Project 4: Plan an Event

Project 4: Plan an Event
Start Here

You’re feeling pleased with your work for the SPCA thus far. Pierre charmed the rotary club with his speech, your client has a thriving Instagram presence as well as coverage in print media, and the SPCA blog has seen a spike in hits.

“I wonder if it’s too soon to ask for a promotion?” you find yourself wondering. Your smugness is punctured, however, when you enter the office to see Carmen staring at her monitor emitting a sound halfway between a whinny and a snort.

“Do I have something for you,” she says.

“Bring it on.”

“SPCA leadership got back from their retreat all fired up. Now they want us to plan an event.”

“I’ve hosted parties before.”

“No,” Carmen fixes you with a look, “an event. We have to think about promotion, AV needs, signage, bathrooms, vendors, maps, contracts, parking, so many more details … and a contingency plan in case it hails or the whole town loses power.”

The new business card you’ve pictured in your mind begins to smolder at the edges.

“You will be amazed,” says Carmen, “at the sheer number of details we’re going to need to account for. And the writing, so much writing. A speech, talking points for the spokesperson, live tweets during the event, emails to the internal staff—the volunteers—” Carmen sighs.

“But,” she says, “you won’t handle this alone. I’ve got the event communications plan nearly complete and I’m gathering the other junior account execs to take on some of the work. And who knows, you might enjoy this. You’ll certainly bring all the techniques you’ve learned so far to bear to make our client shine. I’ll follow up with info to get you started right away.”

Carmen’s email arrives within the hour.

Email

FROM: Carmen Amaya, senior account executive

TO: You

SUBJECT: SPCA Pet Day

Click here to open the email.

Hi again,

Those new execs at the SPCA aren’t wasting any time. Our client is holding what they hope will be the first annual Pet Day, a festival meant to raise awareness, increase adoptions, encourage volunteering, boost donations, foster responsible pet care, and lots of other things. In addition to upholding SPCA’s mission, Pet Day will be a fun community event thanks to our flawless organization and oversight. As you can see, we already have a logo.

Your task breakdown is as follows:

Week 1: Event Activity Plan

• Event activity: The SPCA has given us a list of the activities they want for Pet Day (a speech, classes, a dog show), but we need a few more. Your task is to come up with an activity or mini-event of your choice and let us know what needs to be done.
• Event activity evaluation plan: How will we know your activity succeeded and that we should plan for it next year? List a few ways you would assess its success.

Week 2: Event Map, Contingency Planning, and Internal and External Communications

• Event map: Create a map of the event, including indoor and outdoor areas.
• Contingency prioritization list: List the top five contingencies for which we should plan.
• Event invitations: Identify stakeholders to invite and the means of inviting them. Compose two of the invitations.
• Event thank-yous: Identify people to thank and the means of thanking them. Write and plan a thank-you note to two groups or individuals.
• Internal communication to staff: Write an email to SPCA staff about your activity for information and/or recruitment purposes.

Week 3: Event Social Media Kit

• Social media strategy: Add four or five bullet points to this part of the communications plan. Also fill in the Messages part of the plan with your messages from Project 1 and add your stakeholders and any additional publics you’d like to include.
• Social media kit,including the following:
  • event hashtag;
  • timeline of select tactics as listed below (day of release, time of release);
  • three Facebook posts;
  • six Twitter posts, with geofencing for at least two; and
  • six posts for the platforms of your choice.

Week 4: Traditional Media and Media Relations Products

• Media rep ID: Identify a few media representatives to whom to contact.
• Media advisory: Compose an advisory to help the media representatives figure out which events to cover.
• Spokesperson ID: Identify a spokesperson who will address media reps at the event.
• Talking points: Put together a few points for our media spokesperson.
• Radio PSA script: Write a 30-second script.
• TV PSA script: Write a 30- or 60-second script.
• Speech: Write a two- to three-minute speech for our speaker, whom I’m told is Ellie.
• Your choice: Write, describe, draw, or otherwise produce a traditional (non-social media) product you believe would help Pet Day achieve the SPCA’s organizational objectives.

Below are some documents that will help.

First, this brief will give you more information on the event itself.

• SPCA Pet Day event brief

Here’s the event communications plan, minus a few sections you’ll add. The plan will help you develop traditional media products and choose tactics and platforms for the social media kit.

• SPCA Pet Day event communications plan

Next is the event plan spreadsheet, with 10 tabs. This is an annex to the event communications plan and your master document for this project. You’ll enter, track, and link to all your work in this spreadsheet. Note that certain rows on the Timeline tab are highlighted. The highlights indicate the parts of the plan that you’ll be touching as you complete all the work in this project. They give you a sense of the big picture of the event and how you’re contributing to the whole.

The highlighted cells in the other tabs show where you need to input information, content, or links to other documents. All will be explained as you go through the project steps.

• SPCA Pet Day event plan spreadsheet

Finally, I’m attaching a checklist for this project so that you can keep track of where you are and how many tasks you have left at any given point.

• SPCA Pet Day checklist

Study these documents carefully before you begin; they provide an excellent orientation to this project.

I’m here to help as always.

A Little More Context

In your work with the SPCA, you’ve created different products for different publics. An event is another communications product designed to further the organization’s objectives, but it’s infinitely more complex than most products and has myriad other products to support it. Events often get their own annex in a communications plan. Sometimes, if the event is big enough or not part of a larger campaign, it will get its own communications plan, as in this case.

An important annex to the event plan is an event plan spreadsheet that provides a timeline as well as tabs that account for every item needed, from legal requirements to the tweet that deploys before the band starts. For instance, if you’re going to have vendors, you might need to send out a vendor prospectus, organize contracts and invoices, dedicate a team member to handling vendor needs, find a location for the vendors, time vendor setup and breakdown, put the vendor area on the event map, make sure there are waste disposal implements nearby, and send out a survey after the event so that the vendors can assess their experience and make recommendations for next year. These tasks would be laid out on the timeline as well as on other related tabs.

