Turning Out Events in the Eleventh Hour

From the desk of: Caitlin Theall

As we wrap up the season and reflect on the year… one trend that comes to mind was the increase with last minute events. More than ever before, we received countless last minute inquiries – some for events that were less than one month out and some that were less than two weeks out!

Although last minute events can be a challenge (and we do love a challenge here at AE), having a client turn to you at the end and tell you that they could not have done it without you is such a good feeling. We are in the hospitality industry after all – we come from a place of yes and we want to make our clients look good. Being able to jump in (even not knowing all of the details), pull out the butterfly net, catch all the pieces that are hanging in the ether and bring them all together, is truly a new skillset that we learned this fall season.

I certainly don’t think these last-minute events are going away and I don’t think that is a bad thing! Sometimes a reason to celebrate pops up and you should act on it. Just like we pivoted during the pandemic, we have pivoted to efficiently produce and manage the last-minute events that come our way.

And what’s a blog post without offering some advice, so here are a few tips and tricks when it comes to planning a last-minute event:

Set realistic goals. What are the key pieces of your event that are most important to you? Focus on those pieces.
Be ready to make decisions (and get to work)! And have one decision maker.
Build some contingency into your budget – some vendors might charge a last-minute booking fee.
Just know some items may be booked already but we are always here to help guide you in the right direction and offer new solutions and ideas.

Below are just some examples of the last-minute events that we produced over the last three months.

A party to celebrate the guest of honor beating breast cancer!