Avoiding the 10 Worst Event Planning Mistakes

No matter what your career, business, or even spiritual background, you are likely to attend some sort of organized event. You may even be called upon to plan one! Here's an article that spoke to my faith as well as my passion - puzzles. Enjoy!

As leaders planning more events than we care to think on in one year, either we are too busy to plan effectively or we just simply do not think it falls into the scope of our role. If you have not had to plan an event yet, do not be surprised if you find out you are planning the next big event. To prepare for a successful event and avoid the 10 worst event planning mistakes, apply the tips in this article.

Mistake #1 Lofty Speaker Expectations

Your speaker may be very popular and have a glowing one-sheet with stellar qualifications, but s/he may not be right for your audience. Conduct thorough research and level your expectations to avoid disappointment. Typically, my approach is to expect nothing other than God being God in every situation. I prayerfully communicate His/my desires and then I stay open to His will. This helps keep me stay balanced and no longer focus on people, roles, titles, etc.

Mistake #2 Poor Communication

The latest thing in conferences and special events is to avoid letting conference attendees know who is speaking on which day of the event. Not sure of the logic surrounding this strategy, but it fosters poor communication and stifles the ability to plan accordingly. Avoid it like the plague with the following suggestions in mind:

Business and Church Leaders when people register for the event, you capture information about them. Do something with the information besides printing out flimsy name tags.

Distribute countdown communiqués leading up to the event.

Recap the day with points to ponder version speaker highlights.

Send complimentary information for out of area visitors (e.g. area demographics, nearby restaurants, local radio stations, peak hours of traffic, major points of interest, as well as a mini-map of the church/building of the event).

Never get so big you feel only God needs to know your every move. When you value people, you communicate with them and keep them in the loop of developing progress and changes in scheduling.

Mistake #3 Wrong Place, Wrong Person

Make sure you have the right people serving, greeting, ushering, selling products, etc. Keep Sister Frownie and Brother Sourpuss out of front and center positions. They may more appropriately serve behind the scenes making important calls, stuffing gift or lunch bags, or coordinating clean up. People who enjoy serving others make the best people for interacting and accommodating your guests. The best ushers and servers are those who are friendly, kind, and serve with genuine love. There is nothing worse than feeling like you are interrupting something or like an outside intruder attending a private special event. You walk away thinking, hmm...if you didn't want me here, why did you invite me?

Mistake #4 Host-itis

As the host of your event, engage and speak with those who have taken time out of their busy schedules and paid hefty fees to come to your special event. Make a special effort to go out of your way and speak to someone you do not know. Hey, take a few minutes to see how they are enjoying and benefiting from the conference. Most importantly, just get to know them and do not just engage and speak with leaders you already know.

Here is a suggestion to spark a conversation. Ask your guests if they are comfortable. There is nothing worse than sitting jam-packed in a small building in dead summer sweating bullets through your stockings, skirt, and well-pressed suit. When you know they are hot, you can crank up the air. Well, you know the scripture, you have no air because you did not ask if anyone was hot! Seriously, this may appear to be a no brainer, but how many people have ever asked you if you are comfortable/uncomfortable with the temperature in the building? Better yet, how many hosts have ever personally spoken with you? Make the extra effort to connect with others. Who knows what you will find out.

Mistake #5 Not Ditching The Titles

This is not the time to be role driven. Be servant driven. If a guest asks for something, serve them as you would serve Jesus as a guest!

Mistake # 6 Failing to Count up the Cost

When setting the price for your event, be sure to consider everything. For example, the price of food, handout materials, parking, etc. This will enable those who are attending to be fully prepared with how much money they will need. As the event planner, be careful to count your costs meticulously. You can certainly be left with a bag full of bills for which you are responsible to pay once everyone has gone back home.

Mistake #7 Underestimating Time

Look at how long it takes to magnificently plan a wedding. Planning an event is not as easy as slapping something together in a flash. It takes ample time to thoroughly plan a successful event. Give yourself the gift of planning and overestimate the amount of time you will need to pull all the details together. Our recommendation is no less than 1 year for a small to mid-size event.

