Being an event manager
By Ross Woods (2nd ed. 2013)
Approach
When I started writing and compiling EVAN, the idea was to develop a master list of what you need to do to plan and manage a fairly complex event. Hopefully it is still that. The idea is that you can download relevant sections and delete anything irrelevant to your particular event, so that you have a fairly comprehensive list of what you have to do.
I realize that EVAN can't really give you everything you want in one easy procedure. It's more complicated than that . . .
- Managing an event isn't a completely linear process, so you cannot manage an event simply by plodding through a set of steps. For example:
- Assessing feasibility requires foresight. You must consider some things at the beginning even though you won't actually plan them until later.
- No matter how clear the "steps" are, a student can't manage a complex event without first getting experience in simple events.
- Sometimes it's about explaining things to you, not just providing a checklist.
- You should have your own organizational standards and procedures ("how we do things here") before you start planning a large event. It would be very difficult, and perhaps quite unrealistic, to write them from scratch as part of planning a major event. For example, do you have a purchasing policy? And an OHS policy?
- Managing an event is not just about tasks that need to be planned and done. You must train staff in a huge variety of roles. So it's not just a task list, but an expertise list too.
- Then there's the way the learning process works. No matter how good this e-book is, it will never make you into an instant expert. There are some things you cannot (or at least should not) try the first time without supervision. There's a big difference between information and knowledge.
- There are basic and complex versions of the same skill.
- You actually have two starting points: what your organization does (core business and parameters) and what your clients want or need.
- Watch out for what you don't know. In many cases, EVAN suggests that you consult other people.
What do event managers do?
Simply put, they coordinate all resources for a meeting or series of meetings.
If you're still learning, work on developing realistic expectations. It is easy to aspire to fun and glamour events, sipping champagne with celebrities or going to rock concerts. But in reality, it's hard work. Students of event management don't expect that:
- Most of the work is not usually in the more technical aspects of event management. Most of what you will do as event manager is planning and preparation beforehand, especially in promotion that gets people to show up.
- You're invisible. If you've done a good job, attenders probably won’t notice what you have done. People only notice if you make a mistake.
- Even though you are running the whole event, you won't get to mingle with the celebrities. You'll probably be mainly behind the scenes and too busy.
There are good reasons for planning and preparation being most of the job. The better you plan:
- the more professional the event will look,
- the less it will cost,
- the fewer mistakes you’ll make,
- the easier the event will be to run at the time (less stressful, less extra work, and fewer problems to fix), and,
- the better you can handle any unexpected problems and emergencies that might arise.
.The only solution to some kind of problems is to prevent or manage them during the planning stages. It's already too late if they go wrong during the event, because you can't fix them on the run.
The role of a professional event manager includes many kinds of tasks:
- Getting events:
- researching the need for an event and assessing its viability
- planning and developing proposals and bids
- Planning events:
- selecting venues
- managing risks of all kinds, including developing procedures for emergencies
- planning and implementing the admittance, seating and dispersal of crowds
- planning transport strategies
- managing finances
- handling environmental aspects
- managing promotion and sponsorship
- addressing government issues and liaising with government authorities
- coordinating the venue and facilities
- integrating key technology
- preparing materials and staff,
- Overseeing event delivery and timelines:
- setting up and operating the event
- coordinating the on-site registration of attenders
- overall coordination
- identifying possible gaps in the delivery and resolving them
- taking follow-up action.
- monitoring, evaluating and reporting.
Event managers also act as stage managers in some smaller events. However, in the theater and in larger events, stage management is a separate position with a separate skill-set.
Personal qualities
Event management is a business like any other, and you will need good general business and management skills in contracts, finances, budgeting, and legal requirements. Otherwise, the qualities needed for managing events will vary according to the kind of event. And you will probably be weaker on some things.
Some absolutely essesntial personal qualities are:
- Good communication skills (Good technical skills won't make up for poor communication.)
- Good organizational skills.
- Assertiveness: You need to be able to take control because it's your job to make sure things happen.
- Able to work long hours, especially on weekends (This can be difficult on families and relationships.)
- Passionate about events.
- Willing to learn.
- Able to deal with multiple stakeholders.
- Good multi-tasking skills.
You will need planning and organization skills such as:
- conceiving what will happen
- conceiving how long things will take
- conceiving what might go wrong
- delegating
- scheduling
- operating within deadlines
- building networks of clients
- building networks with training institutions and other Event Management professionals.
Other personal attributes:
- willing to consult others
- effective as a public face
- able to work with employees and other organizations
- gain people's trust as a leader
- able to be very busy at peak demand times
- able to relax and not worry, doesn’t easily panic
- able to learn from experience.
