How to Do Event Planning a Guide to Flawless Events

Pulling off a great event isn't about having a massive to-do list; it's about having a clear strategy. From experience, I can tell you that the secret to successful event planning is getting three things right from the very beginning: define your purpose, know your audience, and lock in a budget. Nail these down before you even think about logistics, and you'll turn a chaotic process into something you can actually manage.

A Modern Blueprint for Planning Your Company Event

Let’s be honest, planning a company event can easily become a tangled mess of spreadsheets and never-ending email threads. But it doesn't have to be. A modern approach breaks everything down into simple, manageable stages, making sure every move you make is deliberate. It all begins by figuring out what "success" actually means for this specific event, which is usually more than just how many people show up.

The very first thing you need to do is set clear goals that are tied directly to what the business needs. Are you trying to boost team morale with a fun offsite? Launch a new product to your most important clients? Or maybe just strengthen relationships with an intimate networking dinner? Each goal demands a completely different plan of attack.

Once you know your "why," you can figure out how you'll measure success with key performance indicators (KPIs). For example, you might track:

Attendee engagement scores from a quick post-event survey.
The number of qualified leads you generate from a customer event.
A jump in employee satisfaction scores after an internal get-together.

This initial phase—getting your purpose, audience, and budget straight—is the foundation for everything else you'll do.

As you can see, a great event is built layer by layer. Each step logically flows into the next, ensuring the final result feels cohesive and actually achieves what you set out to do.

✦Core Stages of Event Planning

To keep things organized, it helps to think of the process in distinct phases. Each stage has a clear objective and a set of core tasks that build on the last.

Phase	Key Objective	Primary Tasks
1. Strategy & Foundation	Define the event's purpose and scope.	Set goals & KPIs, identify target audience, establish budget, select a date.
2. Logistics & Planning	Secure all necessary resources and vendors.	Book venue, hire caterers/suppliers, arrange speakers, plan agenda.
3. Promotion & Engagement	Generate excitement and secure attendees.	Create event page, send invitations, manage RSVPs, run marketing campaigns.
4. Execution & Management	Deliver a seamless on-site experience.	Manage registration, coordinate with vendors, handle live-event logistics.
5. Post-Event & Follow-Up	Measure success and maintain momentum.	Send thank-you notes, analyze survey feedback, report on KPIs.

Breaking down the project this way makes it much less overwhelming and ensures you don't miss any critical steps along the way.

✦Unifying Your Workflow With Smart Tools

A big part of modern event planning is using the right tools to make your life easier. The global event planning industry is absolutely booming, with projections showing it could hit a market size of $2.5 trillion by 2035. This kind of growth means planners have to find smarter ways to handle all the moving parts.

This is particularly true if your company lives in both Slack and Google Calendar. Trying to keep communications and updates in sync between the two is a recipe for missed details and total confusion.

The real challenge isn't the big-ticket items like booking a venue; it's managing the hundreds of small communications that keep a project on track. When your calendar and chat app don't talk to each other, you create unnecessary friction.

This is where a tool like Be There comes in and makes a huge difference, as it's designed specifically for companies that use both Slack and Google Calendar. It bridges the gap by connecting Google Calendar events directly to dedicated Slack channels. When you create an event on your calendar, Be There can automatically spin up a corresponding Slack channel, invite all the right people, and give you a central place for every conversation.

This simple integration gets rid of the manual busywork—no more creating channels by hand, sending out reminders, or chasing down RSVPs. It keeps your planning process clean and organized from day one. By connecting these two essential tools, you create a single source of truth that simplifies communication for everyone involved. To get a better handle on structuring your workflow, take a look at our complete guide on event planning project management.

Mastering Your Event Budget and Logistics

A brilliant event idea is one thing, but making it happen? That comes down to nailing your budget and logistics. This is where your big-picture vision meets the real world, turning those exciting goals into an actual, actionable plan. Think of it less as boring spreadsheet work and more as the strategic foundation that will make or break your event. Get this part right, and everything else falls into place so much more easily.

