Relevance of Special events

Importance of functions of Special Events

Special events are an important public relations activity because they satisfy the desire of most
people to participate in an occasion to improve their knowledge and to enjoy the stimulation of a
crowd- the lights, color, sound and movement involved.

A special event is an event which is larger, more important, more complex than normally held by the
organisation. For example, a special event might be when a sporting club holds a state or regional
championship.

But every few years, there does come a time when an opportunity to stage a special event arises, and it's just
too good to miss.

Although there is much work involved, special events provide significant benefits. Special events are an
opportunity to:

 Acquire funding from government agencies or parent bodies to improve facilities and/or
equipment
 Improve/upgrade facilities
 Raise the profile and standing of the organisation in the community. Hopefully this has a
flow-on effect in membership numbers in the following year(s).
 Recruit and train more people as event officials or helpers.
 Raise money through selling of food, merchandise, and raffle tickets while the event is
being staged.
 Attract (and hopefully keep) new sponsors
 Motivate own club/organisation athletes/players to achieve higher levels of performance as
they will be competing in front of a home crowd.

Special events are a catalyst for improvement in the organsiation and help to focus the efforts of organisation
personnel to achieve medium and long-term goals.

There is often a greater sense of satisfaction, achievement and pride within the organisation as a result of
successfully staging a special event.

Making events special

There are a number of key strategies to take to ensure that your special event is indeed special:

 Get a team of people together and start early with your planning e.g. a year ahead. In the
early stages,your planning needs to include a breakdown of the major tasks that need to be
done. As time goes by, your list of tasks can be increasingly refined and hopefully no task is
left out.
 Conduct regular meetings of your team of people e.g. monthly, until you get to the last
four weeks and then weekly. Keep minutes of meetings and distribute as soon as possible
after the meeting so that people sare reminded of the tasks they have offered to do.
  Allocate areas of responsibility to different individuals. Not everyone will do an excellent
job, but in total much more will be done than you could do on your own.
 Envisage how you want the competition to look visually. What are all the extras that might
make the event environment look really nice. Your list might include marquee tents, flags,
signs and other decorations. You may need to smarten up the arena, whether inside or
outside by painting, fixing, and/ or cleaning. If the arena is outside, some landscaping,
gardening or turf imrpovement may be required. All of these things can be done relatively
painlessly if tasks are set about early. People will enjoy doing these tasks. However if left
too late they probably will not happen at all.
 Investigate what equipment you need for the event early. Give yourself several months to
procur equipment. You need to research what equipment you need, suppliers, costs, and
delivery times. You don't want to be sweating on teh arrival of equipment a few days
before the event starts. Equipment needed might include sound systems, catering
equipment as well as specific equipment needed for the event activities.
 Promote, promote, promote! Events are special when there are lot's of people to watch and
participate. In your planning, you need to start early on devising strategies to promote your
event. It is important NOT to rely on just one or two strategies. Promotion is not about a
few communications to yoru intended audience and hope that people will remember. It is
entirely necessary to keep up a stream of communications and to use a variety of different
media to carry the messages you want to deliver.

Using special events to promote your company, inspire your employees or network
with your wider industry is a great way to generate new business, increase your
exposure, train your staff and showcase what you have to offer. For companies of
all shapes and sizes, hosting special events provides a tangible business benefit.
For companies of all shapes and sizes, hosting special events provides a tangible
business benefit. Here, Ofer Yatziv of special events experts Better Venues shares
some of his insights.
Why use special events for your business?
 Promote a product and gain publicity – launch new products, showcasing them to
the world.
 Raise awareness about a charitable cause or community event.
 Make money – use special events to raise funds.
 Improve morale and well-being – special events can easily be team-building days and
corporate away days, designed to improve your team’s well-being and morale.
 

5 ways special events can benefit your business

Special events help you stand out from the pack

Need to get the edge on your competition? Run a special event. The added glitz and
glamour will elevate your event into a higher category – one that’s a little better than
the standard, run-of-the-mill occasion. When promoting new products, you need to
go all guns blazing if you’re to really stand out from the crowd and attract new
customers.

Special events help you be distinctive

Special events are not off-the-peg events. If you work with a professional special
event provider, they’ll plan and deliver an entirely bespoke plan for your event,
whatever it may be: a training day, product launch, corporate away day, or
something else entirely. In this way, special events are an important part of brand-
building. They form a significant and crucial part of your marketing activity. Unique
special events which communicate your brand in a compelling way enable you to
effectively build trust and familiarity with your employees and customers.

Special events can generate press attention

Firms like Red Bull are masters when it comes to using special events to get their
name in the press. Whizz-bang, edgy, and experiential marketing campaigns from
some of the world’s biggest brands are practically a sure-fire way to generate and
secure press coverage. Media attention gets your name about, ensuring people are
aware of who you are and what your brand represents.

Special events can help you get better as a business

Special events take time, investment, planning and organisation – and a lot of it.
Much more than a bog-standard event. This can be difficult to manage and hard to
execute, but is guaranteed to pay off in the long run. Running special events also
helps you get better at what you do. As a business, you learn to be agile and
responsive, think creatively and keep the end goal firmly in sight.

Special events can strengthen your community

As well as promoting products and services, people attending your events can build
relationships with each other, strengthening the wider community. So special events
are not just about marketing new products. They’re also about forging deeper
connections with your customers, clients, suppliers and people who live and work
near your business. All of this, of course, will ultimately benefit your business, giving
you a base of people to work with and a strong, growing presence in your
community.
Special events require cash investment, planning, organisation and a lot of
willpower and motivation. Your first special event may well be beset with problems.
Large-scale events are rarely easy to pull off. But if you persevere, you’ll soon see
the real business benefits of running flagship events: brand exposure, employee
motivation, a great public profile and significant return on investment.

References

https://weemss.com/blog/special-events-can-help-benefit-business/