If you’ve ever watched an episode of CSI, you know you can learn a lot by going through the trash. Event waste included!
Most people are familiar with financial audits. Well, waste audits are similar, except instead of analyzing “the books” you analyze materials that are being thrown away at your event, and how they are being handled. The purpose of the process may be to experience some of the benefits below.
The economic model for paying for event waste varies. Sometimes fees are hidden in facility rental costs. Other times they are charged outright based on the amount of waste generated. In some cases you may be charged different fees for different kinds of materials based on if they are landfill, recycling or compost. And some kinds of waste, like cardboard and metal, may even generate rebates and revenue for venues! Data from a waste audit, combined with an understanding of the economic model for waste management at your venue, may help avoid costs.
Waste auditing can reveal excess materials that are being disposed of. This is particularly helpful for events that have food service, or are giving away branded or printed items. Even if you can’t do a full-scale waste audit, walking the show floor on move-out and peeking into waste bins is a great way to get a sense of what is left over, and if it could be eliminated or recovered. A particular thing to watch for is excess print collateral.
Waste gurus have said that landfills are not a waste problem. They’re a design problem. Meaning, if we designed things with their full life-cycle in mind, we’d be better able to keep landfills from filling up, and avoid wasting money on things like packaging. One good example of this issue in the event industry relates to flooring. Think about all the carpet that gets laid for a tradeshow. Now think about whether you want your booth to be a cubic design, or something that is more curved and organic.
While it might look nice to have a wavy ribbon of carpet flowing through your booth, the trimming necessary to create the effect has a trickle-down effect in terms of waste. Small, curved pieces of carpet have little reuse potential and low to no recycling value. At four pounds per square yard, seemingly small pieces of carpet trim that accumulate in event dumpsters can start to add up to an increase in disposal costs. Considering the potential for manufacturing and set up waste at the outset of the event (or exhibit) design process can stop these problems before they start.
As event managers, taking care of our participants, sponsors and event brand is always top of mind. Yet experience in auditing events shows we don’t always extend our duty of care to being mindful of what is being thrown out and whose name is on it. And what it might mean if information about excessively wasteful practices were to be shared publically.
Waste auditing can help inoculate against these kind of brand risks, by uncovering issues, such as disposal of confidential or private attendee information (registration list and credentials). Or excessive amounts of branded items being sent to landfill that may have reuse potential. Going further: catching wasteful giveaways by exhibitors and providing sensitive feedback about waste-wise practices that reduce costs and protect brand can help to strengthen sponsor relationships.
Lastly, but perhaps most importantly: waste audits help earn good planetary karma. Quite simply, they show you specific, practical ways to reduce waste, and keep more things from going to landfill, both of which ensure we have a cleaner, healthier environment, longer. They are an ideal first step in designing a waste recovery program that fits for your event, based on what kind of discards you have, and how involved you want attendees and sponsors to be. They also give you data, which can be used to share factual information with your event participants about how you are reducing negative event impacts, earning goodwill.
Sometimes the best way to fix the plumbing is to look at what’s coming out the bottom of the pipe. Such is the case with event waste, where audits and adventurous dumpster divers can shine a light on inefficient and costly issues that impact your event and the planet.
(Social Coup LLC)
The post baby boomer generation – Generation Buzz (X, Y and Millennials) – is living in a world where experiences have to be relevant to their world-view construct.
Consuming experiences in an experience based economy demands new approaches. The notion of broadcast style keynotes and panel discussions, where pre-determined content is ‘pushed’ to conference audiences still has some relevance (as long as the keynote or panel discussion is on point). However Generation Buzz is looking for something more than engagement – participation!
Event planners need to provide opportunities for potential attendees to be the ‘makers’ of immersive learning experiences. This article provides 4 tips on how event planners can motivate potential attendees to be part of a deeper learning experience through their ‘buy-in’ to an innovation process where behaviour is changed voluntarily.