First things first: you need a realistic, line-by-line budget. It’s tempting to only focus on the big-ticket items like the venue or catering, but I’ve seen too many budgets get derailed by the small stuff—permits, insurance, decor, even name tags. Those little costs add up fast. A detailed budget stops nasty surprises in their tracks and helps you put your money where it matters most. For example, if networking is the main goal, you’ll want to invest more in a great, central venue and maybe a little less on over-the-top decorations.

For a deeper dive, our guide on budgeting for events is packed with templates and pro tips to get you started.

✦Building Your Financial Blueprint

Creating a budget isn’t just about listing expenses; it's about knowing what's happening in the industry right now. For 2025, the latest data shows over 53% of event organizers are expecting bigger budgets. But here’s the catch: event costs are also set to jump by about 12%, which means costs are rising slightly faster than our budgets are growing. You can discover more about these 2025 event planning trends and see why every dollar counts, especially for top expenses like marketing, food and beverage, and venues.

And please, always build in a contingency fund. I can't stress this enough. Aim for 10-15% of your total budget. This isn't just "nice to have"; it’s your safety net for when the unexpected happens, like needing a last-minute AV tech or hiring extra staff because your RSVPs went through the roof.

To keep costs from spiraling, you have to get smart with negotiations and a little creative.

Talk to Your Vendors: Don't be afraid to negotiate. You'd be surprised what you can get if you ask for better rates, especially if you can offer something like flexible payment terms or booking during their slow season.
Think Outside the Ballroom: Traditional hotel venues are great, but non-traditional spaces can be more memorable and affordable. Look into art galleries, co-working spaces, or even a cool, repurposed area in your own office.
Embrace Technology: Go digital with your invites and manage RSVPs with an automated tool. You'll save a ton on printing and administrative time.

✦Navigating Event Logistics Seamlessly

Once your budget is locked in, it’s all about logistics—the who, what, when, and where of your event. The venue is usually the first big piece of the puzzle. The right space does more than just hold people; it sets the entire mood. When you're scouting locations, think about accessibility, Wi-Fi strength, built-in AV equipment, and how flexible the layout is.

From there, you need a master timeline. Start with your event date and work backward, plugging in every single deadline. This document will become your team's single source of truth.

A common mistake is treating logistics like a simple to-do list. It’s not. It’s a web of interconnected tasks. If you forget to confirm the catering headcount by their deadline, it doesn't just affect the invoice—it impacts the entire guest experience.

This is where having a central hub for communication becomes a lifesaver. So many teams I’ve worked with juggle Slack and Google Calendar, and things get messy. Vendor confirmations are buried in email, but key deadlines are sitting on a calendar that no one is talking about in the team’s main chat. It’s organized chaos, and it’s exactly what a tool like Be There was built to solve for companies that rely on both platforms.

By syncing your Google Calendar event with a dedicated Slack channel, every logistical update, vendor conversation, and timeline reminder lives in one spot. Your whole team stays on the same page, which drastically cuts down on the miscommunications and missed deadlines that can totally derail an event.

Bring Your Team Communication Together with Be There

Let's be honest: clear communication is the absolute foundation of a successful event, but it's usually the first thing that falls apart. Your team is constantly bouncing between emails, Google Calendar invites, and a half-dozen Slack channels. It’s a recipe for disaster. Important details get lost, momentum stalls, and you end up doing twice the work.

This is exactly the headache that Be There was built to cure, especially for teams that live in Slack and Google Calendar. It becomes the central hub for your event, giving every single conversation and update a clear, easy-to-find home. You can finally stop the mad scramble across different apps and start working in one smooth, connected flow.

The magic is in the automation. When you create an event in Google Calendar, Be There instantly spins up a dedicated Slack channel for it. This isn't just a simple notification—it's an entire workspace where every conversation, file, and decision about that specific event can happen.

✦Go From Scattered Apps to a Single Source of Truth

Think about planning a quarterly all-hands meeting. The calendar invite goes out, and then the chaos begins. Someone sends you a DM about the agenda. The marketing team emails over a draft of their presentation. A completely separate Slack channel is debating catering options. It’s a mess.

