My youngest daughter watches this really annoying show about a bear, Agent Oso. He solves all problems in just three special steps.
Agent Oso's Palm Pilot showing the three special steps.
Well, today my good friend that I admire greatly, Paul Salinger, wrote an excellent blog post on how Digging for Gold is Like Event Planning. As the Marketing VP responsible for the world’s largest IT event (and definitely the most sustainable), Paul was able to easily break down the tools for event planning into three items. While this does not make him a special Agent Oso, he is definitely a very strategic event producer. As I see it, almost all strategy can be based on three special steps, for events or otherwise.
Goals/Objectives
For every project – whether it be a new marketing plan, planning an event or designing an educational session – one should first begin with the creation of goals. Goals help to determine the big picture outcome: “We want our association to be the definitive resource for education on iron ore.” (I know, random.) Then, objectives are the measurements that support a goal and give a tangible definition of exactly what success looks like: “We will be the most widely-consulted iron ore website by 2012.”
Benchmarking
You’ve implemented your plan and selected your tools to achieve your goals. At this point, we determine what Key Performance Indicators are most tangible to assessing objectives. “Did website hits increase? Did time spent viewing online iron ore training videos increase? Did our event attendees report a 20% satisfaction rate with quality of education?”
Reporting/Assessment
Finally, the last step is to assess performance in a time frame determined by your goals and objectives. This is where ROI measurement, performance reporting and any necessary adjustment can be made to stay on track in achieving your goals!
As Paul so elegantly said, “it’s still amazing how many event planners start with the tools or the operational considerations before they have a solid vision, map and design to work from. Hard to get gold from your events without the map and compass first to know where you want to go.”
So, before you jump into your next project or try to decide which tools you need, be sure you remember those three special steps. If you need any help with your strategic planning process, whether you’re at step 1 (or accidentally forgot about it), Seven Degrees is here to help!