Every conference has a theme. This is derived from client objectives on how to get their central message across to affect behaviour change. The process starts well before pre-event production planning. If you’re looking beyond simple engagement to creating deeper ‘change’ experiences, this is the stage where you should be thinking about the conference theme. Think about how the theme could be used as the framework, within which topic strands relevant to the theme can be created.
Through the framework you can crowd-source ideas from many of the potential attendees. Broadcast messages – keynotes and panel discussions – can be programmed as topic strands within the thematic framework but you can be an innovator and also include a method to develop other topic strands still relevant to the theme but created by a much larger gene pool of interested talent.
Once the framework for the conference has been created, the next step is to start the co-creation process. Event planners should strive to provide elements within the conference program that audiences ‘pull’ themselves toward. This can be done in various ways. As the planner you can ask your client if they have specific ‘broadcast’ keynotes they want to include or you can go out to potential attendees and ask them what topic strands they want to see discussed within the thematic framework.
The conservative approach is a hybrid based on keynotes and panel discussions being pre-program whilst extra slots exist in the schedule for co-created content. The adventurous approach is about crowd-sourcing all the content. Low cost tools exist for crowd sourcing content via a survey, questionnaires, social media or blogs to illicit suggestions on topic strands that potential attendees want to explore within the conference theme./p>
You could also provide topic strands within the framework and get feedback from co-creators too. Exploring the feedback will give you a better idea of what is in demand and not what you think is in demand – a perfect marketing storm. You could even suggest speakers for each of the keynote strands and get feedback on them. What is important is to start the co-creation process that can be put into an outline conference schedule. The next step is refining that schedule.
By being motivated by the general theme of a conference and the fact that they are active protagonists in co-creating the conference content will provide the ‘pull’ factor. The conservative approach will be to programmed a schedule where you have a mix of broadcast keynote experiences and other opportunities where people can come together and co-create a deep learning experience.
If you feel you want more control over the output, the hybrid approach will work better for you and key broadcasted messages will be delivered. If you are more adventurous, using the feedback will inform you about which topics are most in demand and a schedule can be built around these.
The added value of the co-creation approach is it will aid in the marketing of your conference. The personal data you have collected from the pre-conference research can be used to build a group of social influencers that can be mobilized to affect greater attendance at the conference.
This is where all your hard work comes together. Whether you have decided on the hybrid approach or whether you have decided to go down the adventurous route, this is the point where your research is going to pay off. You may have crowd sourced your keynotes as well as your topic stands and may be getting nervous about who is going to participate in the sessions you have scheduled. The news is that you have already provided the ‘pull’ factor for people who want to contribute to particular topics. So get them more involved. For example, if someone suggested a keynote speaker, ask them to introduce them onstage.
Another involvement technique is getting a group of people who suggested a particular topic strand to chair that session and crowd source the agenda in the beginning of the session. Once people start discussing topics they have already bought into, they will be more than keen to participate in exchanging knowledge to create an immersive learning experience. Remember that for each session some sort of moderation is required. This could be one of your co-creators or a professional moderator who will sum up with the learning key points from the session and can incorporate the main conference messages into the session conclusions to take-away.
Crowd sourcing and co-creation of conference content is a strategy to establish a conversation with Generation Buzz at all stages of a conference. At the planning stage you can facilitate co-creation of the topic strands of the conference theme and crowd-source keynote topics by establishing the right thematic framework. By crowd-sourcing topic strands framed by a general theme, success is achieved because co-creators have already bought into the conference theme. As co-creators they are also motivated through co-ownership of the topic strands. The democratization of content sourcing provides potential attendees with a new way in which they can project themselves as ‘makers’ or ‘content producers’. The conversations created by potential attendees will continue through the co-creation process at the conference and those conversations can be extended post-event too.
As an event planner, creating the right environment to facilitate what is important to potential attendees is pivotal in creating a successful conference. Exploring their world-view constructs through their ‘buy-in’ to co-create content is going to make your conference more relevant and behaviour change then becomes an organic process rather than a process that is contrived, creating a greater ROI for your client.
(Social Coup LLC)
Emotional Intelligence is the concept of being aware of, understanding, managing, and even harnessing your own emotions, as well as the emotions of others.
