October Power Lunch

The October Power Lunch was at The Apartment, the luxe environment made it easy for us to learn about Production Schedules and Budgets.

Kristen Dickson, CSEP, talked to us about the Certified Special Event Professional (CSEP) program. For more information you can visit the ISES website at http://www.ises.com/. Our program focused on the importance of production schedules. It’s important to do develop schedules from the end back to the start. You need to schedule contingency plans as well. Kristen shared her “Big Truck” theory about production schedules. Basically it comes down to in your production folder you should have everything that anyone could possibly need to know about the event, so in case something happened and you couldn’t be at involved in the event, the installation or strike, anyone would be able pick up the folder and produce the event. Kristen suggested that not only a schedule be included in your folder, you should also have all contracts, a contact list including your contact information. A good idea would be to include a organizational flow chart so everyone knows who to report to and who they should take instruction from. This eliminates any issues with the baker not knowing if they should talk to the catering director or the event planner.

The type of event that you are planning will change the way your event should be budgeted. You can’t say that 25% of the budget will be spent on entertainment across the board. As was discussed in the break out groups, an outdoor festival with a national act would require a higher percentage of the budget than a wedding. Each event has different needs and the even then, each client will want to spend more money and time on different aspects of the budget. For instance, with a bat mitzvah some people want to spend more money on décor and themed favors and other would rather spend more money on entertainment. When trying to get bids from vendors you should let them know what timeframe you need the bid so you can complete your proposal for your client.

After the presentation was done the class split into small groups. Each had a different type of event. Kristen Dickson, CSEP talked to her group about weddings and which portions of the budgets are most important and tend to require the most money. Yvette Audrain, CSEP lead her group on a discussion of a Bat Mitzvah. Meredith Commender helped her group through a talk about a non-profit event. Ashley Holder was the leader for a group discussion on outdoor festivals. While time didn’t allow for full budgets to be created, after a brief talk each group presented what they perceived to be their top 5 items they believe the budget would be spent on.

Everyone went home with a little more knowledge and understanding about events they might not deal with much and a few expressed interest in starting to work towards their certification.
If you are interested in getting your CSEP certification please find information at http://www.isesdallas.com/ or contact Kristen Dickson, CSEP at Kristen@kristendicksonevents.com.