How to Plan an Event the Completely Wrong Way

Planning an event? Want to know how to plan an event the completely wrong way? We’re here to help you with all of the advice that will make your hotly anticipated event a surefire failure! Yes, follow these steps to planning your event and your festival, concert, conference, seminar or whatever else is bound to collapse in a massive dumpster fire.

Ready to crash and burn? Let’s dive in!

#1. Don’t Set Long-Term Goals

The first step when deciding how to plan an event the completely wrong way is to ignore the long-term goals. What good do long-term goals get you? You should be worried about the here and now, the new ideas that come popping into your head throughout the day. Scribble down every thought and put it in your planner and just try to incorporate everything.

When organizing an event that you want to fail, the more ideas that are completely unfocused and jumbled, the better. No need for strategic vision. Simply shoot from the hip. Besides, aren’t your first instincts your best instincts? One of the biggest stumbling blocks to creating a real failure of an event is to rely too much on planning at all. Go with your gut.

#2. Don’t Worry About Budgeting

Budget shmudget. If you want to know how to plan an event that is going to be a guaranteed disaster - a pure, unmitigated nightmare -then DON’T set a budget, DON’T secure funding, DON’T map out expenses. The goal when organizing an event to be a flop is to just vibe, go with the flow.

Money is one of those things that works itself out, so there’s no need to really worry about it. When setting ticket prices, go with a number that feels reasonable. And when booking venues and hiring staff just spend what you want to spend. Let the details figure themselves out: you’re looking at the big picture.

#3. Take Your Time Finding a Place and Setting a Date

If you want to know how to plan an event step-by-step to create a completely terrible event, then simply mark “determine venue and date” off the list. You want to make sure that you get the perfect venue on the perfect day. How will you really know what’s perfect if you make the decision too early?

Instead, if you really want to plan an event the completely wrong way, then take your time - a lot of time - to find the ideal location and choose the ideal date. Yes, there’s always the chance that you’ll waste so much time trying to find the perfect spot that everything will get booked up in advance and you won’t get ANYWHERE. However, that’s just the chance you have to take if you want to know how to organize an event the completely wrong way.

#4. Let the Program Come Together On Its Own

Listen, there’s no need to book speakers and entertainers far ahead of time. In fact, just start spreading the word that you’re planning an event and maybe these people will just come to you!

A program that comes together organically is far more natural and free-flowing than one that is strictly planned in advance. Of course there’s a chance that the speakers you want won’t hear about it, or they’ll be busy, or they won’t be able to do it for the money you’re offering. However, after all, you want to plan this event the completely wrong way, don’t you?

#5. Use As Many Event Planning Software Options As You Can Get

There are a lot of event planning software options available, some free, some paid, some free-for-14-days. Why not just pick a bunch of those and cram them all together so that you can plan an event in the completely wrong way? Look, committing to one event planning software is too big of a commitment. So just play the field and pick a little of this and a little of that. An events calendar from over here and a ticketing program from over there, and an event management planning software from somewhere else.

The best part about this strategy? None of these programs are going to talk to each other! They won’t integrate. So you’ll have one program selling tickets but another program collecting the money and a third program issuing the tickets. This is an absolutely legitimate course to take if you’re looking for how to organize an event the completely wrong way. Make sure none of your event planning software programs communicate with each other.

#6. Sit Back and Watch It All Crumble

And that’s it! How to plan an event the completely wrong way. If you’ve followed these steps then, by now, you should be on the path to both bankruptcy and losing your job. But think of the perks. Maybe if you go big enough, and fail spectacularly enough, there will be a Netflix documentary about how terrible it all went. You’ll be a star!

Conclusion

Are you ready to learn how to plan an event the RIGHT way? First off, do the opposite of all the advice we listed above. Knowing how to organize an event isn’t something that comes naturally, but there are resources to help you get there.

We recommend taking a look at our posts How to Run a Successful Event and Advanced Guide to the Event Planning Process. And if you want to improve your planning skills, check our list of event planning courses online.

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