Welcome to the Event Series
We absolutely love working onsite at events. After all of the grueling hours and paperwork and schedules and negotiations that we go through in the planning process, there's nothing more fulfilling than getting on site and seeing your event come to life from the ground up. So here are nine tips on running a smooth event.
Be the First to Arrive. Except for the venue manager, you need to be the first person on-site at your event. You are bringing all the different elements together at this event which means you need to be there to be able to communicate where people need to go, where resources need to be placed, and any other minutiae that happens while they’re on-site to make sure that your load-in is flawless.
Strangle the Load-In Schedule. If a delivery shows up an hour late, that could completely derail your entire process so you need to know your load-in schedule backwards and forwards and be on top of any service provider that doesn’t show up when they’re scheduled to.
Work Smart, Not Hard. Think every process through the next steps. What are the next 5 steps we need to tackle in order to get to that end goal and find a way to make steps 1-4 as easy as possible. Trim them down, streamline those processes, make sure they are simple so that once you get to the last step you’ve thought through the most efficient process possible.
“Always Carry Pants.”My friend told me his old boss at a department store would tell him to “Always Carry Pants.” In other words, if you’re carrying around a clipboard with a determined look on your face and a dedicated ‘move forward’ towards that crowd, they’re going to separate for you, no question.
Listen. Sometimes your attendees don’t want any sort of explanation, don’t want to hear from you, they just want to talk at you. They want to complain, make sure their concerns are being addressed, or just like to chat. In this time that you’re using to listen, you should be able to figure out whether or not you’re actually going to be able to do anything to help them.
Not Every Concern is Critical. You’re going to hear a lot of feedback from your attendees who are going to give you pointers on XYZ or everyone is going to have a comment about everything. But, not everything they are going to complain about is something that you can solve. Be sure to prioritize.
Just Say Yes. Someone comes up and says that it’s too cold in the room, “Yes, of course we definitely understand and we’re working on it right now.” No need for explanations, no need to go into details.
Have Support. When I started out I used to run conferences single-handed, from registration, to AV production, to getting everybody on buses and shipped out to a reception venue off-site. Now, I’ve realized how bad an idea that is. We are so much better at producing events when we have a team of skilled professionals bringing together all of the elements with one person serving as the ring leader.
Eat, Drink, Sit, Breathe. Event planners suck at personal wellness. We are really bad at recognizing that yes, we have a lot of work to do, we have to get it done, we work ourselves to the bone BUT you’re going to do no good for your event if you’re passed out in the corner, so take care of yourself. Being on-site can be pretty stressful but it is also one of the best parts of planning events. If you follow these tips you’re going to see your events running smoothly on-site and you’re going to be set up for success. What are some of the things that you do on-site at your events to make sure they run smoothly? Leave a comment below.
