Our Clubs and Societies deliver over 2000 events every year for their members. As a registered LSESU Club or Society, event organisers within groups must complete an event proposal form for every planned event!
It is a legal requirement to have all activities recorded and risk assessed, but knowing what groups want to do also allows our staff team to offer you advice and support!
If you're unsure which form to complete, please email su.societies@lse.ac.uk or su.sport@lse.ac.uk and we'll be able to advise.
For any trips to locations beyond the M25 or include an overnight stay, please visit the Trips page and complete a Trip Form.
Regular Event Form
Event form for LSESU Clubs and Societies to propose small or regular events. For example, the form should be used for:
- Society meetings
- Picnics
- Film screenings
- Rehearsals
- Pub quizzes
- Restaurant visits
- Any similar small scale events etc.
This form is NOT for any event that:
- Has external speakers
- Is considered a flagship
- Has a budget of over £500 or a large proportion of your group's balance
- Has more than 75 attendees - Is being organised alongside an external organisation
- Is centred around alcohol consumption (eg. club nights, wine tasting etc.)
For any of the events listed above, please complete the 'Large Events Form'.
Submit form
Large Event or Speaker Event Form
This is for higher-risk and logistically larger events such as:
- External speaker events
- Flagship events
- Events that have a budget of over £500 or a large portion of your groups' account balance
- Events with more than 75 attendees
- Events that are organised alongside an external organisation
- Events centred around alcohol (club nights/wine tasting etc)
For smaller events, please complete the Regular Event Form instead.
Submit form
Key Links and Documents
Required Notice Periods
To ensure the form can be processed, please submit the event form with plenty of notice. The minimum notice the SU requires is:
- Regular events: 10 working days
- Events with high risk or high profile speakers: 1 month
Forms for flagships and large events need to be submitted before the given deadline each term, as they require much more detailed planning and support.
- Term 1 Flagships and Large Events: 31st August (DEADLINE PASSED)
- Term 2 Flagships and Large Events: 31st October
The Planning Process
To help with getting events delivered effectively and safely, we have broken down the events planning process into 5 main steps:
Step 1: Submit an Event Proposal Form within the required timeframe
This should always be the first step of the events planning process.
Please attach a completed risk assessment to the event form, and a budget if the event costs over £500 or over 50% of your club or society budget. Please see the sections further down this page for more info on Risk Assessments and Budgets.
Event Form Top Tips
- The SU operates a first-come-first-served queuing system for all event forms. This means the Societies Team can only process event forms in order of submission, so the earlier you get them in the queue, the earlier you can begin promotion and ticketing! If the SU team aren’t able to approve your form in time for your event, you may be asked to rearrange.
- The SU can make edits to forms, so don’t worry about confirming every single detail in the initial submission. We’d rather you submit a vague form that we can work on over time, than finalising all your event details but only letting us know about it 3 days before it’s due to take place!
- Please submit a form and await approval before promoting the event or making any concrete plans with external companies speakers.
- No payments related to an event can be made until the event form has been approved. Please factor this in your planning timescale!
Step 2: SU Staff Approval (and other stakeholders)
We aim to respond to all event forms within 5 working days, but this may be a little longer in busy periods.
When the form is processed, you will be assigned a staff lead, usually one of the Societies Coordinators, or the Societies Manager. Please direct all communications and payments for your event through your designated staff lead. They are there to support you and help ensure your event planning runs smoothly.
There may be some back-and-forth at this stage in order to ensure the event form is approvable. This would usually include making adjustments to the risk assessment and consolidating the budget.
We may also need to consult other stakeholders, such as LSE Generate, LSE Careers and PAGE, to ensure the event doesn't overlap with any of their existing events, or to see if they can provide any extra support. This can sometimes take extra time, so please factor this in to your planning if you're preparing an event involving networking or external companies.
If you wish to run a careers event in collaboration with an external organisation, please also contact LSE Careers at least 8 weeks before the event is due to take place. You can find out more information about their available support and guidance here.
