Strategic Planning

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Strategic planning is the process of envisioning to a point in the future and then translating this vision into defined goals or objectives with a series of steps to achieve them.

In an event context, strategic planning involves looking at what you would like your event to be at a certain point in the future and then setting goals and steps that will help you reach that position, taking into account the event itself, as well as the environment it operates in.  

This helps to focus energy and resources, strengthen operations and ensure stakeholders, employees and volunteers are moving in the same direction by working toward common goals. 

Effective strategic planning also guides the future look and feel of the event, the actions needed to get there, and how you will know if it is successful. 

TIPS

Strategic planning process 

The event strategic planning process is a continual process of three stages:

  1. Think – about your opportunities, threats, capabilities, goals and vision for the future, and develop your plan.
  2. Execute – the communication and implementation of your plan.
  3. Evaluate – how successful you have been and keep exploring how to improve. 
Strategic plan 

A strategic plan is a document used to communicate the vision for your event and how you are going to make it a reality to people within your organisation, as well as key stakeholders and partners. Download a Summary strategic plan template. 

  • Take the time to make the planning process as effective and valuable as possible.
  • Keep it simple by summarising the plan down to a single A3 page with clear direction and priority outcomes. 
  • A good plan must be implementable – consider the resources required for implementation and set realistic and achievable goals.
  • Strategic plans should be a living document that can be updated as part of a regular review and renewal process or as a priority when required.
  • Strategic plans should be developed and maintained in the context of long-term planning (3 – 10 years). 
Business plan 

Business planning is a process of creating, communicating and implementing an operational roadmap to guide your actions, policies and decision-making. Your event’s business plan should align with the strategic plan and assist in its implementation.

  • A business plan is a document (or set of documents) which outlines the directions, actions and implementation schedule and is typically focused on short term operational planning (1 – 3 years).
  • Business plans guide the internal operations of an organisation to:
    • summarise its operational and financial objectives, and
    • show how these objectives will be achieved and monitored.
  • A business plan should be continually modified as conditions change, and new opportunities and/or threats emerge. Make sure to build in review and renewal processes into the plan.
  • Strategic and business planning is often mandatory for medium and large events. Entities operating these events are often required by partners (such as local and central government), banks and insurance companies to have robust strategic and business plans. 
Strategic event growth framework 

A strategic event growth framework outlines the growth parameters, objectives, and key actions required to set your event up for success. The following template can be utilised to document your strategic event growth plan and includes guidance on completing each section of the plan.

  • Download a Strategic Event Growth – Plan on a Page template.  
Other event growth considerations 
  • External analysis – consider key trends that can drive or slow down the growth of your event:
    • Political – e.g. change in government, reduction in public sector funding.
    • Economic – e.g. economic recession, cost of living challenges.
    • Social – e.g. changing demographics, rise in influencer culture driving decisions.
    • Technological – e.g. adoption of AI, changing consumption of media.
    • Legal – e.g. health and safety legislation, privacy laws.
    • Environmental – e.g. sustainability a key focus, ethical considerations.
  • Internal analysis – assess your financial position and performance, revenue model, assets, partnerships, capability and capacity, market potential and trends, event positioning, competing events and alignment with strategic partners.
  • SWOT analysis – a SWOT analysis can be a powerful decision-making tool to help review the position you and your event are in, both internally and externally.
    • Strengths (Internal) – e.g. profitability, supportive partnerships.
    • Weaknesses (Internal) – e.g. resourcing and capability constraints.
    • Opportunities (External) – e.g. demand/market potential for event.
    • Threats (External) – e.g. increased competition, funding constraints.
  • Types of growth opportunity
    • Market penetration – reaching and attracting more of your current market with your event offering.
    • Product development – developing new and improved event offerings for the current market.
    • Market development – entering new markets with your current event offering.
    • Diversification – developing new and improved event offering for new markets. 

USEFUL LINKS

HAVE YOU CONSIDERED?

  • Who will undertake the event feasibility study? Even if you aren’t conducting the feasibility study yourself, you will still be required to provide insight and information.
  • Have you thought about all possible scenarios? When analysing the event budget/financials, it is a good idea to include a range of scenarios for attendee and exhibitor numbers.
  • Have you completed a SWOT analysis to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in relation to your event? This can assist you in determining its overall viability.