Learning As I Go

Several months ago I came up with the idea that it would be a good idea to promote my newest book coming out in a large scale live event. I was talking to my dear friend and fellow author Kate Marie Robbins about her book Behind Closed Doors and how I wanted to partner with a local charity to raise money and awareness for them as I launched the book. Because she is a master of creating and hosting online events we decided to join together for a domestic violence awareness month event which would begin with the release of the books, both of our individual stories along with an anthology we had both been a part of.

She created a group to help plan the event that I am of course a part of while I went out to get the live event put together. She has been amazing as she gets raffle prizes and giveaways together, organizes people to do takeover time slots and keeping everything updated for those that will be attending virtually which gives me a lot more free time to go out and do all the work required for the live event. I thought I was fully prepared for what would go into planning this but I could not have been more wrong.

I of course knew the beginning of any planning for a charity event was to get the charity organization on board. I met with Shade Tree right away and was thrilled they were interested so I filled out the paperwork to host an event on their behalf. I was approved very quickly and set out to find the proper location. Because I work for a large hotel and casino that has a philanthropy department I contacted them and they seemed happy to help though it took several days to gain approval through numerous department such as sales, catering, compliance and of course the Sands Cares the previously mentioned philanthropy department.

Once I got the approvals needed and a date and time were set I went out to begin working on the guest speakers, raffle prizes and media coverage. Because I am hosting at a word famous location partnered with a well known local charity I believed it would be easy to get the coverage from the press but with just a few weeks left I have gotten about half of the raffle prizes I had been aiming for with the promise of a few more to come but I am still stressing over getting the guest speakers and the media coverage confirmed. Every step has been a learning process but if I ever take on another event of this caliber I will be far better prepared.