The Profession
People come into Event Management from:
- Movie production
- Theater production and management
- Music
- Sports organizations
- Churches and para-church organizations
- Communications studies
- Information technology (CAD, multimedia, graphic design)
- Architecture
- Marketing and advertising
Increasingly, however, they come from specialized event management courses.
The development of professional associations has helped clarify the profession; what it does, its standards, and who is in it. Probably because the related industries are so various, the event management profession does not yet have a clear career pathway. Where do people start? Where do they go to?
In fact, the landscape is quite mixed.
- Some event managers are freelancers.
- Some work in event management companies with core business in running conventions, conferences, festivals, exhibitions, etc.
- Some work in specialist event management support companies (e.g. pyrotechnics, sound, IT).
- Hotels employ event managers when hotel-based events are close to core business.
- Conference centres often employ their own event managers.
- Some event managers work for companies that run many events but have another kind of core business (e.g. local governments, churches, large sporting organizations).
- Large music companies employ event managers to run music shows and organize tours.
Current trends
- Lead times are getting shorter.
- Venue owners are getting more use from venues, cutting setup and breakdown times.
- Clients have higher expectations without realizing the costs involved.
- Customers want increasingly impressive special effects, making higher demands of technical expertise.
- Risk management and public liability are major issues with little room for error.
- Increased insurance costs can make a usually successful event no longer viable.
- Event attenders are posponing the decision to attend, giving rise to discounts for early bird registration.
- Event registrations are increasingly automated and online with credit card payment. They are often done by separate booking agencies, creating various added fees to attenders. Some booking agencies delay disclosure of these extra fees until the latest possible stage of registration.
The industry
Although event management has emerged as an industry in its own right, it has a background in five industry areas:
- Sport and recreation (mainly sporting events),
- Entertainment and theatre (managing back and front of house, some stage management),
- Hospitality, tourism and travel,
- Music (touring shows, front of house management, etc.), and
- Business (project management)
Relevant units in are found in the following Australian training packages: Tourism and hospitality, Entertainment, Media (Film, TV, radio, and multimedia), Sport and recreation, Music, Business, etc.
One association divided it into a number of segments and categories, which gives a wider view of what just one part of the industry does:
Segments
Categories
- Convention visitors and tourist organisation
- Events and technical production
- Meetings and events
- Suppliers and services
- Venues
- Conference and meetings management
- Destination management
- Exhibitions
- Incentives
- International conventions
- Medical and pharmaceutical conferences
- In-house meeting
- Special events
Reference: Meetings & Events Australia
Synergies
Consider the synergies between these different industry sectors:
- Sports and tourism have created a sports tourism industry. (Cities compete for major sporting events because they make profits from them.)
- Sports tourism can consequently play a part in regional strategies for economic development.
- The links between sporting organizations become increasingly institutionalized.
- The links between major sports and government. (Governments fund some kinds of sporting events, sometimes for political and economic purposes.)
- The links between sports and private enterprise, especially due to the value of commercial sponsorships to both parties.
- The links between non-profit community associations and professional sports.
- Major arts festivals are intentional tourist attractions.
- The role of hospitality services in tourism. An international conference needs hotels and restaurants.
- The role of hospitality services in sports tourism. An international sporting event needs hotels and restaurants.
- The skill area overlaps between the entertainment tourisms and sports industry event management.
- The role of entertainment in sports and tourism.
- The relationship between contemporary marketing practice and corporate event management.
- The relationship between corporate and government marketing practices and the delivery of special events.
Consequently, event management graduates have opportunities for careers in government, education, the arts, commerce, and industry.
You can find out more through:
- industry seminars
- training courses
- industry association membership
- participation in events industry association activities
- informal networking with colleagues
- reading industry journals
- web research (Start with Bill O'Toole's website)
Ethics in the events industry
"Ethics" is the study of right and wrong. The main ethical issues affecting the industry are:
- Limitations
- If you should work within your limitations, when should you try somethng new?
- Confidentiality.
- When you get information about customers, what do you have to keep confidential?
- Overbooking Overbooking is accepting more bookings than you have space, because some of them usually cancel.
- But what about when not so many people cancel and people don't get the place you've booked them for?
- Pricing
- You could charge as much as people will pay. But when are you ripping people off?
- Tipping
- If a customer gives a tip, is it yours, or is it the business's, or should it be split between the team?
- What about declaring it as taxable income?
- Familiarization
- How close should you get to customers? Shouldn't you maintain a professional attitude?
- What about friendship with customers outside work?
- Gifts and services free of charge
- When can you give gifts and services free of charge? When shouldn't you?
- Who decides?
- Product recommendations
- When can you recommend products?
- When is it wrong to do so?
