As marketing and sales professionals, we all know that the experience of your attendees is critical. Businesses need to differentiate themselves more than ever, and in-person events are still a great way to do this. For the fifth consecutive year, “in-person events” tops the list of most effective marketing tactics! However, for event attendees to get the most out of their experience (and for you to get the most out of your money!), it is critical that the event be planned well.
2016 has been an exciting year in the events and meetings industry. The explosion in integrated technology has given event managers an entirely new set of tools, both to design more impactful experiences and create deeper relationships between clients and attendees.
But adopting new event tech, especially software, has to be more than just a set of features. Or what a colleague says (though trusted reviews are certainly helpful). Maybe now more than ever, in this tech-centric world, you need a plan. One that starts from the ground up and permeates every part of your event business.
So before you go running off to snap up the latest app, make sure you consider these 4 things first.
Hello from the land of Propared! It’s been an interesting month as we leave summer behind and look forward to Fall. Any event planners who work in the Northeast can back us up; there is nothing quite like producing an outdoor event in the changing of the seasons.
But we digress; we’ve gathered together today to talk about our most recent event management software development work! Getting excited? We know, at times this stuff can seem dry. Who wants to sit through a long thread about requirements and testing? That’s why we try to approach these entries as logically and simply as possible. We want to give you a little insight into the real conversations we have about what we work on and why.
Here’s what we’re chatting about this month!
Stop me if this sounds familiar. You’ve just sent out the latest production schedule for an upcoming event. Shortly after, you get a call from a slightly harried vendor.
“So, I just got your email and...what am I looking at? I’m not sure what applies to my crew. Can you just tell me where and when we need to be on site?”
This happens all the time in events. Coordinating so many intricate details is complicated, especially with multiple stakeholders. You’ve got your team, the client, vendors, the venue, freelancers, and/or volunteers. But each group, even each person may only be responsible for a few tasks.
Let’s be honest: we event people LOVE to use terms interchangeably. One of the most common ones? The “event schedule.” It all depends on who you’re talking to and what you’re talking about.
A nice thing, probably one of my favorite things about working in events is that there isn’t really a “traditional” day. There are general working days, pre-production days, event days, and post-event days. If you’re lucky, some days may be more than one!
Scheduling one event is complicated. A few at a time? More so. At least one a day? Downright crazy. Welcome to the world of venue management; an immensely challenging position that requires the coordination of logistics for dozens of events at the same time.
Explaining what I do is always a strange experience. Especially to those who aren’t in the industry. Stage Managers are in charge of so much and coordinate so many aspects of a production. It can be difficult to explain the full spectrum of responsibilities and jobs that they do. I found Broadway stage manager Michael J Passaro’s description best:
“The role [of as stage manager] is really a hybrid of a chief executive officer and chief operating officer in our version of a Fortune 500 company. With those two role models in mind, we’re in charge of setting the tone, atmosphere, and culture for the rehearsal space. There’s also the day-to-day logistics of delivering that show to an audience eight times a week.”
Sound exciting? See yourself making a career in stage management? Wonder what a day in the life looks like (and how much coffee is consumed)? Read on.
This is part 3 in a series about the phases of event production. Check out Part I: Investigation and Part II: Planning for information on those early parts of the process.
Did you sleep last night? I hope so. Today is event day and it's going to be a long one. You've asked all your questions. You've planned the event to perfection. You have backup plans and backup plans for your backup plans. The crew is booked, the vendors have their assignments, your coffee is still hot and your Über is pulling up outside your place. It's time to get to work, so how should a good event manager tackle this day?
If you manage live events, you've likely heard of Blizzard Lighting. The LED manufacturer and distributor is one of the leading companies in the industry, providing high quality equipment for bands, production companies, clubs, theaters, churches, and more.
But what you might not think about is that Blizzard, like almost all event production companies, works hard to establish a consistent framework for logistics tracking and scheduling. An event planner might be concerned with getting everything delivered to a single venue. The Blizzard team has to coordinate equipment shipped out to hundreds of facilities across the world. That takes a high level of management efficiency.