Ultimate Event Coordinator Checklist

An event coordinator checklist is the list of tasks that takes an in-person event from the first planning meeting to the follow-up afterward. If you coordinate conferences or association meetings, you already know most of the tasks. A checklist makes sure each one has an owner and a date, so nothing waits until the week of the event.

The phases run from a year or more before the event to the days after it, so you can start at the phase you are in.

Key takeaways

• An event coordinator checklist covers every task from first planning to follow-up, by phase: budget, venue, vendors, registration, badges, event day and after.
• The venue contract fixes your dates, capacity and much of your budget, so a conference of a few hundred people often books its venue a year or more ahead.
• Registration fields, prices and credit rules are hard to change once people sign up, so you settle them before the form goes live.
• Setup day, teardown, final invoices and certificates fall outside the event days, which is why each one needs an owner on the checklist too.

A year to six months out: goals, budget, team and venue

Everything in this phase feeds the venue contract, which fixes your dates, your capacity and a large part of your budget. Settle the goal and the money first, so the contract fits them.

Goals and audience

The goal decides who you invite and where the money goes, so write it down before you look at dates or venues. Write it as a SMART goal (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound), so you can judge the event against it afterward. “Register 300 paying attendees by the registration deadline” is a goal you can check, while “a strong turnout” is not.

Do this with whoever approves the event, so the goal does not shift later:

• Write the main goal in a form you can measure.
• Name the audience, such as members, licensed professionals or exhibitors.
• Ask the people who approve the budget what they will look at afterward.

Format, size and date

Format, size and date decide which venues can host you, so fix them before you contact venues. Choose the theme now as well, because your save-the-date will carry it.

• Choose the type of event, such as a one-day seminar, a multi-day conference or a trade show.
• Estimate how many people will come.
• Decide whether to add online sessions (a hybrid format).
• Pick a date and length clear of holidays and other events your audience attends.
• Choose a theme or tagline, if you use one.

If you add online sessions, our guide on how to host a virtual conference walks through the online side step by step.

Budget and sponsorship

Build the budget before you sign any contract, so every quote you collect has a line to go into.

• List expenses, such as the venue, catering, audiovisual equipment, marketing, speakers, travel, staff time, insurance and payment processing fees.
• Project revenue from registration fees at each price level, sponsorships and exhibitor fees.
• Add a contingency line for costs nobody planned for.
• Set sponsorship packages at different price levels, each with clear benefits such as booth space, logo placement or a sponsored session.
• Write an exhibitor prospectus with booth sizes, prices and what each booth includes.

Offer sponsorships and booths now, so sponsors and exhibitors can fit your event into their own budgets.

Team and roles

A task that belongs to everyone tends to wait until someone notices it, so give each area one owner. On a small team, one person may cover several areas:

• Logistics, for the venue and vendors.
• Program, for the agenda, speakers and schedule.
• Registration, for sign-ups, registrants’ questions and badges.
• Marketing and communications, for promotion and every email registrants receive.
• Volunteers, for recruiting, training and scheduling helpers.
• Sponsors and exhibitors, for contracts and what each one was promised.

Venue and hotel rooms

Hotel rooms for out-of-town registrants are often negotiated with the venue contract, so handle both together. If you are starting less than a year out, contact venues in your first week, because the dates you want may already be taken.

• Visit the venue to check capacity, location, parking, accessibility and cost.
• Check the contract for how long your dates are held, the deposit schedule, cancellation terms and the insurance you must carry.
• Confirm your setup and teardown hours, overtime charges and the minimum you must spend on food and drink.
• Ask whether the venue requires its own caterer or audiovisual team, and reserve any outside vendors it does not supply.
• Consider event cancellation insurance once deposits are paid, if losing the event would be costly.
• Confirm internet bandwidth and power for badge scanning and any streaming.
• Block hotel rooms nearby at a group rate, with a booking deadline you can share at registration.
• Get a floor plan showing the check-in desk, session rooms, catering, exhibit space and signage.
• Send a save-the-date to past attendees and members once the contract is signed.

Read the attrition clause twice. Attrition is what you owe if registrants book fewer hotel rooms or meals than the contract promised, and it can turn a slow registration month into a bill. The force majeure clause matters too, because it says what happens if the event cannot go ahead for reasons outside your control.

Program and speakers

The program is what people register for, so it has to be ready to publish when registration opens. If you offer continuing education credits, the program also feeds the application to the accrediting body (the organization that approves your credits, such as a licensing board or a professional association), which usually asks for session details and learning objectives.

