Teaching event management

By Ross Woods (2nd ed. 2013)

How do you teach event management? There probably cannot be one "one best way" because students, teachers and institutions will vary in their preferred balance between classroom and practicum, and students vary greatly in their learning style. Nevetheless, some principles may be helpful to all of them.

Event management studies must include a practical component, even in graduate studies where much of the program is dedicated to more theoretical issues. It is also desirable that practicum students travel with a complex event from beginning to end.

Many aspects of the process depend on a good understanding of business management, which lends itself quite well to a higher education style of classroom delivery. That is, it seems unwise to teach advanced event management as a set of purely practical skills.

Event management training poses particular challenges because top-level live events cannot use trainees. The main reasons are:

 

Sequencing

"Sequencing" refers to the order in which skills and knowledge are taught. It assumes, quite correctly, that ome sequences are better than others. Stages of learning generally follow the on-job learning guidelines. This is a behaviorist approach of adding new elements of difficulty one at a time. You need your students to be ready for the next stage of difficulty without undue stress and panic. Besides, adequate preparation will prevent them from being in continuous "disaster prevention" mode.

I've generally sequenced as follows:

From

To

Off-job learning

>

On-job learning

Simpler events

>

More complex events

Under supervision

>

Without supervision

Existing systems

>

Purpose-built systems

Entry-level hospitality jobs, roadies, etc.

>

Managing events


Some things go in three steps:

From

 

To

 

Then to

Hearing from and observing event managers

>

Participation as team member

>

Participation as person in charge of a team or event

Multiple rehearsals in which the student may make mistakes

>

Rehearsed events

>

Unrehearsed events, or more correctly, "unrehearsible" events where there is no time for rehearsals and no permissible mistakes

 

The sequence below is not the only one possible:

Stage 1: Induction

Start with introductory units. What is event management and how the event cycle works. What do event managers do? What is project management? Your students should be able to progress more quickly when they an see the big picutre of the whole process.

Stage 2: Observation

Students should observe event managers at work managing real events. They should use sets of questions that guide them in what to look for; otherwise they might only say, "Yeah, it was good" and learn little from the exercise. They may not speak at the time, but should write questions for later debriefing and discussion.)

Stage 3: Assistant roles

Start with on-job induction then do help-out roles, such as stage hands, roadies, and promotional assistants. These seem like "cannon fodder" roles but they are a more important learning exercise than students think at the time. A single event isn’t enough for team students to learn the skills in one of these roles. You might have other options to get your team to learn them, get extra practice and gain confidence.

Students should pass an interview with the manager of the practicum organization before placement, and the practicum should have clear learning goals and performance standards for the student.

A lot has been said about the transition from classroom to workplace and need not be repeated here: expectations, learning curves, adjustments, etc.

Stage 4: Senior roles

The best example is the stage manager. If you are working mainly with students, you’ll probably find the backstage manager’s role hard to fill. That person needs to be well organized, decisive, time-conscious, not easily distracted, not error-prone, but still good with people. The best pathway to the role is to master a subordinate role first.

You might want to split the role into two: one specifically for getting people on and off stage in liaison with the sound desk, and one for one for the rest of the job.

Stage 5: Manage simple events as the event manager

  1. Rehearsals of simple events as a team using existing systems.
  2. Simple events as a team using existing systems.
  3. Simple events as a team using existing systems where rehearsals are not possible.

Stage 6: Complex events

The steps below make the transition from a simple event to a complex event by introducing complex elements in increments:

  1. Planned observation activities of a real intermediate event being managed.
  2. Intermediate events as the person in charge using purpose-built systems.
  3. Rehearsals of intermediate events as a team using existing systems.
  4. Intermediate events as a team using purpose-built systems.
  5. Intermediate events as a team using purpose-built systems where rehearsals are not possible.
  6. Rehearsals of intermediate events as the person in charge using purpose-built systems.
  7. Complex events.
  8. Explore issues.

Hint: Even though you do everything possible to prevent crises, it is preferable that students experience one sometime during their training.

 

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Starting students in new roles

If your team members are all learning new jobs, they’ll be nervous and will easily make mistakes.

Principles

Reasons

Each team member should have no more than one job at a time.

  • Multiple roles can confuse people.
  • If the schedule changes a little, they can’t be in different places at the same time doing different jobs.
  • Note: The students with graphic arts roles will be finished well before the gig, so you can then give them other roles. But they still only have one role at a time. Several other similar roles can be done by the same person, because the roles are done at different times: costumer and wardrobe supervisor, roadie and stage hand.

Each job should be described:

  • on one sheet of paper
  • in simple language
  • in step by step form if possible.

