Start small

In starting a new event, with no track record available to refer to, all your plans are based on estimates and interpretation of data. Don’t try to jump in and arrange the event of the century. Start small at a size you can handle and the objective will not be hopelessly missed if things don’t turn out as planned.

If you have planned properly and managed your event well, you have lost nothing by starting small (unless you were hoping to cash in on a passing trend). In subsequent years you can increase the size of the event to the point where you arrive at the optimum size.

If you were trying to take a quick profit from a passing trend – consider your actions carefully: that will be a gamble and unless you are confident that you have the skills and knowledge to jump in and deliver what the public wants quickly – do not risk it.

How many can you handle?

Now you know how many people you are expecting you must seriously consider how many people you can successfully and safely handle, bearing in mind some legal limits and rules imposed by the authorities.

Don’t get carried away. More visitors may mean more money coming in, but it also means that your problems increase. Ten thousand extra visitors paying £5 each to get into your event sounds good, until you look at the logistical problems that may present. For example you may find that the last 500 visitors will have to park 7 miles away (in the only field in the county you have not yet assigned as a car park). Even then, because of a lack of space on the event ground, the last 300 people will have to stand on each others’ shoulders, just to get onto the site!

There are many aspects of the organisation and logistics that are either drawn from the numbers attending, or where numbers have a direct bearing on every detail of how the event is planned, organised and run. Get this right; spend as much time on it as you need to. Keep going until you are happy and confident of your estimates.