The Amateur's Guide to Event Management

Part III: Site Selection

Location, location, location. It's important for real estate, it's important for events. For some situations, like Science Cheerleader performances, the location can already be established--a booth, a stage, whatever--as part of a larger activity. In other situations you have to go hunting. The larger the event, the larger the space needed and the more things you need the facility to do. This blog will discuss the things you need to consider when selecting a site for your event--big, small, or in between.

What Will You Do When You Get There?
What does your event include? Stage shows? Lectures? Meetings? Exhibits? All of the above? Could the event expand? Will your function spaces be used for more than one activity? Do you have extra large items that need to be brought in? Lots of questions must be answered, and these questions are made even more fun by the fact that you'll most likely have multiple sites to visit before making a decision. You'll need to do this field research before you sit down to write your proposal.

The first thing that must be done is a little online research. Pick your keywords: convention center, hotel, what have you. If you're in a big city, like Chicago or New York, you might have a lot of research to do. If you're in a smaller metropolitan area like Huntsville, the odds are pretty good you know all the large venues in town. Regardless, you can still collect a lot of information online as a first pass before you start asking questions of human beings. For instance, where is the place? Is it convenient for your attendees? Are you dealing with a hotel with a convention center attached, or a stand-alone convention hall? If you have a lot of out-of-towners coming, is there a hotel nearby? More than one? What do the hotel rooms cost per night? How many of them are there? What do the pictures of the rooms look like?

With these basics in hand, you'll be able to go on to the next step, which is a site visit.

Getting a Feel for Things
Once you've narrowed down your location to your top two or three choices, you need to check out the places in person. It's good to have two or three people along to get different perspectives on things and ask different questions. On that first visit, it also probably helps to just show up and see how the operation runs. If the term "surprise inspection" sounds familiar, that's correct. Your first impression should be unfiltered. I love my friends in the hospitality business, but having been there myself (three years at a Disney hotel, one year in Disney convention reservations), I can tell you that management and staff act differently if they know "someone's coming," whether that someone is a corporate vice president or a big customer.

So while you're on your first visit, you're looking for some of the basics: how helpful is the staff? What's the condition of the common areas, hallways, and restrooms? What's the traffic flow like? If the function areas are open, take a look inside to evaluate their condition. Does the carpet look worn? Has the place been redecorated lately? Is the place busy? How happy do the guests look? In essence, you really are on an inspection tour. Once you've completed that first run, before you leave, if you like what you see ask to make an appointment with the sales manager.

Working with the Sales Staff
When you're still in the scouting phase, it doesn't hurt to tell the sales staff that you're looking elsewhere. It keeps them competitive and interested in your business. I'm not suggesting you play a lot of games with sales staff, mind you, but you also can gauge their willingness to work with you. Depending on the size of the event, you'll be working with these folks for months (or years). No need to drive unnecessarily hard bargains. It can generate hard feelings and get you labeled as a "problem guest." And really: they want the business, you want your event to succeed. Yes, this is a business arrangement, but it's also a partnership.

Okay, end of lecture. Back to business.

The more details you can tell the sales staff, the better. Surprises aren't much help for you or them. You need to give them a good rundown on how big/long your event is, how many people you're bringing in, how many function rooms you need, what sort of audio-visual equipment you'll be using, the whole thing. The more you know up front, the better cost estimate you'll be able to provide for your proposal and budget.

Your initial negotiations are when you start to discuss special needs or requests: complimentary rooms, early check-ins, IT setup, what have you. The National Space Society, for example, has its own in-house contract that it uses for its International Space Development Conference, which is based on previous experiences and lessons learned. Will the hotel use an existing contract? It's worth asking.

Final Selection
You might not have the final say on which facility gets chosen, but you can make your best recommendation based on your direct knowledge of the place and the people involved. Sometimes the final decision will come down to price, sometimes to the appropriateness of the site to your event, sometimes to location, sometimes to a combination of all of these. But once the selection is made, you've taken your first step toward making the event real.

Final Thought on Working with Facility Staff: Last-Minute-itis
You can do as much planning as possible, but the sales staff knows--even if you haven't admitted the possibility yet--that last-minute items will continue to come up a year, a month, or a week out. This is where that goodwill you built up at the beginning pays off. The better you're able to get along with the hotel staff up front, the more likely they'll be happy and willing to help you out of a jam later.

