A ball is an important event for any organisation, whether it is a company, a school, an NGO or a club. Planning such an evening needs to be a success, otherwise the primary goal (fundraising, ceremony, awards presentation, etc.) may be jeopardised.
Planning a successful ball requires a lot of hard work and making the right management decisions. Everything should be done so that your participants feel special and pampered. Several tools and planning choices will help you optimise your event’s management thereby ensuring its success. Here you can find our recommendations to plan a successful ball.
Understand who will attend
Depending on the type of organisation and the evening’s goals, you will need to manage several types of guests. You must absolutely know them: who are they? What is their social standing? Where will they be travelling from? How many will attend? etc. This information is key to making good planning decisions for your event.
Choose an original theme/concept that is consistent with the evening
The theme or concept of the evening will greatly influence its success, since it directly impacts attendees’ perception and first impression. Through your choice of theme, you can generate emotions and behaviours that can help you achieve your goals as well as ensure the success of your ball. This is why you should be creative in that area and choose an original theme that is consistent with the goals of the evening. Whatever the theme, make sure that it creates a pleasant, friendly and unique atmosphere for your guests. The theme will need to be either clearly displayed or implied on your online tickets.
Choose a convenient, attractive and easily accessed venue
The venue sets the tone for your evening in terms of attendance and guest experience. Knowing your guests (as mentioned earlier in this post) will be particularly helpful in the choice of venue. Whatever your choice, the venue of your ball must be:
- Easy to access: you should take into account the location of your guests and therefore availability of means of transport to bring your guests to your event without difficulties;
- Attractive: the chosen venue must be customised to the event, reflect the evening’s objective, be unique but not necessarily too unusual.
- Convenient: your ball should take place in a location where guests can easily move around, chat and meet-up.
Choosing a simple management tool to create, send and manage invitations
You will also need to plan invitations for your ball. They are the first element that the guests will see about your event. Use an online invitation management tool to make this easier for you to organise. It will enable you to customise your invitations and manage your various guest lists. As a true communication channel, your invitations should be eye-catching and clear about the date, location and time, the theme and the programme of the evening.
Set-up an easy-to-find online box office
Selling online tickets for your ball is also an important part of ensuring a successful event. To do this, you should choose an easy-to-find, easy-to-use ticketing and registration tool offering enough features to facilitate planning and management of your ball. With the right online ticketing tool, you should be able to:
- Easily create and customise your tickets;
- Integrate an online ticketing plug-in to your website or be able to create a dedicated page for your event;
- Safely sell tickets and manage your various categories of guests;
- Track ticket sales stats in real time;
- Export your event’s data easily.
Choose the right entertainment
Entertainment is a highly memorable part of the ball for some of your guests, so you should really think about your choice. Take into consideration the category of guests that you expect, the goals of the evening (some entertainment could divert from your goals) and choose one that align with these aspects. There are many entertainment options: live shows, auctions, lotteries, etc. their goal should always be to create a memorable time for your guests.
Choose your food and drinks
Food and drinks should relate to the theme and goals of your ball. Customised meals and drinks will create a lasting impression and leave your guests with a nice memory. Nonetheless, ensure that your menu is varied (and takes into consideration the types of guests and the evening’s theme) and plan vegetarian options.
Now, all you have to do is apply these tips and adjust them to the specifics of your ball for guaranteed success!
Ready to organise your own successful ball? Start now with Weezevent:
