Event planners are highly organized people.  If you are in charge of organizing an event, this checklist will help you ensure all of the important details are covered.

You could be planning a dinner party for twelve people, or a concert for 12,000.  Smaller events usually have just one organizer, while a larger event such as a conference or concert could have a team of several people reporting to one head organizer.  Or, the group could even form committees to handle each of the important phases of planning to ensure a successful event.

The first critical step in event planning is to determine the purpose of the event.  This information will help you make each decision as you work through the event planning checklist.  What is the theme of the event?  What should participants take away from the experience?  How many people are you expecting?  This will help you decide when and where to hold the event.  An educational conference or recruitment event requires a different type of space and seating than a recreational fundraiser, for example.

Once you have a good idea of what the event is about and who it is for, you can move on to planning the details and securing a space and supplies for the event.  Create a budget based on the total amount available for the event.  The budget should be flexible and may require several modifications as you price out different elements for the event; however, always keep the total in budget in mind.  Spending more in one area often means spending less in another, so balance the new budget after each update.

Use this checklist to cover all of your bases as the big day approaches.