How to Create an Event Program
Who, what, when, where, why, how? The content of an event program is meant to answer these key questions. You, as the person responsible for producing the event program, can show-off your creativity not only in how you design the look and feel of the program, but also in how fully you answer each of these questions. Let’s delve in.
Who
Who isn’t just about the person standing up on the stage at any given point. It’s also about who made the event possible (the hosts/sponsors/advertisers), who organised the event (think about all the logistics, planning, set-up and clean-up involved), and anyone else who made the event possible.
As you’re writing your program, think about all these aspects of your event and who was responsible for each:
| Actors / presenters | Video / Lighting crew | Audio team | Advertising team |
| Musicians | Props team | Stage managers | Program printing |
| Script writers | Costume team | House managers / staff | Catering team |
| Directors / Conductors | Set design | Program production | Sponsors / Advertisers |
Not everything in this list may be applicable to your program, and the way that you recognize these groups may not simply be their name in the credits. For example, in my recent program, the actor/writer/director was the same person so he had a full page bio. The host, charity and sponsor also each had a full page spread in the program.
However, there was a range of people who were involved in the production who were simply listed along with their contribution:
What
Think of the what as the actual agenda or running order of the event. What is happening during the event. For example, a concert event would be the pieces being performed, in order. A play, ballet or opera would be the acts and intermissions. Effectively, think of “what” as a summary of the event content. Here’s an example from my most recent program:
When
Considering “when” for the program can have a couple of meanings. It could be the straightforward, “on what date is the event taking place?” But it could also mean when, within the course of human events is the context of the content. As a result, the answer to “when” is potentially going to scattered throughout the program, and may take more than one form.
For example, the date of the production from my recent program was listed on the front cover. But we also made reference to when in Luther’s life this evening conversation was meant to take place within the event agenda (see the Act 1 description above). And we also dealt with the “when” question by relating a timeline of Luther’s life and other things in history that were going on at the same time.
Where
This is also a question that is likely interspersed throughout the program. It could be information about the venue the event is in, it could be information about where are the elevators or restrooms, or fire exits. It could also be where in the world we are being transported to with the event content.
In my program example, we handled the venue questions within a welcome article at the beginning of the program, and we handled the where in the world in the timeline.
Why & How
When you think about the different aspects of your production, there are several “why’s” to consider. These will likely help many of the event’s stakeholders, not just the person creating the program:
- Why hold the event?
- Why do you have a sponsor / particular venue / chosen charity
- How do I as an audience member interact with them?
- Why bother to have a program at all?
- To help the audience navigate their visit and understand event progress
- To give credit and thanks to the people and companies involved in producing the event
- To further educate the audience on the event subject matter
Think of “why” as the setting of your goals and objectives for the event and your program. For our recent event, we were holding it to enlighten and educate the audience about Martin Luther and give insights into this man who lived 500 years ago and re-shaped religion and politics in the Western World that still impacts us today.
To help achieve our why, I wrote a couple of articles and Phil helped me create the Luther crossword puzzle. In a program that contained advertisements, it would make sense for these articles and fun bits to be expanded across multiple pages with the adverts interspersed throughout, so that a reader would be more likely to read both the advertisements and the articles.
Lessons learned
Here are a few things I learned in producing this latest event program.
Layout and formatting
When you’re laying out your content, it’s smart to consider how many pages will make a full booklet. If you are printing it double-sided, and it’s due to be booklet folded, then 1 piece of paper is actually four pages of content. So, if you need to add another page to fit in just one more bit of content, you’ll actually need to find content to fill not just one, but four more pages. I forgot this during my program content creation and ended up having the equivalent of a blank double-page spread at the end of the program. Ideally I would have shortened some of my content or incorporated some additional content to fill up the printable space.
For creating my layout, I used Microsoft Publisher because it’s included as part of my Microsoft 365 subscription and I’ve used it once or twice in the past for double-page spread booklets. Because content comes into the program as blocks, you can move the blocks around your page or to other pages in your booklet pretty easily. I’m not sponsored by Microsoft (though, if you’re reading this, please do get in touch, I’d love to test/review/write for you). I’m not good at design, so I found a concert program template that I liked by searching Google and Microsoft’s embedded templates and then re-created it on the master pages of my Publisher file changing the colours and fonts to best match our event. It’s important to decide at the beginning what paper size you’re going to want the finished product. Initially I thought 8.5 x 11 folded in half would be big enough, but then I remembered my audience was mainly going to be seniors who’d appreciate larger font, so I ended up having to creating a new file for the larger format.
Proofreading time
Be sure to leave plenty of time for a group of people to proofread and edit it before it goes to the printer. I gave over two weeks for four people to proofread this program and I’m so glad I did. I found out, with less than five days to go, that my message asking for their feedback of the draft copy was stuck in my email outbox. A quick resend solved the problem, but suddenly we were cutting the printing time short any major fixes were required.
Printing file set-up
If you are able, do a draft print before it goes to the printer. I didn’t do this, and identified that the file I sent them had been misinterpreted and didn’t print as an 11 x 17 booklet with saddle-fold staple as I’d intended. Instead, both pages of the double-page spreads were squished onto an 8.5 x 11 sheet, single-sided and stapled on the long edge. So embarrassing.
And, although the printer (who was a secretary at the venue and not a professional printer) had a week to do the print job, they were only able to fit it into their schedule the Friday before the event weekend. So, getting it reprinted added a lot of last-minute stress. Lesson learned: communicate often with your printer and be a squeaky wheel for a draft print.
What about you?
Are you an expert at creating programs, or are you creating one for the first time? Do you have any hints and tips to create an event program? Are you interested in getting my help to create your next event program? Get in touch using the form below.
