Event Management

“Anybody can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not within everybody's power and is not easy”

Aristotle

The event industry is growing rapidly. Today we have more events to attend than ever before. Art galleries, music tours, cultural festivals, sports of all kinds, corporate events, product launches, conferences, exhibitions and so on. The list is endless. This growth has led to a competitive market where each an event is competing for our attention against other events and activities. This competition has put pressure on event organisers to simultaneously produce more elaborate events while cutting the admission and running costs. This requires a systematic event management process while constantly thinking of creative ideas that can make your event stands out from the competition.

Events by their very nature can be quite demanding to organise. It is always a team work bringing a lot of unrelated processions together to serve an objective; to satisfy an audience’s needs. Event management has grown to become a comprehensive field borrowing from the creative industry, project management, leadership, logistics management and management of technical stage equipment. This course aims to prepare delegates for the role by covering various aspects of an event management through examples and step-by-step detailed techniques. As there can be many types of events to organise, this course focuses on a common subset of them to increase clarity and make it easier for delegates to absorb the content quickly. Events include conferences, corporate hospitality, product launches, charity gala dinners, awards, exhibitions, team building, reward and appreciation events, fundraiser and workshops.

The course is suitable for those who are new to the field or those who have some event management experience, but look forward to a more structured training.

In this highly practical course participants will learn:

Managing Events

• What is an event?
• What is involved in managing an event?
• What is a life cycle of an event and what does this mean for an event manager?

Define Your Objectives

• What should you consider before making any plans?
• How to systematically screen various ideas for your event
• How to filter out ideas based on what you want to get out of your event

Planning and Budgeting

• What is a budget?
• How to use Work Breakdown Structures for planning
• What is Work Package and what should be included in it?
• What is an ideal budgeting process?
• What parameters should you consider to budget an event?
• How to carry out a cost-benefit analysis
• What is an ideal contingency plan?
• How to avoid common budgeting mistakes

Timing and Risk Management

• How to use a Gantt chart to plan the preparation of your event as well as the event itself
• How to carry out a Critical Path Analysis to identify risky parts of your schedule
• How to create a Risk Analysis Sheet

Venue

• How to choose an ideal venue
• What issue are important I regard with catering?
• How to choose an ideal seating layout

Strategic Planning

• How to carry out a feasibility study on various operational ideas
• What is an Event Manual and what should it include?
• What should you include in your event program?
• How to benefit from storyboarding to streamline the event preparation process
• What is involved in the shutdown process?

Promoting the Event

• How to make your event competitively attractive
• What is involved in pre-event publicity?
• What is involved in at-event publicity?
• What is involved in post-event publicity?

Audience: Anyone

Prerequisites: None

Course Duration: 1 or 1.5 Day

Course Level: Beginners

By the end of this course the delegates will be able to:

• Understand event planning process and what is involved to make a successful event
• Identify the objectives of your event and screen ideas to select the best options
• Systematically plan for an event using Work Breakdown Structures, Work Packages and budgeting
• Schedule event preparation activities using Gantt charts and risk management analysis tools
• Choose your ideal venue using a trade-off analysis based on critical generic and specific parameters
• Minimise risks, carry out a feasibility study, use strategic planning and modern storyboarding to maximise the success of your event
• Use various marketing and publicity techniques to promote your event before, during and after the experience

Event management is a large field. This short course cannot and does not aim to cover all aspects of event management. However, it aims to update participants on the latest tools and techniques used by the industry so that by the end of the course all delegates have a clear understanding of the core principles of event management.. It is particularly helpful in discussing various issues and crisis management that event managers need to deal with as well as providing a solid structure that they can follow. The course intends to increase the awareness of participants about common mistakes made while managing events and hence save time and prevent the hassle of learning the mistakes on their own.

The course is entirely example driven. A common example event is used throughout the course so delegates can see how techniques are applied. They also consider an event of their choice and constantly work with other participants to apply the management and planning techniques to their own events. This example and exercise driven approach significantly increases the knowledge throughout and helps delegates get up to scratch with the latest trends in the field.

Comprehensive guidelines are provided for trainers to encourage discussions on various topics and get delegates to share their own ideas and backgrounds to foster creative thinking and inspiring ideas.