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.
Event planning is an exciting yet demanding job. Juggling multiple tasks, vendors, and stakeholders can quickly become overwhelming without structure. This is where SMART goals come in handy for keeping focused and on track throughout the planning process.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore what SMART goals are, why they matter for event planners, and provide 10+ examples of effective SMART goals to support your success.
What Are SMART Goals?
SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. It is a popular goal-setting framework used by professionals across many industries, including event planning.
SMART goals have the following characteristics
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Specific – The goal clearly states what must be accomplished
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Measurable – Success toward achieving the goal can be tracked and quantified
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Achievable – The goal is challenging but realistic given available resources.
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Relevant – The goal aligns with broader business objectives.
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Time-Bound – The goal has a defined timeline for completion.
Well-defined SMART goals provide clarity on what you want to achieve, making it easier to execute tasks effectively.
Why Use SMART Goals for Event Planning?
SMART goals offer many benefits for event planners:
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Create focus – SMART goals define what tasks are most important to accomplish. This prevents distractions from non-critical activities.
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Enable measurement – Quantifiable metrics motivate effort and allow tracking of progress made.
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Provide structure – SMART goals add needed framework to keep things moving forward amidst the chaos of event planning.
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Enhance accountability – Shared SMART goals promote alignment and responsibility across the event team.
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Improve time management – SMART goals help you prioritize what to spend time on to maximize productivity.
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Support continuous improvement – Evaluating goal progress allows you to identify what’s working well and what needs improvement.
Overall, SMART goals boost organization, efficiency, and results for event planners.
Examples of SMART Goals for Event Planning
Let’s explore 10+ examples of effective SMART goals for key aspects of event planning:
Client Satisfaction Goals
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Increase average client satisfaction score from 7/10 to 9/10 based on post-event surveys within 6 months.
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Resolve 90% of client requests within 24 hours to enhance responsiveness and satisfaction.
Event Attendance Goals
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Boost event attendance by 25% within the next year through enhanced marketing outreach.
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Engage 5 key influencers to help promote our event and increase registrations by 15%.
Budget Goals
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Complete events 10% under budget by tracking expenditures, negotiating vendor discounts, and identifying value engineering opportunities.
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Generate $50K in corporate sponsorships to help fund our annual client appreciation event within the next 3 months.
Timeline Goals
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Adhere to project timelines with less than 5% schedule variance by using gantt charts, status updates, and buffer time.
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Complete 100% of critical project milestones 1 week ahead of schedule through improved planning and task prioritization.
Vendor Management Goals
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Build strategic partnerships with 3 new vendors specialized in event staging, catering, and decor to diversify our capabilities.
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Maintain average satisfaction rating of 4/5 from post-event vendor surveys.
Innovation Goals
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Brainstorm and prototype 3 creative event design concepts focused on engaging attendee experiences within the quarter.
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Implement event technology like virtual reality, 3D mapping, or facial recognition at 2 events this year to enhance immersion.
Workload Goals
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Maintain workload balance across the event team with no resource above 90% utilization through improved planning and delegation.
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Automate 25% of administrative tasks to free up 5+ hours/week for strategic planning initiatives.
Professional Development Goals
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Complete 5 eLearning courses on negotiation, budgeting, marketing, and other core competencies to strengthen event planning skills.
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Obtain Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) certification within 1 year to showcase industry expertise.
Tips for Setting SMART Event Planning Goals
Follow these best practices when establishing SMART goals:
- Involve your team in goal-setting to improve commitment.
- Align goals to key business objectives and metrics.
- Assign ownership for each goal to promote accountability.
- Set measurable targets so progress can be tracked.
- Allow time for goal achievement but set aggressive yet realistic targets.
- Document goals and share visibly so everyone is aware.
- Review regularly and adjust goals as needed.
- Provide resources and support to empower your team to achieve goals successfully.
Achieve Event Planning Success with SMART Goals
By applying the SMART goal-setting methodology, event planners can boost team focus, clarity, and results. Rather than feeling lost in endless todo lists, SMART goals help you prioritize what matters most. Setting and tracking measurable goals also allows you to evaluate progress and make data-driven decisions about what works and what needs improvement.
While event planning will always contain some uncertainty, establishing SMART goals empowers you to execute events efficiently and consistently achieve success milestones along the journey. So embrace SMART goals as your roadmap for masterfully coordinating events that delight attendees and exceed client expectations.
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.
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.
How to Become a Successful Event Planner : Event Goals and Objectives
What are SMART goals for events?
S.M.A.R.T stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. People who set smart goals find it easier to stay on track as they set measurable and achievable goals– which can be the key to event success. So let’s learn more about setting smart goals for events below. Get into the specifics of your goal.
How do event planners establish practical goals?
Event planners should establish practical goals using the SMART technique. For those unaware, SMART is a goal-setting method that stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based. Do you need more clarity? SMART goals are:
What is a smart event plan?
Measuring success: The SMART method allows you to determine whether your event was a success or not based on measurable objectives and timelines. Setting SMART goals can also help you find parts of the event or event planning process you can improve on to maximize your team’s successes going forward.
Why is smart event planning important?
For these reasons, the SMART system is integral to successful event planning. Setting SMART goals ensures that your event is planned to the highest quality and designed to reach its maximum potential. You’ll have a well-defined structure to understand your objectives and the steps needed to meet them.