• Open a call for proposals, or invite speakers directly, with a deadline.
• Send each speaker an agreement covering fees, travel, recording rights and deadlines.
• Ask the accrediting body for its application deadline, how long approval takes and whether you may advertise credits before it approves them.
• Collect learning objectives and any disclosure forms the accrediting body requires from speakers.
• Start the credit application, including the minimum time an attendee must spend in a session and whether a quiz or session evaluation is required.

Tools and processes

Before registration opens, choose the system that will hold your registrations, badges and attendance, because switching tools halfway through means typing attendee data in again. Whatever you choose, check that it covers registration, payments, badges, check-in and credits, or that the tools you combine share one attendee list. Ask which tasks keep working when the venue internet fails, and plan a paper backup for the rest. Set up the team’s working habits at the same time:

• Keep one shared task list, with an owner and a due date for every item on this checklist.
• Hold a team check-in, weekly at first and daily in the final week.
• Keep contracts, badge designs and attendee lists in one shared folder.

Conference Tracker, the event management software we make, keeps registration, badges, check-in, session attendance and credits in one attendee record. You manage it in a web browser, and your staff scan badges with a free app on their phones or tablets. The app stores scans on the device when the venue Wi-Fi drops and uploads them once the connection returns, while the parts that run in a browser, such as the self check-in station, need a working connection.

Four to six months out: registration and credits

Registration is where your attendee data begins, so a mistake here follows you to the check-in desk and the certificates. Open it once the program and prices are ready, early enough for early-bird pricing to work. Publish the event page with the registration form, and announce it to everyone who received the save-the-date.

Registration and payments

Each of these is harder to change once people have registered, so decide them before the form goes live:

• Choose the fields you will need later, such as dietary needs, accessibility requests and license numbers for credit.
• Decide whether you approve each registration by hand or accept registrations automatically.
• Set prices for early-bird, member, group and on-site registration, and decide how you will check member status.
• Create complimentary codes for speakers and staff, and a separate registration path for exhibitors and sponsors.
• Write your refund and cancellation policy, and a consent line for photos and recordings.
• Decide where payments go and how registrants who cannot pay online will pay.

In Conference Tracker, payments run through your own PayPal, Stripe or Authorize.net account, so the money goes straight to you, and registrants who cannot pay online can be invoiced instead. Refunds happen outside Conference Tracker, so you return the money through your payment account and then mark the payment as refunded.

Promotion

Promotion starts the day registration opens and runs until it closes, so plan the whole stretch now and use the channels your audience already follows:

• Email past attendees and members before each price deadline.
• Post speaker announcements on the social networks your audience uses.
• Ask partners, sponsors and speakers to share the event with their contacts.
• Give each partner its own discount code, so you can see how many registrations each one brings in.

Compare registrations week by week with your goal. If one channel brings in most sign-ups, shift your time there before the early-bird deadline.

Badges

Design the badge now and print as late as you can, so late changes do not cost you a second print run:

• Show the name and organization in large type, with a color or ribbon for roles such as speaker, staff and exhibitor.
• Add a QR code if you scan people into sessions or exhibitors capture leads.
• Decide whether to print in advance or at check-in, and choose your badge stock and holders.
• Plan a way to reprint badges on site for walk-ins and name corrections.

Waters Edge Counseling used badge colors to help people find each other. It printed attendee badges in one color and volunteer leaders’ badges in another, so attendees could tell the groups apart and start conversations. Its marketing director walks through the badges in a short customer video.

Conference Tracker prints badges on standard badge stock with an office printer, or on thermal label printers that need no ink or toner. At the check-in desk, your staff can check someone in and print the badge in one step.

Continuing education credits

If your event offers credits, set up how you will track them before registration opens, because registrants will ask how credit works:

• Explain on the event page how attendees earn credit, once the accrediting body allows you to advertise it.
• Build the session evaluation form, and the quiz if credit requires one.
• Decide how you will record time, with badge scans in and out or with sign-in sheets.
• Decide who signs the certificates and when attendees receive them.

With Conference Tracker’s continuing education tracking, you set the time requirement for each session as a percentage of the session or a number of minutes. The system then works out each attendee’s credits from their scans, or from times your staff enter by hand, and fills them into each certificate.

