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It takes a whole lot of planning to set up a big event — and the first step in putting together a successful event is crafting a comprehensive event proposal.
A good event proposal is key to getting business, gaining buy-in from management, or securing a-list sponsors. It spells out everything from your target audience and logistics to budgeting, staffing, marketing, analytics, and more.
We’ve created this guide to make writing a report from scratch less daunting. You’ll find out why event proposals are so important, what to include in your proposal, and some pro tips to make your event proposal stand out from all the others — we’ll even provide you with a free event proposal template.
An event proposal is a comprehensive document that outlines every element of an event — from organising a seminar for members of your industry to seeking sponsorship in order to run a comedy evening.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a freelance event planner, part of a corporate events team, or a volunteer who’s been handed the task of planning an event. Either way, you’ll want to put together an event proposal.
Event proposals are compiled at the early planning stages and cover the aim of the event, the individuals and companies who’ll be involved, and the logistics of running the event. It works as a mission statement, a marketing strategy and a roadmap. If it’s accepted, it also serves as a contract outlining your plans for an event.
With a well put-together proposal, you’ll be able to demonstrate to would-be clients or upper management exactly what to expect from the event. Additionally, your event proposal can guide stakeholders in deciding whether the event is worth pursuing.
Simply put: an event proposal is your first big step towards creating a successful event that everyone will remember.
An event proposal is your opportunity as an event planner to demonstrate your skills — as well as your clear and comprehensive vision for a given event.
Stakeholders wanting to stage an event will look at your event proposal like an elevator pitch. You’ve got a small amount of space to lay out your expertise and experience, the purpose behind the event, your vision, the necessary information about the event, and the event plan and logistics.
Event proposals are often created and submitted as a response to a request for proposal (RFP) from an organisation seeking outside help from a professional event planner. An RFP is an open invite to events companies and event planners to come up with an amazing idea for an event based on a brief outline of what the organisation wants to see.
The organisation will accept the best proposal, (yours!) and set the wheels in motion to start building your idea. That’s why it’s absolutely critical you have a comprehensive event proposal that pops.
That being said, event proposals can also be used internally within organisations by an events team to propose an event to stakeholders. Without all the facts, the big wigs within your organisation can’t give you the green light to start planning your incredible event.
Event proposals are also an important way to secure sponsors to help fund a new event. Gaining sponsors is a critical way to add value (and pizazz) to your events without passing extra costs onto your event attendees.
An event sponsorship proposal is slightly different from a proposal targeting customers or internal stakeholders. We’ll talk more about sponsorship proposals in just a minute — but if you want an in-depth guide and a free event sponsorship proposal template, we’ve got you covered.
An event proposal template is a pre-built event proposal that you can customise to suit your own bespoke events.
Event proposal templates typically come in the form of downloadable Word documents or editable pdfs, and they include a number of sections. Each section represents a critical component of any event proposal, and should include guiding text that advises you on the specific information you should include to create a winning event proposal.
Every event planner needs ready access to a quality event proposal template.
Above all else, they save you time. It’s tricky enough trying to craft a unique vision for an event — let alone organising all your thoughts into a viable event plan. That’s where proposal templates really come to the rescue.
With an event proposal template, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. You’ll have a well-organised and complete proposal containing the precise information that stakeholders want to see before approving your event.
An event proposal template can help you impress clients and win business — but only if the template you’re using includes the right sections and covers all the basics.
Each event is unique, so you might need to add a couple of extra sections that are specific to your vision. But as a bare minimum, you should include:
Each of these sections plays an important role in creating a holistic narrative around your event. To help explain why, let’s quickly walk through what you should expect from each section of the event proposal template.
As you might expect, your introduction is the start of your proposal — but it doesn’t need to include loads of information. After all, you don’t want to overload your reader on the first page of your proposal.
A basic proposal introduction simply includes elements like:
Next, your template needs to include a section spelling out each goal for your event.
