Sport event management/Event planning checklist

This is offered as a checklist from which you, the event organiser, can select points that should be raised in staff planning meetings and used for ‘ticking off’ as part of your thorough preparation. Not all items listed will be part of all events of course! A number of items may appear more than once or may be noted in one section but you may wish to consider them for another section of the event plan. Items are not necessarily in the order they would be considered or in order of importance. You will select the relevant checkpoints as this is an organic collection of checkpoints and will change as others are added or some are modified!

Planning Stage

1. Preliminary research and feasibility study, including SWOT analysis
2. Event goals
3. Setting up the project management group (e.g. the event, define event project & scope, feasibility study, planning needs, staffing, site, monitoring, quality control, planning schedules)
4. Economic impact
5. Budget: economic analysis; pricing; contingencies; break-even point; sources of funding; account codes & prefixes; cash-flow analysis; money needed onsite;
6. Site selection: facilities; location; access to accommodation; shops and transport
7. Event theme & branding
8. Analyse venue in terms of consumer needs
9. Flow charts of planning decisions and actions
10. Operational policies and procedures manual
11. Logistics
12. Employment law relevant to workers on the event day
13. Staffing and recruitment of staff, training, job descriptions, accreditation
14. Employee contracts
15. Volunteers: their roles and training
16. Uniforms, caps or shirts for staff
17. Consideration of any outsourcing
18. Guest list and invitations
19. Publicity and media
20. Action Plans for individuals or groups
21. Legal compliance, including permits and licences and compliance from toilets to health rules to power cables
22. Projections of attendance & participation
23. Community consultation e.g. traffic, on possible noise
24. Prizes, awards and lucky tickets or lucky seats
25. Sponsorship
26. Seating capacities and for whom and location
27. Fences & perimeters
28. Signage & advertising
29. Ticketing
30. Concessions, passes
31. Naming rights
32. Services: power; water, gas; emergency generator; lighting; refrigeration
33. Decorations, posters and signs
34. Photography
35. Maps and plans
36. Sale points and merchandising
37. Stalls with their operation and location
38. Media: contacts; pre-event articles; features to publicise; use of social media; media persons at the event (space, facilities, location, food and drink, interim updates, power; interviews; event follow-up)
39. Special needs: wheelchair access; ramps; location of wheelchair viewing sites; toilets for disabled; parking for disabled)
40. Exhibition space
41. ATM machines
42. Hospitality – for whom and location of hospitality sites
43. Noise levels
44. Ground announcer and the provision of key scripts for the announcer (e.g. sponsors, event happenings; schedule, lost children, lost & found)
45. Opening ceremony

Marketing

1. Marketing strategy and marketing plan
2. Forming a marketing team
3. IMC approach may be appropriate (the definitions vary somewhat but IMC or Integrated Marketing Communications may be a plan that links all promotion modes and has contacts and communications consistent in their relation to your brand with consistent meanings expressed and reinforced)
4. Sponsorship: determining likely sponsors; obtaining sponsorship; providing for sponsor publicity before/at/after the event
5. Promotional materials
6. Utilise the organisation’s branches or sport club affiliates
7. Signage
8. Clothing with sponsor or event organisation name or insignia
9. Ambush marketing prevention
10. Use of a celebrity for event endorsement or opening the event
11. Media launch of the event
12. Trademarks, copyright materials and logos checked
13. Direct mail
14. Local media, national media
15. Merchandising
16. Onsite photocopying & printing
17. Marketing to enhance participant, spectator, visitor, reader/viewer experiences
18. Marketing to place (or establish) the event in the annual programme

The Event Day and Event Environment

1. Site maps including site-flow maps
2. Clear delineation of duties
3. Operations manual
4. Rehearsals
5. Published programme
6. Stage and/or designated areas
7. Cultural protocols to be observed
8. Insurance
9. Functional areas
10. Temperature control, provision for rain and adverse weather
11. Admission, queue prevention & access for wheelchairs and baby prams
12. Pass-out system
13. Risk Management policy and processes in place and checked on the event day: risk assessment; hazard analysis; security plans; police; emergency services contacts; locations of emergency facilities; first aid services; child safety; crisis response preparedness; smoking and/or drugs ban; access for emergency vehicles; duty of care; occupational health and safety; playing surfaces; crowd control; marshals; training in health and safety for staff; childcare
14. Food and Catering: food storage onsite; alcohol provision, access and regulation; caterers; food stalls; waste and recycling; food handling; cleaning; food preparation & service.
15. Lost property site and information about found objects
16. Lost children & meeting points
17. Sanitation and toilets: location; coping with emergencies; toilets for the disabled; signs showing toilet locations; portable toilet removal
18. Waste and recycling: bins; contracts; disposal.
19. Storage
20. Spectator comfort and visibility of event
21. Clearly designated seating
22. Entrances & exits
23. Parking and transport, including disabled persons parking and access to site
24. Public address system
25. Lighting
26. Special provision for participants checked: changing rooms; hot water; showers; support staff facilities; space; food & drink; after-match function; school-age participants could be congratulated by a known sport or media personality; awards; first-aid; stewards
27. Data collection to assist post-event analysis

Post -Event Action

1. Evaluation in terms of plans, event goals, budget
2. Venue evaluation in terms of suitability and ease of functions
3. Clearing, cleaning and dismantling – was this smoothly done?
4. Cleaning and clearance of waste
5. Employee satisfaction
6. Participant/spectator satisfaction
7. De-briefing meetings of staff
8. Sponsorship evaluation
9. Thanks to volunteers or a function for them
10. What improvements will be made for next time?