With Be There, that whole disjointed conversation gets pulled into one spot. The second you create the "Q3 All-Hands" event on your calendar, a #q3-all-hands channel pops up in Slack, and everyone on the invite is automatically added. Suddenly, every question, file, and update is right there for the entire team to see in real-time. This one simple change creates a single source of truth, cutting out the confusion and getting everyone on the same page.

Here’s a glimpse of how Be There pulls your event details right into Slack, creating an instant hub for your team.

As you can see, a clean, organized event card appears right in your Slack channel. It pulls all the key info like date, time, and location straight from Google Calendar, giving your team all the context they need without ever having to switch apps.

✦Make Event Coordination Feel Effortless

This integration is about more than just keeping conversations in one place. It’s about automating the mind-numbing manual tasks that eat up so much of an event planner's day. Take scheduling a team offsite. Just finding a date that works for everyone can turn into a week-long email chain or a confusing spreadsheet.

Be There flips that into a simple, interactive process that happens right inside Slack.

Date Polling: Instead of playing calendar Tetris, you can launch a poll directly in the event's Slack channel. Team members vote on the options, and you get a clear winner in minutes, not days.
Automated Reminders: Stop manually nagging people to RSVP. Be There takes care of it, sending out automated reminders to make sure everyone sees the event and responds.
Instant RSVP Tracking: As people accept or decline the Google Calendar invite, their status updates right in the Slack channel. You always have an accurate, real-time headcount without cross-checking lists.

This isn't just about saving a few minutes. It's about getting rid of the friction that slows down decisions and keeps your planning in motion.

When you put the small but critical communication tasks on autopilot, you free up your brainpower to focus on what really matters—crafting an incredible experience for your attendees.

✦See It in Action: A Real-World Scenario

Let's walk through an example. Your company decides to host a "Hack Day" to spark some new ideas. Here’s how you'd use Be There to run the whole show.

You kick things off by creating "Company Hack Day" in a shared Google Calendar and inviting the right departments.

The moment you hit save, Be There creates a new private Slack channel—#company-hack-day—and pulls in everyone from the calendar invite. No manual work needed.

From there, you post a welcome message, pinning the event brief and rules so they’re easy to find. All the brainstorming for project ideas and team-building happens right in that channel. As you finalize the schedule for presentations and judging, you post updates where everyone can see them, so no one is working from an old email attachment.

On the day of the event, the channel becomes mission control for live announcements, questions, and sharing photos.

By managing the event's communication from start to finish in one dedicated space, you create a seamless and professional experience for everyone. This is how modern event planning should be—using smart tools to build clarity, alignment, and genuine engagement.

Getting People Excited Before and During the Event

The real buzz around an event doesn't just magically appear on the day. It starts building weeks, sometimes even months, ahead of time. Your job is to create a steady drumbeat of excitement that makes people genuinely want to be there. A great engagement strategy transforms passive RSVPs into active participants long before they ever walk through the door or click "Join Meeting."

For events with clients or external partners, this means crafting an invitation that stands out in a crowded inbox. Think less formal announcement, more personal invite. It needs to immediately answer the question: "What's in it for me?" Use great visuals, highlight your star speakers, and for goodness sake, make registration easy. A clunky, multi-step sign-up form is a guaranteed way to lose people.

But for internal company events, the game is a little different. You're not just trying to get people to show up—you need them to be mentally present and invested. This is where a tool like Be There completely changes the game for companies that live in Slack and Google Calendar.

✦Build the Hype Internally with Slack

When you're planning a company event, your communications should feel like a fun team activity, not a corporate mandate. So instead of just sending a calendar invite and crossing your fingers, you can use Be There to spin up a dedicated event hub right inside Slack.

The moment your event hits Google Calendar, Be There automatically creates a new Slack channel for it. This space is your command center for all pre-event hype.

Here's how I've seen it work wonders:

Post Sneak Peeks: Drop a quick video from a speaker, share a preview of the menu, or post a photo of the awesome venue. Little teasers build a ton of curiosity.
Run Fun Polls: Don't just dictate the agenda. Let your team vote on the happy hour theme, workshop topics, or even the event playlist. Giving them a choice makes them feel involved.
Introduce Key People: If you've got new hires or special guests attending, post a short, fun bio for each one. It's a fantastic way to break the ice before anyone even meets.

