Challenge One (1): Budget

When planning an event in Dubai, some planners overspend while others may not have a sufficient budget to run their events as they would like. Either way, that has always been the most common challenge faced by event planners. Nevertheless, before identifying as an event planner, it is advisable that you know and understands how the business functions.

Solution:

Before submitting a quote or proposal to a client, you should sit down and plan a realistic budget for the client’s proposed event. Make a list that contains the estimated pricing of every gear, gadget, accessory, device, etc. that would be used for the event. Also, try to come with different plans/budgets – like Plan A, Plan B, and so on. If Plan A is looking to fail, introduce Plan B, and maintain your professionalism

Challenge Two (2): Choosing The Right Venue

Some events may require an outdoor venue, while others may need to be done behind doors. Deciding on the venue that best suits a client’s event is not an easy gig to crack, but this is something you must do. The event’s venue plays an important role and further determines the theme and elements to be used for the event.

Solution:

Try to know if the client wants a specific theme/concept for the event and work with that when seeking a befitting venue. The venue should be accessible by all expected guests, and it’d be best if the venue has some modern features such as AV production, beautifully designed stage, and more. Space is also important – the venue needs to be spacious enough to contain all dignitaries and guests.

Challenge Three (3): Keeping Track of the Little Things

Little things still matter a lot. According to Giorgio Armani, “To create something exceptional, your mindset must be relentlessly focused on the smallest detail.”

Having this quote in mind, you shouldn’t neglect to look into every small element that may be needed for the event.

Solution:

Set up teams and assign them to different roles and responsibilities. Each team needs a leader that is obligated to ensure that the team members are doing what is expected. The leader would be accountable for any disruption or chaos caused by a member of his team. This way, everything would be perfectly held under control, including disposables.

Challenge Four (4): Planning a Memorable Event

Both the event planner and the client would love a memorable event, while it’d strengthen the planner’s portfolio, it would also make the client feel satisfied, and he’d recommend you to others. But planning a memorable event is not as easy as it may sound.

Solution:

Always think out of the box while keeping abreast of the industry’s newest trends. Creativity is highly needed; everything is a concept; you need to create a stunning picture out of it. Also, don’t make the event a boring one, make sure there are quite a bunch of things to entertain the guest and keep their spirits high all through the event.

Challenge Five (5): Time Management

As the saying goes – “Time waits for no one.” There may be lots of things a client wants to take place in his event – you should study the client’s brief or list of events and check if there’d be time for all that.

Solution:

Try to get the client to understand the need to prioritize all proposed activities and remove some likely unnecessary entries. However, if the client insists, then some adjustments should be made to the event’s “start” and “end” times.

1.     Planning Phase

A popular saying goes, “when you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” This applies to event planning in Dubai. If you do not sit down to plan the event and make notes on the things that would be used/done on that day, you’ll certainly keep running helter-skelter and won’t achieve a successful event. There are two ways to plan an event in Dubai: strategic planning and operational planning.

Strategic Planning

This planning phase aims to craft tactical models for the event, considering the details of your client’s brief. When you already know the aim/objective of an event, you can decide on the right team to work with on that day. Make sure you work with KPIs to help track the flow of events.

Operational Planning

Operational planning simply means to focus on the functional aspects of the event, such as the venue, and concept(s). Choosing the right venue can be a daunting task, but it is one of the most essential parts of planning an event.

2. Execution Phase

At this stage, the planning has already been done, and so you’re going to execute the plan. This is a sensitive stage in planning an event as you are already at the venue trying to bring your predefined plan(s) to live. Here, you send out your team(s) to take responsibility for their roles and assignments, as stipulated in the event plan. Everyone needs to be agile and flexible – you may need to change some things in the plan due to some possible sudden changes the client may request.

3. Assessment Phase

This is the final phase – at this phase, the client and attendees of the event will assess your performance and leave comments. If you got good feedback from many people who attended the ceremony/occasion, then you actually planned a successful event. Nevertheless, you need to assess your team’s performance and see if there is a need for improvement.

