Planning is crucial to ensuring that every detail is attended to before the event. Checklists, timelines and budgets must be set up in a format that is user-friendly and easy to adapt as you progress. Ensure that checklists are specific and include every task that must be completed. Ask people who perform jobs in certain areas to make checklists that can be given to the person responsible next year.

Remember that working in advance is crucial. Most events require at least three months to a year or preparation. Do as much ahead of time as possible.

Ensure that you have a coordinator who is equipped to make final decisions. Planning by committee can be a great team experience, but in the end, there must be someone with whom the final decision rests. This will allow you to avoid long conversations and meetings which result in no decisions.

Delegate responsibilities to people with expertise in certain areas. Allow them to use their gifts to make your event successful, but be sure they check back in with the coordinator regularly to ensure that all the plans fit together.

Plan to have several people on hand to supervise the day of the event. The coordinator cannot be everywhere at once, so he or she will need a team of people helping.