Planning – COM-CLASS.WLC.EDU

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Can you remember the joy of attending special events before COVID-19? We were able to socialize with our friends and event goers without physically distancing or wearing masks. We didn’t have to worry or consider the risks of hosting and attending events. The world of event planning and attending was different, and it has drastically changed over the past year.

You might have been looking forward to concerts, weddings or conventions that have unfortunately been postponed or cancelled due to the pandemic. It has truly become a touch and go system as the CDC makes changes to recommendations for events and gatherings. Though regulations have been preventing us from gathering together in normal capacities, this hasn’t stopped the event world from moving into a new normal.

Though we are currently practicing physical distancing, there are still things you can do to acknowledge and support special events and occasions that are important to you. One of the easiest ways to do this is through hosting or joining a virtual event. For example, the performing group, AJR, put on a virtual concert for their fans as the pandemic cancelled their touring plans. This interactive experience allowed access to different camera angles that guests could control during the concert. Though it’s not the same, virtual events like this one give us back some enjoyment in attending special events during a pandemic, while also trying to keep people safe.

Some organizations are pushing their creativity and bringing back events from the past to support important causes. Some organizations have gotten back into virtual radiothon events. Radiothons are on-the-air radio campaigns that often last 24 hours or more, designed to raise money for non-profit organizations. For example, Key 103, and 106.9 The Eagle have joined together to sponsor an event supporting cancer research. All proceeds from the event benefit the American Cancer Society and Relay for Life. It’s important that organizations continue to come up with these types of events, especially to raise money for important causes.

It’s important that when planning events during a national pandemic, you keep the CDC’s regulations and best practices in mind. Though we can’t participate in large special events like we once had, there are opportunities to still try to make the most out of uniting together, physically distanced in-person. Event planners should especially consider implementing strategies to maintain healthy environments in the following areas of events:

Cleaning and disinfection
Ventilation
Water systems
Modified layouts
Physical Barriers and guides
Food services

Overall, it’s important that we have event planners and attendees pushing for the success of both online and physically distanced events. We want everyone to be able to enjoy special events regardless of their format. One day we hope that things can return to normal, but for now, we need to put our support in all events affected by COVID-19.

Next week, we will start to dive into how public relations effects different industries, particularly the Fine Arts.

Project Planning and Delivery: 6 Steps to Get Work Done Faster - Blog | Planview

Warren Buffett, successful business tycoon, once said, “Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” This quote focuses on the value of planning because motivated communicators take the time to strategically plan for themselves and others. Planning is the foundation that helps us project our objectives and achieve our goals. There are many important resources that discuss the value of planning, but we want to focus on Presspage, a strategy and planning resource that has good tips to guide us through the steps of a good plan.

This website is selling a service, but we’re not profiting from sharing it. However, it does have great information for determining the important elements of communication planning. We might not always have to go into grave detail about each of these elements in every plan, but they can help keep us on track to meet our goals. This website goes into detail of each step, in hopes to help you create an organized method of planning.

Why should you care about planning?

When we have a planning process, we’re better equipped to prepare for the future. Planning helps us foresee any calculated mishaps. Of course, we’re going to have to deal with surprises, but we can at least have an action plan if something does go wrong. Planning also teaches us how we can stay on schedule. Just like we have deadlines in school, we’re going to have deadlines in the workplace as well.

We’ll now guide you through the step by step process of planning.

Step 1

The foundation of our plan starts with the situation, which explains exactly why we’re planning in the first place. We wrote this blog in order to inform COM students about the value of Public Relations topics.

Step 2

The next step is understanding our audience, which has the biggest retention for COM students. Whether we’re writing or speaking, we always have to think about our audience. We even planned this blog with a specific audience in mind.

Step 3

Once you’ve figured out the first two elements, you can move on to your goals & objectives. Goals are what you want to accomplish overall, and objectives are specific outcomes that utilize the SMART method – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, & Time-bound. When we planned to promote our blog, one of our goals was to create awareness for Public Relations. Our specific objective would be to get 15-20 engagements on our blog over the semester.

Step 4

We can then use strategies to achieve our objectives and tactics to support the strategies. Essentially, strategies explain why, and tactics explain how. One strategy for our blog promotion was to use print media to attract students to interact with our blog. The specific tactic was to post flyers in buildings on campus.

Step 5

Another element is the calendar/timetable, which details specific tasks and due dates for when we want to achieve the goals and objectives of our plan. Our blog calendar focuses on what each person is doing and when it’s due. Each blog posted was specifically planned.

Step 6

Budgets are another element of plans but depending on the situation they won’t always be necessary. This part of the plan ensures that you have all the required resources for achieving your goals. If we were to have a budget for this blog, it might be focused towards our social media strategies where we would possibly buy paid advertisements.

Step 7

The final element is evaluation. Once we’ve completed our plan, this step will tell us how successful we were in achieving our objectives. At the end of the semester, we intend to evaluate the success of our blog by reflecting the objectives of our plan.

Lasting Thoughts

Overall, it’s important to be aware of the resources we can utilized while planning for assignments, weekend plans, and especially for our futures. If we can understand how to plan well, we are setting ourselves up for success in all aspects of our lives. Thoughtful and well-researched planning strategies are invaluable to our roles as communication professionals.

Next week, we will dive into a case study on the topics of audiences/publics, branding, and planning. This case study will lay out exactly how these three PR topics work well together in any organization.