Tips on using Asana for Multi-day events

Hi all- I work in Higher Ed & we are fairly new users of Asana premium. I’m looking for tips on how best to set up the tasks for our annual Alumni Reunion in Asana. Our Reunion is multi-day, with many events throughout each day-- many departments within our Asana org are involved. Should we carve out a separate team and break it into multiple projects? One long project? Should each event become a project? We’re just having trouble getting our minds around it and hoping for tips. I appreciate any suggestions you may have! Thanks in advance.

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Not that I have used Asana to manage an event. However here is my 5cents worth.

Create 3 Projects

  1. Event Planning
    Used to capture the tasks needed to plan the event. Eg Agenda, Presenters location etc.
  2. The Actual event.
    As you finalise the agenda and presenters part of your finalisation process could be to add the relevant tasks to the this project for the relevant days.
  3. Post Event.
    What happens after the event. Sending packs etc to attendees capturing the leads generated, reviewing the success of the event etc.

Hope that is a start…

Jason

PS. Welcome to Asana.

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I use Asana for event management. Some of your setup will depend on your preference. I use sections and custom fields so I tend to keep as much in 1 project as I can.

I like @Jason_Woods’ suggestion for past-present-future setup. Within the actual event project you could create sections for each day of the event.

For one event I work on - it’s more a program than an event and we are very timeline focused on it so it works well to have it in 1 project. There is a marketing/recruitment phase, then a 16-week training period followed by a weekend-long event and lastly, the post-program phase. I utilize sections heavily for this. Here’s a brief example:

for marketing/planning

  • 3 mo out from recruitment
  • 2 mo out from recruitment
  • 1 mo out from recruitment
  • 2 weeks out from recruitment
  • Recruitment period
  • Post recruitment (this section is for tasks such as “thank our advertising partners”)

for tasks relating to participant management

  • Training period
  • 3 weeks out from event
  • 2 weeks out from event
  • 1 week out from event
  • Event weekend

for follow-up and ancillary tasks

  • Post-event
  • Participant needs
  • Advertising
  • Sponsor Checklist (w/ sub sections for each sponsorship level)
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I love these suggestions :heart_eyes:, and the great question!

If you do go with multiple projects, you can also add applicable tasks across the projects by adding tasks to more than one project.. You could also now add in start dates if there are some tasks or events that span multiple days of the event.

I would also recommend adding in custom fields and sections (as @Crystal_Alifanow mentioned) to your projects to help keep them organized.

Finally, you might also find these two blog articles helpful for other miscellaneous tips for event planning in Asana:

Hope this might be helpful, and also, Welcome!

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Angie - if you still need help, I’m happy to brainstorm with you. Love unique uses of Asana.

Just call me and I’m happy to help. You can get to me easily by going to http://tripproximity.com/ and clicking on the chat box on the lower right of the screen. I’ll give you my phone number there and we can chat in real time and screen share if need be. If I happen to be offline, just leave your number there for me in a message and I’ll get back to you asap.

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Thanks for the ideas-- I am relaying your thoughts to our Alumni Engagement team. I appreciate the feedback. :grinning:

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Asana also have an “Event Planning” template that you could use. You can get to this by adding a project in the normal way and then there is a “template” tab. I’ve not used this, but have used their other templates and found them quite useful, you can edit and adjust as you please but the template acts as a really good starting point.

Good luck with the event!