Event Gantt Chart Overview and Example

May 23rd, 2007 at 9:45 AM EDT

Skift Take

Getting organised for events presents plenty of challenges. Here I give you an overview and some insight into how I use the Gantt chart for event planning.

Julius Solaris

I have been talking about Gantt and its use for event managers before. I came to understand from your requests that you are looking for specific examples of Gantt charts for events. This post shows you some useful examples. Your feedback is always appreciated, I love to talk to you so please write me back with suggestions or questions.

I previously posted on Microsoft Office Templates for Gantt. Let’s have a look at one of them.

Gantt Chart Template for Marketing Event Planning and Execution

Let’s see….Highlighted in red we have task names, When defining our WBS, we’ve identified packages of activities. That’s where the name of the activities will go.

Highlighted in blue we have duration. Now if you’ve listened to the podcasts I pointed out previously, you should be aware that every task has a duration. There are various ways to assign duration to a task. Some techniques are quite specific and extensive. For small events I’d suggest to rely on common sense, previous experience or talk to team members accountable for specific areas (which are indicated in the Resource Names section).

As you’d understand coming up with time weight is a very enjoyable practice in that it gives us the total time required to develop a specific project (highlighted in green). Both you and your boss will be happy about that because you finally have deadlines!

The light magenta part of the screen shows us the very useful part of Gantt. On this side we can see graphically organised tasks according to a calendar. The black lines show us summary of the entire activities and most of all their sequence. It’s complicated to collect speakers from the airport if we haven’t contacted them in the firs place. Gantt imports the logical sequence of WBS, PERT and CPM and shows it graphically.

This is an overview of what a Gantt Chart does. Now let’s scroll to screenshots of this particular Gantt chart, as we can get useful tips on what to consider in designing an event. I invite you to have a look at the tips section to get more items for your event.