Luckily, you’re not arranging for every little detail in this project. You’ll plan for one event activity and use the already existing event plan spreadsheet and other resources to consider the needs for that activity. In addition, you’ll jot down some ideas for evaluating the success of your addition to the plan. Evaluation is a key part of every communications plan; in the RPIE and other models, it drives the iteration and improvement of the plan. The success of next year’s Pet Day will depend on the data you gather this year and how you make use of it. As you rise in the ranks at Parabolic, you’ll focus more and more on communications strategy and its continual refinement.

The contingency plan is an important part of event planning, helping to ensure that you have backup locations and courses of action in case of foul weather and other eventualities. Even though others will plan for the contingencies, your work in identifying them will familiarize you with the types of frameworks used by organizations to evaluate and plan for risk. Anticipating disasters and preparing for their mitigation are tasks you’ll perform on a much larger scale later on at Parabolic.

Mapping is another part of event planning. You not only have to provide maps to attendees, but also make sure the event team knows where everything is located. Mapping helps you ensure that all the components and timed elements of the event will work in concert with each other rather than conflicting and causing logistical nightmares. It also helps you strategically direct the flow of attendees and prevent crowding.

Stakeholder correspondence is another vital aspect of event planning. To ensure an enjoyable and well-attended event, you have to reach out to different groups in different ways. Planning and writing invitations, expressing thanks, and composing internal communications for Pet Day will help you round out your understanding of communications products.

Based on the social media strategies outlined in an event communications plan, a social media kit contains the products used to promote the event to your publics and accomplish the event goals and objectives via social media. For the NazarOps project, you produced one tweet; in this project, you’ll think more strategically as you plan pre- and post-event tweets along with tweets to launch during the event. You’ll get to come up with products for Facebook and other platforms. One social media tool you haven’t used yet at Parabolic is geofencing, in which different communications are conveyed to different publics depending on their physical location. You might want, for example, to tell only those at the event that a raffle is being held right now on the mainstage—after all, who else would care? You might expand your reach to the greater area in posting photos of the prizewinners, as this would show anyone within driving distance how much fun the attendees are having. Finally, you might spare publics outside the local area any news of the raffle; they would likely filter it out as noise. Too many irrelevant communications will cause your publics to stop paying attention.

In addition to all of the above, you’re conducting media relations to ensure clear and accurate coverage of Pet Day. This involves not only selecting media representatives and alerting them with an advisory, but identifying a spokesperson to meet with the media and giving that spokesperson talking points. As you work through this aspect of event planning, you’ll learn about establishing and maintaining relationships with the media, key to the success of any organization.

Finally, you’ll work on a few traditional media products. Some of these, such as the speech, will help you build on skills you’ve developed. You’ll also create less familiar products as you write for radio and television. The latter medium will require you to think visually and engage your storyboarding creativity.

The idea with all your event communications products—internal and external, social and traditional—is to accomplish your event’s goals and objectives as well as conveying to your publics and stakeholders what, when, and where the event is; why it’s important; why they want to be involved; how to best be involved; and how and why to support the organization and its mission outside the event. There is quite a lot riding on your deliverables, which must also appear natural and unforced! With each product, you’ll have to consider how to convey your messages most effectively. You obviously can’t accomplish all of the above in one tweet, nor would you want to. It helps to be mindful of the gestalt as you make your tactical decisions.

Project 4: Plan an Event
Step 1: Learn About Event Planning

Now that you’ve read the event brief and the event communications plan and reviewed the event plan spreadsheet timeline, learn about events themselves and their role in strategic communications.

First of all, why have an event? As you no doubt inferred from everything you’ve read so far, events are complex beasts. They require an enormous commitment in terms of time, money, and human resources. A lot can go wrong, as you’ll discover when you work on the contingency list. What makes an event worth the outlay and risks?

The answer, at least in part, is that events are a highly impactful way to communicate with your publics, draw them in, create an emotional attachment, and move individuals along from being members of a latent public to members of an active one. Events can also be a means of raising your visibility (in a positive way) to a level unattainable by most other means.

For example, if you worked for a nonprofit promoting clean waterways, you could hold an event on the river with boat rentals, riverbank walking tours, a picnic lunch, and live music. This would help you put a face on your organization, attract volunteers, boost donations, and raise awareness in your community, making what might be a permanent difference to your organization, especially if the event were recurring. Imagine all your attendees inviting their friends next year and sharing information about the event on social media. You can see the lure of this type of endeavor!

To determine whether an event will be worth the effort, it helps to consider the tasks involved. The resources in What Is an Event Plan? provide insight into the logistics of hosting an event, from site inspection to budgeting. Also study one organization’s guide to event planning, the phenomenal Event Planning 101: How to Plan a Veg Fest. This guide will give you a comprehensive understanding of event-planning tasks and how they’re timed, according to one organization that hosts an annual food festival. As you will see, each organization handles event planning in its own way, though the major needs remain the same.

In addition to logistical, financial, and communications details, there are legal issues in event planning that need to be considered lest your painstakingly planned event become a PR nightmare. The last thing you want is to neglect licensing or permitting needs, create safety violations, or fail to make your event accessible. There are, of course, ethical issues in event planning as well; you wouldn’t want to clutter your river with balloons, paint faces with non-water-soluble dyes, or schedule volunteers for long hours without a break.

You might notice in the Pet Day event plan timeline that the SPCA has accounted for legal requirements in the areas of contracting, facilities, licensing, permitting, security, sanitation, health and safety, fire, and information, such as in providing adoption fact sheets to prospective adoptees. These are just a few legal concerns; the organization will also have to comply with any noise codes or building codes, such as making sure the number of people in the convention center rooms does not exceed the limit set in the building codes. Because attendees are bringing pets, the SPCA must ensure the presence of scooper baggies, water bowls, and other implements for ensuring health and sanitation. Animals up for adoption must also be cared for, hence, the animal health and safety inspections that will occur at regular intervals.

