EVENT PREPARATION

Over the years, we have hosted many events with a range of briefs, themes, and complexities.

There is now a clear structure that we employ to get every event concept off the ground. It all begins with the initial plan and the reason behind hosting the occasion. Due to a busy calendar for the brand team it is important that the date selection and reason for the event makes sense for all parties involved, and most importantly, align with the brands current and future strategy.

Once the concept, for the occasion is clear and the reasoning behind it is justified, the idea will be formalised into an event brief that is then shared with all parties involved. The evolution of that idea, and the production of the live event as a whole will go through a back and forth until a final arrangement has been reached. During this part of the process, a venue would be selected that is suitable for the occasion, and negotiations would begin.

At this early stage it is important to complete a site visit in person, document the venue in detail, and request all necessary floorplans and technical specifications so that you are clear on the details regarding the venue space that you are about to hire or partner with. These elements are crucial for the types of events that we host at TIP due to the amount of interior curation that goes into the event production. 

Providing the negotiations are going to plan, which is not always a guarantee, We would turn our attention to the interior design, set design, and overall event curation. Our events are always predicated on creating a multi-sensory experience for all guests to enjoy. Many of our regular attendees will be able to attest to that, as no one event that we have hosted has been remotely similar to the one prior. In my personal opinion, this is why our community has committed to show consistent support for each and every event, and with an ever increasing audience base year over year.

The design process for an event can be a challenging one. I would always begin with a broad range of ideas that work in line with the event theme. I would then go through a meticulous process of design and refinement to work within the technical specifications and limits of the venue. Personally, due to my background in architecture and interior design, I have always found it to be best practice to design straight on the floor plan, whilst using the primary photography and technical specifications from the venue as a reference.

After many renditions, and possibly an additional site visit to see how the design matches up with the venue in person, the final tweaks to the design will be made and then shared with the production team along with a coordinating brief and update on the production schedule. The next logical step is to create an equipment itinerary and an order list. We would generally rank these items in priority order to enable efficiency in the production process. 

That just about lays the initial groundwork for an event by our standards.

Following on from this, it is worth sharing some of our more complex ideas with the venue staff to make sure that they are happy to push on with all elements of our production. You then draw up the contract for the event which both parties sign, and pay any deposit or fees required. Once all of this is in place I would consider the event to be in motion.

For our team we ideally like to have all events locked in 2 to 3 months out. This allows for plenty of time to be allocated to event design and production including promotional campaign rollout. These are essential elements and require time and resource. It will serve you well to think strategically about the venues you are interested in partnering with, ideally those that align with your values and vision, and frequent them well ahead of time. Attend other events in the space, meet the staff and management, and most importantly, open a professional channel of communication. Complex negotiations can last weeks and sometimes longer, especially around key calendar dates like Fashion Week, New Year’s Eve, Etc.

The long and short of it is to be forward-thinking and consider well ahead of time, how you might like to position yourself and your company in the future. Leave ample room for negotiations, planning, and the production process. It's easier to see things that could work for you and your company if you have a long term vision in mind.

Details regarding production are always event specific, so I won't go into any specific details here. Check out our PAST EVENTS page for more details on the history of events at TIP.

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Moving on…the next most important area to cover is the approach to campaign and promotion.

Make use of all available channels;- email, subscriber lists, social media audiences and channels, client lists, paid, promotion and marketing, private messaging, etc. You need to use all available approaches to promote a public event at a large scale, whereas remain very selective in your method of contact if you are working on an intimate private occasion.

All the moving parts of event production can be a lot to keep on top of, so always focus on executing things based on an oder of priority and of highest value for the progress of the event.

To close, I think it is worth mentioning that, no matter how prepared you are, how much work you put in, there will always be things that go wrong and do not go to plan, especially as things get into the final weeks and days. But push on and engage in problem-solving quickly and efficiently, the audience would likely not notice your mistakes and the ideas that you didn’t manage to execute as initially imagined. You and your team are the only ones who know what hasn't been executed from the initial brief. The only ones who have the full picture and scope of the idea in their mind are the people in the core team which is more than fine. The audience is turning up to experience what you’ve managed to execute. Not what you have not achieved based on your original brief and design plan.

The primary focus is always delivering a memorable experience for the audience members, artists, and staffing teams. This is what will stand the test of time and bring people back over and over again.

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Our team looks forward to hosting for you and your friends at some point in the future. Our social occasions are most definitely worth attending. Information regarding all future social occasions can be found via the “Events-Future” tab on our website.