Whether you’re running a youth soccer team or planning events for your kid’s elementary school class, there’s is a lot to consider when organizing events for kids. Safety, communication, and consistency all become huge factors. And you definitely don’t want to be the planner that creates a crisis on a field trip, because you didn’t think about bathroom breaks (yeah, we’ve been there).

So here are the top five things you’ll need to consider when planning events with kids and how event technology / software can address these needs.

1. Groups and Supervision

The most basic, and obvious, consideration when planning events with kids involved is the heightened need for supervision and safety. You’ll want to make sure that every kid is assigned to an adult leader / volunteer and that these groups and assignments are available to everyone involved: parents, guardians, administrators, and other volunteers. This ensures that if there’s ever an issue, everyone knows exactly where a kid should be and who is responsible for them.

Event technology makes this level of event planning easy by providing assignment features. For example, Eventene allows you to assign anyone into specific groups both manually and automatically and then sends these groups to event participants via their desktop or mobile phone.

2. Clear and Proactive Communication

You’ll want to make sure that any pertinent information is clearly laid out in advance of the event. Make sure all the essential details like time, location, schedule, cost, etc. are readily available and not buried in blocks of text in an email. It’s good to have one source of record for this information like a custom webpage, event application, or (if internet connectivity will be an issue) paper documents.

Event apps can help substantially with this issue as there are a variety of services like evite, Cvent, Eventene, and Paperless Post that are specifically designed to make communicating with event invitees as easy as possible. You can even use many of these applications to set up event pages or send invitations with themed designs.

3. Keeping Records

This is more of a logistical and legal consideration, but a crucial one nonetheless. You’ll need to make sure all of the details around your event are clearly documented so that you know exactly where everyone is at what time. This will help keep kids safe by having well-kept records of their locations and will also protect you from liability.

4. Addressing Unique Needs

Like it or not, we live in an era where we must attend to each child’s unique and often challenging needs. On the positive side of things, this enhances the event experience for kids that may have allergies or developmental concerns that would previously impact their ability to participate equally with their peers. However, it is undoubtedly more difficult for event planners.

Fortunately, there are many ways to leverage technology to assist with this problem. Consider using pre-event surveys to gauge each child’s specific needs and then factor these into the groups, assignments, and schedules. Furthermore, you can use technology to create activities that are accessible to all kids. AR is a great example of this as it can create immersive experiences in any setting.

Finally, event apps will allow you to communicate with parents, guardians, and volunteers to ensure that each kid is properly cared for.

5. Scheduling

Finally, when planning events for kids you need to have a concrete schedule far in advance of the event. This allows adults and children alike to prepare for any transportation or difficult transitions and weigh in on the itinerary.

Again, it’s useful to have a single source of record for the schedule so that everyone involved knows exactly where to find the information and you don’t run into versioning issues when updating details.

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