Ethically, the SPCA must communicate about Pet Day truthfully. The SPCA must provide accurate information about all animals up for adoption; state how donations will be used; use all donated funds for their intended purpose; and avoid manipulative tactics such as showing maltreated animals on the jumbotron or representing pet ownership as cheap, easy, and requiring little time investment. These are just a few ethical considerations that will go into Pet Day.

By now, you might be asking yourself, what does it take to be an event planner? Clearly, quite a bit! Luckily, your first foray into planning an event at Parabolic will be confined to a discrete activity within Pet Day itself. Peruse the above resources carefully, because they will help you through the next step.

Step 2: Event Activity: Add to the Event Plan (Submission)

Now that you’ve studied the nature of events and the attention to detail required, you’ll organize a mini-event within Pet Day. The SPCA has already planned several activities—classes, grooming, adoption, veterinary services. However, it could stand a few more. The planning committee has bounced around some ideas: pet games, activities for children, a photography booth, live music, something food-related.

Your job is to add an activity to this event. This can be one of the options listed above or an idea of your choosing.

Once you’ve identified your activity, use the SPCA Pet Day new activity brainstorming sheet to account for all the items your activity will need. You’ll find a lot of guidance in your Step 1 readings and will likely add some rows to the brainstorming sheet. The Veg Fest guide is a treasure trove of ideas. Conducting a search related to your activity will help as well. There is no right or wrong here, though you’ll want to be as thorough as possible.

Your activity doesn’t have to be anything fancy. Let’s say you wanted to set up a station to amuse children and decided on a balloon animal tent. You would want to arrange for staffing and balloon animal-making implements—including their ethical use and disposal. You would want to set up areas where your guests could sit comfortably. You would also want to let attendees know about your activity; you could make up signs or flyers for the welcome table. Locating your tent near a donation table or pet adoption area might be a good idea if you think parents might mill around while their children enjoyed the balloon making. Locating the tent too close to the jumbotron or a stage, however, might not work if a larger spectacle might compete with your balloonist.

You not only want to consider every aspect of your activity but find out how well it succeeded after the event. An evaluation plan will assist in next year’s Pet Day, where you’ll decide to either use, omit, or modify your activity. Underneath the activity brainstorming table in the brainstorming sheet, list three ways you might evaluate the success of your activity. The Evaluation section of the event communications plan might help you generate ideas. The social media resources in Step 6 are also useful, as well as the Veg Fest documents, which contain a few surveys. As with the activity plan itself, there is no hard right or wrong to gathering evaluation data. You’ll gain more experience in this part of communications planning later on at Parabolic.

Once you finish brainstorming, make your first entries in the SPCA Pet Day event plan spreadsheet. If you haven’t done so already, download and save the event plan, adding your name to the file so that it’s FirstInitial_LastName SPCA Pet Day Event Plan Spreadsheet. Enter a cleaned-up version of your brainstorming information on the New Activity tab and link your document so that Carmen can see what you were considering.

Now, turn to the Event Timeline tab. Enter new rows for each item, component, or consideration you listed for your activity. Your rows will likely be more specific than the row items currently on the timeline, and more numerous relative to the other activity logistics. This is fine; fit in your row items where they seem appropriate, looking at the pre-event, event, and post-event sections and considering all aspects of the timeline, including the communications sections. Highlight your new rows in a light color such as green. If you look at Row 11 in the original version of the timeline, you’ll see a sample row that includes the kind of information you would enter, complete with timing information (start date/time and due date/time).

Don’t worry if your rows are redundant or seem overly detailed. The purpose of this is to give you another way to think about your activity’s needs, when they should be met, and how they fit into the overall event plan. Not only will this exercise benefit the other Pet Day planners, it will help you later on at Parabolic when you assemble this kind of spreadsheet from scratch.

Cross-check your brainstorming sheet with your timeline rows and then submit your Excel spreadsheet and brainstorming document to Carmen so that she can provide feedback.

Your work related to the new activity isn’t over. The activity will feature in some of your other Pet Day products, such as the event map, the internal email, the social media kit, and the media advisory.

Step 3: Event Products: Create the Event Map

Now that you’ve planned an activity, it’s time to channel your spatial creativity and create the event map. You’ll actually map two areas—the town green and the convention center—and create a map key. Your map will include items relevant to your Pet Day attendees. It will also include items pertinent only to your internal publics, such as a break room, staff parking lot, and pet crate storage area. Your map will be used internally, with attendees receiving a modified version.

Luckily, you won’t have to start from scratch. One of the Parabolic artists has created SPCA Pet Day indoor and outdoor diagrams. These are provided in PowerPoint, with a space for the map key in the upper right quadrant, but you can also access the image files separately: you can download the (1) map of the town green; (2) map of the convention center, lower floor; and (3) map of the convention center, upper floor. The sample maps in the Event Map topic above will help you think of how to display the items the map needs and also how to set up your key.

There are a few ways you can go about creating your map and key. You can use PowerPoint; you can print the diagrams and draw directly on them or use physical cutouts of icons (easy to move around!); or you can choose some other approach. PowerPoint has icons, and there are many free icon repositories online. You can also draw your icons. Remember to credit anyone whose icons you use, even if they’re in the public domain.

However you set up your map, make sure you (a) include all the items in the list, (b) provide a key, and (c) produce an image that can be zoomed in and out by whoever is viewing it. If you work on hard copies, make sure you can scan them.

Click here to see a list of the items you’ll put on the map.