Step 3: Booking Rooms and Venues
Once the SU has approved your form, it will be time to confirm your room!
- For LSE Rooms, it will be sent to the LSE Room Bookings Team, who will then contact you to confirm a suitable space, depending on the event requirements. We’re very lucky that LSE allow societies to use their spaces for free!
- For LSESU (Saw Swee Hock) Spaces, your staff lead will book you a space.
- For External Spaces, if you have any venue contracts, please don't sign these yourself. Please send them to your staff lead to sign them on your behalf.
You can make provisional bookings for some LSE spaces through Resource Booker yourself, by registering
here. These provisional rooms won't be confirmed until the SU has approved your event form. To gain these Room Booking privileges you'll need to have completed the
Room Bookings online training module..
Step 4: Event Logistics
This is where you work with your designated staff lead to organise any required logistics and the finer details of the event.
Catering
If you’d like to order catering for your event:
- Events in LSE rooms: Please have a look at the options available here, then email your order to your staff lead. Please note, some LSE rooms are only licensed to host LSE Catering. If you wish to provide your own food for an event, please specify this on your event form so Room Bookings can allocate a suitable room.
- Events in LSESU rooms: Please visit this page and follow the instructions.
All catering orders must be submitted a minimum of 10 working days before your event, to ensure the catering teams have enough time to organise necessary provisions and staffing. Please ensure catering is included on your budget and risk assessment!
AV Support (DTS)
If you would any microphones or projectors at your event, or if you need any webinars setting up, please let your staff lead know at least 10 working days in advance of the event.
Extra Furniture
LSE Porters can provide any extra furniture that you need for an event, such as a registration desk or chairs and tables for speakers. If you require these, please let your staff lead know at least 5 working days in advance of the event.
Step 5: Ticketing and Promotion
Once the event is approved and details have been confirmed, it’s time to start advertising!
Ticketing
We always recommend ticketing your events. Free tickets are a great way to manage capacity, and charging for tickets is a great source of income for your group. They are also essential if you're inviting non-LSE attendees to the event, so that you can provide the building's reception with a list of their names to allow entry.
Native is the SU’s ticketing platform. At the start of each year, all registered groups will receive an email from Native with instructions on how to set up tickets. Once you’ve set up your tickets, please let your staff lead know so that they can set them live.
There's plenty of support available to help you set up your tickets:
Use of external platforms must be pre-approved by your SU staff lead, and are only permitted if the event is:
- Free
- LSE attendees only
- Deemed low risk
If your event matches the above criteria and you’d like to use an external platform, please discuss this with your staff lead.
Promoting Your Event
The SU can support you with promoting your event if you wish to attract a wider audience. You can find more info about this here.
Don't forget, your staff lead is there to support you in every step of the process, so please do reach out to them for any support you need!
Risk Assessments
Risk assessments are a legal requirement of all LSESU Clubs and Societies activities. They may look complicated at first, but once you get used to it, they'll become much easier! They allow us to consdier the potential risks of an event, and think of ways to reduce them, making the event as safe as possible.
All event risk assessments should include:
- Trips, slips and falls
- Attendee welfare
- First aid emergencies
- Fire hazards (keeping fire doors closed and exits clear etc.)
Then, you'll need to consider specific risks related to the activity you're planning. For example, some other areas you may need to consider are:
- Crowd control
- Food consumption (allergies, choking, hygiene, preparation, storage etc.)
- External speaker risks (reputational risk, controversial content covered, protests)
- Alcohol consumption (welfare, related injuries and illnesses)
- Electrical hazards (if using devices such as microphones, projectors, speakers or laptops)
- Heating and ventilation
- Lighting
- Zoom security
- Violence, protests or political demonstrations
- Sound or loud music
For a more extensive list of potential risks, please see the Risk Assessment Template at the top of this page.
Then, think carefully about how the risks you identify can be mitigated. The more detail you go into, the better!
