Dr. Feelgood has been prodding me to put up a primer about what it takes to run an event, so I've spent a few weeks putting some thoughts down and seeing what I could come up with.

Everything here isn't essential ... this represents my philosophy of running events and there are other groups that do things differently; I take a more business minded view of things because, well, a while back I got a business degree, so that training tends to linger. Also, it's my butt on the line and I don't want to find myself losing money at the end of the day. That means I tend to run a very lean event organizer-wise because every person that is an organizer represents one less person that could be a paying customer, I like to touch many of the details of an event I run, and I have the skill sets to get many of the things done on my own (setting up sound equipment, website design, etc).

I tend to believe that's a smart philosophy because when you look at the actual liability you're on the line for when it comes to how much money you could lose, it's staggering. For an event on a national scale, depending on the scene, you're looking at a financial liability running anywhere from $10,000 to $25,000. I don't know very many people that can handle that sort of liability out of pocket. I certainly can't.

So, here we go in a somewhat particular order:

1) You need to ask yourself what your vision for an event is. You need to be passionate about it and not compromise you vision. Just think about the last time you went to, say, a concert where the music wasn't exactly what you liked but the band was playing with such passion that you got swept away. People respond to passion and love it.

2) The fewer the better. A lot of people tend to think that and event is a lot of work, and it is to a degree. During the actual event and in the weeks before, it's a good amount to handle. It's useful to have a housing coordinator, someone stuffing packets, etc, but in the 6 months leading up to the event, you don't really need a huge committee. At the most, maybe a few other people to provide input, but it can be much easier and quicker to just do it yourself. You don't have to worry about coordinating with multiple people and the resulting headaches (when do we meet, how do we agree on things, etc). So don't worry about getting too many coordinators or other people who do maybe two hours of work and then get into the event for free. The best way that someone can support your event is to pay for it. The only reason to bring in more parties would be to spread the financial risk of the event ... that's covered later. Additionally, it's best if you keep the organizers local. Unless the organizer has some sort of special connection to the scene, an out of town organizer with no experience in your scene will only create communication and logistical issues.

3) This is a business venture first and foremost. That means treat it like one. Don't give away a whole bunch of free passes to the event to your friends and don't try to leverage your friendship with someone to get them to do something that you should do as an organizer. If you're the kind of person that has a hard time saying "no," consider bringing on board someone that can.

4) Do a feasibility study. Crack open an excel spreadsheet and put down estimates for costs like the following: venues, instructors, sound equipment, promotional materials, food, T-shirts, flights, bands, research, paypal, wristbands, discounts, event insurance, extra transportation, packets and brochures. For your income, you'll have the packages that you sell over your website, door revenue, t-shirts, etc. Don't just do a back of the envelope calculation, look at other events in town and talk to other organizers to get estimates of all of your costs and revenue, including what you'll need for your deposits.

5) Choose a date. This involves not only finding a good date on a national calendar, but also on a local one. Check to see if there are any calendars just for your region (in the Pacific Northwest we have PNWSwing). If you think that the date you want might be too close, get in contact with the other organizers. In general you should leave at least two weeks between your event an any other similar event, but one month is better and 6 weeks would be ideal.

6) Develop a schedule. Lay out how far in advance you need to do things like marketing, getting bands, venues, a website, instructors, DJs, etc. For example, at ECBF last year I had these major categories on my schedule

* Marketing (4-5 months lead time)
* Bands (6 months lead time)
* Venues (6 months lead time)
* Web Site (5 months lead time)
* Instructors (7 months lead time)
* DJs (7 months lead time)
* Housing (3 months lead time)
* T-Shirts (don't cheap out on them ... American Apparel is great stuff and you'll still make money)
* Sound (3 months lead time - need to know band requirements)
* Registration Packets (1 month lead time)
* The Week Before
* Misc

Note: I've got the major categories like venues, instructors, DJs and bands laid out before marketing and the website. I believe that it is of paramount importance that you finalize any arrangements for these major categories before you start marketing an event ... if you can't get what you want, then what are you selling? And if you're not getting what you wanted, should you do it anyway?

