Five Days On Which You Should Never Plan An Event

One of the most important steps in any event planning process is deciding when you’re going to host it. The date you set for your event could very well make or break things, and it’ll impact everything in the planning stages, from the venue you choose to the volunteers you go with right down to your potential suppliers, vendors, and attendees. Not surprisingly, this means that certain days and months are a better choice for event hosting than others.

This also means that certain time periods are completely out of the question. Here are a few days on which you should almost never host an event if you’re actually looking to get any attendees on-board.  As a general rule, if you try hosting an event on any of these days, you’re pretty much guaranteed to fail.

New Years/Christmas

Most people are going to be on vacation/spending time with their families on Christmas, so hosting anything other than a Christmas party or two during this time period isn’t such a great idea. By that same vein, January tends to be one of the busiest times of year, with many people either recovering from their New Years’ festivities or slowly easing themselves back in after vacationing. Do note that certain regions might not celebrate New Years’ at the same time as others.

Thanksgiving

If you’re thinking of running an event on or just before Thanksgiving…please don’t. Most people are pretty thoroughly focused on spending time with their families and hosting thanksgiving get-togethers. As a result, any event run over this period will have a fair bit of trouble finding volunteers. Note that in Canada, Thanksgiving takes place in October, not November – if you’re hosting an event that incorporates your neighbors to the north, keep that in mind.

Any Public Holiday/School Holiday

Keep an eye on the calendar when you’re planning an event in order to be sure you’re not running it on any sort of civic or school holiday. Days like these, families are going to be spending time with one another (usually). As such, they’re probably not going to attend any events you host.

Of course, your mileage may vary here. Certain events geared towards families might actually be better off taking place on a school holiday of some sort. As a general rule, however, business conferences on days like this should be thoroughly avoided.

Around The Time That A Disaster Happens

This one’s fairly unique, in that it’s something you can’t necessarily control. Unless you’re running some sort of benefit concert or charity show, try not to host anything in close proximity to a disaster. I’m not just talking about severe weather – I’m more referring to any sort of significant tragedy which might impact attendees or volunteers. Keep an eye on the goings-on, both in your own country and the host country (assuming they’re different locales).

Whenever There’s A Similar Event Being Run

Last, but certainly not least, pay attention to when other events in your industry are taking place. Few things are worse than finding yourself bleeding attendees to an event that’s effectively identical to your own. Make sure you space yours out a bit from your competitors.