What is an Event?
An event can be described as a public assembly for the purpose of celebration, education, marketing or reunion. Events can be classified on the basis of their size, type and context.
An event can be:
1) Social / life–cycle events
Events like Birthday party, Hen/Stag party, Graduation day, Bachelor's party, Engagement, Wedding, Anniversary, Retirement day, Funeral etc.
2) Education and career events
Events like education fair, job fair, workshop, seminar, debate, contest, competition etc.
3) Sports events
Events like Olympics, World Cup, marathons, Wimbledon, wrestling matches etc.
4) Entertainment events
Events like music concerts, fairs, festivals, fashion shows, award functions, celebrity nights, beauty peagents, flash mob, jewellery shows, stage shows etc.
5) Political events
Events like political procession, demonstration, rally, political functions etc.
6) Corporate events
Events like MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibitions), product launches, road shows, buyer-seller meet etc.
7) Religious events
Events like religious festivals / fairs, religious procession, Katha, Pravachan, Diwali fair, Dusherra fair etc.
8) Fund raising/ cause related events
People Involved in Organizing an Event
The number of people involved in organizing an event depends upon the size and scale of the event. While organizing a small party may require only one or two people, organizing a very large event like olympics may require several thousand people.
An event management company can have following event professionals:
1) Event Manager/Event Planner
He has following responsibilities:1. He is responsible for planning and producing the whole event.
2. He is responsible for procurement management and resource management.
3. He formulates, prepares and implement risk management plan (risks related to event planning and production).
2) Event Coordinator
He is responsible for coordinating with all event professionals and ensures that business operations are efficient and effective.
3) Information Manager
He has following responsibilities:1. He manages the information acquired through different sources.
2. He is responsible for the documentation of all business operations carried out pre-event, at-event and post-event.
3. He maintains database of service providers, delegates, guests, organizers, sponsors, partners, clients, target audience, media people and various govt. departments officials.
4. He formulates, prepares and implements the risk management plan. (risks related to information management like loss of data)
4) Logistic Manager
He has following responsibilities:1. Responsible for custom clearances and other clearances. 2. Responsible for warehousing of cargo
3. Cargo Insurance
4. He is expected to move goods and merchandise from one destination to the other in the most efficient manner.
5. He is responsible for procurement management and resource management.
6. He formulates, prepares and implements the risk management plan. (risks related to logistic management like cargo theft etc.)
5) Security Manager
He has following responsibilities:1. He is responsible for formulating, preparing and implementing the security plan and strategies. i.e. how to protect delegates, guests, service providers, organizers, sponsors, partners, clients, target audience, goods and merchandise etc.
2. He does procurement management and resource management.
3. He formulates, prepares and implements the risk management plan. (risks related to security like stampede, brawl etc)
6) Infrastructure Manager
He has following responsibilities:1. He does procurement management and resource management.
2. He is responsible for setting up and dismantling the infrastructure for the whole event like: a. Construction of boundary walls, entrance and exit gates, driveways, walkways and parking lots
b. Construction of AC/Non AC hangers/ halls, seating arrangement, stage design/ set up.
c. Construction of green rooms, staff rooms, storage rooms, power rooms, toilets, sewage systems, stalls, counters, booths and kiosks.
d. He is responsible for setting up electricity, water and phone connections. e. He is responsible for conservancy (i.e. cleanliness).
3. He formulates, prepares and implements the risk management plan. (risks related to infrastructure management like sudden shortage of workers, materials, power failure etc)
People Involved in Sponsoring an Event
The following people are involved in supporting an event:•
- Organizers•
- Sponsors•
- Partners•
- Clients•
- Supporting AgenciesThese people can either be an individual or a company. They either finance the whole event or some of its part or provide some service either at subsidized rate or for free.
Organizers
An Organizer finances maximum amount of money in an event. Therefore he has maximum control over the event. Among sponsors, principal sponsor finances maximum
amount of money. Depending on the amount of money financed, a sponsor can be a principal sponsor, co-sponsor or associate co-sponsor.
Sponsors
Similarly, depending on the type of service financed, a sponsor can be: a venue sponsor, gift sponsor, crown and jewellery sponsor, catering sponsor, badge sponsor, banner sponsor etc.
Partners
Partners generally provide services either at subsidized rate or for free like media partners (which provide ad space), promotional partners (which do publicity), logistic partners (which move goods and merchandise from one destination to the other in the most efficient manner).
Media partners can be: a newspaper partner, magazine partner, TV partner, Radio partner, Phone partner, Online partner or Outdoor partner. Any college, institute or publication can become: a knowledge partner, Research Partner, Scholistic partner, Holistic partner or Academic Partner to support an event.
Supporting Agencies
Supporting Agencies (either goverment or private) can also support an event by either financing the event or donating some service.
Career in Event Management
Event management is a multi million dollar industry which is growing at the rate of 150% per annum with events being hosted almost daily. So making a career in event management is a good choice.
Organzing a perfectly synchronized, well planned, well conducted and memorable event, requires the supervision and services of well trained and experienced event
professionals. Therefore event management companies are always on a look out for event professionals.