If they’re new and nervous, they’ll easily forget what you explained.

Make the instructions easy to understand and as helpful as possible, so they can at least re-read them.

Of course, some will lose the piece of paper and might be embarrassed to say they lost it. Have a way for them to see a master copy or get a replacement.

Each team member should be responsible to only one supervisor.

Prevent confusion. They want to go to one person when they need help.

Team members in some roles might need a diagram of the venue with relevant places and equipment highlighted.

Verbal explanations on the fly don’t explain this kind of information very well.

Each team member should focus on what they need to do at this gig, so teach them only that.

They can get very confused if they have to understand other jobs as well. (They can put the big picture together later.)

Go through the Job Description with them, show them what to do, and answer questions. However, they will still need help as they go.

They probably won’t really understand it until after they’ve tried doing it. Hearing an explanation on how to do something is not the same as actually doing it.

 

Music and theatrical gigs: Some optional jobs

 

Music and theatrical gigs: Bigger gigs

 

 

Learning activities

An internet search is a very appropriate learning exercise, especially if it relates to putting together a detailed plan. Good search words are "event management, event coordinator, meetings coordinator, exhibitions" etc.

A case study approach is ideally suited to event management, both for education and research.

Guest speakers with experience in very different kinds of events would be beneficial.

I would set students assignments to go interview event managers in their quiet periods and tease out their procedures. (Some managers of fairly major events still carry everything in their heads and keep inadequate written notes.)

If you interviewed guests, your questions would usually include:

  1. What did the client want?
  2. What did you do? Describe it step by step.
  3. What were the key Critical Success Factors?
  4. What did you learn?
  5. What took most time?
  6. What was unexpected?
  7. What were the major risks? What did you do about them?
  8. Can we see your run sheets or schedule?
  9. What would you do differently next time?

I would also want to incorporate all that feedback into EVAN.

At the higher levels where students would be training to handle large complex projects, they should spend some time studying management topics like organizational behavior, organizational communications, accounting, etc.

 

Ideas for practice projects

  1. Plan a dinner party for ten adults in a home (5 middle-class couples, 30-40 years old), budget negotiable.
  2. Plan a day-long planning conference for a network of youth workers aged 25–30 yrs old who already know each other.
  3. Plan a three-day business conference for a network of professional persons aged 45–60 yrs in a hotel. Only some already know each other.
  4. Plan a day-long gymnastics championships for suburban girls aged 8-12 years old in a high school gymnasium. They will be accompanied by parents, with some friends and families.
  5. Plan a birthday party for ten six-year-old girls with a pony ride.
  6. Plan a wedding reception for the daughter of a local zillionaire who is getting married to a member of a foreign royal family. The reception will be at his mansion through the afternoon and into the late evening.
  7. Plan a short ceremony for a Member of Parliament to open a new hospital.
  8. Plan an awards ceremony for 50 graduates of a university faculty at the university hall.
  9. Plan a two-day visit by a delegation from a foreign government to your local head of government.
  10. Plan a fashion parade to raise funds for charity.
  11. Plan a two-day weekend rock festival on a farm with:
    1. two stages with live performances 10 hours each day
    2. a mosh pit
  12. Plan an agricultural fair with animals. You will need to:
    1. liaise with specialized associations
    2. arrange judges
    3. establish regulations for competitions
    4. advertise for competitors
    5. arrange facilities for different kinds of animals
    6. consider sideshows, food, fireworks, etc.
    7. arena events
    8. crowds
    9. prizes (including trophies, ribbons, etc.)
    10. advertise the whole fair
    11. etc.

 

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How to assess it

Assessment poses particular problems. It is unlikely that even a graduate will be appointed to a position as an event manager in charge of a complex event, but that is what is really required. Off job assessment does not really count; assessment really needs to be on the job. It follows that some qualifications cannot be done like a regular campus course.

Formative assessment

  1. Do an assignment based on an Internet search for a specific kind of event (e.g. parties for children, teens, adults, festivals, concerts, banquets, other …). I'd suggest that it be collated for inclusion into into EVAN later.
    • Build new checklists
    • Integrate advice
    • Define the difference between professional and amateur standard
  2. Projects assessed similarly to those used for summative assessment.

Assessment of the knowledge component

This will vary according to the purpose and level of the course.

At the advanced levels, it would also be reasonable to also expect fairly sophisticated theoretical knowledge of the processes.

Summative skills assessment

Students conduct two major projects that are different from each other. Assessment would be documented by:

It is essential that the assessor not interrupt the student during the actual on-job assessment.

 

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