You’re probably going to need more than one person to plan this event unless you plan to work on this 20 hours a week for nine months.

General Requirements and Responsibilities

Everyone on the committee needs to have strong organizational skills, with the ability to keep track of many tasks over a long time period. They will also need at least basic computer skills and they will have to be comfortable with email and whatever other online tools you use. They should have excellent written and verbal communication skills, since every position involves talking to other committee members, other volunteers, and many other people.

Committee members should be able to attend most committee meetings, report on the progress of their tasks, and respond to group communication on a regular basis.

Typically, the time commitment ramps up over the course of the planning period. Initially it will probably require 2-3 hours per week. Later the time requirement may increase to 4-6 hours per week, and for the last few weeks before the festival may require as much as 5-10 hours per week. However, this varies a lot depending on the position, as some positions may be busier during the beginning stages and not as busy as the festival approaches.

Here is a breakdown of different positions that we’ve had. It’s possible to arrange the responsibilities in different ways depending on the skills and interests of your committee members, as well as what aspects of the festival you want to emphasize.

Primary Positions

• Committee Chair
• Media Outreach Coordinator
• Advertising Coordinator
• Social Media Coordinator
• Sponsorship and Exhibitor Recruitment Coordinator
• Exhibitor Logistics Coordinator
• Volunteer Coordinator
• Speaker Coordinator
• Cooking Demo Coordinator
• Entertainment Coordinator

Committee Chair

The Committee Chair will:

• Know everything about the event.
• Know what needs to gets done when and what is most important to do at any time during the planning.
• Make sure that the entire committee is on track for success.
• Create timelines and to-do lists for every step of the event, including planning, day-of, and post-event tasks.
• Assign tasks (with due dates) to committee members or other volunteers as appropriate.
• Check in with committee members on a regular basis to make sure that they have all the resources they need to complete their tasks.
• Schedule meetings and send meeting reminders as needed.
• Make sure that meetings run efficiently. See our meetings page for more details.

The Committee Chair must be a detail-oriented, responsible person with excellent written and verbal communication skills. This individual needs to be able to keep track of both short-term and long-term plans simultaneously, and must be willing to pitch in to help as needed.

This position is the most demanding of all the committee positions, and will be busy from start to finish.

Media Outreach Coordinator

The Media Outreach Coordinator will:

• Collect contact info for local media and relevant blogs.
• Write and distribute press releases to all relevant media.
• Get the event listed in local calendars, both online and in print.
• Be the first point of contact for the media. However, it’s fine to send requests for interviews to another committee member as appropriate.

The Media Outreach Coordinator must be a good writer who is creative person and can think of up interesting ways of getting media attention. This individual must also be good at doing research online to find local media outlets, blogs, and contact info for them.

This position is most busy a few months before the festival, since it’s not really effective to do media outreach too far in advance of the event. However, research for this outreach should start at least six months before the festival.

Advertising Coordinator

The Advertising Coordinator will:

• Work with a graphic designer to create advertising materials. Alternatively, the Advertising Coordinator can do the design themselves if they have the skills to do so.
• Research advertising opportunities in local media, blogs, and on Facebook and Google. This includes gathering requirements, costs, and deadlines for all these forms of advertising.
• Coordinate the distribution of print materials such as flyers and posters. This requires identifying the best places to distribute materials, working with volunteers to distribute the materials, and keeping track of where materials have already been placed.

The Advertising Coordinator should be familiar with modern graphic design tools and formats to communicate clearly with a graphic designer, print shops, and online ad hosts. They also must be able to communicate very clearly and be able to clearly spell out requirements, especially when working with an external graphic designer.

This position will be most busy from about six months to three months before the festival. The bulk of the material design must be completed far in enough in advance to allow time for printing lead times, distribution, etc. They will also be busy in the last month before the festival with a final push to distribute printed materials, coordinate online and print ads, etc. We have found flyers and posters to be the most effective print advertising methods, so we focus our attention on those.

Social Media Coordinator

The Social Media Coordinator will:

• Make sure that content is created for the festival’s blog or news section of the festival’s website. They can write this themselves or work with other volunteers to share the writing duties.
• Syndicate all blog content to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media networks as appropriate.
• Create relevant content for each social media site. For Facebook, this can include smaller updates, pictures, etc. For Twitter, this often means engaging in conversation directly with bloggers, potential sponsor and exhibitors, and other interested parties. The goal is to engage people so they share and comment on this content.

The Social Media Coordinator should be a good writer who understands how each of the relevant social media sites works. Ideally, they will be online often enough to effectively engage in discussion on Facebook and Twitter.

This position gets steadily more demanding as the festival approaches. Postings can start at just once a week about six months before the festival, but they should gradually ramp up to (almost) every day in the last week or two before the festival.