The success of an event manger depends upon how well he organized the event and up to which extent he is able to achieve event and marketing objectives.
The salary of an event manager depends upon his
qualification, amount of exposure to events, media and corporate contacts. Working as an entrepreneur after two or three years of work experience is strongly recommended. If you can give value for money to your sponsors than sky is the limit for your income.
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Event Manager Skills
Event management is a career which demands lot of hard work, high degree of energy, flexibility and motivation, good communication skills, strong networking, excellent PR (Public Relation) skills, eye for detail, strong organizational skills, leadership qualities, diplomacy, patience, market awareness and tons of creativity.
Event Manager Qualifications
There is no minimum qualification requirement to become an event manager for non-corporate events. Any person with strong organizational skills and excellent PR Skills can organize non-corporate events.
However for organizing corporate events a degree/diploma in event management, PR, tourism, hospitality management, business administration or marketing is a must. This is because corporate events are organized to promote and sell company's products or services or to build/enhance its brand image.
A person with 2-3 years of work experience in the field of
sales/marketing can also organize corporate events without any formal education in event management or business administration.
How to become Event Planner
You can start your career in the event management field either by joining any event management company as a trainee/apprentice or by joining an event management institute as a student.
The advantage of the latter is that you can learn things quickly and become a certified event professional too. What other people learn over several years through work experience, you can learn in 6 to 12 months through certified event management courses. Although such certification is not mandatory to work in an event company but one from a reputed institute can be a head start for you if you want to excel in this field at a faster pace.
By being certified you can demonstrate competitive distinction, and that you have the knowledge, training, experience, judgment and ability to plan and manage a successful event. Event management companies and media houses are slowly but gradually recognizing the value of certified event professionals and in the near future they will be given priorities in event jobs.
Keep one thing in mind. No event management company organizes all type of events. There are some companies which organize only corporate events; some organize only trade shows while some other may
organize only fashions shows, concerts or wedding. Therefore first decide the event which you like the most and then join the company which is specialized in organizing that event. For example if you like music concerts then you can join the company which is specialized in organizing music concerts.
Life of an Event Manager
Life of an event manager is very hard. This is certainly one of the hardest jobs on the planet. You may have to work under the blazing; scorching sun throughout the day. You may have to stay away from your family for several months.
If you are not very social and flexible then event management is not for you. By flexibility I mean, you must be ready to work/travel 24/7. There are no fixed working hours in this field. You may have to work 36 hours in one stretch. You may have to report for duty at 4' o clock in the morning or you may have to stay at the venue (your workplace) for several days.
Organizing exhibitions/trade shows is one of the toughest job in event management. You should go in the exhibition management field only when you are physically fit and can bear great amount of physical exertion. Remember the real money in event management is only for the entrepreneurs. So if you lack leadership qualities and entrepreneur skills or don't have any plan to start your own businesses later then don’t waste your time here. Mark my words "There is either very little or absolutely no possibility of growth for those who don't want to become entrepreneurs or those who are not MBAs/sales/marketing professionals." If you are looking for 9 to 5 job in an AC environment with higher pay scales, higher possibility of growth and 5 working days then go to IT field.
How to Form an Event Management Company
Are You Ready?
Want to start an event management company? Wish to earn those great bucks? First make sure you know where you are
You are heading into event planning business where you will need solid social networking and business development skills to survive. Your success in this business will depend upon, not only on your experience and knowledge level but also on your contacts (public relations), negotiating, marketing and entrepreneur skills.
Here I should assume that you have been working in the event industry (or sales or marketing industry) for the last couple of years (at least 2 years) and that now you are confident you can find clients for yourself.
Just like in any other business, there are certain skills which you must have in you, if you wish to succeed in the event planning business:
1. -You manage people effectively and get the job done. 2. - You know how to manage time and prioritize your tasks. 3. - You can find new and innovative ways to solve problems. 4. - You are good in decision making. You first evaluate your
options and then decide.
5. - You know how to talk to clients and close sales. 6. - You have the ability to sell your ideas.
7. - You have the ability to market your services.
8. - You know how to manage cash flows and keep track of financial transactions.
9.
- You understand team formation. 10. - You have leadership qualities.11. - You know how to motivate yourself and others. 12. - You have strong analytical ability and eye for detail.
If you wish to excel in the event management field at as faster pace, then get certified. There are many event planning certification which can prove helpful in becoming a certified event planner. Such event
management certificates demonstrate competitive distinction and that you have the skills, knowledge, experience and ability to plan and manage a successful event.
Good ideas for starting an event management company:
Step 1: Decide the services you wish to sell
A service is something which is intangible like: wedding planning, party planning, organizing music concerts, fashion shows, conducting MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) etc.
Choose those services in which you have a strong hold, in which you have majority of your experience and expertise and which can generate maximum revenue for you. Don't try to be jack of all trades and sell all event planning services one can think of. If majority of your experience is in wedding planning, then wedding planning is best for you.