You need to be clear about what you want the event to achieve. For example, your event might exist to foster some brand recognition, achieve certain KPIs, celebrate a new product launch, or hand out an award.
Some event proposal templates include event objectives within a broader ‘event outline’ section. This approach can help you to keep the length of your event proposal document down and is useful if you want to impress customers with a quick pitch.
Next, an event proposal template needs to include an overview that concisely covers all the key facts about your idea.
A quality overview will generally include information about:
Your event overview is also the place to name-drop key event management tools that you may have at your disposal.
For example, if you’re planning on using an event management solution like Eventbrite, it’s definitely worth mentioning in your event overview. It’ll give your clients an understanding (and peace of mind) around the type of digital management and oversight you’ll implement.
Not tried Eventbrite yet? Find out how you can join for free to start planning your upcoming event.
The budget section of your event proposal template needs to spell out your projected event costs.
According to researchers at Statista, around a third of companies increased their event budgets in 2022 for putting on conferences, product launches, and hospitality events. But 14% have decreased their budgets for VIP events — and one in four companies have scaled back investment on virtual events.
A template will simply have a few prompts to get you started — but it’s important that you get as specific as possible when completing your budget. Information about budget is particularly important if you’re pitching this event to external stakeholders, because it may have a huge impact on their decision to go through with the event.
If you’re an independent event planner proposing an event to a potential client or a big corporate business, the budget section of your template is also where you’d include the costs of your event planning services as a contractor.
While marketing and promotion is likely a string of your budget section, an event proposal template should have a standalone section dedicated to this.
In the event marketing and promotion strategy you can elaborate further upon the means you’ll utilise to promote the event.
For example, let’s say you’re planning on using social media to promote your event. This section of your proposal would cover the accounts you plan to use to generate buzz, where and how you’d post, and information about any ads you might create and circulate.
By contrast, you might drill a bit deeper into a more comprehensive tool you plan to use such as Eventbrite Boost.
Eventbrite Boost is a powerful way to promote an event because it enables you to easily create an email campaign, add an event to social channels, or create social ads, all from one dynamic dashboard.
If you’ve got tools like this at your disposal, mention them in your event proposal. When filling in the marketing and promotion section, you should also include metrics you’ll use to gauge success, and the rationale behind each one.
Most event proposal templates will include a section where you can elaborate on event sponsorship.
According to EXHIBITOR’s most recent Trade Show Sponsorship Survey, 77% of businesses surveyed said they’d sponsored events in the past. Bearing that in mind, it’s hardly surprising four out of five marketers say an event planner’s ability to secure sponsorships has a major impact on big events.
A sponsorship section should outline how you envision sponsorship of the event. This could be either internal or external, and relate to the event’s funding as well as its operation and branding.
For example, you might want to pursue event sponsorship from a local drinks company or plan to secure a discounted catering rate by allowing a restaurant chain to co-sponsor the event. Your sponsorship vision can be an important consideration when clients are looking at your event budget.
The event evaluation and feedback section of a template is a space that allows you to elaborate on how you plan to evaluate the event’s success.
For example, you might gauge success based on the number of visitors or attendees that turned up. Other key performance indicators (KPIs) for success could be the volume of donations raised or the number of orders placed for a new product during and in the days following the event.
Let’s say you decide to evaluate the success of your proposed event based on the number of attendees or ticket sales. In this case, your proposal should also include how you’ll be keeping track of numbers — which is one of the reasons we created the Eventbrite Organiser app.
The Eventbrite Organiser app monitors real-time ticket sales, checks in attendees with a scan, tracks up-to-the-minute attendance, and accepts secure payment for event tickets and merchandise on-site.
The evaluation and feedback section should list all the KPIs you’ll use to determine what success looks like, and how feedback on the event can be administered and disseminated.
Now that we’ve covered what an event proposal is and what you should be looking for in a template, let’s talk about how to create an event proposal that’ll lift yours above the competition’s.