Mistake #8 Can't See the Big Picture

Don't just wallow like a pig in every muddy detail, but look up and see the vision of your event, seminar, or conference. Be sure to write out measurable goals and objectives. Having clear goals, objectives, and a vision determines a successful event.

Mistake #9 Going It Alone

Exercise a team approach and enlist the help of an event planner, family, friends, and other professionals instead of biting off more than you may be able to chew. You may want to consider co-sponsoring an event with another business or an established ministry or charity. Be realistic about what you can accomplish in your event planning.

Mistake #10 Poor Promotion

Once you are clear on your vision, goals, and objectives, you can begin to spread the word about your event. There is nothing worse than planning a spectacular event to which no one or the wrong people show up. Be unique and memorable in how you spread the word. We are all bombarded with invitations to events, classes, and seminars. Stand out, be bold, and say the same things we hear all the time in a fresh, new way. You may consider hiring a designer for your website and invitations.

One of the joys of our leadership calling is the opportunity to positively influence others in our meetings, conferences, and special events. As a leader planning and organizing an event, you are providing a service. I encourage you to see it as a labor of love. Yes, hosting a conference is a lot of work. If you implement the above suggestions and avoid these mistakes, you should end up with an event that brings God glory and blesses all who attend.

Many leaders overlook nitty gritty project details or simply give them no thought. If you found this article helpful, you can experience more support by hiring me to identify where you are most vulnerable in planning your special events. I can coach you through the details of every phase, from the project start to the very end-project implementation. I also support you through prayer and by bringing an open, unbiased ear to listen to all the ebbs and flows of the project. I literally mean every ebb and flow...from scope creep to budget constraints. I can help. Call me now before you start planning your next special event.

For additional support around planning an event, go to http://www.godscoach.com/special_event_checklist.pdf.

Divinely wise,

Karen M. Pina

GOD's Coach

(c)2006 Gifts Ordained by Direction/Karen M. Pina. All Rights Reserved.

Karen M. Pina is a leadership coach and the CEO of Gifts Ordained by Direction (www.godscoach.com), a coaching practice that addresses everyday leadership issues. Pick up a copy of Karen’s book “Leadership FITness” (www.fit-leaders.com) and get FIT physically, financially, and spiritually.

Mine for the gems in your career, relationships, and leadership development by joining the many readers of Gem News. Subscribe now and instantly receive a free audiobook chapter on career fitness. You can partner with Karen for more support around what you have just read or allow her to mentor you to become a certified coach.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Karen_M._Pina

Did you notice #10? Be unique and memorable! Jigsaw puzzles can do just that. Contact us today to create invitations, favors, or promotional puzzles for YOUR next event!

Educational Jigsaw Puzzles: How Educational Are They?

Many companies advertise their products as being educational. How much of this terminology is sales promotion and jargon, and how much is fact?

As an educator for many years, I can say with authority, that there is educational value in all types of jigsaw puzzles. The skills acquired and practiced in completing jigsaw puzzles are a foundational part of successful learning. Doing jigsaw puzzles develops several functions of the brain simultaneously as a child has fun and also learns. Most notably developed in this learning process are the abilities to reason, deduce, analyze, sequence, and develop logical thought and problem solving skills. Physically, eye-hand coordination and spatial awareness are also required to complete a jigsaw puzzle.

Putting these benefits aside, I want to look particularly at the jigsaw puzzles that are labeled "Educational". These puzzles are designed to teach a specific learning objective. Some examples of these might be a jigsaw puzzle map of the world, or of the solar system. The manufacturers claim that such puzzles will teach a child those specific facts. What educational value in reality do these types of puzzles contain?

Firstly the degree of the educational value of these types of puzzles is dependant on how the puzzles are used in the learning process. For example, let us suppose that the learning objective is to learn about the geography of the United States of America, specifically the position of the individual states. You buy a puzzle picturing all the states and their position in the country, and give it to the child to do. Will the child ace a test on the States? Probably not! I'm sure that some learning will take place, but it will be limited and a few weeks later very little of the learning would be retained. To the child the learning process of doing that puzzle would be similar to any jigsaw puzzle that they do. Their focus on the states and where they fit is limited to the process of completing the puzzle.

In order to maximize the educational value of a jigsaw puzzle, it needs to part of the learning process, but not all of it.