You can also hold credit until the attendee completes the session evaluation. The South Carolina Network of Children’s Advocacy Centers did this at its symposium and issued certificates only to attendees who completed every evaluation, which its administrative director describes in a short video. Our explainer on how continuing education units are calculated covers the math itself.

If registration, badges and credits are the parts of this checklist that take your team the most time, request a Conference Tracker demo and see all three working from one attendee record.

Two to four months out: vendors, exhibitors and safety

The vendors you reserved with the venue now need details, such as menus, the equipment for each room and delivery times. They work from your estimated headcount until you give them final numbers in the last weeks.

Vendors

Every vendor should get the agenda, the floor plan and one contact on your team, so nobody has to guess at the event:

• Choose menus that cover dietary needs, and agree the date for the final headcount and a few extra meals for late arrivals.
• Confirm the audiovisual equipment and a technician for each room, plus recording if you will share sessions afterward.
• Rent tables, stages and booths, with delivery and pickup times agreed with the venue.
• Design directional and sponsor signage, and book the printer.
• Give each vendor an arrival and setup time and the entrance to use.

Two people tasks belong in this phase as well. Recruit volunteers for check-in, session doors and the help desk, so you can train them in the final week, and book travel and hotel rooms for speakers and other guests now that the program is set.

Exhibitors

Exhibitors need setup times and shipping details weeks before they pack, so send their logistics early:

• Assign booths on the floor plan.
• Send an exhibitor manual with setup and teardown times, shipping instructions, and power and internet options.
• Register booth staff and plan their badges.
• Explain how lead capture works at your event, if you offer it.

Permits, insurance and safety

Some permits take weeks to arrange, and your venue may ask for your insurance certificate before you can set up:

• Apply for any permits your location requires for a large public gathering or alcohol service.
• Pay for music licensing if you play recorded or live music, and ask whether the venue’s license already covers it.
• Buy liability insurance and send the venue its certificate of insurance.
• Arrange accessibility, such as ramps or elevators, reserved seating and the interpreters registrants request.
• Plan first aid, the route to the nearest medical facility and an evacuation plan your team has walked through.
• Add security for a large event and a weather plan for any outdoor space.

The last two months: final program, communications and checks

Registration usually closes in this window, and many registrants sign up close to the deadline, so your final numbers arrive only weeks before the event. Print orders and catering counts wait until now for that reason, and they cannot wait any longer.

Final program and printing

Printers and badge suppliers need lead time, so lock the program early enough to order everything that carries it:

• Publish the final schedule and room assignments.
• Collect speaker slides by a set deadline.
• Order printed programs, signage, badge stock and lanyards, with time for printing and delivery.
• Give the caterer your final headcount by the date in the contract.

Emails to registrants

Each email answers questions your check-in desk would otherwise get at the event, so plan the whole sequence now:

• Send a last-chance email before registration closes, and a reminder before the hotel booking deadline.
• Send a “Know Before You Go” email a week before, with times, directions, parking, dress code and agenda highlights.
• Send a reminder the day before, with what to bring, such as photo ID.
• Confirm arrangements with each registrant who asked for dietary or accessibility support.

If you use an event app, ask people to download it in the week-before email. Conference Attendee, the attendee app we make, puts the sessions, maps, exhibitors and announcements on each attendee’s own phone.

The week before

Use the final week to confirm what you planned, while a problem can still be fixed quietly:

• Confirm times, contacts and final numbers with every vendor.
• Share the run of show (the minute-by-minute plan for setup, sessions and teardown) with staff and vendors.
• Train volunteers on check-in, session scanning and their shifts.
• Count badges, programs and handouts against the registration list, plus a few extras.
• Charge your scanning devices and update them with the final schedule.
• Send the team the contact list and confirm your weather plan.

Event day

Setup the day before is what lets event morning start on time. Without it, room sets, sound checks and the check-in desk all compete for the hour before the doors open.

Setup day and morning briefing

Set up the day before if the venue allows it, and keep event morning for a short briefing:

• Load in, set every room and run a sound check.
• Put up signage and set up the check-in desk.
• Test your scanning devices and badge printers on the venue network.
• Brief the team in the morning on the schedule, any changes and each person’s duties.
• Share who handles the venue, speakers, registration and emergencies, and how to reach them.
• Agree how the team will talk during the day, such as two-way radios or a group chat.

Walk every room once more before the doors open, because a missing chair or a dead microphone is quick to fix in an empty room.

