Special events come in many shapes and sizes. These principles apply to all special events including conventions, meetings, trade shows, sporting events, concerts, festivals, and weddings. From 10 people to 400,000 people, keep these principles in mind when you begin the process of identifying your goals and objectives. Best of luck on your adventure and stay tuned for 'How to Build a Production Schedule' series.
Conference/event facility staff and also manage the various activities that are taking place at the venue. The Contractor will also demonstrate its ability to coordinate travel arrangements with the PCORI Travel Management Services Company and to institute contingency plans for any travel disruptions that may occur.
1. Detailed Planning - Planning is critical to event management and production. As the event manager you should be knowledgeable about all aspects, tasks, goals, and timelines of your event. This type of planning is more than a list of tasks to complete. This type of planning requires a detailed timeline of events, outline of responsibilities, easy to read schedules, and how each plan is interconnected with all others in the production schedule. When done, this document will be your detailed map of your event.
2. Know Your Audience - While these principles apply to every type of event - Concert, Meeting, Convention, Etc. - it is critical to know why you're producing the event. Know who your customer is and why you're producing the event. This will drive programming, venue selection, marketing, etc. Attendees will know right away if you have planned an event that isn't for them. They will vote with their feet and their wallets. Events can be designed for education, entertainment, engagement, championships, and celebration to name a few.
3. Know That Something Will Go Wrong - Great job planning every detail of your event. Now, expect something to either pop up that you weren't expecting or something to go wrong. You will encounter situations that you either may have planned for and someone dropped the ball or situations that you could not have planned for. Either of these scenarios should be budgeted for and planned for. You made need more electrical, tables, tents, or other equipment you may not have planned for. You may experience and emergency. You must have clear instructions for incident command, purchasing/procurement, security, and other pop up issues. Create an Emergency Operations Plan for every event and for every venue.
4. Trust but Verify - We all lean on others' expertise. We all rely on vendors to enhance our customers experience. Build relationships with vendors and use local organizations if producing and event in a new city (CVBs are great resources to liaise with the local business community). Sometimes you will need a deposit or the vendor may need a deposit from you. Create supplier communication plan to include on-site contacts, decision makers, and cell phone numbers. Ask for photos of equipment, ask for references, utilize the internet, and over-communicate. If the vendor finds that bothersome, another vendor will happily take your business.
5. Evaluate - How do you know where to go if you don't know where you've been? Evaluations are critical to your success. Identify areas for improvement or edits during your event. Event planners and managers must have, as part of their event gear, a notebook and pen. It can get hectic but there is no replacing looking at something in real time and identifying a way to make it better for your customer. You know where the weak links of your event live, make sure you are following those areas closely and take notes as to what happened and what you could have done to make it better. Schedule pre-event meetings, during event catch up quick meetings, and post event evaluation meetings. Get as many of your stakeholders into the room as possible. Utilize surveys to gain insights from your best stakeholder - the paying customer.
These five principles are key to a successful event. As you begin your Goals and Objectives meetings, keep these principles in front of you to help guide your discussion. Following these principles will ensure a solid foundation for realistic event expectations and useful Production Schedules. You're going to be great!