Collaborating with other organizations to partner with your event has a myriad of benefits. You’re able to fold a variety of perspectives into the event, activate new audiences, and offer a more enriching experience for everyone involved, from organizers to sponsors to participants. In this guide, we’ll discuss strategies to make the most of your event partnerships through collaboration with other organizations.
1. Approach Potential Partners With Similar Interests & Values
Finding partners that complement your own interests and values is of utmost importance. If your event partners have missions or visions that contradict yours, the whole event may come off as insincere and negatively impact its reputation, attendance, and sponsorships.
For example, think about a nonprofit that’s hosting a corporate golf event to raise money for its environmental cleanup initiatives. The organization would likely steer clear of collaborating with corporations that have a track record of pollution or have incurred fines or penalties for environmental violations.
As you consider potential partners, consider the following factors to help you find the right match for your event:
- Reputation and Public Perception. How does the public perceive the partner organizations? What have they been in the news for? What does their website say about their mission, vision, and values? You’re tethering your organization to your partners, so it’s crucial that you understand how this could positively or negatively impact your own public persona.
- Commitment Level. Do partners want to be intimately involved in planning or are they content to be in the loop about major decisions? Are they committed to supporting the event from start to finish? How do they want to be recognized for their partnership? Determine the level of commitment for each partner so expectations are set for their involvement.
- Previous Partnerships. Have you partnered with them in the past? If so, how did it go? Who else have they collaborated with on events? Think through how previous partnerships may impact how you collaborate for the current event.
- Partner Assets. What does the partner bring to the table? Can they provide financial support or staff or volunteers to help run the event? Can they bring attendees or help boost registration? What other ways can they pitch in to make the event a success? Think about what each partner might bring to the event—good or bad—as you weigh potential partners.
Start by researching possible partners online to get a better feel for the above points and narrow down a list to reach out to an informal chat. You might meet over coffee or lunch to get to know each other better before crafting and presenting a personalized partner pitch.
2. Collaborate Throughout the Planning Process
As you progress through the event planning process, it’s crucial that all parties are on the same page. This becomes increasingly important as more partners get involved in the event. As each partner comes onboard, it’s a good idea to take every opportunity to ensure everyone’s aligned on event specifics, such as:
- Purpose and Goals. What do you hope to accomplish with the event? How are each partner’s interests represented? Are the needs of each partner being met? These questions should be addressed before you get into the heart of planning.
- Target Audience. Who will attend the event? How will you identify them? How do you plan to reach them? Knowing who you plan to target—and who will be interested in the event’s focus—is an important step in understanding how you’ll attract them. Plus, overlapping target audiences make future data-sharing and retargeting easier.
- Type of Event. What kind of event are you planning? All partners should be in agreement on the type of event and sold on the idea.
- Contingency Plans. What happens if there’s inclement weather on the day of an outdoor event? What do we do if the keynote speaker’s flight is delayed? How do we handle refunds? It’s a good idea to walk through these scenarios with the planning team to agree on how they should be handled.
- Task Delegation. Who’s going to do what, and how will we ensure all tasks are completed on time and on target? Event management or project management software can be handy in assigning and tracking tasks and to-dos to keep all committee members up to speed and aware of their responsibilities.
Identify a point person or two from each partner who will fully participate in planning so there’s no question who will represent each organization involved. This event committee will represent each partner’s interests and perspectives and communicate back to their teams. It’s a good idea to meet regularly to discuss planning tasks and ensure planning is moving forward. Once a month is a good cadence for initial planning, but consider ramping up to more frequent meetings as needed as the event approaches.
3. Use the Right Event Management Tools
Your event management platform is a major factor in its success. Without the right tools in place, planning becomes unnecessarily complicated and even unmanageable.
That’s why choosing the appropriate software is so important. The right tool facilitates successful collaboration between partners, ensures all partners are working with up-to-date information, and saves organizers time and hassle.
As you explore your options, keep these features in mind:
- Specific to the type of event you’re planning (for example, if you’re holding a charity hole-in-one contest, look for a golf-specific software platform that can handle the unique details of a golf event without time-consuming workarounds and adaptations)
- Custom sponsorship management and packages
- Online registration with secure payment processing
- A user-friendly interface for organizers and registrants
- Communication tools
- Robust reporting and data management capabilities
- Financial management
- Volunteer and staff scheduling
- Custom event websites/landing pages
- Responsive support and troubleshooting
- Back-end user access for seamless collaboration among the planning committee
Cost-effectiveness is yet another factor to consider when opting for one event management tool over another. Will all parties share the expense? Is there enough ROI on the tool to justify the costs? There are a myriad of choices available, so do thorough research on the capabilities, advantages, and drawbacks of each option.
Wrapping Up
Collaborating with partners can be advantageous to your event’s success and impact. But before you start laying the foundation or building partnerships with potential event associates, check with your networks to identify any connections that might be a natural fit or you can leverage to forge a partnership. For instance, your board of directors is a great place to look for connections where you don’t have to build a partnership from scratch. Following the strategies outlined in this guide will set you on a path to successful event collaboration.