Sponsorship and Exhibitor Recruitment Coordinator

The Sponsorship and Exhibitor Recruitment Coordinator will:

• Identify potential sponsors and exhibitors, including national and local business, organizations, restaurants, etc.
• Create sponsor and exhibitor recruitment materials. These materials should probably take the form of a persuasive single sheet prospectus outlining the benefits of sponsorship or exhibiting.
• Coordinate outreach to potential sponsors and exhibitors. This will involve mass emails, personal emails, phone calls, and some in-person visits. Ideally, there will be at least two other people helping with this outreach.
• Make sure that the appropriate committee members follow up with committed sponsors and exhibitors.

The Sponsorship and Exhibitor Recruitment Coordinator must be a good written and verbal communicator. They should also have a good mind for sales, with some idea of what their target sponsors and exhibitors most value. They must be comfortable with phone and in-person outreach to potential exhibitors. Good online research skills are necessary in order to successfully identify as many potential sponsors and exhibitors as possible.

This position is most busy from six to one month before the festival. Sponsorship recruitment should start at least six months before the event, while exhibitor recruitment should start three months before. However, once you’re close to the festival you’ve probably recruited everyone who can be recruited.

Exhibitor Logistics Coordinator

The Exhibitor Logistics Coordinator will:

• Make sure exhibitors provide any materials needed. This may include text and logos for your website, food permits, payment, etc. This will often require multiple interactions and reminders.
• Create clear exhibitor guidelines and make sure that exhibitors are aware of them.
• Coordinate shipping from/to exhibitors as needed.
• Write clear instructions for exhibitors that tell them where and when to unload and load, where to setup their exhibit, expected number of attendees, etc.
• Plan the exhibitor hall layout to make sure that all exhibitors get what they need, including the right number of tables, electricity, etc.
• Be the primary point of contact for all exhibitors on the day of the event.

This position is most busy in the two months before the festival, as well as on the day of the festival.

Volunteer Coordinator

The Volunteer Coordinator will:

• Determine how many volunteers are needed for every aspect of the festival, including pre-event, day-of, and post-event tasks.
• Create detailed written position descriptions for each position.
• Create a complete schedule for all volunteer shifts, noting where shift leaders are needed and determining how many volunteers are needed for each position.
• Recruit and schedule volunteer leaders. This will require individual emails and phone calls.
• Arrange for each volunteer leader to receive training they need. This is typically a phone call or in-person meeting where the coordinator or another committee member reviews the position details with the volunteer leader.
• Recruit volunteers for all positions. This will require mass emails, social media posts, and possibly individual emails and phone calls.
• Schedule interested volunteers based on their availability, skills, and preferred positions.
• Check in volunteers as they arrive on the day of the event, directing them to their volunteer leader, giving them a shirt (if appropriate), etc. Other committee members can help with this as well.

The Volunteer Coordinator should be a friendly, well-organized person who is comfortable with reaching out to people one-on-one. They should also be good at working with others on the committee to compile volunteer instructions. They will also need to be good verbal communicators in order to effectively train volunteer leaders and direct volunteers as they arrive.

This position ramps up in the last two to three months before the festival, as it’s not realistic to recruit volunteers more than four to six weeks before.

Speaker Coordinator

The Speaker Coordinator will:

• Research and recruit speakers to speak at the event. This will require mass emails, personal emails, and possibly phone calls.
• Work with speakers to come to a mutually acceptable agreement regarding travel reimbursement and speaking fees.
• Make sure that speakers know when and where they are speaking.
• Help speakers coordinate travel if they are coming from out of state. Typically this requires finding volunteers to take them to and from the local airport/train station/bus station.
• Make sure that the speaker room has the appropriate A/V equipment.
• Make sure that speakers know what equipment they are expected to provide. Typically this will just be a laptop if they have slides for their presentation.

The Speaker Coordinator should be a friendly person who is well-organized and not shy about reaching out to well-known figures in the animal advocacy and vegan food communities.

This position should start recruitment efforts as early as possible. If done properly, this position may get most of their work done in the first few months of planning, leaving only reminders and travel coordination to do closer to the festival.

Cooking Demo Coordinator

The Cooking Demo Coordinator will:

• Research and recruit chefs to speak at the event. This will require mass emails, personal emails, and possibly phone calls.
• Work with chefs to come to a mutually acceptable agreement regarding travel reimbursement and speaking fees.
• Make sure chefs know when and where they are doing their demo.
• Help chefs coordinate travel if they are coming from out of state. Typically this requires finding volunteers to take them to and from the local airport/train station/bus station.
• Make sure the chef room has the appropriate equipment. This includes a station for preparation as well as a way for the audience to see what the chef is doing.
• Make sure chefs know what ingredients, pre-made food, equipment, and supplies they are expected to provide. You should probably provide basic equipment, including knives, cutting boards, bowls, etc. The chef may need to bring any specialty equipment they need.