If you learn anything from this series of event management blogs, it's just this: don't be a jerk. It makes the event management process--especially in an all-volunteer environment--much easier.

The Amateur's Guide to Event Management

Part II: Brainstorming and Event Proposals

The bigger the event, the more people you'll need to run the show. And, quite frankly, the larger the event, the more ideas you'll need to make it work. In addition, the larger the event, the more likely it is that you'll need to codify the event plan into a formal written proposal. This part of the guide will provide you with some structure to your bright ideas.

Brainstorming
There are several ways you can brainstorm or generate event ideas, and they can run the gamut from the speakers you want to invite to what "theme" you want to what sort of table decorations you want on the dining room tables. The best format I've seen for brainstorming is a time-limited session with 6-10 participants, a facilitator, and a dry erase board or easel.

Why no more than 10 people? To keep the group orderly and within the control of a single facilitator.

Why time-limited? Because after 10-15 minutes, people get drained, even in "spontaneous mode."

Now the facilitator can just be a scribe, but it helps if s/he provides a little structure as well. For instance, the facilitator can make certain that the participants cover all the basics of the event (say, in the case of ISDC): location, speakers, registration policies, program book contents, entertainment, meal selections, special events-within-events, etc.

The ground rules for a brainstorming session, for those of you who haven't enjoyed the channeled creativity that fills corporate America, are pretty straightforward, but worth remembering:

• One person speaks at a time
• No idea is dismissed as "stupid" during the 10-15 minute storm session
• Don't take the time to question the realism of anyone's ideas during the storm session
• Participants should try to come up with as many ideas as they can
• The facilitator will write down every idea
• There isn't a price tag or "reality check" on ideas
• Once the storming session is over, THEN reality can set in--but the point of the brainstorming session is to have fun with the process

Brainstorming provides an early opportunity for your team members to "buy in" (another corporate-speak phrase that means "get their own ideas in") to the event. You won't use ALL the ideas, but you can use enough that your teammates can recognize and fight for their part of the show.

After the initial "storm," you can start applying your reality check. You go back over the hastily scribbled ideas and consider what's realistic and what's not (and if not, why not). Your event is born from this wild exchange of ideas.

Proposal Writing
The National Space Society requires bidding groups (usually NSS chapters in specific cities) to submit a written proposal. They do not provide a format. That leaves the content up to you--or does it? However, if you're serious about winning, it helps to do some research on what most business proposals include. My career before living in Huntsville was in writing proposals for government contractors, so I at least had a model. It might not always be the easiest form to follow, but it at least had the virtue (for me) of being familiar. So what goes into a proposal? Here's a broad outline:

• Technical Section (where you describe what you plan to do, where, with what facilities, events, bells, and whistles)
• Management Section (where you describe who is going to do the work/run the show, and what experience they have running or working on events like this)
• Past Performance (where you describe comparable events that your group or team members have run, how much they costs, what were their results, etc.)
• Budget (where you lay out, in the most realistic fashion you can, how much you think your event will cost and where you think the money will come from to pay for or exceed expenses)

Technical Section
This is where you lay out the what and where of your event. It should be the longest part of your proposal. Your customer/funding agency already knows who is attending. Your job is convincing them that they will want to do what you want where you want. In the case of ISDC, you can start with a description of the city in question: why come to Huntsville, Alabama? What has your city got to offer attendees besides your fearless team? You also might want to start talking early about the content of your program--what special events do you plan to include? What speakers or attractions in your area will make your event stand out? What's in it for your audience?

From there you need to talk about the specific venue of your proposed event. How many locations are large enough to host the event you plan to hold? What are your top two or three choices? (NSS, like the government, likes a couple of choices.) Why? What features does your favorite have? You need to paint your readers a picture of what their experience will be like. Make it a good one--and yes, include pictures in your proposals!

Management Section
"Why should I hire you?" You've heard that question in interviews, and that's often what makes the difference between being hired and being bewildered. This is where you need to think not just about your resume or previous job descriptions, but your results. Okay, so you've run the local charity ball--was it a success? Did it make money? Did people have a good time? Did the media say nice things? And what about your team? Have they had similar successes? Do they have experience in, or passion for, the jobs they've agreed to do?

