How to Plan an Awards Ceremony in 11 Simple Steps

Awards ceremonies are exciting and are worth celebrating, but they can be hard to plan. Due to this we’ve put together 11 simple tips to help you plan a successful awards ceremony. 

Write a brief

Writing a brief is a great way to get all your ideas down and make sure you tick off everything you need or want to do before and on the day. When creating a brief you should consider:

• Who you want to nominate and what for
• Why they deserve the nomination
• What information you need from them
• Who will choose the winners?
• What will the awards look like?
• When will the ceremony take place?

Consider choosing a theme

Giving your ceremony a theme can be a simple way to make it memorable. When picking a theme you should think about:

• What the purpose of your event is
• Your target audience
• The venue you’re using 
• What your budget is
• What entertainment your using

What’s your budget?

When setting a budget, this may depend on whether you’re going to sell tickets or allow people to attend for free. 

Choose a venue

When choosing a venue there are various factors you’ll want to consider such as:

• The facilities that the venue comes with, such as projectors, parking and WI-FI
• How big you need the venue to be
• How accessible the venue is for those with disabilities 
• Whether they provide catering or if you’ll need to hire another company to do this

Do you want to create a floor plan?

Creating a floor plan is a great way to ensure things go smoothly on the day of your event by knowing exactly where you want people to sit and what the event will look like. It would be a good idea to place award nominees near the stage so that they can access it more easily. 

What entertainment are you going to implement?

Entertainment is crucial to a successful awards ceremony. You need to decide whether you want live music or other types of entertainment like dancers, comedians or magicians. Providing these sorts of things will help keep the audience engaged throughout the whole ceremony and will make it more interesting in between awards sections.

How are you going to present your awards?

One of the most important parts of an awards ceremony is the host. You need to decide whether you’re going to host the ceremony yourself or hire someone else to do it. 

The role and responsibilities of a ceremony host can include:

• Entertaining the audience
• Making general announcements throughout the event
• Announcing award winners and nominees
• Directing the flow of the ceremony  to ensure the night sticks to schedule

You’ll also want to decide whether you want to use multiple presenters, for example using different people to host each award like they do at the Brit Awards or just use your host to announce each section. 

Another thing to consider is whether the host will make a speech at the beginning and end of the ceremony and how long the award winner can speak for when they make their speech. 

Do you want to create a programme?

Creating a programme for the ceremony will allow both your staff and guests to know how the event is going to run on the day. Printing these out and giving them to guests can also act as a souvenir, making your ceremony even more memorable and can be a great way to get attendees to post about your event on social media.. 

When creating a programme you should consider factors like:

• Who will open the event and at what time
• The objectives of the event
• Event performers

How are you going to promote the awards ceremony?

Promoting your ceremony is important as you don’t want all your hard work planning the ceremony to go to waste if no one knows it’s happening. When it comes to promoting your ceremony you’ll want to think about:

• Your target audience (who you want to attend)
• Whether you want to create your own website for the event
• Whether you’re going to promote your event on other websites
• How you’re going to promote it on social media
• Whether you’re going to need a sponsor
• Whether you’re going to send paper invites or emails invitations
• Are you going to use press releases?

How are you going to invite your guests?

When it comes to inviting your guests you should consider how you’re going to invite them. You should also think about who you’re inviting and they’re preferred form of contact. For example you could send invitations through the post, by email or text or phone them up to invite them personally.

Why choose Millennium Point for your next awards ceremony? 

Here at Millennium Point we have multiple rooms that could be perfect for your next awards ceremony. We’re also close to bus, train and airport transport routes, as well as parking areas, making it easy for you and your guests to get to your event. 

Rooms that could be great for your next event include our Auditorium (Birmingham’s biggest screen), the Platform (perfect for dinner awards) and Atrium. 

Get in touch with us today to see how we can help you find the perfect room for your next awards ceremony.