Emotional Intelligence was first conceived in 1920 by psychologist Edward Thorndike. He believed that there was a strong relationship between intelligence and the ability to “act wisely in social relations.” This theory was expanded on in the 1990’s by psychologists Jack Mayer and Peter Salovey, who coined the phrase “emotional intelligence”.
Over the years, the self-help circles, authors, and our own culture have diluted the original meaning of emotional intelligence, changing the concept of it to a person simply having charisma and social skills. It goes much deeper than that, though.
As an #eventprof, digging deeper into this realm can help you become more successful. Measuring emotional intelligence consists of your ability to identify and regulate your own emotions and the emotions of others, as well as focus your emotions to help you be more productive. When you are able to successfully manage and understand emotions, you can better navigate situations and relationships throughout your personal and professional life.
If you have a high level of emotional intelligence, you have the ability to manage your own emotions effectively, keeping yourself and your team calm in stressful situations, or even motivating when necessary. As this skill comes naturally for many great leaders, it is debated as to whether or not this “skill” in inherent or can be learned. Regardless, here are some traits to think about to help you better understand the concept behind emotional intelligence.
As we learned at a young age, it is important to control your own emotions. As eventprofs, we constantly experience stressful situations, and often encounter change. Your emotional intelligence is strongly related to how well you are able to handle these changes and situations. Once you are able to control your emotions, you can begin to identify the cause behind them. Whether it is fear, happiness, nervousness, anxiety, frustration, annoyance, concern, or even excitement, controlling that emotion is often necessary to be successful.
For example, if a client feels that you are scared, they may not think you are up for their challenge. If you are excited or happy about something else going in your life, and it is distracting you to the point of missing deadlines, you may need to tune that out for a bit to be able to get things done. Once you are able to understand and analyze why you are feeling a particular way, you can begin to determine the best ways to control or change that emotion. This can be considerably important to eventprofs, as we continually step outside our boundaries and experience new and exciting (sometimes scary) situations.
If you can’t control your emotions, you will more than likely find yourself in stressful and unwelcome situations quite frequently. Once you can accurately identify your emotions, you can begin to focus those emotions.
If you decide to take a nap because you think the overwhelming feeling you have is actually you being tired, you may end up stressing yourself out even more, waking up to a bigger to-do list. If you are stressed, you may need a small break, instead of misinterpreting the emotion by thinking you are hungry and eating a snack. By accurately identifying your emotions, you can make better decisions on how to handle them. If you are overwhelmed, it would be wise to delegate some tasks. If you are tired, a short nap or walk may be the best solution.
If you are unfocused, and can’t seem to “get in the groove”, start by determining why you are distracted instead of unsuccessfully fighting it all day. Whether it is because you are sleepy, unmotivated, excited, or even nervous, figure out the reason and focus on resolving that issue. Once you can identify and act on your emotions, you may just find that you can focus even more, allowing you to create more amazing events!
This is not about brainwashing or manipulating other people! Instead this concept is about empathy and being to effectively understand how people are reacting to you, so you can determine the best course of action. It is being able to effectively gauge your team to ensure they are responding to you how you expected them to respond.
Everyone interprets things differently. The goal is to obviously have everyone on the same page, but if your team or client is reacting in a way that you did not expect, it is crucial that you accurately determine why that response is occurring. Everyone is motivated in different ways. By being in tune with how your team and colleagues are feeling, you are able to provide multiple solutions to keep everyone happy and motivated.
Great planners actually use this intelligence when they create amazing events! By understanding what your attendees are delegates are looking for in an event, #eventprofs can proactively begin to create meaningful experiences.
Planners with high emotional intelligence can effectively gauge how a meeting or event is progressing, and can pivot accordingly if needed. By successfully identifying that a client is not excited about your idea, you are able to immediately act and find other ways to motivate them. If you working on a project with a colleague, and you are aware that one of you is getting frustrated, you can quickly change the strategies being used before the frustrated feeling becomes overwhelming. Planners with high emotional intelligence can even gauge attendees at an event, making any necessary changes on the fly.
