Last updated on Mar 19, 2025

What's the best way to identify key stakeholders for your event?

Identifying the key stakeholders for your event is crucial for its success. Stakeholders are the people or groups who have an interest, influence, or impact on your event, such as sponsors, attendees, speakers, vendors, partners, media, and staff. Knowing who they are and what they expect from you can help you plan, communicate, and deliver a memorable event that meets their needs and goals. In this article, we'll share some tips on how to identify your key stakeholders and how to manage them effectively.

1 Start with your event objectives

Before you can identify your key stakeholders, you need to have a clear idea of what your event is trying to achieve. What is the purpose, vision, and mission of your event? What are the specific goals and outcomes you want to accomplish? How will you measure your success? Answering these questions will help you define the scope and direction of your event, and also the criteria for selecting your stakeholders. For example, if your event is a fundraiser, you might want to prioritize sponsors and donors as key stakeholders, while if your event is a conference, you might want to focus on speakers and attendees.

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Stan Kruss

Exhibit Stands Proven to Win Customers. | CEO at Expo Centric | I built Australia's leading exhibition stand company from 15 years of industry excellence. | Immerse your customers with experiential trade shows.
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Identify key event stakeholders by mapping decision-makers, influencers, and budget holders within the organization. Engage them early to align priorities and secure necessary approvals.

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Iain Morrison

Helping you visualise events before they happen | Event Visionary | Pioneering Digital Twins & Pre-Visualisation | 35+ Years in Live Events & Innovation
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To truly identify the right stakeholders, you must first anchor your efforts in your event’s core objectives. Think beyond broad goals—what is the deeper purpose driving your event? Is it to create meaningful connections, drive industry innovation, or foster community engagement? Consider how success will be measured—not just in numbers, but in impact. For instance, a fundraiser might hinge on cultivating relationships with long-term sponsors who share your mission, while a conference could succeed by sparking actionable ideas among attendees. These nuanced objectives shape not only your event’s direction but also the strategic partnerships that will bring it to life.

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Nayeli Rosas

Corporate Communications and Marketing Director , Manager | Strategy in Culture, Employer Branding, Internal Communications, and Digital Campaigns | CSR and Institutional Relations
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Debemos tener muy claros los objetivos para poder realizar un evento de primer nivel. Los involucrados principalmente son los directivos para saber a qué público queremos llegar, quienes serán nuestra audiencia y de ahí partir hacia el evento que queremos hacer. Todos los eventos son diferentes, pero igual de importantes para la organización. Dar seguimiento constante y hacer reportes semanales. Y no olvidar considerar un plan B para cuando surjan imprevistos.

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Daniela Pierini Longo

Gerente de Eventos, Estadão | Top Voice Live Events LinkedIn | Agente Transformadora de Eventos | Comunicação | Marketing | Live Marketing | Mãe da Maria Eduarda | MICE | CEOCouncil | Misses-At.Work
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A melhor maneira de identificar os stakeholders : - Defina os objetivos do evento - Identifique grupos relevantes - Realize uma análise de interesse e influência - Considere feedback de equipes e especialistas - Conduza pesquisas ou entrevistas Assim você conseguirá identificar os stakeholders mais importantes para o sucesso do seu evento.

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Thiago Modesto Gomes

Head de Produção no Escritório Artístico do Cantor Luan Santana
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1. Definir o Objetivo do Evento Antes de identificar os stakeholders, tenha claro qual é o propósito do evento. Isso ajudará a entender quem pode ser impactado ou influenciar diretamente o seu sucesso. 2. Fazer um Mapeamento dos Stakeholders 3. Classificar os Stakeholders 4. Engajar e Comunicar de Forma Personalizada 5. Revisar e Atualizar Regularmente

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2 Map out your stakeholder groups

Once you have your event objectives, you can start mapping out your stakeholder groups. A stakeholder map is a visual tool that helps you identify and categorize your stakeholders based on their level of interest and influence on your event. You can use a simple matrix with four quadrants to plot your stakeholders, such as those with high interest and high influence, who are your most important stakeholders and require close engagement and addressing of their needs and concerns (e.g. sponsors, key speakers, VIP guests, media partners). Those with high interest but low influence are supportive stakeholders who care about your event but have little power to change it (e.g. attendees, volunteers, staff, vendors). Those with low interest but high influence are potential stakeholders who have a lot of sway over your event but are not very interested in it (e.g. competitors, regulators, critics, local authorities). And those with low interest and low influence are peripheral stakeholders who have little to no stake or impact on your event (e.g. general public, industry associations, suppliers). For all these groups, it is important to keep them informed and satisfied but also prioritize resources appropriately.

