Plan Major Campus Events
Major Campus Events

When planning a large-scale, campus-wide event pre-planning is extremely important. Campus-wide programs often involve multiple departments (CAC or Facilities, Campus Police, Electricians, Audio Visual, Safety Office, etc.) and can take a lot of time to coordinate. The earlier you get started organizing things, the better! If you do not have sufficient funds to run the event, fundraising may take some time as well. The staff of Student Life Programs is a good resource during the planning phase. They have valuable experience with large-scale programming on MIT's campus.

One of the most important things to think about when planning a campus-wide event is appropriate space. Space is at a premium at MIT, and often reservations are made up to a year in advance. Make sure that you have approval (and confirmation) to use the space you want well in advance, so that you don’t do a whole lot of work only to find that you can’t hold your event where or when you want. (see Reserving Space)

A comprehensive budget is also a great planning tool. Often, large-scale events are quite costly and the earlier you can determine your budget (link to budget section) the better idea you will have of how much fundraising you are going to have to do. Student Life Programs can help your organization make sure you are thinking of everything and that your numbers are realistic (see Common Budget Items).

Once all the logistical components are identified, advertising and promotion are the next steps to ensure that your event will be a success.

ASA postering policy
Cash boxes
Event Registration

Metal Detector Events – Dances, parties, or concerts with non-MIT guests and more than 250 people require the use of metal detectors. Metal detectors can be rented through an outside vendor with the help of Campus Police and SLP. They do add an additional cost to your event. The number of metal detectors needed depends upon the number of guests expected and the location of the event. Metal detector events can only be held in certain campus locations – see SLP for details.

For the complete metal detector policy, please see PDF. Also, the organizers are required to complete the Metal Detector Contract (PDF).