Event Planning Guide
This document covers a wide range of topics, including some that aren’t needed for smaller/less formal events. You only need to attend to the matters that apply to your event. However, please note that all public-facing events must be submitted at least six weeks in advance of the event date via the Department of English’s Communications Team’s Event form. For event listings submitted after the six-week cutoff, we cannot guarantee staff support, nor approval of fiscal requests.
All the below lead times are reflected in the Sample Event Checklist, a downloadable Excel spreadsheet that automatically updates lead dates based on the event date you enter. For the most part, these suggested times are best practices, operating under the assumption that you have up to a year to plan. We recognize that this is not always the case, nor does every event require all the items listed, but the file does illustrate which tasks take more time, or require earlier approval, than others.
Guest Payment
You will need to send your guest the Office of Business and Finance’s Vendor Setup Form [PDF]. At minimum, the guest must fill out the first page of the form. The second page is for businesses, and the third page is optional (if they would like a direct deposit). Please note: the optional third page requires a voided check or bank account verification letter.
Once you have received the completed vendor form from your guest, we can set them up as an External Committee Member in Workday. (This applies to any visiting person, not just dissertation committee members—it’s just the term Workday uses.) Please send the completed Vendor form, along with the Department’s Guest Travel Form and an event flyer (or email correspondence confirming the event) to english.fiscal@osu.edu. The Fiscal Team will then set up your visitor as an External Committee Member.
Timeline: This can be done as soon as the guest has accepted our invitation to visit campus, and no later than 6 weeks prior to event. If you do not send the completed Vendor Form with applicable travel information (see below) to the Fiscal Team at least 6 weeks prior to the event date, we will not be able to guarantee Departmental funds or staff support for your event.
If your guest is receiving any travel reimbursement for their visit to campus (e.g., airfare, lodging, ground transportation, etc.), we must submit a Spend Authorization in Workday. Once we have received the above-mentioned items and set up your guest as an External Committee Member, we will submit the Spend Authorization and let you know when it is approved. Please note that you may not purchase airfare until after the Spend Authorization has been approved.
Additional Requirements: If your guest is driving rather than flying, or combining personal travel with their business trip to Ohio State, you will also need to submit a Travel Comparison Form to the English Fiscal Team. For help filling out this form, please see the ASC Flight Comparison Job Aid.
Once your guest has been set up as an External Committee Member (see above), the English Fiscal Team (english.fiscal@osu.edu) can help coordinate your guest’s payment. Please note that your guest will not be able to receive payment until after their service(s) have concluded.
If an agency is representing your guest, please note that the Fiscal Team will have to work with them to submit and approve a contract and corresponding invoice. This usually takes more time than paying the guest directly (sometimes up to a few months), so please do not wait until the last minute to communicate this detail with the Fiscal Team. Reminder: the completed Vendor Setup Form and Guest Travel Form must be submitted to english.fiscal@osu.edu no later than 6 weeks in advance of the event for you to receive departmental funding or staff support.
Travel (for guests visiting campus)
Please note that a Spend Authorization must be submitted and approved by the Fiscal Team before you can pay for hotel rooms or guest transportation. See section about Spend Authorizations in the “Guest Payment” accordion above.
Consult the Office of Business and Finance’s purchasing website for information on booking hotel rooms in the Columbus area. The department frequently partners with The Blackwell Inn and Homewood Suites, but there are other options if those locations do not meet your needs.
Do not forget to forward the guest’s hotel reservation to them, including their confirmation number, if you are the email on file for these reservations.
Timeline: After the guest’s Spend Authorization has been approved, and up to 6 months in advance.
Once the Spend Authorization has been submitted and approved, and your guest’s hotel reservation has been made, you may pay for the hotel by submitting a Buckeye Buy Purchase Requisition in Workday. For instructions on “Purchasing Goods and Services,” please see the Purchasing page on Engsource. You will need to attach a quote from the hotel (this is often sent in the form of a confirmation email).
Please note: All hotels on the Office of Business and Finance’s supplier page will have specific guidance about how to reserve rooms.
If your guest is staying at The Blackwell, you may email the approved Spend Authorization number to the hotel contact instead of submitting a Purchase Requisition. The Blackwell will add this SA # to the reservation and use this method to charge us. This is only applicable to The Blackwell Inn.
You will need to collect information about whether your guest is flying or driving to campus. If flying, you will need to know the airport they will be using, their gender identity (the choices for this category are unfortunately binary), their seat preference, and the name and country matching their legal ID.