• entrance;
• porta-johns;
• food vendors;
• merchandise vendors;
• stages;
• off-leash area where attendees can let their pets run around;
• attendee parking;
• staff, vendor, and volunteer parking;
• jumbotron for streaming video content, such as SPCA footage, happy pets in happy families, short speeches by SPCA leadership, people who have adopted pets, SPCA volunteers;
• CEO speech;
• nutrition classes;
• behavior classes;
• dog care classes;
• cat care classes;
• other pet care classes;
• grooming classes;
• welcome table where volunteers will hand out maps and information, have a signup sheet for the newsletter, provide adoption information, and pass out stickers with the Pet Day logo;
• donations tables;
• pet adoption area;
• pet crate storage area;
• pet grooming station;
• veterinarian station;
• dog show;
• media risers to help photographers and videographers get an even view of important activities; and
• [your activity].

You’ll want to place some of these items in multiple locations; for instance, it’s unlikely that you’ll arrange for only one porta-john. You can use one stage for multiple events or add a different stage for each event. It’s up to you as to how many items to place and where to place them. Refer to the event brief as needed and consider how many people are coming to this event.

Here are some questions to get you started.

• What needs power? Note the location of the electrical hookup boxes.
• What is happening when? If you choose a convention center room for one of the activities, make sure you don’t double-book it for another activity happening at the same time.
• What will clash if placed in close proximity? If you have a band as your activity, where can it be placed so that the noise won’t drown out any other activities?
• How should you direct the flow of traffic? Consider how you want the attendees to experience the event after they enter the gates. Where should the donation tables be? The adoption area(s)? How can you prevent overcrowding at any one location?
• What should be indoors and what outdoors?
• How do you want to make use of the various spaces? There are three parking lots; might one serve a purpose other than parking?
• Where do you want the media to focus? Considering that videographers and photographers can access everything by walking around, where do you want to ensure the best stationary coverage? The media risers will provide a level space to ensure professional-quality footage.
• What should the map key include? Depending on the icons you use, items such as bathrooms, food areas, and stages might be self-explanatory and might not need mention in the key itself. You might want to label some of the elements directly on the map. Look at the sample event maps in the Event Map learning topic for ideas.

There is no right or wrong answer to these questions, only what might make more or less sense depending on how you want your attendees to experience the event.

Finally, don’t view the list of map items as limiting. If you want to place more activities on the map (such as mini-events your colleagues are planning, additional items you saw on the event brief or timeline, or activities or stations that you think would enhance Pet Day but aren’t mentioned anywhere), go ahead and do this. Add illustrations, use your design magic, make the map your own.

Once you’ve created your map, go to the Event Map tab on the event plan spreadsheet and write a sentence for each item in the Reason for location column explaining why you placed the item where you did. This is an important part of the assignment; Carmen will want to know your rationale for placement as she reviews your map.

Step 4: Event Products: Prioritize Contingencies

Maps can be challenging, but you’re not finished with your event products. Through event contingency planning, Parabolic will ensure a flawless Pet Day where the attendees enjoy themselves, everyone is notified if an activity or location changes, and no one knows that something went wrong because it was handled so well. Your part in this process will help prepare you for later Parabolic projects in which you aid a client in anticipating and preparing for crisis.

Note that you’re not putting together the contingency plan itself. You’re composing a list that will help the Pet Day Contingency Planning Committee put together the plan—that is, determine what to do should the contingencies you’ve chosen transpire. Because an event can be derailed by limitless crises, accidents, disasters, and malfunctions, the committee can’t plan for everything. It must focus on a few events that have a reasonable chance of occurring and that would do enough damage to undermine the event.

You’ll think of a few contingencies, assess their likelihood and the amount of damage they would inflict, and choose the five you believe the committee should plan for. This is an art, not a science, and your list will depend on many factors. Rain is a contingency that is more or less likely depending on the geographic location of your client. Rain will be more or less damaging depending on how much of the event you’ve placed indoors. A shower is an obvious choice, but what about a weather event such as a cyclone? This might be highly damaging but also highly unlikely. A blazing hot sun might be much more likely but also minimally damaging, especially if the outdoor area has tents.

Contingencies are not limited to weather events. Anything could fail, from architectural structures to electrical power to plumbing. A fire could break out or a pipe could burst, flooding the convention center. An attendee could do something disruptive, and don’t forget that your event will involve dozens if not hundreds of animals. Contingencies include scandals; suppose the new COO is charged with fraud or a sponsor is found to engage in dubious practices. Less shocking human contingencies include your keynote speaker or groomer coming down with a cold. Items in the news can also trouble an event; if your own or even another animal protection organization comes under fire, this might affect turnout or attendee attitude.

The SPCA Pet Day contingency prioritization prep sheet provides a template to help you organize contingencies and assess their likelihood and damage. Think of seven or eight things that could go wrong, perform research as needed to determine how likely or damaging they would be, and jot down whatever notes will help you decide on your top five. There is no right or wrong here; you’re not engaging in hard math so much as a mental calculus and cost-benefit analysis. Your notes on each option are the most valuable thing you can give the Pet Day Contingency Planning Committee. Provide a rationale for each of your final contingencies and explain why you chose it to the exclusion of the others and why you gave it the ranking you did in the top five.

Once you have your top five contingencies, enter them on the Contingency List tab of the event plan spreadsheet, filling in the other needed cells.

Step 5: Event Products: Stakeholder Correspondence

Carmen is impressed with the work you’ve done so far. She schedules a quick chat with you to touch base and talk next steps.

Meeting With Carmen

“Great job on the event map and contingency list,” says Carmen. “This is going to help the rest of the team think through some of the logistics of Pet Day. Now, we’re going to switch gears for a bit and focus on stakeholder communications.”

