Tips from an Event Planner

Nizana El Rassan As someone who has produced live and virtual events for many years, I have a few tips that could be helpful and save you some challenges. I have run local haflas as well as large-scale theater events, and in my day-job realm, I also have been involved with large scale event productions.

First, realize that it is quite a bit of work- the larger scale, the more work there is. Enlisting reliable assistance for these endeavors not only lightens the load, but provides different perspectives of things you might have not thought about or forgot along the way. Teamwork makes the dream work.

Being organized is an important skill to have as you need to keep track of all kinds of things-dancers, their information including music, venue details, budget and more. Use lists and spreadsheets or whatever documenting process works best for you and what you are doing. Set and communicate your clear plan, monitor it, and follow up on it, all in an organized fashion, which also reduces confusion and miscommunication.

You have to wear many hats:

•       Decision maker- lineups, venue, housekeeping rules, setting expectations such as music time limits, dancer information deadlines 

•       Editor- ensuring accurate event listing details and information on social media and other communications, editing dancer bios that come in with misspellings, not in 3rd person, too lengthy, etc., changing lineups due to cancellations, etc.

•       Cat Wrangler- chasing down dancers for confirmation, music, intro, pictures, ensuring dancers have checked in and are ready when it’s their turn 

•       Occasional Hard Ass- handle venue issues, dancers or team members who are not following directions, keeping up to their responsibilities, or who be demonstrating unbecoming conduct; you have reached capacity in the show or have set other parameters and have to tell someone no. 

There are other things that go into your event planning, such as not booking on top of other dance events within driving distance. Occasionally there may be no way around it, but it’s really frowned on as there should be more community communication and collaboration so that dancers can best support one another. Keep in mind other local and regional events that might draw audience members away, too.

Parking considerations, changing room access and dance and audience space should also be determined in advance to ensure the venue is going to meet your events’ needs. If people are coming from out of town, let them know the best and closest hotels and restaurants and pay attention to other details in advance that could be helpful to your participants.

Many of these tips apply to virtual shows as well. Obviously, it is more simplified as each dancer has their own “venue,” but these same concepts are a fit with what has to be done for a successful online show.

(Shameless plug: I’ve been running Night in the Global Village online haflas non-stop since April 2020 and you are welcome to join us, live or video. We still sometimes have live musicians play for dancers! And another shameless plug, Oriana and I co-host haflas in Florida, so if you’re down our way, check us out!)