It is critical to be able to gauge the overall feeling of the group. By being aware of smaller changes in attitude and emotion, you can effectively steer the group to keep them motivated and excited. Planners with high emotional intelligence are empathetic enough to understand how their colleagues or guests are feeling, and can solve any concerns that arise quickly, before they have a chance to escalate.
While it may be seem silly to think about, monitoring the emotional level of your team, as well as yourself, is important for long-term success. A happy and healthy workplace environment is always talked about, but many leaders do not understand how to actually achieve this atmosphere. It is not just about providing food, games, or paid outings. While a good work/play balance is necessary, ultimately, it is about the underlying feelings and emotions that each person has with the daily aspects of the job and how the leaders can react to those emotions. Are people overwhelmed? Underwhelmed? Happy? Excited? Motivated? Bored? Content?
not be learned and improved upon, there are ways to become more in tune with yourself and the people around you. Begin by looking at your own emotions. Reflect on the fact that while you may not be able to control what you feel, you can control how it effects your life. Keep a journal, taking notes of your feelings and how it affected your day. Were you more productive? Less productive? Distracted? Focused? Excited? Motivated? If possible, try to include what caused that emotion. You can also expand your research by monitoring your colleagues, and asking them how they are feeling to see if your observations were accurate. For this to be beneficial, though, you must have a good and trusting work environment to ensure that you actually get the truth.
Event planners with high emotional intelligence understand the concept of being aware of, understanding, managing, and even harnessing their own emotions, as well as the emotions of others. Those that are able to understand and harness this have an accurate feel for the atmosphere and climate of their team, colleagues, and events. Once you can effectively empathize with others, you can become more successful reading people and understanding their needs and concerns. You can also more successfully determine their strengths and weaknesses better, build stronger relationships, and communicate and negotiate more effectively.
(Social Coup LLC)
Hearing event attendees find some of your speakers’ presentations are mellow, boring, or yawn-fests, can feel like a debbie downer catastrophe for any event manager after putting in hours of your own blood, sweat and tears for sometimes up to a year of event planning! How dare those attendees not love the somber tones of speaker after speaker with no excitement in their voices, no creativity in their presentations – just the moot “click” “click” of the PowerPoint remote slowly fading from one slide into the next as your audience starts to dread spending their time, money and patience sitting in a stuffy, crowded ballroom… yikes.
There are several ways as an event planner you can mix things up to bring some creativity and spunk into making sure you liven the mood when entertaining serious audiences. Check out these five awesome ways to bring some life into your audiences – maybe one will work for you as you plan future events!
You can loose an audience in a matter of seconds, especially if you’re going down a rabbit hole of old, useless tactics everyone has heard before. Nobody pays attention to boring things today – you need to grab an audience by surprising them with a hook. Just like a catchy song, (think Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Jay-Z…you get the picture), the “hook” is what makes or breaks it for any artist today. Find a way to catch your audience’s attention – find speakers who will go beyond outside of the box, and against conventional wisdom by making a statement that will blow people away. Contradict the norm, start discussions in the middle of presentations – involve the audience. Every attendee has an opinion today; help them express those opinions by becoming a part of the speaker’s presentations.
No matter who may be in an audience at any event, everyone loves entertainment culture. Think about ways to liven up an event crowd by starting the day off with a morning wake-up by performers. You can have a local band come in, circus performers, musicians, or fire throwers – think of ways that tie into your overall theme of the event, and have your audience members included in the performance. There’s no better way to start of a day of long event sessions and networking than to blow the roof of the place – literally! Plus, a great conversation piece during down time throughout the day, and at networking events. Be sure to capture all of the exciting moments via photos and video for social media and to send out to the attendees after the event
There’s no better way to capture an audience’s attention than to get them curious about what’s in store later in the day, in the hour, or maybe in the next minute. Consider starting your keynote session off with a clue, or hint at something that may be happening soon in the session. Get your audience guessing, and have them use social media and the event hashtag to relay their comments and guesses. Create a fun contest out of the hint, and have several winners throughout the day as clues start to unfold and attendees figure out the answers.
