How to Stage a Beauty Pageant - Organizing a Beauty Competition is Easy

In my 15 years of professional fundraising, I've organized hundreds of special events. Several of them were beauty pageants for various organizations and all were easy to organize. If you want to stage a beauty pageant and don't know where to start, follow this quick how-to and your beauty competition will be up and running in no time.

Answer the Following Questions - Who, When, Where, and Why.

Who - Who will be competing in your beauty pageant? Young women? Grandmothers? Fathers? A beauty pageant can include any group of people. Narrow it down, so you can create the rules and regulations for applicants.

When - What date will your beauty pageant be held on? Check local calendars before deciding on a date as you do not want to compete with another similar local event or schedule it on a holiday.

Where - Where will your beauty pageant be held? Start with city and, in the next steps, we'll talk about venue.

Why - What is the reason for holding a beauty pageant? Is it a fundraiser? Is it to promote self-confidence in young women but not a potential money maker? Is it to publicize an organization? Is it so you can choose the right person to receive a scholarship? Are you trying to find modeling agency candidates? You must have a reason for staging a beauty pageant, or it's just another event no-one will come to.

How to Organize a Beauty Pageant

Once you have the answers to all the above questions, you can begin organizing your event.

Create a Budget - Before you do anything else, you must have a budget and know down to the dollar how much the event will cost you. Make sure you add an additional 5-10% as 'Miscellaneous Costs', as there are always expenses you don't expect. Include any monetary or product prizes contestants will win, as well as cost of sashes, tiaras and any award trophies you may present.

Find a Venue - Now you know the date you want the beauty pageant to be held on, you can look for a venue. Make appointments with administrators for church halls, convention centers, hotels, shopping malls -- you name it. If the venue is large enough for your event, check out everything available and sign a contract with the one that offers you the best deal for the services and facilities you need.

Hotel Rooms - If the beauty pageant will be large and contestants may travel a long way, sign a contract with a local hotel for a certain number of rooms for contestants and their parties. If the contract you sign is for a large enough group (every hotel varies on requirements) you will get a low rate on each room. If you are holdiing your pageant at a hotel, the rate per room should be even lower.

Hire Staff - Although you should be able to get many pageant tasks achieved by volunteers, hire pageant staff who will be responsible for the smooth running of the event. How many staff you require is different from event to event. You should figure that out yourself.

Recruit Contestants - The most important thing about your event is your contestants and an efficient recruiting campaign. Put adverts in local newspapers. Put flyers on coffee shop bulletin boards and at supermarkets and churches/synagogues/temples. Post the information in internet chat rooms. Submit ads to pageant magazines (see link for Pageantry Magazine at end of article). Have a deadline for applications and a contestant fee.

Keep contestant fee low and don't try to gouge contestants making them pay for everything your event will need. If you do, the number of contestants will be low and the caliber poor.

Find Judges - Recruit at least three judges from the community. Local personalities, civic leaders and even educational leaders are all good choices. Make sure you have at least one more than you really need as, invariably on the day, one will not be able to appear.

Recruit Sponsors - You should be able to underwrite the cost of most of your event with sponsors.

Create several levels of sponsorship and state benefits each sponsor receives in return eg:

Sponsor - $250 - Receive two tickets to the event and a small ad
Patron - $500 - Receive two tickets to the event and a quarter-page ad in event program
Silver Sponsor - $1,000 - Four tickets, half-page ad, invitation to pre-competition wine reception
Gold Sponsor - $5,000 - Four tickets, full-page ad, invitation to pre-competition wine reception, meet contestants back stage.
Platinum Sponsor - $10,000 - Eight tickets, back-page full ad or inside cover full ad, invitation to pre-competiton wine reception, meet contestants back stage and four suites at the hotel for the night of the event.

Basically, you can offer any incentives you want to your potential sponsors, just be sure you can provide them and pay for them.

Approach local businesses for both monetary (sponsorships) and in-kind donations. Target businesses that are connected to beauty-type products or that can give in-kind prizes. Look at hairdressers, beauty salons, department stores, boutiques, shopping malls, printing companies, car dealerships, banks, local newspapers etc.

Recruit Volunteers for Event - Don't forget, you will need a lot of people to run the event on the day. Most of the time, your beauty pageant will be connected to an organization already in existence so make sure you recruit any volunteers you need through them.

There are, of course, many more things involved in staging a beauty pageant but these are the basics. Others will come to you as you begin to organize your event. The main things to remember are be organized, anticipate any potential problems, keep a good accounting of all monies involved, get people to help you, and be moral and honest. With those things in mind, you really can't lose.

More Information:

Pageantry Magazine