WordPress Event Ticketing

Let’s start right off by announcing that this entry will be a little different.

Oh, it will still deal with the topic closest to our collective hearts – event planning and management – but it will primarily serve as advice for the clients that are looking to hire a professional event manager or an event management company.

That’s right. After all, it’s only good professional manners to be helpful to the clients, even if it means diverging some of the tricks of the trade you are peddling. And if the point here is to be honest and open, it must be said right away that, like most really useful advice, there is no great revelations to be had here today – but the fact that it’s mostly common sense doesn’t make any of this stuff less important. Or likely that the client has really thought about it before setting out to find partners that will make their event into reality.

(And for all you professional event people reading this, don’t worry, nothing too revealing will be told here. You could look at this as a sort of a check-off list or a reminder of good practices you should keep in order to always be at the top of your game and attract many new clients… Which will now know what to look for and will thus end up looking for somebody just like you! So, that’s a good thing. Okay, now enough with you, the “yous” throughout the rest of this entry will refer exclusively to the clients).

Things will be jumping out at you from all sides and frustration is bound to run high if you don’t have a cool hand pro by your side

It doesn’t matter if your event is a board game tournament or a huge medical conference, there will always be a bunch of details to consider and take care of. Things will be jumping out at you from all sides and frustration is bound to run high if you don’t have a cool hand pro by your side - or better yet, a team of them, who have seen this shit a hundred times before and know how to handle it.

I know, I know, advising someone to hire an “experienced professional” is more than a bit trite, but the crux of the matter and the million dollar question is actually this: how to know if somebody is experienced or professional, without retorting exclusively to their portfolio?

The first and the easiest thing to ascertain is whether the guy(s) you want to hire have communication skills on the level necessary for your business relationship to run smoothly and for you to be updated (but not necessarily involved) in every important aspect of the event - because there will certainly be quite enough of them you will simply have to be involved with, and any excess burden taken off of your shoulder in that regard is a blessing.

Event management companies that are transparent, which aim to engage you right from the get go and which initiate discussions regarding the most important questions for the event - preferably, in the first meeting – those are the people you should stick with.

When a person is communicative and open to keeping the other side informed, that is a good sign also because , among other things, it suggest one really important thing about them: that they are flexible and open to suggestion and improvisation.

Being ready to wing it a little and stray outside of regular lines is a good thing in event management

Being ready to wing it a little and stray outside of regular lines is a good thing in event management.  The point of professional event management services is to make the event run as smoothly as possible, for the client to feel it as little as possible and for guests to get as much enjoyment  (or professional improvement or sales or whatever) as possible.

Of course, it practically never happens that everything goes exactly according to plan, so being flexible is the only thing that helps to keep the ride bump-free when it goes a little off the rails.

Naturally, flexible doesn’t just mean “ready to accept changes and fly with them”. Behind every successful flexible man (and woman) stands a huge amount of resourcefulness.

Simply put, an event manager can’t be flexible if they aren’t resourceful

Simply put, an event manager can’t be flexible if they aren’t resourceful. They have to think on their feet and, more importantly,  they have to know their stuff, like what can be done in order to improvise that lighting rig you have demanded but which was not delivered. Or even be ready and have the chops to get out there on stage and make a keynote speech once it becomes clear that the speaker is not showing up (this has actually happened to yours truly… more times then I would care to admit).

But no man can be the sole problem-solver when it comes to producing an event. Event management is a team effort, if only because of the amount of various professionals that need to collaborate in order to make it happen.

And an event is a fluid thing, always  moving, stuff always happening, hell, sometimes it is literally moving from space to space or occupying multiple locations. That requires competent people at multiple points, and it assumes tight coordination. Yes, there is no “I” in “team”, but there is also no “I” in “event”. Nor in “management”, for that matter.

Finding good team players also reflects on the first point we have discussed here – the need to have constant communication. The team that produces your event must include you, the client, if only to provide the brief and desired outcomes from the event. And of course, you will want to have feedback on how everything is coming along. Therefore, you are a part of the team, never forget that.

With all those, sometimes erratically, moving parts, a typical event requires a highly meticulous and detail-oriented approach. Those should be among top professional qualities you are looking for in an event manager or an event management company, especially if  your events include guests that number in the three or more digits. Of course, this includes managing time effectively, from making a doable schedule and a realistic timetable, to actually sticking with it.  Yes, that can actually happen.
It has happened. You can make it happen.