We’ve all been there.  We have a special event we’ve done a few times (sometimes LOTS of times), but it’s losing its luster.  And you realize it’s time to make the hard decision to stop doing it.  It can unpleasant, but the time comes when you must decide to stop hosting a particular event. 

Here are some signs that the time has come to retire a special event:

• Revenue from the event is slipping.
• Fewer people are attending.
• Media sponsors aren’t interested anymore.
• Corporate sponsors aren’t interested either.
• If you included labor cost in your financial summary, you would definitely be losing money on the event.
• Everyone is exhausted at the prospect of planning the event.

Unless the event is accomplishing something specific that you aren’t getting through any other channel (awareness or friend-raising), it’s time to shut it down. 

I remember working at the local food bank and the time came to stop doing a 5K race that we had done for several years.  We just weren’t raising enough money to justify doing it, and we had several other events during the year that were satisfying our need for publicity.  It was a tough decision, but we made it, and stopped holding that event.  It was very freeing actually.  And we had time and energy to put into other things.

Think about what else you could be doing with your time and energy that might generate more money, awareness, relationships, and goodwill for your organization.  You may be missing a big opportunity simply because you’re stuck in a rut with a particular event.

I was talking with a client yesterday about an annual event her organization held recently.  Sounds like it went really well, but she could only see the mistakes.

As she relayed the details to me, I could see that the mistakes were visible to her and maybe other staff, but the rest of the guests probably had no clue anything wasn’t perfect.  This is often the case – we see the warts and we’re so critical of ourselves.

Seems like no matter how well we plan, there are always little things that could have been done better.  My best advice is to do a complete “lessons learned” on each event you hold.  Make a list of everything that went really well and everything that needs to be fixed next time.  Be sure to solicit this same info from a few others too – volunteers, staff, others who attended or worked on the event.  Write these down!  Don’t hold them in your head.  I promise you by the time this event comes around next year, you won’t remember. 

My advice to my client – create a timeline for the event that just happened, knowing what you know now.  Do your “lessons learned” activity.  Both in writing.  Then next year, pull out these documents and use them to plan for the event.  It’ll make your life loads easier!

By the way, my client estimates that there were more people in attendance at her event this year, they raised a bit more money than last year, and people who had attended for several years said it as the best one ever.  I’m thinking it was a successful event!  What do you think?