- What about being paid to recommend particular products? What if the products are inferior?
- Other ethical topics
- Will you pay commissions to other people or organizations? If so, how much? What if they don't have a prior agreement?
- How do you treat sub-contractors? What comprises fairness?
- What is "fair competition?
- When is it ethical to acquire knowledge from competitors?
- Under what conditions should you give a refund?
Other topics
Crisis management should be included in programs for managers of complex events.
Establishing networks should be required.
Exhibitions seems to be an increasing specialized field, and the ability to do artistic displays seems to be a requirement for it. That is, there are principles of visual design and layout that need to be learnt, even if you do not become a professional layout artist.
Innovation and creativity. The ability to create new solutions to problems and challenges is part of the job, at least at higher levels.
Some related skill areas are to some extent integrated into what an event manager needs to do:
- marketing and advertising (e.g. niche marketing, branding)
- public relations
- project management
- budgeting and finance
Bibliography
If you're new to to the study of event management, can I recommend the following textbook:
Making it Happen: A Non-Technical Guide to Project Management by Mackenzie Kyle (John Wiley and Sons Canada (Etobicoke, Canada, 1998)Other texts:
Allen J., O'Toole W., MacDonnell I. and Harris R. Festival and Special Event Management J Wiley Brisbane 2002
Ball B., Sponsorship and You, Kenhurst N.S.W. Kangaroo Press, 1993
Bowdin, G., McDonnell, I., Allen, J., & O’Toole,W. (2001). Events Management. Great Britain: Butterworth-Heinemann
Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute Capability Maturity Model
Catherwood, D. (1993). The Complete Guide to Special Event Management. New York: Wiley
Chapman C., Project Risk Management -Processes, Techniques and Insights, Ward S., J Wiley 1997
Corporate Event Project Management, W. O’Toole & Phyllis Mikolatis, 2003. John Wiley
Dollars and Events, How to Succeed in the Special Events Business, J.J. Goldblatt and F. Supovitz.
Electronic Journals: Festival Management and Event Tourism, various volumes
Event Management in Leisure and Tourism, Watt D.C., Addison, Wesley & Longman, New York, 1998
Event Project Management module : Master of Project Management at the University of Sydney.
Event Risk Management and Safety, Peter E. Turlow, 2002. John Wiley
Events 2000 : Conference Proceedings of the 'Events Beyond 2000:Setting the Agenda' Conference
Festival Management and Event Tourism, [Electronic Journal]
Frame, J D Project Management Competence Jossey Bass San Francisco 1999
Goldblatt, J. (1997). Special Events: Best Practice in Modern Event Management. New York: Van Norstand
Goldblatt J.J. and F. Supovitz, Dollars and Events, How to Succeed in the Special Events Business.
Hole, M., & Mackinnon, A. (1998). A 13-step Guide to Event Management in Sports Management: An Australian Perspective. Sydney: Bookpress
How to Organise Special Events and Festivals, Tonge R., Tourism Management Series, Gull Publishing P/L, Australia, 2000
Kerzner H Strategic Planning for Project Management using a Project Management Maturity Model J Wiley and Sons NY 2001
McConnell, I., Allen, J., O’Toole, W., & Harris,R. (2002). Festival and Special Event Management (2nd ed). Sydney: Wiley & Sons
Managing Innovative Projects, Web A., Chapman & Hall London, 1994
O’Toole W. & Phyllis Mikolatis, Corporate Event Project Management, 2003. John Wiley. (referenced elsewhere as 2002)
Project Management Institute : Organizational Project Management Maturity Model
Project Risk Management -Processes, Techniques and Insights, Chapman C., Ward S., J Wiley 1997
Sponsorship and You, Ball B., Kenhurst N.S.W. Kangaroo Press, 1993
Sponsorship in the Management of Sport: Its foundation and application. (2nd ed.), Stotlar D.K., 1996
Sport Event and Facility Management, Parks, Janet B., Zanger, Beverly R. K. & Quarterman, Jerome (eds.) 1998.
Standeven, J., & De Knop, P. (1998). Sport Tourism. Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics
Steadman, G., & Goldblatt, J.(1995). The Ultimate Guide to Sport Event Management and Marketing. Chicago: Irwin Publications
Stotlar D.K., Sponsorship in the Management of Sport: Its foundation and application. (2nd ed.), 1996.
Tonge R., How to Organise Special Events and Festivals, Tourism Management Series, Gull Publishing P/L, Australia, 2000
Turlow, Peter E. Event Risk Management and Safety, 2002. John Wiley.
Watt D.C., Addison, Event Management in Leisure and Tourism, Wesley & Longman, New York, 1998.
Web A., Managing Innovative Projects, Chapman & Hall London, 1994.