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" 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:
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.
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.)
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.
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.
The steps below make the transition from a simple event to a complex event by introducing complex elements in increments:
Hint: Even though you do everything possible to prevent crises, it is preferable that students experience one sometime during their training.
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. |
|
Each job should be described:
|
|
| 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. |
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.