Once the Spend Authorization has been approved, you may book the flight and/or rental car, using CTP (select the “Book Travel Online” option). The Office of Business and Finance has helpful job aids on their website to guide you, in particular “Completing Concur Profile” and “Booking Airfare for a Guest.” If booking a rental car, please review the ASC Travel Policy Guidelines – Rental Car Services.
Reimbursement is also an option if the traveler prefers that, but this is still subject to the limits of the university’s Travel Policy. To reimburse airfare, please have the guest forward their flight confirmation & receipt. Once received, you may send this to english.fiscal@osu.edu. The English Fiscal Team will submit an Expense Report on your behalf.
To reimburse for any ground transportation (such as a rideshare or taxi to the airport), ask your guest to hold onto receipts from their visit and send them to you afterward. Once received, you can email these receipts to english.fiscal@osu.edu, who will submit an Expense Report on your behalf.
Securing a Venue
Reserve your event venue as soon as you know the date(s) and location(s) of the event, and up to one year in advance. Pay attention to the football schedule, especially if you will need to book a hotel room! Home football weekends should be avoided for all on-campus events.
To reserve a departmentally controlled room in Denney Hall (311, 419, 435, or 447), see the Departmental Calendars page for reservation process.
To reserve other rooms (including the classrooms on the second floor of Denney Hall), contact the front desk staff at english@osu.edu
Advertising
If you would like to print out flyers to hang in campus buildings, you will first need to complete the request an estimate form on UniPrint’s website (we suggest you do this about 5 weeks before the event). UniPrint will email you with a quote, and you can use this quote to print the flyers by submitting a Buckeye Buy Purchase Requisition in Workday (be sure to attach the quote and a PDF of the flyer to your Purchase Requisition). Instructions for “Purchasing Goods and Services” can be found on EngSource’s Purchasing page.
You will want to hang these flyers up at least two weeks before the event date. Don’t forget to take them down afterward!
To submit your event to the Department of English’s calendar and Communications Team, fill out the Comm Team’s Event form. Please note that this step should be completed at least 6 weeks prior to the event date.
To submit your event for inclusion on the ASC calendar, use the ASCIntranet Submit Events page.
You can and should send advertisements for your own events; generally, the Communications team only handles advertisements for major departmental events like the end-of-year Awards Celebration.
Timeline: Start advertising the event on the relevant listservs at least one month in advance. It helps to send out multiple announcements.
Recording/Broadcasting Events
See the Recording Events EngSource page.
Food
If there is an off-site meal involved with your event, it is helpful to start planning this meal about one month in advance. You will need to determine the location and the number of attendees, borrow a PCard from the Fiscal Team (unless you plan on being reimbursed), and make a reservation.
To borrow a department purchasing card (or PCard), complete the Dept of English PCard Request Form. You can also find further guidance about borrowing and using PCards on EngSource’s Purchasing page.
If offering catering for your event, we recommend you start collecting RSVPs at least 4 weeks ahead of your event. Knowing the number of attendees will allow you to place an accurate food order from your preferred caterer. (Qualtrics or Microsoft Forms are both good, university-supported options for collecting attendee information.)
You can find a full list of affiliated caterers on Business & Finance’s Supplier webpage if you filter by catering.
Once you have selected a caterer and collected your order, you can reach out to the caterer to request a quote. Please note that gratuity may not be greater than 20%. Once the caterer sends you the quote for your order, please email it to english.fiscal@osu.edu. A member of the Fiscal Team will call the caterer and pay for the order with one of the department’s Purchasing Cards.
Miscellaneous Coordination
Do not forget to ask your guest if they have any access needs for their visit to campus! Requests for travel accommodations should be made through Ohio State's ADA Coordinator's Office.
If the guest is giving a reading, please consider asking for their text in advance, so you can print access copies for any attendees who may need one.
Historically, the Department of English has partnered with Barnes & Noble (Annie Kovalesky at akovalesky@bncollege.com is our contact) or Prologue Bookshop (via their event request form) to sell books at our events, but you may reach out to other booksellers if you wish.
Timeline: it is a good idea to contact the bookseller about 5 months in advance, to make sure that they will be able to attend and have plenty of time to order the necessary books for the event.
If you are creating an itinerary for your guest’s trip, you should send this itinerary out to all relevant people at least one week prior to the event date. Don’t forget to include hotel and flight confirmation numbers, as well as CTP’s contact information in case of any travel complications.