Every event, regardless of its type, needs to have a well thought through and balanced schedule. You may ask, what is a balance schedule? In short, a balanced event schedule is one that does not feel overwhelming, that encourages connections between all in attendance, and ultimately provides a welcoming environment. There are a few things to keep in mind when creating your balanced schedule to ensure you meet the above criteria. Let’s explore how to create a balanced schedule and why it is important.
Create a Balanced Schedule
As you plan your event, one of the first things that comes to mind is the shape it will take when it’s live. When you put some thought into it, it’s quite simple to meet the criteria of a balanced schedule.
The easiest step to take is to build break times into your schedule from the start. Between each session consider having 10 to 15-minute breaks, at a minimum and with no exception. Keeping breaks to 10 minutes or more creates a buffer between each session where the AV team has ample time to reset the stage and prepare for the next speaker(s) and your audience has a moment to connect with each other about the previous session or take a quick break. Going beyond 15 minutes for every break creates time-loss in your schedule. A deficit between content and breaks will quickly become evident. Personally, I prefer 45-minute sessions followed by a 15-minute break. This setup ensures the speakers have ample time for their presentations, the ability to answer a few questions from the audience, and 5 minutes of “wiggle room” added in IF they need just a smidge more time. The most important reason behind keeping regular breaks in your event schedule is that it prioritizes small networking opportunities, bathroom breaks, and/or food and drink breaks between each session.
On the topic of breaks, schedule the lunch or mid-day break in a position during the day that physically breaks the day in half. For example, if you have 10 sessions each day, the lunch break should be after the 5th and before the 6th session. When you add this break into your schedule for the day, plan for it to be an hour to an hour and a half long. You may lose attendance when the lunch break more than an hour and a half. On the other hand, a lunch break less than one hour may not provide your audience with ample time to eat and relax for a moment before going back into the remaining sessions.
By now we have ample break times throughout the event day. Besides the ability to network or take a quick rest, the most important thing to have available during the breaks are refreshments. Ideally, throughout your entire event day there will be refreshments such as water, coffee, tea, and small snacks readily available to attendees. For this you must rely on your catering team and venue staff. Make sure your expectations are clear and that this is included in the quotes you receive as you search for your venue and potential caterer.
When you include ample break times in your schedule you are creating time and space for all attendees to network. This is especially important for sponsors. The break times you provide (assuming they last at least 10 minutes between sessions) provide sponsors with many opportunities to host informal sessions at their booth throughout the event. It also allows sponsors to have more meaningful conversations between each session, leading to recruitment opportunities for attendees who are interested in the sponsors in attendance.
Last but certainly not least, let’s dive into the final thing you can do create the most balanced schedule possible for your event: Spread around your most interesting or “big-ticket” sessions. These sessions include keynotes, panel discussions, and interactive sessions that would typically take up more time than your average scheduled session. Most importantly as you spread the big-ticket sessions throughout your schedule. If you have a multi-day event, do not put all of your keynote speakers or important sessions on the same day. Have one or two each day, where you can manage it. These sessions should also (preferably) be stand-alone sessions. If your event has multiple tracks going on simultaneously, plan your big-ticket sessions around the multi-track set up.
The Importance
Long story short, your audience, speakers, sponsors, and team will benefit from and enjoy an event that uses a balanced schedule. Incorporating the different aspects of a balanced schedule create space for connecting and an easy-to-follow flow throughout each day of the event.
There are pros and cons to having a balanced schedule, let’s explore both.
Pros
The most impactful positive aspect of using a balanced event schedule is: Attendees, speakers, sponsors, and your team will feel less overwhelmed throughout the event. Such a balanced schedule will give all in attendance a little bit of downtime to relax throughout the day. By using a balanced schedule, you’ve also created many small opportunities for attendees and sponsors or speakers to network with each other between each session. Meaningful or engaging conversations can absolutely occur between 10 and 15 minutes, but in 5 minutes not so much. Finally, a balanced schedule can make your event more predictable. This makes it much easier to keep track of time for each session.
Cons
Let’s now talk about some negative aspects of using a balanced schedule. Keep in mind, while the following points are considered negative side-effects, they will in no way hinder your organizational efforts. First, a balanced schedule that includes ample breaks can make your overall event day longer. This may cause less time for sessions with relevant content when only hosting a single-track event. Although every event can lose attendees towards the end, it may seem more apparent or noticeable as part of a balanced event schedule as there may be less people in the final break and session times. Finally, for recurring attendees, speakers, and sponsors your events may be predictable. This may not necessarily be negative but for some it can become underwhelming. To curb this, you may choose to add a variety of “extra” activities that differ from event to event.
Conclusion
If you’re not doing so already, try to implement a balanced schedule at your next event. Take note of the differences between your usual schedule setup and settings.
Try to compare your normal event schedule with a balanced schedule with the following questions:
Are your attendees staying longer throughout the event?
Are your sponsors more satisfied with the networking opportunities provided to them?
Are your speakers more engaged and at ease throughout the event?
Most importantly, ask for feedback from your audience. Did the attendees, sponsors, and speakers enjoy and get more from having substantial breaks between sessions or longer/shorter session times? With feedback you can choose once and for all to officially apply a balanced schedule for all of the events you organize.
Interested in a template schedule you can use and reuse for all of your events? Let me know in the comments on LinkedIn or Twitter, send a DM, or email!