Also, take note of the pitfalls during the course of the event, analyze the causes of the pitfalls, and make sure you avoid them when planning another event. You should ask yourself a lot of questions, as well as ask the client how he/she felt about the whole ceremony. All these are to understand the areas you may need to improve and the things you never do when executing another event.

Literally, the more events you plan and execute makes you keep learning and improving on many sides. Thus, you will gradually become a professional event planner.

In summary, these three points discussed here are the key tips to planning successful events in Dubai.

Getting wedding flowers on a budget in Dubai

Flowers for a wedding can be very expensive, but you must inevitably get them. They help decorate the hall or arena, and the bride is also expected to have one. Floral decoration is inevitable when planning a wedding reception. So what are you going to do – since you’re on a budget for your wedding flowers?

Well, it is important to say that one cannot estimate the exact cost of flowers for a wedding until the couples present their requirements. Also, the wedding reception arena’s size will affect the number of flowers to be used, and in turn, increase the budget for floral decorations. Most times, you will see couples allocating roughly 10% of their entire wedding budget to buying of flowers and floral decorations. This is not the case with all couples we have worked with; some people allocate more than 10% while others may not reserve up to that percentage for floral decorations. Nevertheless, it is the work of the event planner to get the couples to understand the average cost for floral decorations for their special day.

Natural flowers vs. artificial flowers

Basically, natural flowers are costlier, and when you’re on a budget, it is advisable to ditch these flowers and go for aesthetical artificial flowers. There are good, original, budget-friendly artificial flowers that look and feel so much like natural flowers. It may be hard to tell the difference between such artificial flowers and natural ones.

More so, when you go for Natural Flowers, after using them for the event, there’s a high possibility that you cannot reuse them again. In contrast, when you go for artificial or silk flowers, there’s a high possibility that you can reuse them some other time (for another event). An unpopular thought about going for artificial flowers is the fact that you could resell them to someone else (especially if there are many of them).

What more?

It can be challenging to get the exact natural flowers that would match the color of the wedding. But in contrast, there are varieties of artificial flowers, and they can be easily bought online or offline from malls and shops. In fact, it is best to pick on artificial flowers when you’re on a budget. However, this doesn’t mean that natural flowers aren’t good for weddings – they are simply expensive, most likely not reusable, and it can be hard to find a good match for your event.

You should work in hand with the event planner to get the best flowers to create fascinating floral decorations for your special day. Flowers add beauty to decorations and also leave positive impressions on many people.

While the 7^th Annual Ceremony usually lasts for a few hours, Iva Events started preparations afore-time. Actually, the event planning team kicked off preparations three days before the date of the event. Carefully and sequentially, the Iva Event team designed the custom triangular LED tunnel while the AV team worked on their assignments/aspects. Iva Events team monitored the AV team’s workflow to ensure that everything went smoothly and in accordance with the clients’ needs. This ceremony is a huge and highly-respected one; thus, the Iva Events wouldn’t love to disappoint the client and ruin their solid reputation. Before the actual day of the event, everything needed for the ceremony is already in place. Plus, the event team test ran the entire equipment and devices to ensure they were all functioning as supposed. On the D-Day, Iva Events team also made some polishes to some parts of the ceremony arena to make everything look perfect and sparkling. The tables and chairs were covered in black cloths – adorned with four gold platters. There were white plates on rose gold charger plates (about 10 of them), three vases with floating candles, and a single vase with three beautiful yellow/white tulips.

The violinists did the first musical performance, and at this time, the event had begun. Guests were coming in numbers, and within a short time, the arena was filled by adorable guests – looking beautiful and fascinating. Virtually all the guests were wearing broad smiles; you could tell that they are impressed with the décor.

However, behind the scenes, at the AV control booth, the Iva Event team stayed put into ensuring that all the equipment worked fine, and nothing gets bridged. Just to mention a few, the team triggered the smoke machine whenever there was a need for that. The lights were also turned off for the LED show, so the display appears crystal-clear to the anticipating audience.

A sequence of activities went on at the 7^th Annual Ceremony event, and they all ran seamlessly. All corners of the arena looked beautiful – you could see people taking photographs here and there because every corner seemed a perfect background for a stunning picture. At the end of the event, everyone that attended was happy, and there were no side complaints. Iva Events actually did what they know how to do and added another successful event to their record.

