5 tips for managing your on-site team
It’s no surprise that an events success requires a HUGE amount of teamwork and collaboration both internally and externally with clients, suppliers, and venues. Although it may be possible to manage small meetings on your own, for larger conferences it is impossible to be in multiple places at once and therefore you need a skilled team to help bring everything together. In this article, we are going to share some top tips to help Event Manager’s manage their on-site team.
Sharing the vision
Your on-site team aren’t mind readers and as much as the Event Manager responsible for the entire planning process of the event know the ins and outs, the rest of your on-site team may not be as familiar with your or your client’s vision and objectives, as well as the set up and venues chosen. Share any information that can help your team understand the vision whether that’s a floor plan with clearly labelled coffee, entertainment or help stations, pictures and videos, or key documents listing the names of any VIPs. Is the objective to encourage networking throughout? If so, encourage your on-site team to guide delegates to refreshment areas or certain sessions to help achieve this goal etc.
Communication
Communication is key and if your team are provided with the information they need, then the event should run seamlessly. A clear and thorough briefing prior to the event and daily at the start of each event day is important in ensuring your whole team are on the same page, understand what their responsibilities are, and feel prepared to answer all attendees’ queries. For all our events we have a detailed run of show with timings and allocated tasks for absolutely everything which the Event Manager will go through during the on-site briefing. These are often colour coded for the on-site team to know exactly where they need to be and what they need to be doing throughout the entire event. A debrief after each event day is also a good way to discuss the successes and challenges of each day and can help to prepare creative solutions or amend the tasks schedule for the following day.
You also need to think about how you are going to communicate with your team whilst on-site. Whether it’s using radios or creating a group chat, think of a way to keep in touch and update your team whilst on-site and in different places during the event. Just make sure to check your phone signal if this is what you decide.
Introduce your team to the clients, venues and suppliers
Although they may have heard their name circling around during the on-site briefing, it is important for the whole team to be introduced to each other. Create a list of these key contacts and add them to your event running order for your team to easily reference and access if required.
Sharing successes
“Well done Josie for re-booking flights for the 4th time and being the Queen of the break area”. This is just one example of how to keep your team motivated and share successes on-site. As an Event Manager you are often running around everywhere and may miss certain jobs your on-site team are working hard on to support and take the stress away from you. Celebrate their initiative in you debriefs on-site to keep motivation and team morale up.
Wellbeing
As event planners, we are known to run on adrenaline, but as an Event Manager it is so important to ensure that you are allocating breaks for your team:
Swap around staff to cover key areas where necessary – these tend to be registration, speaker management and run of show (AV).
Add breaks to the agenda/task allocation document.
Constantly check in on your team.
Stock up on energising snacks and water.
Encourage fresh air.
By being strategic about breaks there should be no reason why you and your team should not have some downtime. You will be working long days (and nights), and as much as we are often feeling like superheroes, we are human and require food, fresh air and regular breaks for our overall health and wellbeing. Not looking after your team’s wellbeing on-site increases the likelihood of mistakes, misinformation and even illness.
At Dynamic, whilst it’s entirely the responsibility of the Event Manager and their Event Assistant to make sure the pre-event planning is a success, when it comes to being on-site teamwork really does make the dream work and it is so important to communicate clearly, share the vision and have fun on-site with your team to ensure your events success.