Event Planning

Revision as of 21:32, 16 January 2006

Event Planning

This section is designed as a how-to guide to running an event.

Event Supplies

Izareth here, and I have a few general thoughts about event running. I've run over ten national events and have assisted on many more.

When planning, two things are most important: Fighting and Feasting, I often assign those two things to specific, trustworthy, competent people.

When planning a feast and trying to keep on budget, it is often helpful to realize that everyone will not eat some of every food item (unless you only have one or two). When you have bread, fruit, stews, a main course and sides. With good server portioning, one can usually have plenty for all without the caterer's standard amount of food. People will also walk away with more than enough. I've made mistakes in the past, but I assure you this advise is not going to give you shortages.

I recommend some standards. Firstly: after a hot day of fighting, bread can seem too dry. It is still a good starter for the table, that and fruit. If you mix butter with honey, and leave it in a bowl on the table, it goes much quicker. The fruit is always a good fixture.

Secondly: at least serve the drinks. If you can't have a whole serving crew, at least refresh drinks after the food line. It's only thanks is the feast it creates.

Thirdly: If you have servers, allow them to eat first. That way they don't get overlooked. It also gives you a chance to sit and talk with them about serving order and the like.

Fourthly: FEAST GEAR. If people bring their own gear, it lowers cost curtails the trash burden, and helps the event coordinators. Recommend it to your patrons. It was always a good standard to have.

Kyrian, here and I have one rule I follow when planning an event..."Prior planning prevents piss-poor performance." Good planning really helps in reducing the stress level of the event staff. Rather than having to run around trying to figure out what to do, people either do it or know exactly who to talk to in order to get the issue resolved.

When planning for an event, pretty much everything you do can falls into two categories:

• daily operations-the things that occur during an event such as weapon checking, Troll, feast, fighting, etc.

• logistical support-everything that has to be done to make the daily operations go smoothly.

A method for approaching event planning is to identify the tasks that need to take place every day that involve the event attendees and then figure out what you need to make those tasks go smoothly. It can be a daunting especially if you're running an event for the first time. Never be afraid to ask your more experienced members or on the national board for advice.

At a bare minimum:

• Troll
• Weapon checking
• Fighting
• Feast

Logistics of Troll

• At Troll you want to accomplish at least four things:
  • 1) Sign in to the event,
  • 2) Sign an event waiver & verifying minor waivers
  • 3) Pay admission
  • 4) Receive an event token which serves as the receipt
• Troll should be located at a point where everyone must pass when first entering the camp site.
• A tent or sunshade with tables and chairs makes the process more comfortable for both those working Troll and for people checking in.
• Maintain a cash box
• Have a schedule for working Troll. Usually a 4-6 hour shift is reasonable.
• Make sure the people who are working at Troll know what the "flow" of check-in is and who they can contact if there's a question or issue.
  • Optional
• Arrange the different tasks at Troll so that you don't have people bumping into each other as they go through the process. For example, you could have everyone start at the far left with signing in and then moving to signing an event waiver. After that they could pay their fee and at the end of it all, receive their tokens.
• Have an event program that can be distributed. This can be as simple as a single-page handout indicating when feasts, weapon checking and fighting takes place or a multiple-page booklet that might also include locations of different stores and restaurants.
• Parking passes. Parking passes are usually index cards or some other variant that each car places in the windshield that might have a person's name or a number. This makes it easy for event organizers to quickly identify a car's owner should there be an issue such as a car blocking a road.

More to follow