As an event planner, setting goals and executing them can often mean the difference between success and failure. But determining clear objectives for your event isn’t always straightforward. Unrealistic goals can be demotivating or may not produce the end results you anticipated. The answer? Setting SMART event goals.
Whether you’re aiming to increase your revenue, grow your audience, or improve on feedback from attendees, using SMART objectives can help. Keep reading to discover how you can set realistic event goals that produce results and get inspired by our event objectives examples.
Table of Contents
What are event goals and event objectives?
Why are SMART goals important in event planning?
How do I set SMART goals for my event?
Two examples of SMART goals for event planners
Ready to start planning SMART?
What are event goals and event objectives?
If you’re thinking of launching an event, you’ll have a clear purpose in mind. Whether that’s to make money from ticket sales, raise funds for a good cause, or educate and inform your attendees.
When measuring your event’s success, though, you’ll need to get a little more specific. Are you trying to sell a few high-value tickets, for example? Or lots of lower-priced ones? Would you be happy with a broad range of guests at your educational seminar? Or are you looking to attract and engage with a specific group?
This is where goals and objectives come into play. Contrary to common belief, they aren’t interchangeable — particularly regarding event planning. Goals refer to a particular aim that clarifies your event purpose. Objectives are specific targets you set to help you achieve those goals.
For example, if your purpose is to profit from ticket sales, you might use the following approach to measuring success:
Goal: Generate twice as much revenue from ticket sales versus your costs for organizing the event.
Objective: Sell a certain number of tickets at various price points to ensure you hit your goal. Your objective should be something you can realistically achieve. If ticket sales from previous or similar events haven’t reached your objective, you might need to reconsider your goal.
What are SMART event goals?
SMART goals help event organizers formulate specific objectives to help them measure the success of their events. The concept was pioneered in 1981 by consultant George T. Doran in a paper for the business periodical Management Review. In it, Doran articulated five essential criteria for setting clear and measurable goals using the S.M.A.R.T acronym:
- S — Specific
- M — Measurable
- A — Attainable
- R — Relevant
- T — Time-bound
The framework has been around for a while — because it works. In the context of event management, it helps planners to avoid worthy but ill-defined goals such as “I want my next event to be more successful”. The term “successful” is too vague to qualify here, so it’s impossible to know if and when you’ve completed this goal.
Why are SMART goals important in event planning?
Setting clearly defined objectives when planning or managing an event is key to achieving your overall purpose. They will help inform your decision-making in two major ways, ensuring you’re always focused on your target:
- You’ll avoid wasting resources on things that aren’t going to help you reach your big-picture goals.
- You’ll be able to accurately assess how near or far you are from declaring your event a success.
Each aspect of the SMART principle has a unique benefit for organizers looking to set goals for their event.
- Specific goals help you define what constitutes success, rather than a vague idea of something going well.
- Measurable goals give you the tools to validate success. Setting a number to your goal gives it clarity.
- Attainable goals mean you won’t waste time on objectives that are not realistic.
- Relevant goals keep you focused on your overall purpose.
- Time-bound goals let you stay on track with your planning process. Getting that key speaker at the last minute means you can’t include them in your marketing efforts.
How do I set SMART goals for my event?
Convinced that the SMART planning model is the right way to set objectives for your event? Here’s how you should go about setting those SMART goals:
Set specific goals
Be as clear as possible when defining what you want to do by thinking about the aims and objectives of an event. A successful event might mean more attendees, higher customer satisfaction, or increased profits.
Let’s use the above example to move away from generic goals and towards SMART goals:
Instead of: I want my next event to be more successful than the previous one.
Use: I want my next event to generate more revenue than the previous one.
Set measurable goals
Use numerical values to quantify targets. You need to know when you’ve achieved your goal and, just as importantly, how close you are to doing so at different stages throughout the event planning process. Goals shouldn’t be binary but should allow a range of outcomes.
Consider this example objective:
Instead of: I want my next event to generate more revenue than the previous one.
Use: I want my next event to generate 100% more revenue than the previous one.
Set achievable goals
Identify a realistically achievable target — not always as straightforward as it sounds. Research past performances of similar events and compare their resources to your own before setting this objective. Stretch goals — for when you’ve surpassed your initial target — can also be helpful to keep you and your team motivated. An unrealistic goal will have the opposite effect.
Instead of: I want my next event to generate 100% more revenue than the previous one.
Use: I want my next event to generate 30% more revenue than the previous one.
N.B.: You may want to break your overall objective down into more manageable, smaller goals to check off as part of your event planning checklist.
Set relevant goals
Stick to your overall purpose at all times. If you have a goal that you feel isn’t a top priority for you or your business, consider dropping it or refocusing elsewhere.
Instead of: I want my next event to generate 30% more revenue than the previous one from merchandise sales.
Use: I want my next event to generate 30% more revenue from virtual and in-person ticket sales than the previous one.
Set time-bound goals
Keep things on schedule to increase your chance of success. Your goals need to be actionable within a certain period to make them valuable. Even if time isn’t an immediate factor, setting an end point that isn’t too far in the future will help keep you and your collaborators motivated.
Instead of: I want my next event to generate 30% more revenue from virtual and in-person ticket sales than the previous one.
Use: I want my next event to generate 30% more revenue than the previous one from virtual and in-person ticket sales in the next six months.
2 Examples of SMART goals for event planners
Let’s look at specific examples of event management SMART goals. We can start with the one we’ve already introduced above:
1. My goal is to run a series of increasingly profitable events. My SMART objective is for my next event to generate 30% more revenue than the previous one from virtual and in-person ticket sales in the next six months.
In this example, the event organizer’s purpose is to make money from ticketed events. Their goal is to ensure their events get more profitable. The objective follows the SMART framework, meaning the organizer has a clear guiding objective they can use to plan their event and then measure its success.
Let’s take another example:
2. My goal is to inform people about a local community action initiative. My SMART objective is to secure 40% of local adult residents (i.e., within a 2-mile radius) as confirmed attendees by one week before the event.
Here, the organizer’s purpose is to educate and engage their community with local initiatives. Their goal is to ensure people are aware of a particular activity they’re organizing. To achieve that aim, they have set a SMART objective that is:
- Specific. The organizer is using confirmed attendance status to ensure guests are aware of the event and what it entails. Sharing information with potential attendees means you’ve approached them but doesn’t guarantee they’ve engaged with what you’re trying to achieve. Confirmation of attendance, potentially through a booked ticket, suggests they’ve actively read and reviewed the content.
- Measurable. The event planner has set clearly defined values for what constitutes success in the shape of 40% of local adult residents. They’ve also been specific in what local means: within a 2-mile radius.
- Attainable. For example purposes, we can imagine the organizer has reviewed the general levels of engagement in their community and decided that 40% is a reasonable target based on things like direct feedback or attendance levels of similar events.
- Relevant. Notice how the organizer specifies local adult residents in the SMART objective. The organizer specifically wants people in the local area to be involved, and they’re not targeting children — because they wouldn’t be relevant to the overall purpose.
- Time-bound. To ensure event marketing and ticket sales follow the schedule, the organizer specifies that 40% of the target audience should confirm attendance one week before the event.
Ready to start planning SMART?
With a set of SMART goals in place, you’ll have a well-formed strategy for assessing how close you are to achieving the overall aims of your event. Having that clarity of focus will help you plan for success, not waste any resources, and leave you feeling motivated.
To implement your SMART goals and accurately measure success, explore how Eventbrite Boost can help market your next event.
