Efficient doesn’t always mean hard to reach. This rule definitely works for an award planning process. Let us demonstrate how you could save yourself from a world of trouble building each element of the awards contest that you’re setting up from scratch.

The winning mixture embraces several basic points: a bit of your experience, specialists’ consulting, helpful online tools…. And Bob’s your uncle… voila: a good-looking awards show with little time spent on makeup is ready!

Award event planning process: Step it

Breaking down your plan into specific stages and procedures will help you not leave anything out. Try it. A daunting challenge of award event planning gets much simpler if you treat its elements as separate tasks. For your convenience, we’ve compiled a list of award planning tips that will simplify your planning experience:

  1. Budget. Start your award planning with the consideration of its price. As the practice shows, you don’t always get a carte blanche on awards event expenditures. As further practice shows, a complete budget is usually pretty tight. Good news: there’s always a way to fit your expenses into this meager sum if you approach your planning smartly. Just three definitions to keep in mind here:
    • Define your goals. By calculating the budget for the main tasks that are on a must-complete list, you get the image of what your final destination looks like.
    • Define your costs. Now get real and see how much you can spend on each of the top planning tasks.
    • Define your backup. Nothing is 100% secure in event planning. Set up a small backup budget for “just in case” and stay calm.

    For more information on budget planning, check out these tips.

  2. Venue. What should it be like? Up to your awards show format and your budget. Choosing a good place for an event might be quite the daunting challenge to undertake. To make it less intimidating, make sure that you understand what size and style an awards show must have. When you get a list of possible options, verify each of them against these three As:
    • Accessible location (public transport, affordable accommodation nearby, the surroundings)
    • Availability of all channels for equipment setting at the venue
    • Adequate price

    A failure to consider at least one of such details can spoil the impressions of your attendees. Find out more about choosing a good venue and make a solid choice.

  3. Judges. The outcomes of awarding are directly dependent on the judging expertise. When you organize award planning, you surely will want the judging process to be marked with professionalism, and coming from the industry experts.  It’s up to your client how the process of judging will go down, anonymously after the event or through public voting at the show. The main thing: you have to develop a fair process, which will be well-understood by everyone, objective, and easy to handle.
  4. Entertainment. Even if your award show is super interactive, you never know whether each of your attendees will want to contribute to all parts of the event. Get yourself double protection by setting up some entertaining elements for the guests. Don’t forget that some of them may come with children. So, basically, you need the agenda for something to juice up the atmosphere around your attendees and the youngest guests. Fire shows, music boxes, play-stations or just light colorful balls – it’s up to you.
  5. Music and lighting. More for the technical part of all this. Awards contests are usually very demanding in relation to the music. Noticed the melody and volume changes when a winner walks to the stage, the announcement is to be made, etc.? That’s it. Make sure you have the right music for each part of the show, as well as for the background. This way you won’t have to feel embarrassed in front of these hip music lovers. Lighting comes in the same package. Make sure a high-quality lightening system is being used. Want to play with light? Consider different up lighters to create the great visual effects.
  6. Party planning. If all your efforts are directed to the awards show and you have nothing more concerning the after-party was written on your list, except for “the after-party” actually, you may find yourself in hot water. Prepare your vision and necessary resources ahead of time. This will spare you the need to run last-minute errands.

Useful award planning tools

If you plan an award event, don’t go for it with bare hands. Get assisted by a cloud-based software. It has a good bunch of tools for you to discover. With online tools, you can get a chance to use customizable awards submission forms, automate your scoring and reporting, and of course, reach out to your attendees online. Maximize your awards event attendance and use your time smartly.

Conclusion

To get an awards event preparation running without stresses, don’t spare your time for simplifying the process. Set the priorities and the goals ahead, define your tasks, and get assisted by online tools. That’s all you need to have a good sleep before the awards event.