The Top 7 Items To Check Off Your List During Your Event
The most experienced event managers know that the time during the event itself can be termed "the fog of war" and it is their job to ensure order is maintained through the chaos. Check off all of these items during your event and you'll keep your event from flying off the tracks.
1. Confirm Everything in the Venue
You can't possibly overcheck as the slightest oversight in venue facilities can mushroom into a disaster:
- Create a checklist based on your venue contract to ensure that everything that was promised was delivered, from the largest staging item to the correct uniforms on the venue staff
- Allocate staff to continually confirm that every aspect of the venue is functioning as expected, from ensuring that the parking lots are not blocked or overfilled by spillover from other events all the way to making sure that the washrooms are clean and fully functional
- Keep checking the temperature in every space of the venue to ensure attendee comfort
- Set up courtesy officers to be present at critical audience touchpoints to defuse any misunderstandings
2. Keep Checking Supply Levels & Quality
There are few things short of cancellation that are worse than running out of critical supplies in the middle of an event:
- Empower staff to keep reviewing all consumables and comestible supply levels on an ongoing basis and notify you directly when the amounts are within 25% of being exhausted
- Make sure that all perishables are being kept at the proper temperatures and that correct food handling is being observed
- Have identical quality refills set up so that the first user gets the same item as the last no matter what it is, from the brand of ketchup to the texture of the toilet paper
3. Ensure Staff Satisfaction & Rest
An overworked staff is usually the first sign of the unraveling of any event, so it's imperative to ensure that they're rested and happy:
- Continually check for morale by asking staff directly if everything is okay, listen to any complaints, and act to remedy them immediately
- Make sure that all staff is allocated proper relief personnel and that they take all of their scheduled rest periods
4. Find Out if the Attendees Are Happy
Your staff should be trained to continually report back to you on the state of the audience:
- Have your personnel ask random attendees if they are enjoying the event and if there is anything that they would like to see, and report to you on a continual basis
- Do a walk-through of the entire venue at least every half hour throughout the event so you can ascertain if the event is proceeding as scheduled and if anything is wrong
5. Constantly Review Physical Functionality
All it takes is for the card swipe machines to stop working or the HVAC to fail in order to eviscerate an event:
- Have a hotline to venue maintenance as well as a speed dial to outside vendors, contractors, mechanics and tradesmen to fix or replace malfunctioning systems
- Keep your staff confirming everything works the way it should and it keeps working while reporting any failures to you immediately
6. Tie in Social Media
Your involvement in social media does not stop on the day of the event as you can integrate your social network presences to add to the impact of your event:
- Ensure that as many participants as possible keep tweeting throughout the event
- Set up a live Twitter feed on a big screen in the foyer or even in the main event area
- Have continuous photography uploaded to Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+, with the participants clearly tagged
- Solicit questions from social network followers and get your participants to answer them in real time
7. Keep an Eye on the Money
Events can generate huge amounts of cash, and present a very powerful temptation to a dishonest staffer:
- Focus your security cameras on cash areas, keep them monitored at all times and record everything
- Enforce regular drops to keep the amount of currency in cash areas at a minimum
Manage your event. Don't let your event manage you!