The December holiday is typically special and arguably the most celebrated holiday worldwide. Some people see this period as a time to get enough rest from work and plan for another year – some others prefer to go all for entertainment and/or spend time with their families.

For the sake of fun and spending time with the family, Sharjah Museum Authority planned a 5-day family festival from 24^th – 28^th December at the archaeology museum, Sharjah. The festival was named Lamma and Iva Events was in charge in planning and managing this festival.

The event team were 24/7 on site to ensure that everything is rightly in place before the event activities start taking place. Things that were done (by Iva Event) before the start of the “family festival” include mixing the colorful floss sugar, swing set tests, blowing up the giant dart, cleaning up the environment, ensuring that the venue was safe and secure, checking on the electrical needs for the food trucks.

Our venue was a large green space – there were lots of things to explore, and many more activities to engage with. From taking pictures with the giant red chair at the entrance to science workshops

Iva Events situated the food trucks at both ends of the field (left and right) in a way that they surrounded the picnic benches. Hence, families that were present at the festival sat on the benches as they order for various tasty meals. However, some families simply sat to savor the live performance that’s happening on the field.

Different sizes of vibrant bean bags were strategically placed around the field so that people (both adults and kids) could sit anywhere they like. More interesting, there were colorful steel barrels for people who ate on the go or stood to chat with each other.

Towards dusk, the fairy lights were turned on; they were enchanting and appeared like some magical galaxy of stars on the sky. We actually enjoyed a casual atmosphere as the event was apparently a joyful one; kids ran from one activity to another while their parents discussed or played along with them.

At movie times, the energy at the event gets relaxed a bit – the kids were hooked with the movies and their parents, plus other grownups enjoy some relaxation.

Of all the spots at the venue, the popcorn and cotton candy spots were the busiest. These spots are close to the cinema area; thus, it was easily accessible for everyone; kids could quickly get to either of the stands to grab a snack and rush back to the movie hall.

The event was really blissful, and everyone enjoyed it; you could tell this from the happy looks on the face of all (both kids and adults). One can say that this event’s actual goal was achieved, thanks to Iva Events and everyone else that contributed in one way or another.

Actually, the event took place on a Wednesday. Prior to the start of the showcase, different teams were working on various corners to set up the arena and simulate a perfect atmosphere for the event. It was an auspicious fashion trunk show, and the guests must be treated with “high-taste.” The Iva Events team were hands-on assembling and setting up various elements for the success of the event. Cocktail tables were assembled and covered with silk silver table cloths – white chiffon ribbons were tied into bows to add a feminine touch to the décor as this was going to be a “women-only” fashion show. Also, silver floral wreaths were dropped on the tables with silver candles in the middle.

To ensure that everything is well in place, the Iva Events team collaborated with the catering team all through the event (from the preparation times to the end of the showcase). The fashion showcase featured styles from top brands and designers such as Zeena Zaki, Marmar Halim, Carolina Herrera, and Aspinal of London.

A total of 50 guests (women) were invited to this exclusive Fashion Showcase. At the start of the showcase, these high-esteemed guests were served fresh juices as they awaited the tasty food that would be served during the course of the event. The waitresses went back and forth to ensure that every woman in attendance gets all the refreshments meant to be given to her. The event was stipulated to last for three hours. However, it seemed like time went very fast, and soon it was already 6 pm; so, the women guests were taken to a tour, exposing them to a variety of high-class fashion gears and features. Popular makeup artists and gorgeous models were at the event to see that the collection showcase was successful. Robinson’s store boasts of exquisite curated collections from over 260 international and regional brands. Obviously, they’ve got you covered from head to toe with luxury fashion gears.

All through the fashion showcase, the women in attendance were all smiling and happy. It was obvious they loved everything that’s happening. Thanks to Iva Events, the Ethereal Reflection Collection showcase by Robinson Store in collaboration with Emirates Woman Magazine was a big success, and everyone in attendance was satisfied.