SMART Goals in Event Planning: Why They Matter and How to Set Them

The success or failure of an event can depend on your ability to set and achieve event goals when you’re an event planner. However, defining clear objectives for your event can be challenging. If your goals are unrealistic, they may be discouraging and fail to deliver the desired outcomes. The solution? Establishing SMART goals for your events.

Whether your focus is boosting revenue, expanding your audience, or enhancing attendee feedback, SMART objectives can guide you toward success. Read on to learn how to set practical event goals that deliver results and explore our examples of effective event objectives for inspiration.

What is the difference between event objectives and event goals?

From teaching a group of people, to raising funds for charity or generating revenue from ticket sales-when you think of planning and hosting an event, you have a goal in mind.

And when you’re evaluating your event success, you normally narrow these goals a little bit, being more specific-do you prefer having a bigger group of people to your workshop or only people that are interested in pottery, for example? 

And this is where the notions of goals and objectives beggin and we can think of goals as what outlines the broader aim that will define your event purpose and objectives as the specific steps you take to help achieve those goals. 

For instance, if your event purpose is to build brand awareness through the event, you could measure its success this way:

• Goal: Double the level of social media mentions and likes compared to your previous event.

• Objective: Encourage attendees to share event content and interact with it across platforms. Your objective should be realistic and attainable.

What are SMART event goals and why are they important in event planning?

We can think of SMART event goals as goals that will help you set clear objectives that measure the success of your events. SMART is an acronym for:

• S-Specific: these goals help you set what you can see as success, instead of having a more abstract idea of what it may be.
• M-Measurable: they provide tools to measure the success-it helps to set a number to your goal!
• A-Attainable: these goals will help you not waste time on unrealistic objectives.
• R-Relevant: these goals are relevant to your event purpose
• T-Time-bound: set a realistic end date to clarify task prioritization and increase motivation.

When you set clear objectives when planning an event you’ll see that it will be easier to achieve your event goals! They will help you since you’ll get a clear sense of how close your event is to being a success and you won’t waste time and resources on tasks that won’t contribute to your main goals.

How can you define SMART goals for your events?

1. Define SPECIFIC Goals:  Be as precise as possible when outlining what you want to achieve with your event. You can do this by considering its objectives.

Instead of saying “I want to have better attendance in my next event”, why not try “I want my next event to attract 20% more attendees than the last one”?

2. Define MEASURABLE Goals: Quantify targets with numbers-this will help you understand if you hit your goal and also how close you are to achieving it. Goals should allow for a range of outcomes instead of the “success” and “failure” statuses. 

For example, if you have the objective of generating more revenue for your next event, why not adjust it to be something like wanting your next event to “generate 30% more revenue than the previous one”?

3. Define ACHIEVABLE Goals: Sometimes it can be tricky to identify a realistic target-take a look at the performance and metrics of similar past events and compare the resources used to your own before setting a new goal. Don’t forget to include stretch goals-these are useful in situations where you have excelled at your initial target-as long as they’re realistic. 

For example, instead of wanting your next event to double the number of attendees, try wanting your next event to increase attendance by 25% compared to the last one”.

4. Define RELEVANT Goals: Don’t forget about your event purpose-if the goal you have defined isn’t aligned with your event and organization, you may want to reconsider it. 

Imagine you have as a goal wanting to generate 20% more revenue from CD sales for an online music event and you are not selling CDs, maybe you could consider changing it to something like “generate 20% more revenue from ticket sales than the previous online concert”.

5. Define TIME-BOUND Goals: Define your goals to be actionable in a specific timeframe to keep them effective. Even if time isn’t an immediate concern, setting a reasonable deadline can help maintain motivation for you and your team.

Why not change the goal “I want to grow my event’s social media following by 20% to “I want to grow my event’s social media following by 20% within the next three months”?

Exploring More: Practical Example

Imagine your goal as an event planner for this specific event to be “informing students regarding environmental awareness workshop in their school”. Your SMART objective could be to “enroll 200 high school students from that specific school to attend the virtual workshop, with 80% of attendance confirmations at least one week before the webinar.

Breakdown of the SMART objective:

• Specific: The goal is to engage 200 high school students in a virtual environmental awareness workshop, ensuring a clear target group (local students) and event format (online workshop).
• Measurable: Success is measured by securing 200 participants, with 80% confirming attendance one week before the event, providing a clear metric for progress.
• Achievable: Based on past virtual events and student engagement (hypothetically), you find 200 attendees to be realistic through targeted digital outreach, such as email campaigns and social media.
• Relevant: Focusing on high school students is relevant because the workshop aims to educate the next generation on environmental issues, aligning with the event’s goals.
• Time-bound: The deadline for 80% confirmations one week before the event ensures enough time for final preparations and allows effective event planning.

Let’s make your events SMART?

When you set SMART Goals for your event, you will be able to obtain a clearer and more strategic approach, allowing you to measure the progress made for the overall objectives of your event.

Having more clarity, will help your planning and contribute to the efficient usage of your resources while keeping you motivated and accountable during the process.

Want to put your SMART Goals into action?