Children have different styles of learning and an advantage of a jigsaw puzzle is that it does involve using more than one type of learning aptitude in the process of completing it. The most obvious learning style for a puzzle is the visual. In doing a puzzle of the USA the child will see the overall shape and also how the various states fit together to complete the whole. Jigsaw puzzles involve both the global (big picture) and analytic (details) aspects of learning. Puzzles are also good for the kinesthetic tendencies of learners. Kinesthetic learners learn best by practical hands on activities. For those with a auditory preference in learning, conversation about the learning and the correlations in the puzzle combined with the overall learning objectives, needs to happen at the same time as the puzzle is being done.

However the greatest educational benefit comes when the jigsaw puzzle is done as part of the overall learning objective. A jigsaw puzzle can be used to introduce a new subject as well as reinforce learning that has already occurred. The educational value increases to the extent that the subject of the puzzle is meaningful to the knowledge the child already has. To the degree that the child can correlate his prior knowledge with the puzzle experience, the more educational value is gained.

The jigsaw puzzle can also create new learning experiences. These experiences can then be developed in many other ways for an overall learning experience. For example, in doing a puzzle on American Geography, famous landmarks located on the puzzle could then be looked up and researched in books or on the Internet. Stories can be read or told about historical events that occurred. The actual size of an American state could be explored by working out how long it would take to travel across by car or train. The learning possibilities are endless.

Some educational puzzles such as 'Faces and Places' and 'The Map of the Solar System' ,produced by the Great American Puzzle Company come accompanied by a guide book that can be used to get the maximum educational benefit and value from the jigsaw puzzles.

In conclusion, it can be said that all jigsaw puzzles have educational value to some extent. The puzzles that are advertised as 'educational' can be of great educational value if introduced, not in isolation, but as part of a specific learning goal that has both relevance and purpose for the child.

Any time spent doing a jigsaw puzzle with your child will make it a more meaningful and memorable experience. Don't just give your child a present of a jigsaw puzzle-instead give your child an educational experience and a memory that will last a lifetime.

Barbara White, of Beyond Better Development, has over twenty years experience as a parent, teacher and Principal. The jigsaw puzzles referred to in this article can be purchased at http://www.blogger.com/Do.

Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Barbara_White

Looking for educational puzzles, or maybe you want to create your own? Start here!

We Have Liftoff!

We are going live today. After a solid 2 months of work, loads of glitches, wracking of the memory to make sure all the pieces of our business is accurately reflected in our new home, we are finally going live. But that doesn't mean the site is done. No way! There are still some elements to add in after we are sure of how we want them to be. The homepage is being designed but is not quite there yet but we didn't want that to prevent our debut the day before Thanksgiving as we planned. So our temporary homepage is doing the job brilliantly. I hope all of you who find your way here take the time to leave a word or two about what you think, want to see, and what you are dying to create!


And in your travels on this site, if you do happen across a snafu, do let us know. And being the writer that I am, I am also open to help such as mispellings and missing words. We want to make this as easy to use and fun to look at as possible. Just give us time. ;-)

Another Step Closer

Got our homepage under construction page live today. We've been doing a lot of work to get things just right and there is still much to do but we won't have you waiting too long. We think you'll enjoy just checking it all out. Actually, it was even interesting for us going back down memory lane, thinking about past puzzle jobs and thinking about the development of our business. This site is the culmination of all that. We know you're going to love it!

Coming Soon!

The revamp of the website is under way. You wanted to be able to see all we do and have done. You will. You wanted to be able to shop. You will. You wanted to be able to get information about our customization. You will. You wanted to know about selling our puzzles. You will. Now, it's going to take some time to get all the new images in and get it all flowing like it needs to be but step by step, change is coming. The foundation is there, the frame is there and we're starting with the face - the homepage - which will tell you a large part of what we do but not everything! You'll have to go beyond the homepage to see it all. For a little while, you may only see the homepage as we get the inside ready for you. But even on the homepage, you'll be able to get a lot of information yet you won't be overwhelmed. It's been a year of planning and decision making, picture taking and rewriting, waiting and debating, but it's going to be worth the wait. And together we're going to take Village Works to the next level.

