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Considerations for Event Time and Date Selection In the process of determining when your event
will take place, you need to look at quite a number of factors you have no control over.
These factors which include weather, holidays, and competing events, can obliterate you attendance
numbers if you don’t identify them and work around them. Conversely, those very same conditions
might not be the reason you don’t pick certain dates, but the reason you do. For example,
while you don’t want freezing temperatures at a beach bash, you definitely do want them
for a downhill skiing competition. You certainly don’t want to hold a business conference
during a family holiday vacation, but you may want to have a holiday-related festival
or auction. Events that directly compete with yours will water down your event’s attendance,
but complimentary events might augment it; if you are planning a sports medicine conference
and someone else is having a sporting goods trade show in the same city, you will likely
increase your attendance and give value-added to participants by scheduling them back-to-back.
You also need to recognize that there are many scheduling considerations that come into
play each day of your event. These are determined by attendee demographic, amount of daylight
or dark, service availability and much more. As with event dates, event scheduling has
a big impact on the overall success of each of your events.
The following conditions are most certainly not the only ones you need to consider, but
they should give you a comprehensive overview of what to look for or look out for every
time you begin the process of selecting the perfect date for your event.
International Holiday “Days” that May Coincide with Your Event Plans: There are
between 189 and 195 countries in the world, and all have their own holidays. Here are
just some of the globally recognized designated “day” dates. Most of these are not likely
to dilute attendance to your events, but you may want to incorporate them into events where
applicable. This practice helps grow awareness of their causes and opens up sponsorship,
press and other opportunities to you events. * January, World Literary Day
* March, International Women of Color Day and International Women's Day, World Book
Day, International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, World Day for Water
* April, World Health Day, Earth Day, World Press Freedom Day
* May, World Red Cross Day, International Day of Families, International Day for Biological
Diversity, World No-Tobacco Day * June, World Ocean Day, World Blood Donor
Day, World Refugee Day, International Day Against Drug Abuse & Trafficking
* July, World Population Day * August, International Day of the World's
Indigenous People, International Biodiesel Day, International Youth Day
* September, International Literacy Day, International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer,
Talk Like a Pirate Day, Peace One Day * October, International Day for the Elderly,
International Music Day, World Farm Animals Day, World Animal Day, World Teacher's Day,
World Mental Health Day, World Food Day, International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, United
Nations Day * November, International Day for Tolerance,
International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
* December, World AIDS Day, International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, International
Volunteers, Human Rights Day * Major National and Global Holidays: The
following list includes holidays that have critical masses of celebrants worldwide or
in certain nations. * U.S. Thanksgiving Week (fourth Thursday
in November) * Canada Thanksgiving (second Monday in October)
* U.S. Memorial Day weekend (May) * U.S. Labor Day weekend (September)
International Religious Holidays: There are approximately 4,000 practiced religions in
the world today. It’s your responsibility as an event planner to know what the major
religious observances are in each of your event’s host countries’. In many cases,
religious observances last many days or even weeks. Here’s a list of the top 22 global
religions based on number of adherents: 1.Christianity: 2.1 billion
2.Islam: 1.5 billion 3.Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 1.1
billion 4.Hinduism: 900 million
5.Chinese traditional religion: 394 million 6.Buddhism: 376 million
7.primal-indigenous: 300 million 8.African Traditional & Diasporic: 100 million
9.Sikhism: 23 million 10.Juche: 19 million
11.Spiritism: 15 million 12.Judaism: 14 million
13.Baha'i: 7 million 14.Jainism: 4.2 million
15.Shinto: 4 million 16.Cao Dai: 4 million
17.Zoroastrianism: 2.6 million 18.Tenrikyo: 2 million
19.Neo-Paganism: 1 million 20.Unitarian-Universalism: 800 thousand
21.Rastafarianism: 600 thousand 22.Scientology: 500 thousand
Major Sporting Events: You may think of the only sporting events that could conflict with
yours as those on the scale of the Super Bowl, Stanley Cup, World Series or Olympics. Think
again. Depending on where you are in the world at any given time, you may find that entire
cities virtually shut down because there team is playing at home or somewhere else. The
crowd adrenalin of rabid sports fans is also contagious; in the right place, at the right
time, your imported attendees might even decide to jump ship in favor of a live experience
at the big game. Here are nine sports and the number of people who watch them religiously.
These are guaranteed to shut you down if you try to compete with their events in the countries
where they are popular; and each country has a few more favorites you need to know about:
* Baseball 80 mil * Basketball 22 mil
* American Football 17 mil * Association Football 13 mil
* Australian Football 8 mil * Cricket 3.5 mil
* League Rugby 3.5 mil * Canadian Football 2 mil
* Union Rugby 2 mil Miscellaneous Dates: When planning events,
also watch for non-holiday dates that aren’t related to anything but their individual significance.
For example, in the United States, there are compelling reasons not to schedule events
on: * U.S week before Tax Day April 15
* Weeks or weekends with a Friday the 13th in them
* U.S. September 11 (Twin Towers destruction) * Daylights savings days because people forget
to change their clocks Weather: Whether can affect everything from
travel to a destination to how you equip your venue in order to make it comfortable and
safe regardless of heat, cold, wind and precipitation. Seasons, ocean currents, high-altitude air
currents, global warming and numerous other condition changes influence weather, so you
will always want to know a lot about the climate of potential destinations and what patterns
are expected during the season you are considering. As even professional meteorologists have a
hard time predicting weather with perfect accuracy, we won’t even try. We also don’t
maintain that the following countries are perfect or imperfect for events, you just
need to know if their weather is an asset or detriment to your event vision and attendance.
* Coldest countries: Antarctica, Norway, northern Canada, Greenland and northern Russia weigh
in as having the longest, coldest number of days a year.
* The hottest countries in the world—with temperatures over 80 degrees common in their
winter months are-- include Libya, Tunisia, Mali, Ethiopia, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, India,
Ethiopia, Yemen, Kuwait, UAE, Sudan and Death Valley, California, USA.
* The wettest countries include Guinea, Solomon Islands, Sierra Leone, Gabon, Burma, Malaysia,
Guyana, Seychelles, India, Singapore, Hawaii, Cameroon, Columbia and Myanmar.
* For ongoing cloud cover, the winners are Scotland, Denmark, Ireland, Sweden, Iceland,
Greenland and Norway. * The sunniest countries in the world are
Chile, Egypt, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Chad and Oman.
* And finally, although a data criterion is subjective, the best overall year-round climates
in the world are widely considered to be: Malta, Gran Canaries, Costa Rica and various
locations in Mexico. You also need to consider what times of day
certain activities or events should or should not be held. For example, many religions have
times designated for worship and family; in some religions, it is forbidden to have ceremonies
or celebrations at certain times. The young and elderly are disinclined to stay up as
late as 20-somethings. If your event includes physical activity, don’t schedule those
sessions to close to the completion of a meal, and if there are outdoor elements to it, make
sure folks are back inside before dark or lighting is provided. If your event is a web
conference, when will it be scheduled to be the most convenient for attendees in different
time zones. One of the best ways to pick dates and times
of day for sessions and activities is to back out of the “what could go wrong” scenario.
Let’s say you want to schedule a three-day science symposium in Seattle in November.
What could go wrong: it could snow a lot (but probably won’t), it could be too close to
the Thanksgiving holiday, there might be sporting, social, political events are happening that
month. Check local, state, national and global calendars in every category you can imagine.
A bit of research ahead of time will save you from the disaster of low attendance on
opening day.