“First, invitations: who gets invited and how? Think about all the stakeholders you identified when you conducted your situation analysis. We’ll want to put this event on their radar and encourage them to join us. As with every communications product, let’s determine the best means of reaching out to each group—letter, email, phone call, and so forth. The invitation will explain why this event—and the SPCA—is important and why the stakeholder will want to participate.”

“Then, thank-yous. After the event, you’ll want to foster goodwill by thanking all those who gave of their time, money, and energy to contribute to the event or to the SPCA in general. This includes anyone who volunteered to teach a class, anyone who engaged in a vendor contract, the spokesperson, and more. You’ll have to figure out the best way to express gratitude for each individual’s participation. Email or a card might be appropriate for most, but anyone who went above and beyond in a major way might receive something like a certificate of appreciation or a gift basket of local goods. We’d have to keep this kind of gift to a minimum value, though, considering our client’s nonprofit status.”

“Finally, internal communications. You planned a new activity last week. Now, write an email to the SPCA staff about your activity. Some might want to volunteer, and we’ll want everyone to know about any legal requirements or possible media presence.”

“Sounds good,” you say, “I’ll get started.”

Carmen smiles.

“Before I leave you to it, let me just say that the communications you’re producing here are just a small subset of the whole. I’ve got the other junior account execs working on a vendor prospectus, a survey for attendees, a volunteer survey, to-do lists for volunteers, and so much more. These tasks give you a taste of event planning so that you can take on more—and possibly lead some projects—next time we do anything similar.”

Invitations

True to her word, Carmen sends you some readings on event planning: the invitation for your first task, adding that Event Planning 101: How to Plan a Veg Fest has some information that pertains to all three assignments.

In this step, you’ll be working in the Stakeholder Correspondence tab in the event plan spreadsheet. In the Group to Invite table at the top, list all the stakeholder groups from your stakeholder analysis, adding any new groups you’ve thought of since then (Column A). You’re not breaking each stakeholder group down into individuals; a Parabolic staffer will do this at a later stage.

Decide how you’ll send your invitation to each group (Column C). Depending on the group, this could be an email or even a chat (for internal stakeholders), or it could be a letter or phone call. The formality and size of each group—and its relationship with the SPCA—should be determining factors, although there are no hard rules here.

Another junior account executive will follow up with each stakeholder group to make sure each invitation was received and to inquire about attendance. Decide what means of communication would be best for the follow-up (Column D). Would a phone call make sense? This might work for a more formal group where you want to invite a few key people. For a populous and less formal group, you might choose email.

Once you’ve filled in columns A, C, and D, compose an invitation that will go out to one of your groups and link it to the appropriate cell in Column B. Consider format; if you’re writing for a phone call, a script might be best. If for email or another written format, consider the placement of your text elements and any visuals you want to use. No matter what your delivery method, make sure to include the who, what, why, when, and where of the event and—importantly—to make it clear to the recipients why they will want to be there.

Finally, choose another stakeholder group and compose one more invitation. Your first invitation might be perfect for multiple groups; try to choose a group that would receive a different type of invitation, or for whom the wording would differ, even slightly. This is a great opportunity to think about how you would tweak a message depending on the public and the channel.

Link your second invitation to the appropriate cell in Column B.

Thank-Yous

As you gleaned from your readings, an event doesn’t end just because it’s over. Not only will you want to produce videos, blog posts, tweets, Instagram and Facebook posts, and many more products to share the event with those who did—and did not—attend, you’ll want to reinforce your relationship with anyone who contributed to the event by showing appreciation. This will help you bolster ties for future Pet Days as well. The Veg Fest site contains succinct but valuable information on whom to consider thanking; there are many other sources out there that might give you ideas.

In the Group to Thank table on the spreadsheet, list all the individuals and groups to whom you’ll show your appreciation after the event (Column A).

Decide what form your thank-you will take for each group (Column C). Your choices again are email, letter or card, phone call, and other traditional means, though you may also want to consider a certificate or small gift for anyone who is a leader in the community or has made a superlative contribution. A thank-you ceremony or an announcement of appreciation at a wrap-up party are also possibilities. There are no hard rules here, but be mindful of the fact that you’re a nonprofit and can’t spend too much on gifts or do anything else that would jeopardize your nonprofit status.

Compose a thank-you note, script, or card for one of the groups or individuals you want to thank and link it in the appropriate cell in Column B.

As with the invitations, choose another group—a group that would receive a different thank-you communication than the first, no matter how slight the changes. Compose or describe that thank-you and link it to another cell in Column B.

Internal Email

For all major occurrences, whether festivals or crises, you’ll want to keep your client’s employees—and Parabolic’s—up-to-date on what is happening, when, why, where, how, and concerning whom. All internal staffers should be able to explain the situation at hand and represent the client accurately at any moment. Internal communications for events are an important aspect of event planning and serve many purposes; you have to recruit volunteers, let everyone know whether and how to interact with the press, and share instructions for setup, operations, and breakdown. Your internal staff are vital to the success of Pet Day, and to promoting the event.

Here, you’re going to compose one email for the SPCA employees. The email will introduce your internal stakeholders to the activity you added during Week 7. Think about what you want to communicate: When is the activity? Where is it? Will the activity need volunteers? Are there any legal aspects about which volunteers or others at the event need to know? Anything to be cautious or mindful of? Perhaps you want to ask staff members a question pertaining to your activity. Determine what your internal stakeholders need to know about your event, or what you would like to know from them, and then compose an email. Link it to Column E of the Stakeholder Correspondence tab in the Internal Email table.

Step 6: Social Media: Create the Social Media Kit (Submission)

You composed some products for your stakeholders. Now, you’ll write some pieces for the social media kit. A social media kit contains pre-written, pre-approved content ready to deploy on specific dates at specific times over social media platforms. Think of the kit as a grouping of tactics destined for dissemination via social media channels based on the strategies laid out in the communications plan (or the social media appendix to the plan), which in turn are informed by the goals, objectives, publics, and messages.

