10 Free Event Planning Templates & Checklists to Organize Successful Events in 2024
Event planning sounds fun and easy but when you get to the core of it, well it’s one hell of a task.
The first step in event planning is establishing the goal, which the sponsoring organization wants to achieve.
Planners select speakers, entertainment, and content, and then bring everything together to organize the event to best communicate the firm's message.
Events can include Corporate meetings, Conferences, Birthdays, Weddings, and whatnot. No matter how big or small the event, if you don’t want to mess up, better select an Event Planning Template and get started.
Why is Event Planning important?
Event planning is way too stressful, yet if you manage to execute every little detail to perfection then your peers will have quite a reputation to keep up to.
Event Planning can either make or break the mood of the party. You can get the staging right and music wrong, or get the fresh flowers and end up serving tasteless food, either way your event is ruined already.
Though it can be a tough job, if you are an organized person, with the help of Event Planning Templates, you can achieve what looks to be impossible to many.
Here are the basic steps that are followed in any successful event
1. Create an event goal and objectives
Before you get too excited and dive right into planning, take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Note down the outcome of your project.
2. Organize Your Group
Decide how many sets of hands you would need and divide work among them.
3. Volunteer Recruitment and Training
Hire volunteers and train them. Set out the basic rules you want everyone to follow, time guidelines and quality of work are important ones.
4. Set Your Budget
Make sure you are not in over your head. Talk to the sponsors and keep everything under budget. Also, don’t forget to leave wiggle room for miscellaneous expenses or last minute expenses.
5. Select a date
Select a starting date for various tasks involved in the project. This way you will not end up paying extra to the canopy guy or miss out on music because you called the Dolby Audio guy too late.
6. Make a Master Event Plan
Have a backup for crucial things. Right from paper napkins to candles, make a note of everything.
7. Choose a planning template
Since you are only human, it is quite obvious that you might still make some mistakes. So, to avoid it, make sure you use a planner. Everytime you take a look at it, you will get an overall view of what's happening and what needs to be done.
8. Confirmation of Speakers, venue, and more
Confirm with speakers, venue, catering, and make sure you check everything off the list. Now all you have to do is wait for the event and follow the Protocols on the day of the event.
10 Free Event Planning Templates for a Successful Show
When preparing an event, there are so many moving parts to keep track of. There's a lot to accomplish before the event, between budgeting, haggling with vendors, and organizing duties in the lead-up to the big day.
To ensure that your event planning process runs successfully, organize all of your event tasks and details in one easily accessible location.
These free event planning templates enable you to see your event planning schedule at a top standard and easily communicate, allowing you to plan with intent.
Event Marketing Timeline Template
An event marketing strategy and timetable are outlined in an event marketing plan.
Consider it your road plan for all of the tools, methods, and channels you'll employ to promote your event and meet sales and attendance targets.
So, how exactly does event marketing work? It all starts with a solid grasp of your target demographic and where they hang out so you can effectively market your event across many platforms.
Wedding Planner Template
This is a free wedding planner template by Google Sheets where you can manage your entire todos, schedules, budgets, guest lists and more.
This template helps you manage venues, guests, and vendor lists. With this planner, you can track invitations and RSVPs.
With a planner you can always control the budget. To make sure you don’t miss out on anything you can create to-do lists for the bride & groom, collaborate on song lists and seating arrangements, and more.
If you're running a wedding planning agency, you can also try the wedding planning template from Stackby to organize multiple events in a single place.
Trip Planning Template
Trip planners might sound a little silly, but they are very useful if you are planning to travel far or travel long.
This planning template by Google Docs helps trip planners to organize their bus, train, and flight timings so that they don’t overlap and give you ample time to rest between two consecutive flights.
You can have your whole agenda on the planner so you don’t mess up anything. Right from the hotel check-in to conference meets you can see everything on it.
Even if you are traveling for leisure, a travel planner might come very handy. If you are at some place for a couple of days, you can plan your day so that you don’t miss out on places you really wanted to see.
Gantt Chart Template for Big Events
If you are planning a big corporate event or fest in your college, you need to do what the professionals do, along with an event planner you need to use the Gantt chart template by Google Docs.
Big events have multiple tasks scheduled at the same time on the same day. Some tasks finish on time while others take longer.
A Gantt chart depicts the timeline of your event. You may categorize tasks by kind or phase and set a time constraint for each task you need to complete.
As a result, your team and everyone else involved will have a clear view of what is occurring when allowing you to keep projects on schedule.
Event Planning Tracker Template
This template by Excel is more of a task management tool and more of a time management tool.
This Microsoft Event Planning Tracker Template allows you to keep track of complete details in an Excel worksheet with multiple sheets for project specifications.
With this sheet, you can track project information, dates, and expenses across job types.
You can also view a chart of projected vs. real-time prices. This is also applicable to different types of project management.\
Event Planning Template by Stackby
If you want to manage your entire event planning workflow for your company's event, conference or a workshop - from schedule to speakers to attendees and budget - look no further than the event planning template by Stackby.
Create custom tables to track everything, forms to bring RSVPs, dashboards to manage the budgets and more in this simple, yet effective template.
Event Marketing Plan Template by Stackby
This free event marketing template is provided by Stackby. This Event Marketing Template handles everything from the location to the sponsors to the VIP attendees attending your event.
There is nothing you can’t do with this Event Marketing Template, some of its key uses are listed below.:
- Keep track of all the events that your firm is organizing in one spot.
- Find a location for the event and keep track of the details.
- Fill up the marketing timeline template with photographs of the location.
- Save the list of pending tasks for each event, as well as the task's current state.
- Keep track of the contact information for suppliers as well as the responsibilities allocated to them in relation to an event & much more.
Company Event Planning Template
The Corporate Event Planning Template by Stackby can be used by firms to keep track of their participants.
It helps you organize the suppliers' data and allows you to contact them as & when needed.
It also gives you a budget planning option. This allows you to ensure that no losses occur while also ensuring that the event is free of flaws.
The work status and any unanticipated costs may be tracked and modified. This free template is to go template for any Corporate event.
Event & Party Planner Template
This single spreadsheet template is better suited for small to medium-sized events since it is separated into sections for adding guest information, musical arrangements, décor, supplies, notes, and more.
Calendar of Events Template
This template by Excel has a calendar style with an adjoining column for event listing. The calendar displays the whole calendar year on a single Excel page, making it simple to browse between weeks, plan in advance, and quickly read the events mentioned in the relevant column.
Event Budget Template - Excel
You can use this free template by Excel to quickly identify which expenditures consume the most percentage of the budget. For example, you may discover that some costs, such as event programming, food service, advertising, and venue rents, are the most expensive.
You can use this sheet to manage your microbudgets as well.
| Read more : 7 Top Tools for Digital Marketing Agency
| Read more :Top 18 marketing tools every small business
| Read more : How to find the Right Marketing Plan Template
| Read more :Top 5 PR Tracker Templates
Conclusion
Event planning templates are the best aids to make event planning easy, less stressful, and successful.
The greatest templates are totally customizable and are mostly free. If you are an event planner or just happen to frequently plan events then event management software is meant for you.
They centralize your work, bring the team together, and keep things going for you. Why don’t you take the first step and start your event planning journey with Stackby? Check out all the free event planning templates by Stackby.