How To Create An Event Programme

Posted on October 31, 2024 by support

Any event, be it social, corporate, or personal where they are many people attending will greatly benefit from having a professional, printed programme available for attendees to help navigate the day. Here are some tips on how to create an attractive and professional event programme to make the event more successful and enjoyable for those attending:

Event Programme

Firstly, let’s establish what an event programme is – it is simply an overview of what is going to taking place on the day of the event – it is a guide to what is going to happen, where it is happening and at what time. Major events such as concerts, music festivals, theatre productions, perhaps business conferences, and even weddings are all events at which a programme will be used. A programme is typically a printed sheet, or a booklet/brochure that contains a detailed agenda of the event, the participants, and any other information relevant to the event that an attendee will find informative or useful.

What To Include

The content of your programme will depend upon the nature of the event, and the space with which you are working – sometimes a single sheet with the bare but essential information will be sufficient, but there will be other events where a more comprehensive and informative programme will be necessary. Regardless of the size of the event, certain information must be included in your programme:

The name, location and the date of your event – everybody needs to know where to go and when to get there!
The day’s schedule – people will want to know the order of events during the day and the timings to which they need to adhere to take in the full event.
A map of the venue – a visual picture of the event location layout will help people navigate the event easily and safely.
Contact details – providing your contact numbers, social media platform addresses, and such, will help people who may have enquiries or problems at the event.
Your brand – events are an opportunity to publicise your own corporate brand and identity – organised events bring a mixture of people together and are ideal marketing opportunities.

If your programme is to be a more comprehensive booklet then there are other contents to consider:

Event sponsors and other contributors’ adverts
Further advertising and branding of your own business
Brief descriptions of any vendors providing services at the event
A FAQ section providing useful information for event attendees
Any performers, speakers, or entertainers’ biographies
Media partners who may be involved in covering the event
Contact information for emergencies – first aid posts and such

The more information you can provide for attendees the better!

Event Programme Structure

Here are some considerations for the structure of your programme content:

Brand – Consider your own business brand when designing your programme – ensure you make your brand prominent and use your corporate logo and any colours, fonts, and slogans that your brand employs in your other marketing and advertising materials – events are great opportunities for brand reinforcement!
Sponsors – Consider other partner brands – perhaps the event has sponsors and organisers other than yourself, so you should ensure that they have representation in the programme, along with any speakers, and associated charities.
Images – Carefully consider the use of any printed images or photographs for your programme – ensure that you have the correct dimensions needed for the images to be reproduced in a quality fashion – poor, grainy images will make your programme look cheap and unprofessional!
Simplicity – Even if yours is a substantial booklet programme, remember it is for information purposes – it is not a novel! Keep the content concise, pertinent and simple – the content is for quick reference and guidance.
Visual hierarchies – Your programme design should focus on the more important elements – create a visual hierarchy to emphasise the more salient information by using strong colours, boxes, and different text sizes and fonts – but do not over-complicate the design and make it too ‘busy’ – it makes it difficult to read!
Quality Checks – Ensure before you send your design to print that every element is properly checked by an independent pair of eyes – proofread the programme and ensure there are no spelling or grammatical errors, that the information is all correct, and that the images have reproduced to the quality required.

Design Options

There are different options you can take for your programme design:

Designer – Outsourcing your programme design to a professional designer will reap the best results but carries an obvious financial overhead in the process – examine your budget constraints for the task.
DIY – If you are a regular user of the relevant software packages available, and are adept in this department, then you may be comfortable designing the programme yourself – it is a money-saving option but consider whether you can produce the necessary quality for the finished product.
Template – Often a good ‘compromise’ option from the two previous – there are many online programme templates you can download and use to create a professional standard printed programme. Many of these are free to use and you can customise them to your exact requirements for your programme and to suit your brand and event!

Summary

It does not necessarily need to be a difficult or expensive exercise to create an event programme, but it can be a valuable asset to the event and the attendees, all of which will reflect positively on you and your brand.