7) You're going to need seed money. That's for deposits with venues, bands, paying for marketing materials, a website, etc. You'll also need it to take care of your DJs and instructors. At the bare minimum now I feel like organizers should pay for the flights for their instructors plus a minimum teaching fee and the flights for their DJs. Asking your employees to pay their way and compensating them later is alright for the first year or two, but after that you should be paying their way. If you can't cover the seed money, look at other organizations (local music society or dance society) or people you can bring into the process as partners. You'll need to create agreements with them on how to share the liability/profits from the event.

8) When marketing, take it upon yourself to send out flyers to other scenes, create your website, post on other boards, do anything you can to raise awareness of your event. This is not an expense to cut because if people don't know about your event, they won't come. Note: When you put it up on your website, you're making a promise about your an event ... If you put an instructor on your site, make sure you're going to get them there, etc.

9) In the week before, there's a lot of stuff that you need to have nailed down. By then your registration packets should have been printed and stuffed, your registration closed and your housing coordinator should be working on the assignments. You need to make sure you've got all of the essentials taken care of:

* Instructor payment packets (this includes teacher pay plus a daily stipend for each day they teach, preferably in cash)

* Check in lists

* Liability waiver forms

* Cash box and change

* Cash for bands

* DJ schedule

* Develop methods and procedures for all processes

* A "go box" that has EVERYTHING you need to run the event at the event, including copies of all contracts

* Paper/pens/tape for unforeseen signs

* Preprinted signs for the ones you know you need

* Your laptop that has records of everything that you did online just in case you missed something (I've had to use this in the past more often than I thought)

Note: This is a buttload of cash, usually ...I've found myself hitting the ATM every day for a week in order to get it all.

10) Methods and procedures. If you are having any sort of volunteers, you need to make sure that you have things specifically laid out so that there is no question of what to do and that your volunteers do each task the same way. Make a flowchart if you have to (I do). Think about checklists you need for getting things setup and torn down in every venue.

11) Don't count on getting more than 2 hours of sleep a night. Sure you might have brought in other people to coordinate certain venues or what not, but it's your baby. Make sure it's taken care of. (This is one downside to my approach to doing events).

12) Whenever there is cash involved, always have two people working with the cash and counting it. Make sure you also keep accurate tally sheets of what was sold at what night. If you're doing the event again it helps with forecasting your totals for next year.

13) Think through the little things. You've probably been to an event, so think about what you've liked and what you want in an event that could help. Maybe it's a better laid out packet or maybe it's better food at afterhours? Where are my instructors and DJs staying? How are they getting around? If you have bands, always, always have a cooler of beer (plus make sure to tip). They'll appreciate it. Think through each person's role in the event and ask yourself how you can make their lives better.

14) Make sure you're tracking all of your expenses and income. I track everything in quicken so at the end of the event I can tell you exactly how much the event made or lost. You don't have to use quicken, just some simple excel pages would work just fine.

15) There's no such thing as tracking too much information. I personally keep an excel file that includes: a projection of costs and revenue, a list of the boards I am posting on along with the threads about ECBF, a detailed list of expenses paid (along with when and what category they fall into – promo, food, bands, sound, etc), my comp list, volunteer list and schedule, DJ schedule, shirt order list, promo mailing addresses, lists of possible bands, lists of possible venues, and graphs comparing revenues on a year to year basis.

16) What roles might you have for others? If you're not competent, get someone else. If you design a website that looks like crap and aren't familiar with it, find someone else to do it. Same with graphics, advertising, etc. The different roles I've used for ECBF have been: housing coordinator, chauffer, sound guy, workshop coordinator, graphics designer, web programmer, marketing coordinator, afterhours coordinator, packet coordinator, venue coordinator, DJ coordinator, band coordinator, etc. Think about what you can do and what you need to farm out. If you have to farm things out, think about how many roles you can assign to people. Each person that you allow entry for free is lost revenue. In the past, I've done 75% of the roles above by myself.

17) Relax. In the end it's all about having a good time. It's a lot of work, but try and schedule in a little bit of fun for yourself. For me, the most rewarding part has always been sitting down for a meal with the staff that have come to the event.

If you have any questions about how to run events in general, I'd be happy to share my experiences with you. Just email me at martin-at-lindychef-dot-com.

And finally, if you have to put the word "national" in your advertising, your event is going to look like a regional event that is overreaching for a national focus. Let your hard work, instructor and musical lineups do the speaking for you.