Given Hapunda

194 organisation, you would need to compile a list of all the invitees. Invitations to the event should be sent out at least a month in advance. You could start with a general email informing them about the upcoming event and then follow up with physical invitations as there are some individuals that do not check their email regularly. You could also use google calendars, or any other application to send out the invitations. This is a good application as it allows you to keep track of who will be attending, who has sent apologies and has not yet responded to the invitation. 4. Based on the number of guests, the activities you have planned for the event and the resources you have available, you can then decide on a venue. Consider a venue that is easily accessible and that will accommodate everything you want to do. You could consider hotels with conference facilities for this kind of event or an outdoor area that has sufficient space, depending on the weather. Others prefer to have the activity in the communities in which they have been working, for example, in a school-setting. 5. Decide on a programme: Will the event be a day’s event? Half a day? Two days? What will the sequence of events be like? Who will the master of ceremonies (MC) be? Will we have a guest of honour if so, who will that be and what will his or her role be? How many speakers will the programme have and what will they be presenting on? These are questions that you will need to answer as you prepare the programme. If you have a guest of honour, you may need to prepare the speech for him or her in advance. You will also need to confirm his or her availability and send a reminder a day or two before the event. 6. Your key stakeholders, that is your funders, will want to see that you have acknowledged them during this event. Ensure that everything you print, be it banners, fliers, etc., contains their logos, they should be acknowledged in all the speeches and they should even be given an opportunity to speak at the event. Different donors will have different requirements when it comes to acknowledgments. Be sure to keep these in mind. 7. If you are going to use power point presentation, make sure that the projector is tested in advance, all the presentations are placed in one location, whether on the computer or flash drive. 8. On the actual day, stress that all the employees involved in the event show up very early to prepare for the day. Ensure also that you have designated seating spaces for the key stakeholders and your guest of honour. 9. Always prepare something for your guests to take away; pamphlets, brief reports, published articles, flash drives with the presentations etc.