Another important thing: organization. The 20th century might've created quite a few management ideas, but division of labor isn't an entirely bad thing, nor is a chain of command or specific depiction of your decision-making process. These things keep events and people focused on specific tasks, and you can clarify exactly who is doing what. Events like conventions all have specific things that must be done, regardless of the content (rocket science, cheerleading, what have you):

• Operations (e.g., hotel, meals)
• Recruiting, scheduling, assigning, and supervising conference volunteers
• Audio/visual
• Information technology support
• Entertainment
• Exhibits

Ideally, you've got people willing to take the lead (one on each). And you needn't recruit professionals. In fact, odds are good that if you're reading this blog, you don't have access to pros. However, you want to show that your team members--a paragraph per "officer" should be fine--can do the job you say they'll do.

A Note on Proposal Writing: In my case, I was a professional proposal writer, so I led the proposal as well. However, you might be more of a verbal person rather than a writer. Take the time to find the strongest writer you can find. You want to put your best foot forward.

Past Performance

This is where you or your team itemizes its success stories--events you've run, what they were, when they happened, how much money they made, what results they produced. You can do this in table form, narrative form, whatever. Your team should be able to show that you can do the job you're signing up to do as a group.

Budget

I'll discuss this in more detail later, but your budget should have some basis in reality. That means reviewing the price structure at your preferred location(s), multiplying by the number of rooms, days, or people, and laying out the numbers. Don't forget to add taxes and service charges!

The other half of the budget--income--is trickier because you've got to take a few leaps of faith. How much sponsorship money do you think you can bring in? How many people do you think will attend? How high of a registration price will your attendees pay? What do other groups charge for similar events? If you want to be thorough, you also might try a "worst case," "most likely case," and "best case" attendance figure.

Events begin with ideas. Those ideas come from--and must be excuted by--you and your team. You start with a dream, or series of dreams, in the form a brainstorming session. Then you start doing the hard research and laying out the first fully articulated version of your vision in a proposal. The dreams are exhilarating, and your enthusiasm should carry over into your proposal. But the proposal does more than set down your event on paper: it lays down claims that your event can be successful and proofs that your team can achieve it.

Hang onto your hat; the hard part is just beginning.

The Amateur's Guide to Event Management
Part I: The Whole Shebang: Who, What, Where

John Smith and Mary Jones

invite their friends and family to share their wedding vows

at the Lamb of God Lutheran Church

11716 County Line Road, Madison, Alabama

May 22, 2012

Formal reception, dinner, and dancing to follow at

Embassy Suites Downtown

800 Monroe Street, Huntsville, Alabama

When you receive a party invitation, you are looking at a very simple event summary, or plan. You have all the important information you need to attend the event: who's inviting you, who's attending, where the event is, when it is, and what sort of food and entertainment are involved. This who-what-where equation drives any event you are likely to host.

Who
The who of an event drives nearly everything. Your audience has a specific set of interests in mind, and you, as the host, have the job of appealing to those interests. Mind you, the audience for a wedding is a little simpler--family or friends--and their interest might simply be to see you happy and to have a good time. But even something "simple" like a wedding takes time to plan (ask my sister, a serious planner, about how long her relatively low-key wedding took). Your event is about people and providing something that interests them.

Audiences can vary by size, age, associations, and any other way you can think. If you're going to bring them together, they must have common interests, right? So you've got to get them in the room (church, hall, etc.). People require persuasion, engagement, patience. Events are about people and appealing to their interests. That means having a little insight into what motivates people.

What
The what of an event is the event itself--a wedding, a speech, a ceremony, a convention, a performance. You might be the main attraction (the bride or groom) or you might be the host or hostess while someone else is the center of attention. In any case, the odds are good that the center of your event is sufficiently different, interesting, or important that formal planning is required to get people into the room to appreciate it properly.

Event programming can be simple or complex: a single speaker or performer showing up for an hour or two or several days' worth of activities. Consider all the moving parts involved in a typical American wedding: bachelorette party, bachelor party, rehearsal dinner, wedding rehearsal, wedding, reception, honeymoon. Or a convention: keynote speaker, track speakers, meals, receptions, exhibits, entertainment. The details include funding, scheduling, booking rooms and meals, and a bunch of other things that can jump up to surprise you.

