How does a strategic plan for an exhibition differ from an ordinary marketing plan

A strategic plan works at the whole-organization level, shaping its reason for existing and its long-term direction, while a marketing plan is only one execution tool underneath it.

How do a Purpose Statement and a Mission Statement differ

A Purpose Statement briefly explains why the organization exists, while a Mission Statement states what the organization does for whom, with what services and what long-term results. They are different statements but need to be consistent.

Why does a Vision Statement change more often than a Mission Statement

Because the Vision Statement is tied to the current leadership's aspirations and tends to change with each generation of leaders, while the organization's core mission and purpose are usually stable over the long term.

Strategic Plan for an Exhibition: What It Includes

Many organizations call their annual marketing plan a "strategic plan," but the two documents are not the same. A strategic plan for an exhibition sits at a much higher level, shaping the reason the whole organization exists and not just guiding one promotional campaign.

Strategic Enterprise Management and where the strategic plan sits

Strategic Enterprise Management (SEM) has existed for decades and has become a foundational process in businesses, nonprofits and government agencies. It is the core of a results-oriented management style, widely used by organizations of every type and size. The output of SEM is the strategic plan.

A common confusion is equating a strategic plan with a business plan, a project plan or a marketing plan. But strategic planning at the whole-organization level has a much broader scope than any of those plans.

Direction-setting statements: the foundation of a strategic plan

A strategic plan for an exhibition begins with direction-setting statements such as the mission, purpose and vision, and may include a slogan. Goals and priorities will also be included in the strategic plan. Some plans also state the underlying assumptions to inform all stakeholders about the ideals, values and strategic concepts. The time frame of the strategic plan also needs to be stated, along with the reason that time is right for planning.

Direction-setting statements are distinctive and complementary, acting as a shared compass for the organization's activity. The vision, mission and purpose statements focus on the whole organization, not on a single department, project or activity.

Telling Purpose, Mission and Vision Statements apart

Purpose Statement: explains why the organization exists, usually only one or two sentences
Mission Statement: states what matters most to the organization; it can be short or run several paragraphs, explaining what the organization does in terms of audience served, services or products, and long-term expected results
Vision Statement: defines the long-term effect the organization's leadership hopes to achieve; it is inspirational and describes the outcome of its strategic initiatives

Another common confusion is treating the purpose statement and the mission statement as synonyms. In fact they are different but must be consistent with each other.

Different levels of stability across the statements

Although much of an organization's functions and structure may change as a result of the strategic planning process, the purpose and mission change relatively little, even in turbulent periods. By contrast, the vision statement tends to change with each generation of leaders and should be updated more often than the mission or purpose.

Don't rush the strategic planning process

Strategic planning isn't a race to finish as early as possible. The value of the process lies in making it effective and genuinely valuable to the organization, not in the speed of producing a document. A strategic plan for an exhibition built in a rush is usually just a copy of nice phrasing, lacking real agreement from stakeholders.

Who should take part in building the strategic plan

Because a strategic plan affects the whole organization, the process of building it shouldn't be limited to senior leadership. Representatives from operations, sales, marketing and finance should all have a voice in data collection and in commenting on the direction-setting statements, since each department holds different practical information about the market, customers and the organization's internal strength that leadership alone can hardly cover.

Tie the strategic plan to daily operating decisions

A strategic plan only has real value when daily operating decisions, such as choosing a venue, designing a floor plan, building a budget and planning marketing, can all be traced back to the goals and priorities in the plan. If an operating decision serves none of the goals in the strategic plan, that is a sign to review the decision, or to review the strategic plan itself to see whether it still fits current reality.