6 Steps for Choosing an Event Date

There is an organization that wants to have a motorcycle fundraising event focusing on raising funds to help veterans in the local community.  You know the event theme, the objective, and the purpose, so, now what? One difficult decision to make is choosing the perfect date for your event.

The COMBAT VETERANS MOTORCYCLE ASSOCIATION 23-14 is an organization whose mission is "Vets Helping Vets".  They are a fairly new non-profit organization just beginning to have events and fundraisers to help support their mission.  They held their first event in November of 2017.  Being their first event, it was a success.  They reached their goal and was able to help several veterans in the local community.

This year they wanted to do the same,  hold another motorcycle fundraising event. They would be having a motorcycle scavenger hunt, two bands, a silent auction, and a 50/50 raffle.  First on the agenda, deciding the date and time so that they can secure the locations.

Choosing the Right Event Date

What date comes to mind when organizing an event for the fall season and for veterans, Veterans Day?  Yeah, not a good idea, and here is why. Way too many events to compete with on this holiday weekend, especially veteran-related events.

Below you will find steps to help you choose the perfect date for your next event.

1. Most importantly, determine your audience.
2.  Determine if the event you are planning will be more successful on a weekday or weekend.  With the CVMA event, a weekend is certainly the best, if not the only, option to improve the outcome.  This event is an all-day event, meaning that weekdays were out of the running.
3. If the organization hosting the event has members who are local, state-wide, or nation-wide you will need to compare calendars within the organization to help boost the attendance of your event.
4. Depending on the type of event, you will want to take the weather into consideration.
5. Check for all Holidays.
6. Check for events being happing within the proximity of your event.  This will take some research. Check community-wide event calendars for possible competing events if you are focusing on a local audience. You will need to check state and national calendars if that is your audience.

While you may not get it right everytime, taking these steps will help improve the success of your next event.  I will say that in planning the CVMA 23-14 event, we missed the mark on a few of these.  With each event, we learn something that will better our next event.

Learning from our Efforts

Everything was successful, except for the date.  I had spent hours, with help of the planning committee, going over every detail.  The sun is shining bright. The locations were secured; one for the scavenger hunt and one for the after party.  The scavenger hunt was planned out with stops at Veterans Memorials throughout the area. The registration forms, rules, and a point system with bonuses were created.  The silent auction items collected. The bands were recruited to play and an agreement with the after party location for a percentage of sales had been agreed upon.   So what went wrong.

Our audience consists of those individuals who ride motorcycles and/or support veterans. Our biggest mistake was planning this event on Veterans Day weekend.  Every veterans group in the area had an event planned for this same weekend and while there were a large number of people who wanted to participate in 23-14's event, they were loyal to there own organizations and events.  There is certainly nothing wrong with that, that is the way it should be.

At the end of each event you plan, you should always do a review.   Look back and determine what worked and what didn't.  Then use that review to help with future events.  If you follow the six steps mentioned above when you are ready to plan your next event, you will find choosing the best date for your event a little easier.