People love to win prizes at events, so why not make a fun day out of it, and start by giving everyone the hint in your keynote session!
Every event today has basically the same format and structure when it comes to the agenda. You walk into a room – small or large, grab a seat, and listen to someone talk about technology, a product, a case study, marketing, etc for 60 minutes and toss a few tweets into your app and then move onto the next session. Try something different. As mentioned earlier, it’s more exciting to bring an audience into the presentations. Create sessions that are more “hands-on” – have questions written up for audience members to discuss in these sessions, and from an entrepreneurial perspective, find ways to start a new company, or brainstorm how to socially engage with audiences in different ways, or think about tools that work for some people that may not work for others.
The purpose here is to use the session as a whole, rather than sitting and listening to one person for an hour. By collaborating, we tend to learn more, hear new ideas and find it easier to express our thoughts out loud.
I think Ellen DeGeneres is onto something with the whole dancing thing. If you’ve been living in a bubble for the last 12 years, Ellen is the new Oprah. And, her favorite thing to do at the beginning of every episode is dance. It’s pretty amazing. If you think about dancing makes everyone feel good. It makes you smile, and simply puts you in a great mood. Why not have small dance breaks at events? You can have them in the middle of sessions, at networking events, in expo halls, during meetings – why not? It will be something everyone will talk about for the rest of the event, and for years to come!
Bringing a little life to serious audiences is a must. Nobody likes to see a room filled with stern looking men and women not having a great time at an event, no matter what type of event it is. There are so many ways to liven up a room, and by trying some of these creative ideas; surely one will do the trick to turn those frowns upside down!
(Social Coup LLC)
When something goes wrong at an event, the way that you handle it with your customers will ultimately impact the view your attendees have of the entire experience. Good or bad, event customer service will be discussed among your participants and potential future attendees. Looking at these examples of what not to do can help us to learn more about the industry, the service we deliver and how we should treat our guests.
When your guests arrive at your event they bring along with them a certain level of expectation. From the customer service you provide to the all encompassing event experience, your guests are looking to get their money’s worth and you must to be sure to deliver.
Depending on your event, this might mean ensuring you have educational programs, interactive sessions or some type of event entertainment. It also means that you can provide the safety, security and proper crowd control.
In 2015, Tomorrow World a large scale music festival, was held outside of the city of Atlanta, Georgia. Due to some weather related challenges and vendor miscommunication they were left with massive transportation and safety issues.
This series of errors left many attendees stranded miles away from their homes and hotels. Many people ended up walking for miles to find transportation and others were forced to sleep on the ground in the rain. Unfortunately this lead the festival issuing refunds along with an apology statement, and it also led to many very unhappy customers.
Communication is key when it comes to all events, but especially when unexpected situations arise. If the festival had implemented a better system for keeping their staff and attendees informed, they would have been able to provide better solutions for the guests and avoided some of the chaos. This example can show all of us that consistent and constant communication should play a large role in all of your events.
When you find customers who are willing to give you feedback you should welcome this with open arms. Sometimes it might not be what you want to hear in the moment, but constructive criticism or negative feedback can be a wonderful tool that helps you to grow your business and improve your offering.
The worst thing you can do is to prevent people from providing feedback, or try to charge them for such criticism.
Not everyone will always be happy with their experience, but everyone is entitled to their opinion. Never block this or it will spiral out of control. Always respond in a productive and positive manner, respond as promptly as you can and look critically at these areas to move on towards improving your events.
Every eventprof has had their fair share of battles with technology during their events. One thing you must be sure to do in your planning process is to test, test, and test again. The worst thing that can happen is when you tech goes down in front of your biggest audience. This can really cut into your ability to provide proper customer service. For example if your email or social channels fail, you may be missing out on the opportunity to connect and respond to your attendees. Poor technology can also limit or hinder certain aspects of the event that you plan to provide.
If you plan to have a live streaming or interactive session online, the last thing you need is your internet or website crashing. In 2014 the Academy Awards planned to have a live stream available during the awards show, but when the whole world was watching their stream suffered a nationwide outage. This left many viewers unhappy and unable to watch the awards.
