Strategic Event Design knows coordinating events is an enormous responsibility with a wide array of challenges from managing event personnel, ordering material, scheduling, planning and customer interaction. Although events may only last a matter of days or hours, proper preparation for an event can take years. The recipe for success in a well-planned event where client, guest and employee needs are fulfilled. This begins with an early start. Procrastination is the event planner’s bane and early action leads to success, profits and repeat customers. But with so much going on, how do you manage all the personnel?
Manage without Micro-Managing
Our professional Event Directors at Strategic Event Design take on all responsibilities concerning event planning. More importantly, we understand that we cannot and should not try to be in all places at once. Above and beyond all else, our Event Directors overachieve in the training and management of event personnel because our successes are largely determined by how well our personnel carry out allocated tasks before, during and after an event.
Key Elements to Managing Event Personnel
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RECRUITMENT is the first step. By communicating with our clients we determine the course of the event, the tasks required to produce that event and the amount of personnel required to perform those tasks. From there we identify which tasks we can perform ourselves and which tasks we must contract out. We have trusted contract companies like bar service and food vending and are able to select the best vendors in the right budget tiers.
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Secondly, we DELEGATE our internal personnel to ensure a coordinated, organized team effort. Since recruitment is completed, we can now decide which tasks each hired staff member will perform. Allocating manager roles is by far the most important part of the delegation process. For example, a “vending manager” will communicate between bar service and food service. If our client wants fish on the menu we must prepare to serve plenty of white wine. Without open lines of communication through a strong management staff, one missed nuance like fish and white wine can have a major effect on the success of the event.
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Finally, we TRAIN our staff. Now that we have a full team, we must teach them how to carry out their tasks. Ideally, your management team will have practical experience to instruct others on how to carry out tasks. For example, your “vending manager” should teach staff the proper way to open wine bottles or deliver food. The key to training is repetition, repetition, repetition. Train to ingrain.
Word to the Wise
The most important task, above all else, in event planning is getting an early start, especially if you are a novice event planner. It is the nature of event management that one small task, if not completed, can have a major effect on the success of the event. All of us at Strategic Event Design wish you the best of luck in your events and if you have questions or need help, feel free to contact us at www.strategiceventdesign.com.