First, you’re going to go into the event communications plan and add a few strategies that are specifically focused on social media (which is also a strategy; confusing, huh?!). In some cases, you would create an entire plan just for social media.

Download the SPCA Pet Day event communications plan and save it as FirstInitial_LastName SPCA Pet Day Event Communications Plan. Before starting on the social media strategies, take another look at the other sections. Add the stakeholders you listed in Step 5 and any other publics you believe should be included, and enter your messages from Project 1. Under Strategies, find the third bullet point, “Harness the use of social media before, during, and after the event.” One bullet point is listed as a sub-bullet to this one: “Promote the event and excite followers about event activities.” Add four or five sub-bullet points below the first sub-bullet point to explain how else you’ll use social media in your event communications. Promoting the event is an obvious need, but is there anything else you want to communicate, or any other conversations you want to have with your publics, using social media channels? When might you use geofencing? If you have specific platforms in mind for specific strategies, name them.

To determine your strategies and also the social media products you might want to create, refer back to the SPCA Pet Day event brief and the event plan timeline.

New Conversation: Carmen Amaya

To further help you strategize, here are some videos and readings on social media strategy in event planning. These will give you ideas not only for strategies, but for products that will help get everyone excited about Pet Day and fulfill our other objectives. Although these resources are event-specific, the concepts apply in other communications contexts. You should get a lot out of the resources. Enjoy!

You may also want to review the Orientation to Strategic Communications Strategies and Pocket Guide to Writing Goals, Objectives, and Strategies. Strategies are one of the trickiest parts of the communications plan to compose, so if you find yourself stumped, use the Ask the Professor discussion to share ideas and get feedback. The bulk of your time this week should be spent on the social media products themselves.

Add your four or five sub-bullets to the plan, save it, and link it in the correct cell on the Social Media Kit tab.

Now, you can work on the social media kit. You might have noticed that event hashtags are a powerful social media tool. Thinking back to your hashtag work in Project 2, come up with a hashtag and include it in the correct cell on the tab. Reviewing your notes on using social media platforms and tools to strategic advantage might help. These notes will come in handy for the social media kit timeline as well, particularly the sections pertaining to day and time and geofencing.

Now that you have your strategies and hashtag in place, compose the following tactics (products):

• three Facebook posts,
• six Twitter posts (140 characters each), and
• six other posts on the platforms of your choice.

Some of these posts should occur before the event, some during (live tweets, for example), and some after. Employ geofencing for at least two tweets, meaning that those tweets will reach publics in different geographic areas.

As with so many Pet Day products, there isn’t a strict right or wrong here; you can compose an infinite variety of posts as long as they’re accurate and on-message. Here are some prompts to get you started:

• What do those attending the event need to know beforehand?
• What information might you want to share during the event? To whom?
• What do you want to share after the event?
• This is the inaugural event; what might get attendees interested and coming back for more?
• How can you encourage two-way communication?
• Which publics are you trying to reach? What is the best platform for each communication?
• Would images, videos, or links enhance the post?

It may help to use the SPCA Pet Day social media planner to take notes and rough out ideas before putting together a neat version of the media kit for the event plan spreadsheet.

When you’re ready, fill in the rows of the Social Media Kit tab with the required information. Column E, Text content, should include the actual text of your post, including any hashtags. In Column F, Graphic/video/URL, describe what you want, paste or link to a visual, or provide a link to a site. You do not need a graphic, video, or link for every post; enter N/A if you’re not including these elements.

If it would help you to write all your post content in a Word or Google doc and link to that file, go ahead and do this. Use whatever method makes the most sense so long as you meet all the requirements and fill in columns B, C, and D with specific information.

When you’re finished, send your up-to-date event plan spreadsheet and communications plan to Carmen so that she can get you feedback. She’ll focus on the social media kit and social media strategies, but make sure all your other tabs are updated and properly linked.

Step 7: Traditional Media: Identify Media Reps and Write the Media Advisory and PSAs

Now, you’re going to work on some traditional products for Pet Day and help ensure sufficient and accurate media coverage. You’ll identify media representatives and produce a media advisory to help them determine which events they want to cover. You’ll identify a spokesperson to meet with the media at the event and write talking points for that individual. Further, you’ll write a radio PSA and a television PSA to send to local media outlets to help promote the event. You’ll draft a short speech for Ellie to deliver on Pet Day, keeping in mind that aspects of this speech will likely end up broadcast on a variety of channels. Finally, you’ll plan or develop a product of your choice.

This undoubtedly sounds like a lot. Some of these tasks involve writing only a few lines or making a few discrete choices; all the traditional products put together should take up no more than a few pages. However, each product has its own distinct purpose and character, and each task should be completed with deliberation. It’s the process itself and the care that goes into it that gives each deliverable its value. Take the time to study the resources and carefully work through each task. This will give you insight into engaging the media and tweaking a message to maximize the impact of any communications campaign.

Many of the products you’re creating this week support getting the media involved with the event, keeping them informed, and fostering a relationship that will help the SPCA promote Pet Day and further its goals and objectives long after the event is over. Learn about the media relations aspect of event planning to understand the importance of media relations in general as well as how to communicate with the media about an event. Be sure to look at the sample media advisories in addition to reading the Broom & Sha section that provides such a good overview of this topic.

Once you have a handle on media relations, identify at least three representatives to whom to send the Pet Day advisory. Refer to your Project 2 media outlet research and conduct additional searches as needed to identify at least one print news outlet, one local radio station, and one local TV station. Choose an editor or other contact person from each outlet to serve as your media rep.

New Message: Carmen Amaya

Just poking my head in the door with some tips on how to locate your media reps. An analytics tool like Meltwater makes this easy: You can find outlets and also the individual who covers your beat.