Thanks for sticking with us so far.

Women's Expo 2009

Village Works Enterprises LLC did its first 2-day expo in Hartford and it was fun, tiring, enlightening and even painful at times. We'll get some pictures posted as soon as they come in but for now, here are a few of Felicia, of Ethnic Expressions, who was given a puzzle by her sister, Carmen, that was created on the spot by Jerry Craft, an award-winning cartoonist. This was the introduction of handdrawn puzzles. It's still a work in progress but if YOU want to have a special message done up on just one puzzle, just let us know. These were 8x10s on special for $15. The regular price is $25 but price is subject to change as level of artistry rises. Stay tuned for more on this.










The finished product!



Can you can see the resemblance?

Spending Time With Dad for the Jigsaw Hour

What's the news world saying about puzzles these days? Take a read!

Dan Verner

Published: June 21, 2009

My dad moved to a local retirement facility over a year ago. We had become concerned about him living alone after my mom’s death and he had several stays in the hospital in the months following. We looked at several and settled on one, and it has worked out well for him. It reminds me of a very quiet upscale hotel. Someone wrote about the silence in such places and found it sad: I think people at that point in their lives don’t need a lot of noise. It’s a very calm place to visit. The people are nice and he has made some friends.

I usually go over to see him once a day. We used to watch Nationals baseball in season, but this year that’s too depressing. Instead, he always has a jigsaw puzzle going. I don’t know if you enjoy jigsaw puzzles or not. I have worked them at various times in my life, usually during holidays when there always seemed to be one spread out on a table. I know this activity doesn’t rank up there with bungee jumping for sheer excitement, but there is something to be said for it. It’s
relaxing and challenging and offers mental stimulation. We tend not to talk much and things move at a slow pace, so the jigsaw puzzle helps occupy us and keeps us out of trouble.

My dad says any visitor has to put in at least 10 pieces before they leave, and most do. We favor manly pictures of airplanes, trains and cars, but have been known to work puzzles featuring flowers and puppies from time to time.

We joke that we are professional puzzle workers and have numerous strategies to assemble the pictures. We were amused that one puzzle came with directions:
Assemble frame pieces. Then fill in the picture. That’s what we try to do, and then go for the images that are apparent. After that, we try to match colors, then we try to match shapes. Most of the puzzles are difficult enough that usually we’re reduced to trying every piece in every available space to see what fits.

We also have evolved several guidelines for our puzzling: No fair dropping a piece on the floor if it doesn’t seem to fit anywhere. No trimming pieces off with a knife to make them fit. No forcing pieces by pressing on them several times. And no knocking a table leg out when the puzzle seems hopeless. (This actually happened once, but it was an accident. Really.)

Some of the puzzles are more difficult than others, and even with the pictures, it is difficult to find where the pieces go. The image just looks different when it’s cut
into an odd shape and so much larger than the picture on the box. But once it’s fitted into the puzzle, it makes sense. That bit of blue is part of the reflection off a
windshield or the red stripe goes right across a uniform sleeve. And when the whole puzzle is done, the picture comes alive in a way that is striking and startling.

Usually when we’re done with a puzzle we take a picture of it and leave it assembled on the table for a few days so anyone who worked on it can see it if they come by. We start on a new one immediately and have an ample supply. I think he got seven puzzles for Christmas, and when we run through those, the place has a nice supply in the dining room.

My dad was quite the jack-of-all trades when he was stronger, constantly engaged in some building project. Just a few years ago we added an extension onto the deck at his house so my mom could get out in her wheelchair. We also put up a shed that had about 10,000 screws involved in its assembly. As time has gone on he has become less able to do projects, and so we work on jigsaw puzzles.

As someone who experienced the Great Depression and World War II (China-Burma-India theater at the end of the very long supply line), my dad has remarkable adaptability. Even when he was in rehab for a week following his bouts with pneumonia, he did not complain but instead found something positive in the stay. I am not half so adaptable and so, on this Father’s Day, I salute you, Dad, for who you are and what you’ve done. I’ll be over this afternoon to work some more on the puzzle.

Dan Verner is a Manassas resident. He contributes his thoughts and stories to the Perspective page on Sundays.