You work for a huge enterprise. It hosts 1,000+ events in different countries every year. You have numerous business units all over the world. And every business unit has its own way of doing things, including its own event request form and approval process.
We’ve seen it time and time again in our 20+ years of helping 12,000+ event builders from global life science, professional services, and technology companies to run engaging events:
Having different event request forms and processes means it takes so much longer to approve events. Plus, it’s almost impossible to track events on a global scale. And that makes it tricky to monitor expenses, return on investment, and make sure nothing gets overlooked at the very start of the event planning process.
That’s why our team of experts has created an event request form template to help you streamline your approval process and track your events on a global scale.
Download our event request form template now. Then, read on to discover the 8 benefits of using a standardized event request form across your whole business.
What is an event request form?
An event request form is a document (Word) or an online form people use to request permission and resources to plan and run an event. It’s a crucial step that comes before the event planning process begins. Especially for large or important events such as pharma congresses or partner conferences.
Here’s how it works:
Step 1
Event requesters fill out an event request form template with all the key details of the event they want to organize. For example:
-
- Name of event
- Event format (virtual, in-person, hybrid)
- Date
- Time
- Location
- Purpose
- Expected attendance
- Equipment
- Staff
- Audio and visual needs
- Food and beverage
Step 2
Event requesters submit the event request form to the appropriate person or department to approve it. In the case of pharma companies, event requesters may be marketing or medical team members who would like to host an HCP event. And the approver could be the global medical marketing manager or the medical affairs director.
Step 3
The approver reaches out to the requester if they have any questions or concerns about the event. (Although this shouldn’t be the case if your event request form template is as detailed as ours. Download it now to take a look).
Step 4
The approver approves the event, so the requester can proceed with planning, knowing they have all the permissions and resources to do so. In the case of pharma companies, if the event requester is a marketing or medical team member, they may then reach out to the internal omnichannel team or an external medical event agency to help them run the event.
Leading companies use their CRMs to manage this part of the event process. For example, our professional services customers use Salesforce and our pharma customers use Veeva. It makes the approval process much more efficient. To find out how else you can use Veeva to manage your medical events better, read our article on how to make the most of your pharma CRM to power your medical events.
After 20+ years of helping top life science and professional services companies to deliver outstanding events, we’ve seen the huge benefits that having the same event request form template (and process) throughout a global group can bring.
Let’s take a look at them:
7 benefits of using a global event request form template
An event request form helps to kick off and streamline the event planning process by collecting all the key details in one place in a structured and organized way.
Here are 7 benefits of implementing an event form request template across your company on a global scale.
#1 Improve consistency and accuracy
By having a standardized event request form template to use across your entire company, it’s easier to receive, process, and approve event requests in a consistent and accurate way.
#2 Easily keep track of expenses
Requesters can use the event request form template to estimate event costs. Plus, they can provide a detailed breakdown of expenses. These may include:
- Venue rental
- Equipment and resources
- Catering
- Transport
- Accommodation
- Event platform
Once the event request form has been approved and the event is underway, requesters can use the form to track expenses as they occur. By keeping track of expenses in this way, you can ensure that all events stay within budget and that there are no unexpected surprises.
#3 Make sure nothing is overlooked
Having a standard event request form template that all requesters use is a great way to stay on top of all the details of your company’s upcoming events This helps ensure that you don’t overlook anything. This is vital when you’re part of a large pharma or professional services company that runs thousands of events each year.
#4 Easily evaluate ROI
If you have an event request form template that you use globally, it’s easy to compare them and evaluate events to see how they performed. You can quickly and easily track which events had the best return on investment. And it provides a record of expenses that you can use to report on and evaluate events.
#5 Save time & energy
Using an event request form template saves time and effort by providing a standardized format to collect information. Instead of creating a new form for each event, requesters can take the template and fill out the relevant information.
#6 Improve communication
Using an event request form template can improve communication between requesters, organizers, and other stakeholders. Plus, using a clear and standardized format to gather information ensures that everyone is on the same page. You can also use the event request form to communicate updates or changes to the event as needed. This ensures that all those involved stay up to date with the planning process.
#7 Get essential info to kick off event planning
An event request form template provides a framework to collect key details to plan and run an event. Having all of these in one place makes it easier to create your event brief once the request has been approved.
Need help creating a comprehensive event brief to keep everyone on the same page throughout your events? Download our free event brief template now.