This approach turns a static calendar entry into a living conversation. It makes your employees feel like they’re part of the process, which is a surefire way to boost buy-in and genuine excitement.

✦Design an Agenda That Keeps Their Attention

Once the event kicks off, your main goal is to keep that energy alive. Nothing kills the vibe faster than a flat, one-way presentation. The trick is to design an agenda with plenty of interactive moments built right in.

Think of your agenda as an experience map, not a rigid schedule. Where can you insert moments of connection, fun, or surprise? It’s all about variety. If you need some fresh ideas, our guide on virtual event ideas for work has some great concepts you can easily adapt for in-person gatherings.

An engaged attendee is an attendee who feels seen and heard. Building opportunities for them to contribute—whether through a question, a poll response, or a breakout discussion—is the most effective way to hold their attention.

Creating these moments doesn't have to be a heavy lift. A few simple tweaks can make a massive difference.

✦Practical Ways to Keep People Engaged

To keep everyone dialed in, it's worth learning from some powerful customer engagement strategies—the core ideas work just as well for internal and external audiences. It's all about making them feel involved.

For Any Kind of Event:

Kick off with an icebreaker. Start with a simple poll or a "get to know you" activity. Anything that gets people talking to each other right away is a win.
Schedule Q&A throughout. Don't save all the questions for the very end. Weaving in 5-10 minute Q&A blocks keeps the conversation flowing and prevents people from zoning out.
Use live polling. Tools that let you poll the audience in real-time are amazing for breaking up long sessions. Ask content-related questions to see what's landing.

For Internal Company Events:

Use that Slack channel! During the event itself, encourage people to use the Be There channel as a live backchannel. They can share photos, post key takeaways, or ask questions for a moderator to field.
Plan breakout sessions. For workshops or all-hands meetings, split people into smaller groups to brainstorm. This is where the real collaboration and deeper conversations happen.
Bring in some gamification. A little friendly competition goes a long way. Try a leaderboard, a scavenger hunt, or quizzes with small prizes to inject some serious fun and energy into the day.

Executing Flawlessly and Gathering Feedback

All your careful planning boils down to this: event day. This is where a clear, simple plan of action separates a smooth, memorable experience from a chaotic scramble. The secret isn't trying to control every single variable—that’s impossible. It’s about being so prepared that you can handle the inevitable curveballs with complete confidence.

Those final 24 hours are everything. It’s time for one last, detailed walkthrough with your core team and key vendors. Run through the schedule one more time, making sure everyone's role is crystal clear. Who’s the point person for the AV tech? Who’s handling check-in? When everyone knows their job, they can solve minor issues on the fly without blowing up your phone.

✦Creating a Safety Net for Event Day

Let's be realistic: no matter how perfectly you plan, things can go sideways. A speaker gets stuck in traffic, the Wi-Fi gets spotty, you name it. That’s why a few simple contingency plans are an absolute must for anyone figuring out how to do event planning. You don't need a massive binder, just a quick "if-then" strategy for the usual suspects.

Tech Troubles: Always have a Plan B. This can be as simple as saving the presentation on a USB drive or having a mobile hotspot ready in case the venue’s internet decides to take a nap.
Schedule Delays: I always build small buffers of 5-10 minutes into the agenda. It’s a tiny change that gives you breathing room if a session runs long, preventing a domino effect that throws the whole day off.
Low Engagement: Keep a few interactive questions or a quick poll in your back pocket. If you feel the energy dipping during a presentation, you can use one to pull the audience right back in.

Designate a day-of coordinator—whether it's you or someone on your team—and empower them to make quick calls. Their job is to put out the small fires so you can focus on the big picture: the attendee experience.

✦Turning Feedback into Your Greatest Asset

The event isn't truly over when the last person heads out. The post-event phase is a golden opportunity to prove the event's value and learn how to make the next one even better. This is where you finally connect the dots between the goals you set and what actually happened.