Here are some pointers if you’re conducting an old-fashioned Google search. A good rule of thumb is to find the contact information for your outlet. From there, look for the following:

Newspaper

• Find the lead journalist OR someone specific to the beat,
• OR look at the contents of the paper and find a reporter who has written an article on a similar topic.

Radio

• Find the director of news programming or someone with a similar title,
• OR find the newsroom.

TV

• If you don’t find an individual, provide all other contact information.
• Try Googling “contact information [station name]” if you find a local TV station but are not able to find any contact information.

Calling outlets is always an option.

In the Media Relations tab of the event plan spreadsheet, list the outlet and media rep, with an email address, phone number, and the URL where you got the information. Use a general contact address and number for the outlet if you can’t find information specific to your representative.

Populate the spreadsheet with your media representatives, then move on to the advisory.

Write the Media Advisory

As you know from your reading on media relations, the advisory alerts your outlets to the event and enables each outlet to decide where and when to send reporters, photographers, and videographers. The advisory helps answer the following questions for the news organization: What part of this event should I cover? Where will be the most visual appeal? What aspect of this event will be of most interest to my readership or viewership?

Your advisory should be no more than one page long, double-spaced, and include the following (CDC, 2009):

• headline;
• information about the event following the who, what, where, when, and why format;
• bulleted breakdown of key events and times;
• final short paragraph with additional background information;
• contact information; and
• SPCA boilerplate.

In the media relations packet linked at the beginning of this step, you’ll find further guidance.

Keep your advisory succinct. Media outlets are flooded with these types of communications and have limited time. Your job here is to help the media determine at a glance when and where to send staff to record and report on the event. Format the advisory in a way that makes your information clear and easily scannable by human eyes. Be creative (but ethical) in your subject line.

Don’t forget to let the media know about the new activity you planned, if applicable.

Enter your advisory on the Media Relations tab of the event plan spreadsheet.

Write the PSAs

Now, let’s turn our attention to your two PSAs. Radio and television stations are required to donate a certain amount of time to running public service announcements, which typically raise awareness about community events or nonprofits (Stringfellow, 2017). Although you have no say in when they will air, your PSAs will inform the local community about Pet Day. Another Parabolic staffer will focus on producing the PSAs and pitching them to the radio and TV outlets you identified so you can focus on writing the content. The PSAs will be pitched to the community public service editor or an individual with a similar title.

Follow this guidance on scriptwriting to learn more about PSAs and how to write for radio and television. You’ll find a few sample scripts that will give you some ideas. A Google search will yield additional examples. The Social Security Administration (SSA), for instance, has a page with links to radio and video PSAs (n.d.), as does the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA, 2015).

Your radio script should be 30 seconds, or around 60 to 70 words. For your TV script, you get to decide: you can write a 30-second script or a 60-second script. The radio script will just be text, but the TV script should take a two-column format, with scene descriptions and camera actions on the left and all audio text on the right. For the video column, ask yourself, What do you want to show to accompany your voiceover? Because this is the first of what the SPCA hopes will be an annual event, you can’t show footage from last year’s Pet Day. You can, however, show other scenes and individuals. Archival footage from the SPCA, stock images or scenes, or scenes shot specifically for this PSA are all options. Watching a few PSAs will give you some ideas. Remember the ethical aspect of strategic communications: You don’t want to provide photos of sad-eyed pups or fearful cats in order to manipulate your publics. See the resources in the Scriptwriting topic above for further guidance, sample scripts, and one video featuring a noteworthy hat.

With both PSAs, you’re writing for the ear, so refer back to your speechwriting notes and read your scripts aloud a few times to make sure they sound mellifluous and clear. Also check that they fill your time allotment exactly—no longer and no shorter. You don’t want to miss out on having your PSA aired because it doesn’t meet the length requirement. Note on your video PSA script whether you’re choosing a 30-second or 60-second time slot.

Finally, make sure your scripts include the who, what, when, why, and where—you want your publics to have all the information they need to attend Pet Day.

When you’ve finished writing your scripts, record the audio: Carmen will want to know that you’re getting the timing exactly right. You can use a free app such as Audacity, provide your text on narrated PowerPoint slides, use a conferencing tool such as Zoom or Webex, or choose another option, such as a YouTube recording. This gives you a great way to test-drive the scripts… and also to share them in a more living way with your colleagues.

Discussion: Scriptwriters’ Room

Once you’ve completed your scripts, join your fellow junior account executives for a review session. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to see how others have made use of words and imagery to promote the event. Provide critical feedback and take the suggestions of your peers into account in any revisions you make. You may find yourself inspired to add a few more ideas to your drafts.

Revise your scripts as needed based on the feedback you received, recording updated audio files as appropriate.

Link your text and audio files to the PSAs tab of the spreadsheet.

Next, you’ll continue your media relations work by identifying and training a spokesperson.

Step 8: Traditional Media: Identify a Spokesperson and Write Talking Points

You’ve identified media reps, written the media advisory, and composed two PSAs. Now, you’ll choose a spokesperson and write talking points so that he or she can communicate the salient facts about the event and its purpose and the SPCA’s goals and objectives.

Identify the Spokesperson

Spokespeople serve different purposes in strategic communications. In the event of a crisis, you would want an individual with authority in your organization or in the crisis area who could handle tough questions from the media and communicate adroitly about sensitive issues. In the case of a community event such as the river festival, you wouldn’t need to worry so much about selecting an individual who could navigate landmines. You would choose someone with expertise in waterways who could explain what your organization does and why it was important. You could select a staff member, the chief of operations, an environmental expert from the community, or a member of a partner organization.

For Pet Day, the SPCA is hoping to bring in someone from the ASPCA to reinforce the ties between the two organizations and have representation from a national nonprofit with a similar mission.

