Event Brief Template
Plan events like a pro and don't miss any detail with the Event Brief Template. Host successful events any time, anywhere.
About the Event Brief Template
The Event Brief Template helps you create a comprehensive overview of an event you are planning to run. What needs to be accomplished before the event? What stakeholders are involved? What is the budget? How do we know if you are making progress toward your goals? Writing an event brief allows you to answer these questions.
What is an Event Brief?
An event brief is where you gather a detailed description of an event. Prior to setting up an event, businesses and organizations create an event brief to serve as the scaffolding.
The typical event brief includes the purpose of the event, a timeline and important dates, a budget, attendee information, look and feel guidance, and venue preferences.
When to use the Event Brief Template
Use the Event Brief Template any time you are planning and executing an event. You might find it especially useful when working with a cross-functional team to plan an event.
Why is an event brief important?
Executing an event is a high-stakes project. For small companies, startups, individual business owners, and non-profits, an event might represent a considerable percentage of your overall resources. A well-organized event can bring in revenue, customers, clients, and good publicity. A poorly-organized event can mean wasted time and resources. For larger businesses and enterprise companies, events are your chance to showcase what the company can do. But news of an unsuccessful event is likely to travel fast.
How to use the Event Brief Template
For businesses and organizations, putting together an event is a high-stakes game. Events are expensive. If an event is well-planned and -executed, you can bring in more customers, clients, and revenue and generate positive publicity. If an event does not go as planned, then you risk burning resources, alienating customers, and igniting an embarrassing media firestorm. The event brief serves as a foundation for your event. Here is how you can use the template to plan and execute a successful event.
Step 1: Describe the event
To give your events team or agency a clear picture, it’s important to start with a detailed overview of the event. What does the event look and feel like? Who attends? What is the theme?
Step 2: Clarify your goals
Organizing an event costs time and resources, so it’s important to tie your event to an achievable goal. Are you hosting an event to raise awareness about your company’s product? Are you holding a fundraiser with a specific monetary goal in mind? Depending on your goal, the design agency or team will make different decisions about the layout, theme, look and feel, and other key elements.
Step 3: Lay out a budget and timeline
When thinking about the budget, it is helpful to ask how much you expect to spend per attendee. Are you going to serve food and drinks? What kind of venue are you renting? Where is the venue located? Will you need to have staff on-site? Plan your budget around your expected income from the event. If you are selling tickets, for instance, ask how many tickets you will need to sell to turn a profit, and at what price point.
Once you have an idea of your budget, sketch out a timeline. You will need to have a date for the event, of course, but establish some other important milestones along the way. For example, you might need to have a venue secured at least three months before the event, or you might need to select a caterer a month before the event.
Step 4: Profile your attendees
A networking dinner for sales executives will look and feel a lot different from your company’s end-of-year bash. That is why it’s crucial to include a detailed profile of your attendees.
Step 5: Include a look and feel guide
Your events team or agency will handle much of the event’s look and feel -- but to ensure the project is completed on-time and within budget, it can be helpful to include guidance on the event’s look and feel. Does your company or organization have colors or logos that you would like to use? Are you going for something elegant and classy, or fun and playful? Write a brief description that your events coordinator can reference throughout the planning process.
Why write an Event Brief?
Whether you are planning a fundraiser, holiday party, client appreciation dinner, or a charity ball, you will need to write an event brief. The event brief serves as a map for your events team, coordinator, or agency. It provides guidance on the event’s look and feel, your budget and timeline, the attendees, and other crucial information. Use an event brief to stay on track, define your goals, and assign stakeholders.
What are the contents of the event brief?
An event brief simplifies the complex process of planning an event and it contains clear goals, a timeline, a budget, attendee profiles, and ensures your venue looks and feels the way you imagined. Regardless of whether you are working with an events agency or an in-house events coordinator, it is important for everyone to be on the same page, for that reason creating an event brief with these components is important.
How do you write a brief description of an event?
There are many ways in which you can write a brief description of your event. In general, the golden rule is to be objective and give the tastiest information first so that people will want to attend your event. After the basic information such as address and event theme or topic, you can add headliners or featured speakers (if there are any), examples of activities, and close it on a positive note, or why this event is important. For writing your event description, you can use Miro’s customizable Event Summary Template.
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