Where
The where of an event is driven by the who and what: how many people are coming? What are they doing? If you're hearing a singer, you need a concert hall (or maybe just a room big enough for the performers and a few friends); if you're hosting a wedding, you need a church or a park or a hall of some sort; if you're hosting a convention, you need a hotel and function spaces for anything ranging from formal speeches to meetings to meals to exhibits.

Locations have their own special challenges: do they have the space to accommodate all the people you plan to invite? What sort of audio-visual equipment do they have? Is their food any good? How late can events run? What do they cost? When do they want the money? How big is their staff? Do they have any house rules that will affect how you run your event? These are important questions, and they become more so the more money you or your group are spending.

If you're going to host an event, you need to have an idea in your head of who's coming, what you plan for them to do, and how big a space you'll need them to do it in. These three factors will drive most of your event activities. The devil, as they say, is in the details.

The Amateur's Guide to Event Management

This is the first of many blogs that will cover my take on event management for amateurs--specifically, managing events if you are an individual or part of an organization that cannot afford a professional event planner, and are unlikely to be able to afford one in the future. So this is not the work of a professional. I can, however, lay some claim to being "experienced."

My professional career includes 12 years at the Walt Disney World Resort, during which, I hasten to add, I was never an event coordinator. However, Disney did teach me a few things about working with large numbers of people, some of them occasionally angry, while keeping a smile on my face. I've also had to lead or organize hospitality rooms (~200 people), stage performances (11 performers), and a couple of meetings, one small (~30), one large (850+). My customers/clients have been the National Space Society and ScienceCheerleader.com. And along the way, I probably threw together some parties or small meetings which, in the long run, helped me and my various teams and partners put on good events.

This is will not be a definitive guide. I highly encourage you to consult with professionals when running your events if you have access to them. What I can offer here is the amateur's perspective, the view of someone used to working without resources or an existing business plan. Let's start with the basics:

So You're Crazy Enough to Want My Job...

What the heck do I mean by an event, anyway? An event is some social activity--party, meeting, series of meetings, performance--that requires more formal organization than spontaneous activities ("Hey, guys! Let's all meet at Blahblah's after work!"). There's a specific date or time required and there's a specific outcome expected. Your job, as an event manager, is not to achieve the outcome; your job, instead, is to set the stage so that other people can achieve the outcome. It's a thankless job, because if you do your job right, few people notice it and, instead, focus on the outcome.

Odds are, you became an event organizer by accident. It started small: you threw parties at your place, and nobody had a bad time. Your boss asked you to run meetings, and you completed your agenda on time. The members of the club you joined looked around and thought you had the right combination of smarts and stupid to voluntarily herd people during large, structured social occasions. You're likely perceived as very organized and able to communicate clearly. Good for you. You'll need both skills, in full measure, if you're going to make amateur event management a regular habit.

My goal here will be to address most of the specific things you need to do to get events done. And trust me: even when working with space-minded people, event planning is not rocket science. It's a lot of work, to be sure, but it doesn't require an advanced degree (though I have one, for the record). You do need a head for details, and the larger event, the more details you'll face. So as I write these blogs, I'll try to cover the following topics:

1. The Whole Shebang: Who, What, Where
2. Brainstorming and Event Proposals
3. Site Selection
4. Programming
5. Food and Beverage
6. Budget
7. A/V and Other Electronic Thingies
8. Exhibits
9. Entertainment
10. Recruiting Staff
11. Setup
12. Registration
13. VIPs
14. Operations
15. Care and Feeding of Your Team
16. Celebration and Recovery
17. Follow-up and Closeout

That should be plenty of topics, for now. I look forward to writing these "lessons learned," as they will cover event management "from the ground up" (the theme of ISDC 2011). I will probably include inputs from friends as I go forward because NONE of the events I've worked on were the result of one person's efforts. What separates the event manager from the ones who support him (or her) is just that they're willing to take the responsibility for the whole shebang.

Bart Leahy
Huntsville, AL
June 2011