I plan a lot of outdoor events. It doesn’t matter if it’s winter, spring, summer or fall—at JGK there’s typically some outdoor logistics going on throughout the year.
Now, with the summer upon us if you’re in the event planning business you’re well aware that it’s high season for hosting an event outdoors.
When I look at my team’s summer schedule, we’ve definitely got a few events coming down the pipeline—which I’ll write about as they roll out!
Because the summer is such a popular time in the event world—it’s a bit of a different beast when it comes to planning. Therefore, I’d like to share a simple, yet very useful tool, my team uses to determine the optimum timing for a client who wants to hold their event during…the event rush, so to speak.
This summer, one of my clients wants to hold a series of events in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. To figure out, when the best time for them to have their events in these cities, we built three calendars—one for each city, June through August, that listed all of the major summer events. (Calendar templates can be downloaded online for free; be sure to select one that allows you to input information.)
To populate the templates we went to the tourism websites for Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. These websites list: events, festivals, sports, theatre, concerts, as well as seasonal activities (marathons, parades). I also recommend that you consult multiple sources/websites to ensure you hit all the main events. Sometimes, an event may not be listed on the tourism websites. Others sources include: provincial tourism websites and a general google search of i.e. Montreal Event Calendar or Montreal Festivals and Events will pull up some great lists for cross referencing.
After all items were inputted on the templates, in a glance, the calendars indicated a number of things:
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- When the highest event traffic occurs
- The types of events—if you want the media to attend your event; an event calendar is a great way to avoid having your event get lost in the summer shuffle
- Where the traffic will be located—by this, I am referring to both people and vehicle traffic. One sporting event in the downtown core may not be a big deal however, a combination of sporting events and/or concerts…may be congestion you’d like to avoid as you don’t want your participants competing for parking with everyone else
- Lastly, the calendar indicates where there are openings
Because of this tool, I’m pleased to say…my client was able to determine the dates for their summer events and JGK will be busy this summer!
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