A Complete Guide to Hiring an Event Planner in New York

June 18, 2022 Mario Stewart

Every year, the market for party and event planners is worth more than $3.2 billion just in the United States! That is just some indication of how much people value making sure that their events go as well as possible.

Considering how large this market is, it should come as no surprise that you are going to have to choose between many options for great event planners. If you want to find the best event planner New York has to offer, you should follow the principles in this article.

Read on to learn all about the most important things to keep in mind when you are choosing the best event planner you can find!

Know What You Are Looking For

You can waste a lot of time looking at event planner options that are not suitable for your situation. It will be much more efficient for you to sit down and get clear about what you need.

For example, if you want a medium-sized event, then you know right off the bat that you should not waste your time investigating event planners who only provide services for large or small events. The same principle applies to any other aspect of your event.

Recognize what your budget is and make sure you know roughly what geographical area you want to be in. Getting clear on the specifics of your event will help you narrow down your list of possible candidates for your event planner.

Consider Your Event Planner Options

Once you know which subsection of event planners to consider, you will need to generate a list of candidates. You can easily do this simply by Googling around for event planners. It can also help to look at any event planners you or a company you are associated with have worked with in the past.

Ask for a Professional Event Planner Recommendation

Finding options on Google is easy. However, the odds that any random event planner you find on Google will be the right choice for you are somewhat low. You will have candidates with a much higher chance of success if you ask for recommendations first.

Ask anybody in your industry or network who might have experience with event planners. Before you ask them for recommendations, make sure you know what information you will provide to them. Just as you should not waste time looking for event planners that do not manage events like yours, you should guarantee that anybody you ask for recommendations understands what kind of event planners are or are not suitable for your situation.

Asking around for recommendations can also help you avoid hiring the wrong option. People may recommend great candidates. And they may also recommend avoiding certain event planners they have had bad experiences with.

You have to consider the trade-off between time and effectiveness. In principle, the more candidates you consider, the more likely you are to find the best event planner New York has to offer for you. However, you can only spend so much time on your search process.

Make sure to keep an eye on how many candidates you already have on your list. Once you have enough, you should move on to it narrowing your candidates down.

Narrow Your Options Down With Ratings and Reviews

There are many ways to narrow down your candidates. One of the easiest ways is to look at online ratings. These days, there are online ratings for practically every type of business, including for event planners.

Looking at ratings alone can allow you to easily sort through your candidates. It might be helpful for you to list your candidates in order of their overall rating.

At this point, you have a couple of choices. You probably want to avoid further investigating the bottom few candidates. Ratings are not a perfect measure, but if somebody has especially bad ratings, there is a good chance they will not be the right candidate for you.

But that does not necessarily mean that you only want to look at the few candidates with the highest overall ratings. Even candidates with ratings somewhere in the middle can often do great work.

However many candidates you decide to investigate, make sure to also read online reviews. Online reviews provide a much more detailed picture than ratings alone.

The online reviews can help you double-check that a candidate with a great rating will actually do great work for you. The reviews can also help you discover which candidates with medium ratings are worth considering for your event.

Find an Event Planner With the Right Kind of Experience

Just because an event planner is willing to do your event does not mean that they have that much experience with events like yours. Ask your candidate event planners about their experience.

It is often helpful to do this before you provide them with details about your own event. That way, you will know that they do not simply tell you what you want to hear.

In general, you want someone with as much experience as possible in planning events as similar to your own as possible. If one candidate has more experience in total than another, that may not make them the right choice if most of their experience is with events very different from yours.

The kind of experience you get planning New York City conferences is very different from the kind of experience you get planning weddings.

Understand How to Find the Best Event Planner New York Has Available

We hope learning about how to find the best event planner New York has to offer has been helpful. Event planner conferences are also a perfect place to learn more about how to find or be the best event planner possible. 

Check out event trade shows like the upcoming Event Planner Expo 2022 10 Year Anniversary. Learn more today about the #1 trade show for event planners.

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