Click here to see some examples of how risks can be mitigated
| Hazard |
Action Taken Before Event |
Action Taken During the Event |
| Zoom Security - uninvited attendees enter the call |
- Ensure the Zoom call is password protected
- Ask the SU to set up a webinar, so only the host and panellists can be seen and heard.
- Don't post the joining link publicly. Only share the link with those who have signed up for the event, and encourage them not to share elsewhere.
|
- Enable the waiting room, then only admit people who are on your attendee list.
- Immediately remove any attendees who are causing trouble
- Have a designated committee member who monitors the chat and/or attendee behaviour
- Remind attendees at the start of event what kind of behaviour is acceptable.
|
| Crowd Control |
- Ensure the event is ticketed so that room capacity limits aren't exceeded
- Brief committee members on fire capacities, regulations, & emergency exits
- Have a full list of attendees which can be used in the case of any evacuations.
|
- Have members of your committee act as stewards during the event, to direct people to their seats, check tickets on the doors and supervise fire escapes in case they're required.
- Brief attendees of fire exit routes at the start of the event.
|
| Electrical Equipment and Wiring |
- Ask your SU's staff lead to arrange LSE's DTS team to help you with setting up electrical equipment.
- Ensure any wiring is safely stored, or if that's not possible, ensre it is clearly signed.
- Ensure stewards are aware of fire escapes, and first aid provision in the event location.
|
- Ensure no society member tried to move ro adjust electrical equipment.
- Report any broken or seemingly unsafe equipment to the building's reception.
|
| External Speaker Risks |
- Do thorough research on your speaker in advance, so you're aware of any potential controversies that may lead to issues before or during the event.
- Decide on your questions and topics of discussion, and share them with the speaker in advance of the event.
- Arrange an academic chair who will moderate the conversation, ensuring free speech is upheld, and who will deal with any difficulties.
- Thoroughly brief the academic chair in advance of the event, so they're aware of the speaker, the topics covered, and any potential matters of contention.
- Ensure event stewards know how to contact security if anything escalates.
- You may wish to only open the event to LSE students, so that you can monitor attendance.
- Let the SU know if you receive any backlash regarding your speaker when advertising the event. We can then help to support you to make the event as safe as possible.
|
- Inform the SU immediately if there were any issues at the event.
- Ensure your academic chair is present and in a position to intervene should they need to.
- Send round a feedback form after the event and encourage people to let you know if their welfare was negatively impacted by the event. Please let us know in this case so that we can support.
|
BUDGETS
The best way to cover the costs of your event is to charge for tickets. You can subsidise these tickets using your society's money to make the event more inclusive. You can also apply for the Students' Union Fund if your activity meets the criteria!
Some events cost very little, especially if you just want to provide a few snacks for your attendees. However, larger events often have more associated costs to consider, including:
- Venue Hire
- AV Technicians (if out of hours)
- Catering
- Security hire
- Speaker travel/ accommodation reimbursements
- Speaker gifts
- Decorations
- Marketing materials (eg. sponsored social media posts)
We generally don't recommend spending large proportions of your society's balance on one-off events, to ensure your group remains financially sustainable. To ensure your events are financially viable, you may need to submit a budget. Templates can be found here, and should be attached to your event form if either:
- the event costs over £500
- the event would cost over 50% of your club or society budget
Top Tips for Event Budgeting!
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Don’t worry if you can only estimate your costs to start with. You can always update your budgets as the planning progresses, just keep your staff lead informed.
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It's a good idea to create a shared list/ payment plan with your organising committe, to keep track of what has been paid and what is still outstanding.
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If you’re collaborating with another group on an event, you'll need to decide between you who is the financial lead. All finances relating to the event will go through the lead (but internal transfers between societies can be arranged if needed)
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If you're inviting external speakers to your event and have agreed to reimburse their travel or accommodation, it's a good idea to agree a reasonable 'reimbursement limit' with them in advance of them making any bookings. This means you aren't met with any suprises when they submit their reimbursement requests
EXTERNAL SPEAKERS
LSESU Clubs and Societies invite hundreds of speakers every year, to discuss a wide variety of topics.