Check-in

Check-in is the first thing attendees see, so staff it for the busiest half hour:

• Run several stations at peak times, each with a trained person and a working device.
• Keep printed attendee lists, sorted by last name, and a mobile hotspot as backups if devices or the venue network fail.
• Open a separate line for walk-ins, with a way to take their details and payment.
• Reprint badges for name corrections and anyone who left theirs at home.

Conference Tracker’s staff scanning app is free to download and runs on iPhones, iPads and Android phones and tablets, so your team can scan badges on devices they already carry. A spare tablet can also run as a self check-in station to shorten the line at peak times. The offline storage covers scans, so keep the hotspot and printed lists ready for desk check-in and badge printing.

Schedule and attendance

Running on time protects meals, room changes and the hours you pay the venue for, so give one person the job of watching the clock:

• Appoint a timekeeper or stage manager to give speakers time cues.
• Announce each session a few minutes before it starts.
• Put a scanner at each session door if credits depend on badge scans, and remind attendees to complete each session evaluation.
• Keep an open discussion ready for a session that runs short, and shorten a break if one runs long.
• Check session counts during the day, and add chairs, open an overflow room or repeat a session that is over capacity.
• Keep spare microphones, cables and a backup laptop for presentations.

Tell attendees about any change as soon as you make it, so nobody finds out at a locked door.

Keeping attendees involved

Participation has to be planned, because a full day of listening leaves people little reason to visit exhibitors or talk to each other. Pick a few ideas that suit your audience:

• Run live polls and audience questions in sessions.
• Give networking time some structure, such as topic tables at breaks.
• Plan exhibit hall activities, such as product demos or a passport game in which attendees collect booth scans for a prize draw.
• Choose an event hashtag and show attendees’ posts and photos on a screen at the venue.

In Conference Attendee, each session has its own social wall beside the conference-wide one, and attendees can give feedback on a session as soon as it ends.

After the event

After the event you still owe thanks to attendees, speakers and sponsors, payments to vendors and records to the accrediting body. If the event repeats, ask the venue about next year’s dates before you leave.

Teardown and closing the books

Leave time and people for teardown, because the venue can bill overtime once the contract hours run out:

• Pack materials, return rentals and check every room for anything left behind.
• Check the venue’s final invoice against the contract, including food and drink counts.
• Pay vendors and collect any unpaid sponsor and exhibitor fees.
• Record final revenue and costs against the budget.

Thank-yous and the survey

Send thank-yous within a day or two, while the event is still fresh. Attendees get links to slides, recordings or photos with a short survey, and each speaker, sponsor and volunteer gets a personal note that names something specific about their part. Keep the survey short, and decide before you send it how you will use the answers.

Results against your goal

The people who approved the budget will ask how the event did against its goal, so put the numbers side by side:

• Compare attendance with registration to see how many registrants did not come.
• Review engagement, such as session attendance, app use and exhibit hall visits.
• Compare revenue and costs with the budget, line by line.
• Count the registrations each promotion channel and partner code brought in.

If registration and check-in run in one system, such as Conference Tracker, much of this comes from its reports. Its attendance analytics chart check-ins by date and visits by room, an export lists every registrant who never checked in, and its financial report shows revenue by payment method and the discount codes used.

Certificates and reporting to accrediting bodies

A wrong name or credit total means sending a certificate twice, so check the records before anything goes out:

• Chase missing session evaluations or quizzes, if credit depends on them.
• Fix incomplete attendance records, such as a sign-in with no sign-out.
• Check names and credit totals.
• Send certificates to everyone who qualified, with a note thanking them.
• Report attendance and credits to the accrediting body by its deadline.
• Keep the attendance records in case the accrediting body audits the event.

Debrief

Hold the debrief within a week or two, while your team still remembers the details. Ask what happened at each step, so people describe the process openly. Leave the meeting with three things written down:

• List what went well and should stay.
• List what went wrong, with a fix for each item.
• Write a short summary for leadership or the client, with results against the goal, feedback highlights and the budget outcome.

Starting late and planning the next event

If your venue is not booked yet, book it first, whatever phase you are in. If your event is less than six months away, find the phase you are in, then check the credit application, registration and badge tasks before anything else. Credit approval can take the longest, and registration and badges are the hardest to fix once attendees arrive. If your event is further away, start with the first phase and give every task an owner this week.

After the event, update this checklist before you file it. Add the task that surprised you and remove the ones your audience did not need, so next year’s list is built for your event.