event in a reduced timeframe. Additionally, this offers a better turnaround time in case something goes wrong and makes the entire execution process risk-free.

Finding, training, managing, and retaining the best talents is a difficult task. But with a virtual assistant agency, you can have access to a wide range of experienced and skilled virtual event planners and support staff. You can choose the resource that suits your needs and preferences.

With remote event planners, you always have the leeway to add (and onboard) extra resources in case you decide to scale up the event. In scenarios where you want to fire them at short notice, you can do that as well. You have all the power to adjust the project deliverables either by scaling up or trimming the workforce.

It's not a simple task to plan an event that impresses your audience and makes them feel valued. A business owner often faces the time crunch to personally monitor event-related activities. If this sounds like you, the time is right to hire a virtual assistant to bolster your event organizing efforts with you being at the center stage of it.