Visit the ASPCA website and locate an individual you believe would be a good choice for a spokesperson. Enter the name and position of this individual in the correct cells of the Media Relations tab, with a link to the page where you found the information. Explain your choice of spokesperson: Why is this individual the best one to represent your organization on Pet Day?

In case the ASPCA staff member can’t make it, you’ll want a few backups. Given what you’ve learned about spokespeople, identify two more possibilities. Add their information in the correct cells. Explain why each would be a good choice to represent the SPCA on Pet Day.

Write the Talking Points

You have some familiarity with talking points from the Project 3 Q&A. Here, you’ll draft around half a page—certainly no more than one double-spaced page—of bullet points for the spokesperson so that he or she can introduce the media to the SPCA. Ask yourself, who will the spokesperson be talking to? What do we want to communicate on Pet Day? How do we let people know what they are supporting when they donate, adopt, or volunteer? Refer to the event plan spreadsheet, your situation analysis, and any other notes you’ve taken, and perform more research if necessary. Carefully pick and choose a few key points—no more than five or six—that are the most important points to convey. One should be the main point: the one you want to get across no matter what. Think of the others as supporting points that the spokesperson can use depending on how the conversation with the reporter goes. Don’t succumb to the temptation to cram in every piece of information: remember, your spokesperson must remember all your points and stay on message! Finally, recall that your role here isn’t to manipulate, but to use facts to tell your story.

Now that you’ve identified your spokesperson and written your talking points, you’ll complete your penultimate product for the event plan spreadsheet.

Step 9: Traditional Media: Write the Speech

You’ve written most of the other event plan products; now, you’ll write the speech Ellie will deliver on Pet Day.

You know less about Ellie’s style of speaking than you did about Pierre’s, but you have a recent email to go on.

Morsa Images / DigitalVision Collection / Getty Images

Email

FROM: Ellie Tsai, CEO

TO: You

SUBJECT: Pet Day speech

Dear Carmen and team,

My apologies for not knowing everyone’s name! I’m looking forward very much to the Pet Day event and to getting to know some of our Parabolic colleagues. Pierre has raved about your assistance and, based on the support we’ve gotten from the rotary club, I can see where his enthusiasm is coming from. I would love to do what I can to help you compose this speech (you might imagine that, although I’m used to writing my own statements, I’m less familiar with reading those someone else has written). Please let me know if I can do anything prior to your sending me the first draft.

Yours in animal protection,

Gleaning what you can about Ellie’s natural voice, compose a two-to-three-minute speech in 16-point font, double-spaced, Times New Roman, keeping in mind that one minute equals about 130 words of written text. The purpose of the speech is to introduce the attendees to the SPCA, what it does, and how it is relevant to their lives, similar to the talking points you just wrote. Nothing in the speech should conflict with your points; all your Pet Day communications should speak with one voice. You may find that all you need to do is repackage your talking points, or you may decide to cover only one or two points or add some information based on the event communications plan or other documents. By now, you’re a pro at employing humor, storytelling, and other techniques to give shape to facts.

Although short, this speech is of the utmost importance to your client. Unlike Pierre’s speech, which was unlikely to go viral unless he tripped over his feet or said something outlandish, Ellie’s speech is blazingly public and could end up anywhere and everywhere, representing your client for years to come. Wherever you decided to place Ellie for her speech, it will be broadcast on the jumbotron and played throughout the day as part of the SPCA video reel. Ellie’s speech will be posted on the SPCA blog as well as the SPCA YouTube channel and other platforms. It will end up as either main story footage or B roll for television coverage, audio clips for radio coverage, and photographs for newspaper coverage.

All this is to say that the speech needs to read flawlessly, include soundbites that can be easily excerpted, and be above reproach in terms of content and the use of any appeals. Also note that the text will be shown as captions on the jumbotron and all posted videos in compliance with accessibility norms; make sure it’s error-free.

Add any stage directions you see fit, referring to the guidance on speechwriting in strategic communications and speech delivery as necessary.

Discussion: Speechwriters’ Room

Join your peers for one last touchpoint and post your speech. Highlight three sentences or phrases that you could imagine being broadcast on various channels. What message do your sound bites communicate? What impact do you hope they have on your publics?

Once you’ve completed the speech, move on to the final task: one of your choosing.

Step 10: Traditional Media: Plan a Product of Your Choice

You’re nearly finished! The one remaining task is to plan or draft a traditional (non-social media) product of your choosing.

This can be something familiar, such as an op-ed, or it can be something you haven’t created yet at Parabolic. It can be for internal publics, for external publics, or for you or your team as a private Pet Day job aid. In the Veg Fest and other resources, you learned about evaluation tools, merchandise, posters, placards, signs, checklists, swag bags, video footage, fact sheets, communications to and about exhibitors and sponsors, and many other products necessary to the production of a successful event. You might have seen scripts to be used in communicating information to attendees, such as in the volunteer instructions resource in the Internal Communications for Events topic in Step 5. There may be something intriguing in the Pet Day brief or communications plan you’d like to develop.

Bear in mind that a communications product does not have to be text-based or even two-dimensional: at an event such as Pet Day, objects can be of immense communicative value.

Your product can be as brief or lengthy as you choose. It can be a few words jotted on a Post-it note, a few sentences, a few paragraphs, a few pages, a sketch, a photograph, a video, an audio file, something we can’t even imagine: The sky is the limit.

Write, describe, draw, or otherwise produce a traditional product you believe would help Pet Day achieve the SPCA’s organizational objectives. Enter or link to this on the Your Choice tab of the event plan spreadsheet and explain why you chose this product. Do plan to share your creation with your peers in the Parabolic Lounge!

Once you’ve composed your product, take a deep breath. You’ve accomplished quite a bit for this event. After a bit more spit and polish, you can look forward to relaxing for as long as Carmen will allow.