The key to getting good feedback is to ask for it immediately and make it incredibly easy to give. The longer you wait, the less likely people are to respond, and their memories will have already started to fade. Forget sending a survey a week later that gets lost in a crowded inbox. You have to strike while the iron is hot.

The most valuable feedback comes from capturing immediate, honest reactions. The goal is to make it so easy for attendees to share their thoughts that it feels like a natural conclusion to the event itself.

This is another moment where a tool like Be There really shines for companies using Slack and Google Calendar. You already have a dedicated Slack channel for the event, which means you have a direct line to everyone who attended. The moment the event wraps, you can drop a link to a quick feedback form right into the channel.

This simple move skyrockets your response rates because you're meeting your team exactly where they are. Nobody has to go digging through their email; they just click the link in the same conversation they've been part of all day.

✦Analyzing Your Success and Proving ROI

Once you have that fantastic feedback, it’s time to pair it with your original KPIs. You’ll want to combine the qualitative data from your survey (like comments on the keynote) with the quantitative data you tracked (like attendance numbers and session engagement).

The event industry is leaning more and more on data to prove its worth. With about 79% of event professionals now using management systems to handle logistics, the bar is higher than ever. To really get the full picture, you have to blend what people said with what the numbers show.

This analysis is what allows you to build a clear, compelling report demonstrating the event's return on investment (ROI). To get it right, this practical guide to ROI on events is an excellent resource. It will help you translate your results into a story that leadership understands, securing the buy-in and budget you need for future events.

Got Questions About Event Planning? We've Got Answers.

Even with the best roadmap, a few questions always pop up along the way. I've been in the trenches of corporate event planning for years, and these are the ones I hear most often.

✦What's the Single Biggest Hurdle in Corporate Event Planning?

Honestly? It's the communication chaos. Hands down.

Information ends up siloed in a dozen different places—random email threads, multiple chat channels, buried calendar invites. It's a recipe for confusion, and crucial details inevitably get missed. This is where most events go off the rails before they even begin.

This fragmentation is exactly why having a central command center for your event is non-negotiable.

If your team lives in Slack but your events live in Google Calendar, you're already fighting an uphill battle. Connecting those two isn't just a nice-to-have; it's how you stop critical information from slipping through the cracks and save yourself from endless manual follow-ups.

This is where a tool like Be There changes the game. It automatically links a Google Calendar event to its own dedicated Slack channel. Suddenly, you have one source of truth for every update, question, and decision. The constant back-and-forth disappears, and a huge chunk of an event planner's stress just melts away.

✦Seriously, How Far in Advance Should I Start Planning?

This is the classic "it depends" question, but I can give you some solid rules of thumb based on the size of your event.

The Big Ones (100+ people): Think company-wide summits or major client conferences. You need to start planning 6 to 12 months out. Top-tier venues and in-demand speakers get snapped up fast, and you need that lead time to secure them.
The Mid-Sized Gatherings (20-50 people): For something like a multi-day team offsite or a key department training, give yourself 3 to 4 months. This is the sweet spot for choosing vendors without feeling rushed and really nailing down the agenda.
The Small Team Huddles (Under 20 people): Planning a local workshop, a fun team-building outing, or a celebration dinner? You can usually pull these off beautifully in just 2 to 4 weeks.

The universal truth here? Starting early is your best defense against stress, blown budgets, and a less-than-stellar experience.

✦How Do I Actually Measure if an Internal Event Was a Success?

You need to look beyond just headcount. A successful internal event is about impact, and to measure that, you need to combine hard numbers with human feedback.

First, get the qualitative story. Post-event surveys are your best friend here. Ask questions that get to the heart of the experience:

How engaged did people feel during the sessions?
What was the impact on team morale?
Did our key company messages actually land?

Then, back that up with quantitative data. Track the tangible metrics that show value to the business. Look at things like RSVP vs. actual attendance rates, engagement with live polls, or even a bump in departmental productivity in the quarter after a big internal summit.

When you blend both types of data, you get a 360-degree view of what really worked.

Ready to stop juggling a dozen different tools and bring some sanity back to your event planning? Be There is the first event planner built right inside Slack, making it ridiculously simple to create, manage, and promote your company events.

Start your free month and see how easy event planning can be!