If you will be involved in all aspects of the planning process for an upcoming event, the Overall Event Timeline will be very important to you … your guiding light. Without it, you can easily become lost. All other timelines for individual areas of responsibility will stem from the Overall. You will use most of the steps from the Overall Timeline when creating others for individual projects such as Lodging, Food & Beverage, Audio Visual, and so on, but the dates and details will be very different.
| Overall Event Timeline.PDF |
| Overall Event Timeline.XLS |
The timeline is your guiding light
Start dates will vary based on
The first step to creating an Overall Event Timeline is to consider how far in advance you are at this moment from the start date of your conference or event. If your meeting or event will require a very large venue or exhibit hall, you may need to begin your search years in advance instead of months. If you are only weeks away from the start of your functions when you begin planning, your timeline will have to be compressed significantly and each task prioritized differently than if you have three, six or 12 months to prepare. Similarly, if you are planning a small meeting with simple set-up requirements and no planned meal function, the planning steps will be simplified and easier to accomplish in a shorter period of time. However, small meetings can be more complex than large ones if the guests are VIPs or dignitaries, in which case the timeline will need to be expanded to allow time for the unique arrangements that will be required.
A work in progress –
The timeline will be work in progress throughout the entire planning process. As one task is completed, it can be hidden from view in your spreadsheet but not deleted. You may need to refer back to it to check your notes. New tasks will become necessary as changes in your program occur and you will have to adjust your timeline to accommodate them. The timeline is a flexible tool and a very necessary one if all tasks are to be completed before deadlines.
To set up your Overall Event Timeline –
| Step 1 | Create a checklist of all Major Tasks required (this list will be a work in progress) |
| Step 2 | Using the tasks from your checklist, set up an Excel spreadsheet to be sorted |
| Step 3 | Enter the major tasks as Main Categories in a horizontal heading across the top |
| Step 4 | Break down the major tasks into smaller tasks titled Sub-Categories |
| Step 5 | Enter the Sub-Categories in another horizontal heading below the Main Categories (see sub-category note below) |
| Step 6 | Column A Start Date |
| Step 7 | Column B Main Category – to differentiate the major projects |
| Step 8 | Column C Sub-Category – to group related tasks together under a major project |
| Step 9 | Column D Completion Deadline |
| Step 10 | Column E Tasks – to describe briefly what needs to be done |
| Step 11 | Column F Notes – for items you need to remember or document |
| Step 12 | Column G Assigned – to document who will oversee the task to completion |
| Step 13 | Column H Status – for quick review of current situation |
| Step 14 | Add rows for each task and add a brief description in the Task column |
| Step 15 | Enter the Completion Deadline dates for each task |
| Step 16 | Work backwards from the Completion Deadlines to set start dates that allow ample time to meet deadlines. |
| Step 17 | Enter the Start Dates, and you’re done! |
Sorting timelines –
The Overall Event Time Line has been created in an Excel spreadsheet using a few of the categories and tasks to demonstrate how the spreadsheet can be sorted to focus on one particular area over another. Each of the sample pages have been sorted differently such as –
| Step 1 | Sorted by Main Category then Start Date |
| Step 2 | Sorted by Sub-Category then Start Date |
| Step 3 | Sorted by Start Date then Main Category the Sub-Category |
| Step 4 | Sorted by Assignments then Deadline Date |
Sub-categories –
Not all components of the planning and coordination of a meeting or event will be large enough in scope to justify identifying sub-categories for assignment and sorting purposes. The sub-category headings and column should be deleted if that is the case.
Timelines for assigned areas of responsibility –
Sample timelines that apply only to a specific area of responsibility, such as Lodging, will be provided in other Planning Topic sections if appropriate.
NOTICE –
The checklist and timeline samples provided by Planning Helper are incomplete and meant for use as guidelines to help you create checklists of your own with content that applies to the unique needs of your meeting, event or function.
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