Last week I spent the entire week at a music festival.  I will leave it unnamed because overall I did like the event and intend to go next year again.

However, it was run by a bunch of music people, and it really needed a professional event coordinator to help with the big picture.  Here is the mistakes they made that you should not make if you are doing an event.

1. Big Breaks – They scheduled big breaks in time, which were fine for the people staying in the hotel, but a nightmare for our family because we were an hour’s drive away, so it was better just to sit around and kill 3 or 4 hours.
2. Too Much Information- I really needed one schedule that was specific to my needs.  Instead, there was too much information that left me confused.  I signed up for things I should not have, and missed other things because they were buried in blocks of text.
3. Expensive Add-ons – It was not a cheap event, and to take a family of four to all the extras would have doubled the price.  I felt like I missed half the festival by not being willing to pay for all the extra stuff.
4. Treat first time people differently – Clearly, the people that had done it before knew what was going on, knew each other and had a better time.  I talked to a lot of first-time people that were frustrated and not planning on coming back.  You really need to make sure your new people are taken care of so they will return.
5. Website – Similar to#1, the combination of too much information on the website and too much information in various emails only made it confusing.  One new person said he combined three different emails into one spreadsheet for himself, only to arrive and find everything had been changed.
6. The whole thing is a performance – There was a lot of complaining in the halls and general frustration on the part of some of the staff (all great people.)  You have to let the staff and volunteers know that from the first person arriving to the last person leaving, it is a performance.  Think Disney without the mouse.
7. Lack of community – People complained that they were having trouble making connections and having their kids meet other kids.  One person said that he attended another festival that was magical. The other one had ice cream socials and a better commons area where people really got to know each other.

If you cannot do it, hire an event planner. 

While a meeting planner may have added $1,000′s to the cost, it would have made it more likely that they would have more repeat business the next year.  Plus, if people are impressed and buzzing, they are more likely to tell their friends.  If an event plannercan make those happen, it is going to really impact your long term success.