Planning Your Event - Students' Guild

It’s really important to plan each stage of your event and make sure everyone knows their responsibilities. This page will go through all the things to consider when planning your event and the flow chart below shows the events process.

Researching and Deciding on Events

It is important that you always consider the timescale of planning and running your event. You want to have the date of your event set far enough in advance that you can get everything booked and ensure that it does not clash with any other commitments.

You also need to consider the deadlines for submitting events to be approved by the Activities Team:

Regular/general events (including socials & Forum stalls)-5 working days
Events with guest speakers-15 working days
Trips abroad-20 working days

You need to have the time to work out your budget, book your venue, complete your budget and risk assessment, publicise the event and sell tickets (if necessary).

What is an event?

An “event” is any activity that your society plans and runs for your members, or an external audience. All of these activities must be submitted in order to go ahead.

Some examples of events:

Trips abroad/ overnight and in the UK
Cultural Days such as Chinese New Year or Diwali
Balls and Dinner Dances
Expeditions

Fundraising activities such as sponsored events.
Lectures, talks and networking evenings.
Forum stalls and bake sales
Volunteering
Sports/ exercise classes

Campaigning
And many more!

Where to start?

A good way to remember how to research and decide on your event is to remember the 5 W’s:

Why?	Why are you running an event? What is the purpose of it? Is it social? Eduational? Promotional? Does it fit in with you aims and objectives?
Who?	Who is the event for? What do they want? If in doubt, ask them! There is no point in putting on an event if no-one will want to attend so this research is essential!
What?	Using the research you have done, you can now decide what event you are going to put on. Use your imagination and think outside of the norm for your group! Will there be a theme? Is the theme realistic?
Where?	Where will you hold the event? Is the venue appropriate? Ensure that the venue is available and remember, even with pub visits you need to let them know you're coming, especially if you have a lot of members.
When?	Think about the timing!?When will you sell tickets? Also think about when you will hold the event - does it fit with exams and deadlines? Is it weather appropriate?

Keeping Events Varied

It's important to think outside of the box when planning an event! You need to think about your members and who you are aiming the event at. If you are an academic based society, for example, you may have postgraduate students who have different wants and needs for events than undergraduate students. Don’t forget also that your events should fit in with your aims and objectives as a student group, as this is what your members have paid for!

If you think of the term as a whole, try and plan a range of events that cover all the areas – fun, social, educational, alcohol and non-alcohol related. As a rule, for each alcohol-related event that you offer your members, you should offer a non-alcohol related event. Making sure all events are as inclusive as possible.

Room Booking

There are a number of rooms available to societies, Guild rooms including Cornwall House, and University rooms including lecture theatres and seminar rooms. To see where to book the space you want, click here

Planning a Speaker Event

Many societies and groups invite external speakers to attend their events, whether it be for a debate, employability events or a lecture on a topic relating to the society. Whilst we encourage societies and groups to invite speakers in, there are some considerations required, particularly around contentious speakers and topics. For more information on planning a speaker event see here.

Planning a Society Trip

A society trip is anything involving travel and/or accommodation, this includes; cultural visits; sporting tours; activity trips; skiing trips or volunteering. Please see here for more information on the steps to take when planning your trip!

Event Services

From technical services to security and using external contractors it's important that you plan what services you require to hold your event. We've put together a short guide here on different services and what you need to consider.

Inclusivity

Another important factor for societies to consider is the inclusivity of their events. We have an incredible diversity of students on our campus and it's essential for societies to allow these students to engage with their society activity. We've put together some guidance of things to consider in the planning of your event to make them as inclusive as possible, see here for more information.

Funding your Event

There are a number of ways you can extra funding to help support your event, including donations, crowdfunding and grants. For more information on how to access these funding methods, see here.