Mastering Event Management: 7 Steps for Stress-Free Success

Throughout history our communities have come together to celebrate, to learn, to enjoy art, theatre, music or sport.

Event management therefore is as old as civilised society however it remains a small industry of unique individuals who have a huge range of skills and who at times have to work under an enormous strain to ensure that the “show must go on”; people who forego their own weekends, nights and public holidays to ensure the enjoyment of others. That said it is so much fun. 

Over the past two years event managers around the world have been halted from sharing their skills with the world, and what the world needs now is to come together (safely) and have a good time. So to take some of the stress out of event management, break it down into seven steps – why, what, when, where, how, who and how well. Following this process can help what seems like an overwhelming list of things to do become more achievable.

The seven steps process while simple, can really help identify what needs to be done to create and manage a great event. It doesn’t matter if you are someone volunteering to run your first school fete or sporting club family day or your cousin’s wedding, a product launch or a conference by using the seven steps you will have all you need to manage your event.

One of the most challenging elements of event management is focus! Events are time specific therefore you don’t get the gift of time, all the way through the process you will choose to complete one activity over another competing activity. Sometimes these will be choices you make and other times they will be forced upon you by suppliers or circumstance. It helps to keep track of each part of each step, using a tool like Monday.com or trello.com or your own checklists or the event manager's favourite tool a spreadsheet!! Any of these tools will help you keep on top of the huge number of decisions you must make and tasks you must complete or delegate.

Event managers need to be the calmest person in the room because things can and do go wrong, by planning and using the seven steps you will be in a much better position to deal with issues as they arise and still put on a fantastic event. Each step will be outlined in our series of blogs so keep heading back to EventMploy.com to make sure you cover each step.

Before you start let’s get the creative juices flowing by thinking about events you may have been to in the past.