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Caio Bueno

Eventos esportivos | Eventos corporativos | Estandes | Live marketing
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Além de mapear os stakeholders, é bom trocar ideia com a equipe e parceiros que já têm experiência — muita gente importante aparece nessas conversas. Olhar eventos anteriores também ajuda a lembrar quem teve papel chave. Pergunte sempre: quem pode fazer esse evento acontecer ou travar? Isso ajuda a priorizar.

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3 Validate and prioritize your stakeholders

After you have mapped out your stakeholder groups, you need to validate and prioritize them. This involves verifying that all relevant stakeholders for your event have been identified, and ranking them according to their importance and urgency. To do this, you can brainstorm with your team or other experts to generate a list of possible stakeholders; research online or offline sources to find out more information about your stakeholders; and survey your existing or potential stakeholders to get their feedback and input on your event. All of these methods can help you validate relevance and influence, tailor communication and engagement strategies, prioritize needs and goals, and measure performance and impact.

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Caio Bueno

Eventos esportivos | Eventos corporativos | Estandes | Live marketing
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Em produção de eventos, é bom validar a lista de stakeholders com os pés no chão. Troca uma ideia direta com quem vai estar mais envolvido pra entender o que esperam e como querem participar. Classifica por impacto real — não é porque alguém tem nome forte que vai influenciar no resultado.

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4 Manage your stakeholders effectively

Once you have identified, mapped, validated, and prioritized your stakeholders, it's important to manage them effectively throughout your event lifecycle. Establish and maintain positive relationships with them, and make sure they are in line with your objectives and outcomes. Stakeholder analysis can be used to analyze strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This can help anticipate and mitigate any issues or conflicts, as well as leverage potential synergies or collaborations. Additionally, create a stakeholder communication plan that outlines how you will communicate with each group. This keeps them informed and engaged while also collecting feedback and input. Utilize emails, newsletters, social media, webinars, reports, etc. Finally, develop a stakeholder engagement plan that defines how you will involve and interact with each group. This builds trust and rapport while motivating and empowering them through meetings, workshops, surveys, polls, contests, etc. By following these tips, you can ensure that you have a clear understanding of who your stakeholders are and what they want from your event. Ultimately this will help you deliver a successful event that meets or exceeds their expectations.

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Nayeli Rosas

Corporate Communications and Marketing Director , Manager | Strategy in Culture, Employer Branding, Internal Communications, and Digital Campaigns | CSR and Institutional Relations
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Involucrar al equipo es necesario para que el evento sea exitoso. Considerar lluvia de ideas y tomarlas en cuenta es un plus para mejorar la estrategia del evento. Todos debemos saber nuestra responsabilidad ya que son parte del logro.

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Caio Bueno

Eventos esportivos | Eventos corporativos | Estandes | Live marketing
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Pra gerenciar bem os stakeholders, é bom manter contato regular, mas sem exagero — manda o que for relevante pra cada um. Ter alguém da equipe responsável por cada grupo ajuda a agilizar a comunicação e resolver as coisas mais rápido. Anota tudo: acordos, demandas, feedbacks... isso evita confusão lá na frente.

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5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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Nayeli Rosas

Corporate Communications and Marketing Director , Manager | Strategy in Culture, Employer Branding, Internal Communications, and Digital Campaigns | CSR and Institutional Relations
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Es muy importante saber que queremos lograr con un evento del tipo que sea. Siempre con un propósito y alineado con la corporación. Que los empleados estén enterados para fomentar el trabajo en equipo. Es importante también tener y saber manejar el presupuesto asignado.

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Patrícia Meyer

Comunicação Corporativa | Responsabilidade Social | Produção de Conteúdo Estratégico | Engajamento Institucional | Relacionamento com Comunidades | Eventos Empresariais | Em busca de novos desafios
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Antes de mapear stakeholders, são necessárias algumas etapas importantes: 1. Reunião com o cliente para entender o seu desejo/necessidade. 2. Reunir-se com a equipe de produção de evento, fazer um brainstorming da reunião anterior, mapear os pontos importantes e seguir para o planejamento. 3. Elaborar um plano de Comunicação do evento, com todas as estratégias, para apresentar ao cliente. Após esse ok do cliente, você terá condições de entender quais serão os stakeholders, pois já está tudo mapeado. Agora, será uma questão de encontrar os fornecedores e parceiros ideais, de acordo com a proposta e o orçamento do evento. necessário já ter tulido a reunião com o cliente para entender o seu desejo

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What's the best way to identify key stakeholders for your event?

1

2

3

4

5

1 Start with your event objectives

2 Map out your stakeholder groups

3 Validate and prioritize your stakeholders

4 Manage your stakeholders effectively

5 Here’s what else to consider

Event Production

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What's the best way to identify key stakeholders for your event?

1

2

3

4

5

1 Start with your event objectives

2 Map out your stakeholder groups

3 Validate and prioritize your stakeholders

4 Manage your stakeholders effectively

5 Here’s what else to consider

Event Production

Rate this article

Thanks for your feedback

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