This not only posed issues for the people trying to view the broadcast of the event, but also caused many issues for the network as they lost out on the opportunity to show advertising and many viewers ended up watching the live stream on a competing service. Unfortunately, the Oscars has continued to have issues year after year and has gained a reputation for their less than stellar live streaming capabilities.
When you decide to provide a service like this, you must also be sure to invest in the additional testing to be sure it will work as planned and have a backup plan. Take the time to practice and rehearse for how the event will play out. Unexpected challenges will always arise, but you should be sure your technology and your tech team can handle difficulties quickly and efficiently.
Customer service today means much more than answering questions on site or sending out a post event survey. Most every event has to manage multiple inquiries and comments from a variety of different platforms, often times coming in during all hours of the day and during your busy event.
Twitter has really become a very popular option for sending in customer services complaints, comments and questions, and to be honest seems to get some of the most prompt responses. When the entire world can see the comments that are being broadcast about your event you should do your best to respond and to do so quickly.
The biggest mistake you can make is creating these social media channels for your event or business, but not implementing a plan to manage and respond properly to comments or questions. Be sure you are always putting your best face forward both on and offline when it comes to customer service!
There are lots of etiquette do’s and dont’s event planners should keep in mind while planning events. Remember to stay positive, communicate clearly and be professional at all times to ensure a successful event for everyone. A good attitude and proper etiquette only makes you stronger as a planner and respected by everyone you come into contact with.
(Social Coup LLC)
Event etiquette is important to ensure you do not overstep your boundaries or get a reputation for being unprofessional. Below are a few things you may want to review to ensure you only get talked about for the right reasons.
A lot of times eventprofs can be extremely stressed out or seem high-strung on the days leading up to the event taking place. Be sure to greet everyone you are working with, as well as people you may have never met and don’t let them know how under pressure you are.
It is important to remember proper greeting etiquette as the planner. You can easily get a bad reputation for not being kind and polite to others on the show floor or not being accessible enough. Go over greeting etiquette with your team and read body language. Some people may not want to be hugged, air kissed or even shake hands and expectations will vary according to the type of event (B2B or B2C), the audience, international traditions and culture. It’s smart to research the right and wrong way of greeting people, and a great rule of thumb to role play greeting people with the events team so everyone is on the same page.
Be aware that traditions differ between countries and cultures. If you are running an international event or have an international audience, be sure to familiarize yourself with some traditions and basic understandings before jumping on that plane! For instance did you know that in some countries there are different meanings to nodding and shaking your head? Avoid using these types of gestures with attendees from Greece, Sicily, Turkey, Macedonia and Bulgaria, otherwise it may cause confusion and offense!
International events around the world can be planned very differently. A few ways where you may see a difference could be check-in etiquette, dining etiquette and speaker etiquette. Stateside check-in may be as simple as typing your name into a kiosk and getting your badge, whereas overseas you may need to be more official by providing ID. Be sure you have reviewed proper etiquette for how to check people in with your team, and any other international differences they may need to be aware of.
One thing you should always do as an event planner is give ample timing on everything and be punctual yourself. Timing is essential to all moving parts that make up an event. When pre-planning for any event, be sure you fully understand what time you need to arrive to meet vendors, speakers, or any set-up responsibilities you may have. It’s important that the event planner is the first person on the job – no matter how small or large the job is in order to be respectful and get things done in a timely fashion. Everyone has deadlines and appreciates the courtesy shown.
It’s also the event planner’s job to communicate with vendors in a timely manner so that they know when they can arrive onsite at the event, when they can tear down, and where you need them to be. Planning out timelines will not only make you feel less stressed, but it will help you and your events team come across as super professional, respectful and punctual to work with.
The top rule for good etiquette is to be mindful of other people’s feelings. This comes naturally to most planners as they want their guests to have the best experience. If you see an attendee looking lost and alone make the effort to introduce them to a friendly group and if you can see someone is uncomfortable with something rethink your approach.
