Student parties and organising them require specific planning. Using online tools is a good way to adapt to student’s habits. As an online ticketing platform, we have supported organisers of student parties for over 10 years and have retained their best practices. Here is how to organise a student party while enjoying it.
Contents
- Start with the 3 basic elements
- Pre-sale and ticket sales
- Post on social media
- Collect information about the students
- Customise your e‑tickets
- Print and display posters
- Plan drinks
- Book DJs
- Control access to your party
- Choose a ticketing solution with multiple features
1. Start with the 3 basic elements
Without these, you cannot launch a student party: idea, funding and venue. Before you even start planning, you need to figure out the theme of your party in order to stand out from the other student parties and attract enough people. The same goes for your funding. Your party may be profitable but you need some cash flow to pay for expenses. You can ask your school — or other organisations — to donate some money to get you started by forecasting a budget so that you are financially independent after the first party. You should also get in touch with radio stations! Finally, how can you plan a student party without a venue? We have listed the best criteria and some tips to find a unique venue — bar, club, night-club, boat, etc.
2. Pre-sale and ticket sales
Once you have all the above mentioned elements, it is time to think about marketing and ticket sales. Pre-sales are a must for student parties. The basic principle is simple — a discount is given to students buying their tickets in advance.
Using an online ticketing platform means early bird prices can be set-up and scheduled in advance with just a few clicks. You will find more details in our dedicated article. You don’t even have to print the tickets, students can download them on their phones and print them only if absolutely necessary.
3. Post on social media
If your student party is restricted to the people at your school, you only need to create a Facebook event — with a link to your Weezevent minisite — that you will post on your school’s student group Facebook page. If your event is open to the public, you can ask acquaintances to post your Facebook event on their school’s student groups. You can also post on the pages of student groups in your town.
A popular marketing technique is to give away a few tickets through a competition. Whatever the rules, anyone taking part in the competition should like and/or share a post from your event so that the latter can gain exposure.
Instagram is also one of your allies in terms of marketing campaign. An increasing number of students have hundreds or even thousands of followers on Instagram. Ask them to post a story with a message promoting your party — and a link directing them to your event — in exchange for one or more free tickets to your party. If their community is local and follows their recommendations, it is highly likely that your campaign will be profitable.
4. Collect information about the students
Social media is a good way to increase your event’s exposure, but it can be fickle when it comes to retention. Using an online ticketing platform, you can collect your attendees’ email addresses and can therefore get in touch with them again through marketing campaigns if you organise several parties over the year. With a custom registration form, you can even ask them additional information such as ID if your party is “18 and over” only.
5. Customise your e‑tickets
You are proud of your logo and would like to display your colours by any means available? Customise your tickets easily thanks to our user-friendly tool. It is also a way to show that you are a serious organisation, and the students will remember you more easily if your logo is visible on their ticket.
6. Print and display posters
Print posters and display them in key locations: schools, bars, sports clubs, etc. This communication and marketing tool may be endangered for most event planning but not for student parties.
Ask the most talented students at your school to take care of the design because the more appealing your poster is, the higher the expectation will be around your student party. If, in addition, students see your poster regularly during their day, they will be impatient for the party to start!
Be mindful of printing costs. Ask your school if you can print large formats in high quality there. It will save you some money!
7. Plan drinks
Managing drinks at an event is not as simple as you may think. Depending on the chosen location, you may be in charge of planning drinks and everything that goes with it: order, delivery, amount, price, deposits, etc. If you order too much, you will have spent some of your budget for nothing. If you order too little, the students will be unhappy. Pay attention to these details.
For student parties, drink vouchers are generally included in the pre-sales, which is one more thing for the event planner to manage. Plan everything ahead of time to avoid being in a panic at the last minute. Finally, think about alternating between alcohol, soft drinks and water. When you are in the event planner’s shoes you realise that an accident is quick to happen and that offering water — and perhaps also soft drinks — for free widely reduces the likelihood of incidents happening.
8. Book DJs
In 2019, who doesn’t have a DJ among their classmates? Who doesn’t have a friend, or friend-of-a-friend playing house parties and local bars? If you have zero idea who to book for your student party, talk to people around you and word-of-mouth will work its magic. Once you have found your DJ — or DJs — make sure that everything is legal: contract, equipment, insurance, PRS for music.
9. Control access to your party
Available on the App Store and Play Store, the WeezAccess app allows you to scan your tickets in a flash. All your tickets are unique, and any fraud attempt will be flagged by the app. This means optimal safety for your event.
When you choose your venue, ask them whether a security service is included in the fee and how many officers will be available — at entrances, exits and inside the venue.
10. Choose a ticketing platform with multiple features
The benefit of an all-in-one ticketing platform is that it offers you multiple features. You can stand out from the rest of the student parties and offer a completely dematerialised experience. For instance, create promo codes for the students at your school and sell products when people place their order (T‑shirts, caps, tank tops, etc.) — all of this from the comfort of your couch!
Are you ready to start planning your student party? Find out all of Weezevent’s features, tailored to student parties, by clicking below:
