How Did I Get In These Shoes!?!
Congratulations!
Your boss just dropped the company’s next event on your desk and put you in charge! I know exactly how you feel. Many thoughts are running through your mind right now. You’re probably saying, ‘WHY ME?!? How did I end up here?’ My guess is you have a knack for organization and creativity, you excel at team management, and your resume promotes your ability to handle complex projects with efficiency. Sound familiar? Our research shows that company meeting or event planners come from Business Administration, Communications, Marketing, and Public Relations. Any one of these roles can expose you to opportunities to support events and even shift your career. What does it mean to be the “Director of Events” for your company? If you’re the rookie in the room, how do you set yourself up for great success?
1. Build a Collaborative A-Team
Depending on the size of your event, the logistics alone can be a massive undertaking. You need a reliable team. To start, you may decide to hire an external event planner. With an event planner/partner to assist with the complexities, you will increase your effectiveness in the entire process.
The kind of team support you need depends on the nature of events you manage. The standard team will include: the Internal Team, managing details as they affect attendees and the External Team, managing the event.
You and your internal team will navigate:
Sourcing venues/hotels and contracting
Registration website and management
Air travel and rooming lists
Transportation to/from the airport and venues
Meeting logistics
Food and beverage
Attendee customer support and more
It’s one thing to manage hotel rooms and travel for 20 employees all from the same office to an event, but it’s quite another thing when 300 - 6,000 attendees are traveling from all 50 states. Life emergencies happen, and before you know it, you’re trying to manage 100 changes to your attendees’ arrivals on check-in day. This explains why assigning some of these logistics to internal team members and collaborating together can make for a smoother process with a lesser chance of details falling through the cracks.
As for the external team, it’s vitally important you have a highly qualified Audio/Visual Production Partner--because no one ever leaves a concert humming the lyrics of “Lighting”. In other words, while it’s seemingly all about the music for a concert, it’s really all about the content and presenter on stage. Sound is just as important as the graphics on screen and the visual appeal to the audience. However, if the content is inferior and presenters aren’t engaging, your audience won’t be either. It’s critical to have an AV production partner that can collaborate with you on all these factors to build solutions that allow every attendee in every seat to walk away from your event having clearly experienced all the content presented. If they can’t see or hear it, they can’t absorb it. The best AV Production Partners can provide suggestions on how to keep the content engaging and exciting. At River Media, our core process is to Listen, Design, & Deliver. We want to understand what’s important to you, creatively solve how we can achieve those goals in your budget, then deliver an exceptional experience for you and your attendees. We want that “WOW” factor to keep your attendee’s engagement and excitement high!
It doesn’t stop there; you’ll still need to address logistical needs such as rentals, décor features, entertainment, and more. In our next article, we’ll dive into how to “Choose Your A-Team”.
2. Be Organized
One of my life mottos is definitive communication is key. Once you have your team in place, it’s important to clearly communicate the expectations for everyone. The more effectively you collaborate , you’ll begin to see templates constructed and rinse-and-repeat timelines and formats developed. A finely-tuned team is now executing the event like the pros they’ve become. Every detail has been accounted for due to concise communication and organization built into every element. As a professional meeting planner or AV partner, you’ll find yourself speaking the “language” that promotes even greater success in your event as well as protects you from unexpected fees.
Something to note is if you’ve contracted an event planning company for their expertise, this relationship comes with unlimited definability and is ultimately determined by your budget. You must ask yourself if you can plan an event without an event planning company. The answer is ONLY if you and your internal team have the capabilities and organization to take on the workload along with your other responsibilities. Understanding all the variables that come with an extravagant event (such as peak room nights and hotel contract concessions) may or may not be in your wheelhouse.
Next, it’s imperative to preset regular team meetings which will keep your event on track. Monthly updates should turn into bi-monthly check-ins and then weekly touch points as you close in on your big day. Depending on the scope you’ve contracted with your event planning company, these meetings may be run by you as the primary planner, or in tandem with the event planning company.
3. Plan the Day
During the event, having a support team onsite is essential for your attendees. You always want to consider their journey. Imagine stepping into the venue for the first time, and ask yourself these questions:
Is signage clear on where to go? Do I know where I’m supposed to be and when?
Where can I get a drink? Where are the restrooms?
What’s the schedule for the evening? When/where do we eat next?
Reviewing your event from the lens of your attendees will help you modify day-of decisions on breaks, signage, accommodations, food, etc. This key strategy will also further your abilities in being an effective event planner. When in doubt, ask your attendees in a follow up event survey. This little tool will be invaluable for gathering information on how your preparations went and what changes to make next time. Your goal should always be to improve the attendee experience. When you put yourself in their shoes, you can have empathy for their journey at your event.
Has this article been insightful? What question do you have for our team? At River Media, we transform events into experiences by listening to visions, designing vision-centric ideas, and delivering excellence in onsite event support to event organizers of all experience levels. We would love your feedback or if you have questions on events and the struggles that arise. We look forward to hearing from you and helping in your next project.