If your group wishes to invite a speaker onto campus, you must make the SU aware by including their names and a brief description on your event form.
SU staff will conduct a background check on the speaker. This is to ensure we can put measures in place to ensure the event is as safe as possible, for your group, your audience, your speaker and for the wider LSE community.
If the speaker is high-profile, or something controversial comes up on our search, we'll circulate details of the event to the LSE Risk Spotters group, which is comprised of various LSESU and LSE staff members. They will then share any recommendations they have to ensure the safety of the event.
Also, you may be required to have an academic chair at your event. This is to ensure freedom of speech is upheld. You will be required to find an academic chair if:
- Your event is open to the public, and/or students from other universities
- Your speaker is high-profile, or coudl require extra security considerations
- The topics you're discussing could attract strongly differing views (regardless of where your society sits within these views)
Please don't advertise your speaker until the SU have approved your event. This is to ensure both the SU and the School are aware of who is being invited to speak on campus, and to protect your group.
You'll also need to email the name(s) of your speakers to the reception of the building where your event is taking place. This will ensure they're allowed access on the day of the event.
ACADEMIC CHAIRS
An academic chair is required at any event on LSE Campus that's:
- open to the public (including students from other universities)
and/or:
- Your speaker is high-profile, or could require extra security considerations
- The topics you're discussing could attract strongly differing views (regardless of where your society sits within these views)
This must be a full-time member of academic staff. This directory may help, as you can add a filter to find academic staff.
For more information about LSE's academic chair requirements, please visit this page and scroll down to the 'Opening Events to the Public' section.
It is your group's responsibility to fully brief your chair in advance of an event. You may wish to discuss the structure of the event, topics of discussion, and details of your invited speakers. Please also send them LSE's Chairnotes, to ensure they know what their role entails.
This is an LSE requirement, as a condition of using their spaces. Therefore, we recommend reaching out to potential chairs early on, to ensure you can secure one in time. Otherwise, the event will unfortunately need to be rearranged.
FILM SCREENINGS
If you wish to screen a film, documentary or TV programme, you must acquire the relevant licenses. This includes Screening Licence to cover copywright, and if the event is open to the public a Premise Licence/Temporary Event Notice to comply with the Licencing Act 2003.
The only exception to the above is if you are showing a film for educational purposes, and it is only LSE students in attendance (as listed under s34(2) of the Copywright, Designs and Patents Act 1988). Where possible, please make it clear how a film is being used for educational purposes.
Screening Licences
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Can be obtained from a ‘filmbank’ such as the BFI, Filmbankmedia or MPLC.
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Can be obtained directly from the copywright owner if a film is not covered by the filmbank.
Premises or Temporary Event Licences
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Applications must be made to the local council
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Under the Licensing Act 2003, an exemption also applies for screenings of films for the purpose of information, instruction or education. Guidance for this available on Licensing at Camden Council.
Event organiser responsibilities
You'll need to decide who your Lead Event Organiser is within your committee.
To be able to deliver events effectively, members of your committee who are events organisers must complete the Room Bookings Training, and Planning Events Training on the committee hub. If they have not completed this, they will not be approved to organise events.
All Event Organisers Have Responsibilities Which Include:
- Event Safety & Risk Assessment - Ensuring the Event is safe by completing and acting upon a risk assessment
- Equality & Diversity - A requirement that Event Organisers discuss equity, diversity and inclusion with regard to event speakers & content as well as planning accessible or welcoming events.
- Freedom Of Speech - Protect and promote freedom of speech within the law via risk assessment
- Gender Segregation - Including External Speaker, Film Screenings, Activities
- Attendees Experience - Is my event for members only, open to LSE students and staff or event the public?