When you’re responding to an RFP from a big company, you’ll be going head-to-head with a lot of similar events ideas from professional event planners. That’s why it’s important you give some extra thought to key areas of your proposal.
In our experience, the easiest places to make your proposal jump off of the page are:
Don’t worry: we’ll walk you through it.
When completing your proposal, you’ve got to ask yourself some tough questions.
For example: how will you set your event apart from your competitors? Where will your event take place? What can attendees expect from your event?
It’s not enough to say you plan to hold a food festival, run a conference or organise a charity fundraiser. Your event proposal needs to create an emotional connection by painting a picture of what exactly it is you have in mind and how your vision will come to life.
Next, you’ve got to spell out to customers and clients what makes you the best person to plan their next big event.
So, think about it: why should a supplier, stakeholder or sponsor work with you?
Having set out your vision for the event, now’s the time to give them another compelling reason to get involved – and that’s you. Your event proposal should outline your experience, be written in a confident voice, and inspire trust in the reader.
Now that the reader is excited about your event, you’ve got to deliver the important details they need to make a final decision. This is the part of the proposal that drills into the execution of the event.
Where and when it will be held? What are the logistics that will be involved? Who are the people you already have in place?
You also need to explain, in detail, the value proposition. In other words, what are you asking for and what’s in it for the person reading your proposal?
For example, you might be seeking sponsorship in return for giving an individual or company exposure on your social media channels and the opportunity to have a presence at the event.
The bottom line: the more specific you can be in your proposal, the better your chances of approval will be.
Just as words can persuade a supplier, stakeholder, or sponsor to work with you, the design of your event proposal can also communicate a lot about you and your event.
A clear layout can help communicate your main points, as can images of previous events or graphics that convey any statistics or data you might have to share. It could be worth working with a graphic designer to get the event proposal design just right.
If you need a hand getting started with your event proposal, try downloading our free ready-made event proposal template. It’s designed to jumpstart your event proposal — including all the key sections clients will want to see and prompts to guide you.
You’ll notice we’ve split section six into three different subsections. They’re each designed around who you’re proposing the event to, so you can choose the relevant parts based on whether you’re pitching the event internally, externally, or to a potential sponsor.
Ready to get started?
A sponsor might be interested in working with you for a number of reasons.
They might want to secure access to your brand audience. Alternatively, they might want to sponsor your event to raise awareness of their brand and generate leads — or simply as part of their corporate social responsibility activity (CSR). If you’re able to secure a sponsor, they may provide monetary support or goods and/or services at a reduced cost or for free.
Once you’ve included everything you need and finished designing your proposal, it’s time to set about securing sponsorship for your event.
Your sponsorship proposal is an essential introduction to you and your event. Share it with potential sponsors, send it as a follow-up to an initial conversation, or ask to pitch at a face-to-face business meeting.
In all three cases, it’s important to include the key facts relating to your sponsorship proposal. But remember to tailor your pitch to each individual or company that you approach to demonstrate that you’ve done your research.
You want to identify individuals or companies who operate within your event’s niche and find ways the event could enable them to communicate with your attendees.
Pro tip: Just like your sponsorship proposal should grab a potential sponsor’s attention and demonstrate your professionalism, every email you send and every conversation you have should do the same.
Make sure you write an engaging subject line that prompts people to open your email. Then get to the point of your presentation quickly and be upfront about the kind of support you’re looking for. To help you out, we’ve asked an events expert to share his top tips and tricks to securing sponsorship success.
Need help writing an effective event proposal for sponsorship? Our downloadable template can help support your pitch.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter whether you’re an up-and-coming freelance wedding planner, seasoned event planner specialising in parties, or part of a big corporate events team, event proposals are going to be a critical part of your job.
But because event proposals are such an important part of the process, it can be daunting (and time-consuming) to work out where to get started. That’s why a quality event proposal template is a life-saver in your event planning utility belt.
Ready to get started on your proposal? Start using Eventbrite free and discover how you can expand your reach and wow prospective clients with our industry-leading event marketing platform.