A lot of times you may come across very moody vendors, or needy attendees who just need to be reassured everything will be ok. As the event planner it is your responsibility to make sure everyone feels happy and knowledgeable at the event. It’s your job to ensure everyone at the event walks away with good feedback – otherwise any bad feedback you receive may end up hurting you in the long run.
The top rule for good etiquette is to be mindful of other people’s feelings. This comes naturally to most planners as they want their guests to have the best experience. If you see an attendee looking lost and alone make the effort to introduce them to a friendly group and if you can see someone is uncomfortable with something rethink your approach.
A lot of times you may come across very moody vendors, or needy attendees who just need to be reassured everything will be ok. As the event planner it is your responsibility to make sure everyone feels happy and knowledgeable at the event. It’s your job to ensure everyone at the event walks away with good feedback – otherwise any bad feedback you receive may end up hurting you in the long run.
You know how infuriating it is when your guests don’t reply to your invitation to let you know whether they are attending your event? Or when they send apologies super late? This is the height of bad manners so don’t fall into the same traps as your attendees. As an event planner you know better than anyone the knock on effect late RSVPs and notifications can have so always lead by good example.
Likewise at certain events such as dinners, parties, golf events and corporate hospitality you are expected to thank the host personally for inviting you and perhaps even follow up with a handwritten letter, or at the very least an email in today’s modern times, following the event.
One thing you should make sure you never do while planning an event is overstepping your boundaries. This may not make sense for new event planners, but for any veteran who has gone through the ropes of planning an event, he or she will know it’s never ok to jump on tasks that need approval. For example, if a sponsor wants to switch booth locations and you decide it’s ok and approve this for them, you can create a stir of heated emotions from other sponsors who did not receive those same benefits. It’s never OK to assume anything at an event. Always triple check with every party included before saying that golden word – approved.
Another example of boundary stepping might be moving a speaker from one date and time to another. Unless they are switching with someone who actually wants to make the switch, never sign off of these types of requests. Speakers and sponsors pay big dollars to get slotted in specific timeframes to speak at events. Again, never assume, always ask the stakeholders involved and then proceed.
Whether you are enjoying a formal networking 3-course meal yourself or running a dinner for your guests you need to be aware of dining etiquette. This is more than knowing your wine glass from your water glass and which utensils to use, having good table manners is vital for giving a good impression.
If you are the host and it isn’t clear from the seating plan, make this clear to the F&B staff so they know who is their contact and that they should serve everyone else first (particularly important for females hosts). At a formal dinner it is expected that everyone around the table should introduce themselves at the start of the meal and conversation should be kept to small talk, never turning to politics, religion and inappropriate jokes or comments.
If there is absolutely one thing to never do as an event planner, it’s speaking out of line or showing negative emotions to your extended team, partners (vendors, contractors), or even worse to your attendees. Having a bad attitude as the event planner will get you nowhere. Negative actions can easily be spread by word of mouth to everyone at the event, which not only makes you look bad, but the overall event will get a bad review.
If you find yourself feeling stressed or distraught by elements of your event hold them in until you are alone back at your hotel or home. A few examples that could cause event planners to feel outraged may be vendors not showing up on time, a slow start on the first day of the event – which can cause a chain reaction to slow down all sessions for the day, or food and beverage catering not arriving with the correct orders you placed. All of these may seem like easy fixes, but for a planner who has been working on these items for months they can stress you out, especially after triple checking that all was correct prior to the event start date.
Remember to keep your cool, and as mentioned before never let negative emotions show. Go home at the end of the day and cool down in private. Just keep in mind you are the event planner, and people look to you to fix any issues, so keep a smile on your face and take a deep breath when issues pop up – everyone makes mistakes so don’t take it out on them or yourself.
There are lots of etiquette do’s and dont’s event planners should keep in mind while planning events. Remember to stay positive, communicate clearly and be professional at all times to ensure a successful event for everyone. A good attitude and proper etiquette only makes you stronger as a planner and respected by everyone you come into contact with.
(Social Coup LLC)
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