What should be in an event request form template (Word)?
When creating an event request form template to implement across your whole business, there are a few key things to keep in mind. The event request form should be thorough enough to capture all the key details of the event, so the approver can easily review and approve the request. But structured well enough that the approval process doesn’t take too long.
To save time and energy creating your global event request form template from scratch, download our complete template put together by our team of experts and start using it across your company right away.
At a minimum, it should include the following:
#1 Requester’s details
- Name
- Position
- Department
- Phone no.
- Email address
#2 Event details
- Name of event
- Date
- Time
- Duration
- Format (virtual, in-person, hybrid)
- Location (if relevant)
- Venue (if relevant)
#3 Event expectations
- Purpose of event
- Target audience
- Total no. of expected attendees
- Expected no. of in-person attendees
- Expected no. of virtual attendees
- Speakers
- Sponsors
- Desired outcome
#4 Event resources
- Event platform
- Event agency
- MedComms agency
#5 Logistics
- Equipment and resources
- Audio and visual needs
- Food and beverage requirements
- Security and safety concerns
#6 Budget
- Individual costs
- Venue hire
- Catering
- A/V equipment
- Décor
- Entertainment
- Event platform
- Event agency
- MedComms agency
- Total cost
- Funding sources
Pro tip: You should itemize your budget and cover all expected expenses. Having these to hand from the outset will help you assess whether the project is feasible and make sound decisions on what kind of resources you can dedicate to it.
There are lots of ways to significantly reduce your event costs. Get 11 top tips on how to maximize your event budget in our article.
#7 Approval process
Writing instructions and key details about how the approval process works will make sure everyone is on the same page and knows what to expect in terms of procedures and timelines.
3 tips for creating an effective event request form template (Word)
If you’re ready to create an event request form template to use across your entire organization, here are a few tips that can help make the process easier:
#1 Make it brief
An effective event request form template should capture the critical information reviewers/approvers need to be able to approve the event. But it must also be as concise, straightforward, and user-friendly as possible. This means asking only the questions that are absolutely necessary.
With our event request form template (Word), you can easily tailor it to your needs by removing or editing information. Download it to see for yourself.
Pro tip: Use our event request form template (Word) as a basis to create your online event request form in your CRM. If you’re a pharma company, you can manage your event request forms on Veeva and set them up with conditional formatting, so requesters only have to give relevant information. For example, if they’d like to run a virtual event, they won’t need to fill out details about the venue or location.
#2 Request the right information
The best way to ensure that you collect all the relevant information to be able to approve (or deny) the event is to create an event request form template with specific questions that cover all the key details. It needs to contain who will be attending, what type of setup you will need, and what type of catering you need. You should have all these questions on your event request form.
By requesting the right information, you reduce the chance of any back-and-forth between the requester and the approver. This helps speed up the event approval process.
#3 Set expectations
It’s important to set expectations in advance so that everyone knows the timeline they’re working with. The last page of your event request form template should clearly lay out the review and approval process so that both requesters and reviewers/approvers stick to the deadlines.
Streamline your event approval and planning process across your business starting with an event request form template
By having an event request form template that you use as a company on a global scale, you can speed up and improve the consistency of your event approval process across all business units and regions. Plus, you can easily track every single event within your business, and compare them to one another to see which ones were the most successful and which ones to take inspiration from for the future.
To save yourself time and energy by not having to create a global event request form from scratch, download our event request form template (Word) as a starting point and adapt it to your needs.
Make running events for your whole company a breeze
Of course, each business unit of your company has to respect certain rules and regulations depending on the country it’s based in. But there are so many things you can do to make running events so much easier for everyone. And that’ll help you understand which events were more successful than others to help you decide if you should host the same kind again, tweak some things or focus on other events.
Here’s what you can implement across your whole organization:
- A branded and compliant event platform that audiences love
- A comprehensive event brief template
- A detailed event debrief template
- A set of effective event email marketing templates
- An extensive run of show template
To find out more about how to host better events on a global scale, book a free demo with SpotMe now.
Other templates to help you run engaging events that audiences love:
- The best event RFP template
- The ultimate event brief template
- The essential event budget template
- The best 18 free event email templates
- The ultimate event run of show template and example
- The ultimate event debrief template
Event experts who contributed to this article
- Lisianne Maffli, Program Manager
- Tess Margarit-Johnson, Program Manager