The Cooking Demo Coordinator should be a friendly person who is well-organized and not shy about reaching out to well-known figure in the vegan food community.

This position should start recruitment efforts as early as possible. If done properly, this position may get most of their work done in the first few months of planning, leaving only reminders and travel coordination to do closer to the festival.

Entertainment Coordinator

The Entertainment Coordinator will:

• Research and recruit entertainers to speak at the event. This will require mass emails, personal emails, and possibly phone calls.
• Work with entertainers to come to a mutually acceptable agreement regarding travel reimbursement and speaking fees.
• Make sure entertainers know when and where they are performing.
• Help entertainers coordinate travel if they are coming from out of state. Typically this requires finding volunteers to take them to and from the local airport/train station/bus station.
• Make sure the entertainer has the appropriate equipment, space, and support staff/volunteers. This may include A/V equipment, a stage, a sound engineer, etc.
• Make sure entertainers know what equipment and supplies they are expected to provide.

The Entertainment Coordinator should be a friendly person who is well-organized and not shy about reaching out to well-known entertainers.

This position should start recruitment efforts as early as possible. If done properly, this position may get most of the work done in the first few months of planning, leaving only reminders and travel coordination to do closer to the festival. However, entertainers seem to be harder to schedule than speakers or chefs, so this position may end up being busy in the last few months leading up to the festival.

Secondary Positions

There are also a number of secondary positions that can be combined with one of the primary positions listed above.

Sponsor Coordinator

The Sponsor Coordinator will:

• Provide sponsors with a clear list of materials needed, along with deadlines as appropriate. Most sponsors will benefit from multiple reminders, especially a reminder before each deadline. Depending on the sponsorship benefits you offer, this can include materials for your website, print ads for a program, having them fill out an exhibitor form, swag for a swag bag, etc. The coordinator’s job is to make sure that sponsors get the most possible benefit from their sponsorship.
• Remind sponsors to pay their sponsorships as needed.

The Sponsor Coordinator should be a well-organized, friendly person. They will be in direct contact with people giving you a lot of money, so they need to make a good impression in every interaction! Good organizational skills are necessary for keeping track of the status for each sponsor.

It is quite feasible to combine this job with the Sponsorship and Exhibitor Recruitment Coordinator position. This is what we have done on the Twin Cities Veg Fest committee. It may also work to combine this with the Exhibitor Logistics Coordinator position, as many sponsors are also exhibitors.

This position is steadily busy for the whole planning time, but the workload should be relatively low overall.

Venue Liason

The Venue Liason will:

• Be the single point of contact between the planning committee and the venue where the festival is being held.
• Gather details about the venue’s capabilities and requirements such as room capacity, electrical capacity, food service requirements, etc.
• Meet with venue representatives as needed.
• Coordinate final event layout with the Exhibitor Logistics Coordinator and venue.

The Venue Liason should be a good written communicator who is very detail-oriented. This position demands a basic understanding of the requirements of every aspect of the festival so they can be communicated this clearly to the venue staff.

This position can be combined with any other position, although combining it with either the Committee Chair or Exhibitor Logistics Coordinator position is probably the most natural fit.

This requires relatively little time overall, except for initial discussions with the venue and a final meeting or two as needed.

Permit Coordinator

The Permit Coordinator will:

• Research relevant state, municipal, and venue regulations to determine what permits are needed and who has to fill them out. At the very least, you will need one or more food service permits. Depending on your local laws, venue, and activities at the festival, you may also need additional permits for sales, performances, etc.
• Collect permits from exhibitors, chefs, and/or entertainers as needed.
• Fill out permits for the festival itself as needed.

The Permit Coordinator should be a detail-oriented person who is good at reading the typical borderline gibberish that most regulations are written in. Knowledge about legal issues or access to someone with legal skills is ideal.

This position can be combined with any other position, although combining it with either the Committee Chair or Exhibitor Logistics Coordinator position is probably the most natural fit.

This position does not take much time, but it is crucially important, as failure to have all the required permits can shut down your entire event!

Website Coordinator

The Website Coordinator is responsible for creating and managing the event’s website.

This position is best combined with the Social Media Coordinator, but will probably end up with whoever has the most prior web creation experience on the committee.

This requires some initial work to setup and design the website, although using tools like WordPress and pre-built themes can make this much simpler. Some work will also be required periodically over the entire planning process to add new pages or update existing ones.

Graphic Designer

The Graphic Designer designs print and online advertising, posters, flyers, logos, and more.

This can be done by a skilled committee member, a volunteer, or a paid professional who receives direction from the committee. If this is a non-committee member, the Advertising Coordinator should be their primary point of contact, though the graphic designer may also work with the Committee Chair on some projects.

This position has two peak time requirements, one when designing print materials and ads six to three months before the festival, and once right before the festival if you are creating a significant printed program for the event.