Event Management is the management of events such as festivals, conferences and conventions. It is the process of using project management and organizational skills to plan and execute business and social events, thereby creating the best possible outcomes for all. The events industry employs 1.7 million people in the USA alone.
Event management and event planning are not the same. Event managers manage an event, while event planners plan an event. The two roles can, however, overlap as event managers and event planners work side by side. Event managers may manage certain aspects of events and event planners may handle some components of event planning.
Profile of Event Managers / Event Management Services
Event management is a sunrise industry, with some estimates suggesting that the demand for event managers will rise by one-third in the next decade. Event managers are responsible for planning and executing corporate, government and social events. They initiate the first step in event planning by meeting clients and understanding their needs. The event managers and clients subsequently develop a plausible budget for the event. After the budget is in place, the event managers finalize the concept for the event, decide on a suitable location and obtain the required permissions.
Event management companies plan and execute company meetings, weddings, concerts and special events, besides organizing sporting events, reunions and large parties. Governments, non-profit organizations and corporations utilize the services of event management companies. The NSW-based Sane Events is one such event management company that has been spearheading large and small business events for the past 20 years.
Pre-requisites of Event Management
Organisation
Event managers work on multiple projects at a time. The deadlines could be short-term or long-term in nature, while the individual elements and people associated with events could also pose a jigsaw puzzle of sorts. Event managers need to possess out-of-this-world organizational skills to keep track of it all.
Multi-tasking
An event manager should have the ability to juggle various tasks each day. The task of an event manager is made doubly difficult by the fact that he has to focus on each task without dropping the ball. One could be live-tweeting from one event and finalizing catering for another conference all at the same time.
Micro Management
The devil is in the details. Event management is all about details – dates, times, contact details, technical requirements and nitty-gritty of catering, to name a few. The success of an event ultimately boils down to an event manager’s capacity to plan things to the minutest details.
Time Management
Event management is about squeezing every minute for all its worth in order to get a job done. It involves constant deadlines and re-working of plans as the circumstances that can plague an event are legendary and tend to spring out of control despite the best preparations.
Stress Management
Stress is the bane of event managers. It can be caused by a deadly cocktail of overwork, stretching the limits and zillion other things in professional and personal life; and has linked to heart attacks, hypertension and other illnesses. The success of an event manager would hinge on his ability to deal with stress on a consistent basis.
Marketing
Event managers are part-time marketing gurus. An ability to use latest available marketing platforms and tools to promote an event is an essential part of an event manager’s job. Event managers spin stories to media outlets, write press releases, chat on the Facebook event page and maintain a themed Instagram feed. As if this was not enough, event managers strive towards generating endorsements and word-of-mouth recommendations.
Interpersonal Skills
Event management is akin to project management as it pertains to the management of people and not functions alone. Dealing with everyone from vendors and caterers to clients and staff is all within a day’s work for an event manager. An event manager should be endowed with exemplary communication skills, loads of listening skills and tonnes of patience to deal with people with diverse personality traits.
Starting Event Management from Home
Low Costs
An event manager can work from anywhere, provided he has a laptop, internet and mobile phone. Starting out from home keeps the costs in check as renting office space can be burdensome for a nascent business. Moreover, working from home saves the monthly travel outlay and expenses on big city temptations such as food and entertainment.
Efficiency
Commuting to work can be a time drainer. Working from the comfortable confines of one’s home can translate into sizeable savings in time, that would otherwise be wasted on a time-consuming and tiring commute, thus freeing valuable time for urgent and necessary work, and rendering a person time-rich.
How Tech Solutions are Redefining Event Management
Technology is a crucial part of our lives. Social media provides an open platform for everyone to communicate with each other, while cloud-based and mobile-friendly event management software makes changes possible on the fly. Event managers can use these technologies to seamlessly plan and execute their events.
Live Streaming
Live Streaming is inarguably the most revolutionary technology in the events industry. Live streaming apps allow people to instantly share live event videos on their social media pages. Event planners can expand their reach and increase social media engagements through the means of live streaming.
Virtual Reality
Virtual reality has opened the flood gates of real time experiences for consumers who otherwise could not afford to attend an event. It encourages realistic sharing of event information and has the potential to serve better content and event experience.
Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing platforms have made it easier to generate quality content from events in real time through apps and social media. Event apps host discussion forums and surveys, enabling events to be fine-tuned based on audience expectations and feedback.
To conclude, event management begins with the process of creating a vision for the event and seeing it through to execution.