Don't try to get into corporate meetings, just because the market is better. Corporate meetings are different from the weddings in terms of planning, implementation and evaluation. In fact every event is planned, executed and evaluated differently and therefore you can't organize all type of events.
Step 2: Do market research, competitor's analysis and SWOT analysis.
Market Research for Event Management Company
Market means your target audience i.e. people who may be interested in your events. It also includes those clients who may be interested in hiring your event management services. If your target audience are least interested in the type of event you organize, then you won't get any audience. Say you want to organize a rock concert in the country of Oman. But people there are least interested in such type of events. It means there is no market for your event in that country. If you organize the event there, it will fail for sure. Similarly if you wish to organize a Christmas Carnival in an area where majority of people are Muslims, then you can't expect many footsteps.
Therefore it is very important that you find out in advance who are your target audience (i.e. their age group, sex, qualification, profession, lifestyle, income, liking, disliking, customs, religions, traditions etc), where there live and what are their desires and expectations from your event. To do market research you will have to do survey in the area (town/city/state/country) where you wish to organize the event. If you wish to open a wedding planning company and there are hardly two or three weddings in a year in your area, then selling such type of services is not commercially viable.
Competitors' Analysis
Find out:
•
- who are your competitors•
- Where they live?•
- What are their employee base (i.e. number of employees)•
- Client base (i.e. number of clients)•
- Market value (i.e. what is their reputation in the market)•
- Market share (i.e. how much business they have occupied)•
- Turnover (i.e. annual sales)?•
- How many events they organize in a year?•
- Why people attend their events?•
- What is so special about their events?•
- How do they get clients and sponsors for their events?All this will help you in developing a better business plan for your event management company.
SWOT Analysis for Event Management Company
SWOT analysis is used to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats involved in your event planning venture. In SWOT: 's' stands for strengths, 'w' stands for weaknesses, 'o' stands for opportunities and 'T' stands for threats.
Strengths
Determine your resources and capabilities and how they can be used against your competition and in favour of your target audience. What advantages do you have? What you can do better than the others?
Weaknesses
Determine the resources you lack. Determine the advantages your competitors have. What could you improve? What you should avoid?
Opportunities
Look at your strengths and determine which opportunities are opened for you. Determine how you can open up even more opportunities by eliminating some of your weaknesses.
Threats
Changes in external environment (like changes in economy or market trends) or any unfavourable situation can pose threat to your company or business. Determine all present and possible threats to your business venture. It can be the presence of a very powerful competitor or new or innovative ways of organizing events or a heavy tax on entertainment.
Step 3: Prepare business plan for your event management company
You will develop your business plan on the basis of market research, competitors' analysis and SWOT analysis of your event management company. Before developing your business plan, you should keep some points in mind:
1. Be realistic and avoid optimism while estimating capital requirements, sales and profits.
2. Don't ignore developing strategies which may come handy in case of adversities in your business.
Following steps can be adopted for developing a business plan for your event management company:
1. Outline your business objectives.
What do you want to achieve in short term and in long term i.e. what is the mission and vision of your event planning company? However don't stick too much with long term objectives as they may become
meaningless after a long time or changes in market situation.
2. Determine your staffing needs and what should be their skill sets.
Develop the organizational structure of your event management company. Outline your own skills, knowledge and experience and determine how they can be used to achieve business success. Prepare resume of yourself and all of the people who will be involved in your business. These resumes will come handy when you will look for partners/investors later on.
3. Determine how exactly you will find clients?
How you will approach them and how you will sell your services. How you will expand your business? What will be your rules, regulations, policies and procedures regarding payments, reimbursement, penalties, cancellation and behaviour?
4. Estimate your capital requirements for one whole year.
How you will manage the cash flow?
5. Prepare a contingency plan
i.e. what strategies you will adopt in case of capital loss, economic crisis or market downturn.
Step 4: On the basis of your business plan determine your operating cost
i.e. the cost to run the business.Step 5: On the basis of the operating cost, decide your own fees and the staff salary.
Step 6: Get investors/ business partners for your event management company
on the basis of market research, competitors' analysis, SWOT analysis and your business plan.Step 7: Decide name and logo of your company and its status
i.e. whether organization will be a company, firm or establishment.Step 8: Premises, recruitment and marketing your business
Hire office. Buy office stationary and recruit staff. Launch a new flashy website which effectively describes your business and services in great detail. Hire an internet marketing professional to promote it.
If you won't promote your website, then nobody will visit your website. So in that case your website will be as good as nothing. Through your website, your business will get global presence, 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. You can also expect to get lot of clients once, your website becomes popular.
Step 9: Register your Company
If you have opened a company then get it registered under the Company's Act'. If you have opened a firm then get it registered under the 'Indian Partnership Act'. If you have opened an establishment, then get it registered under the 'Shops and Establishment Act'.An event management company is just like any other company. So whatever rules and procedures are required to start a company, also applies to an event management company.
Step 10: Register to pay tax
Following taxes are to be paid by an event management company. Income Tax, TDS (Tax deducted at source), service tax, entertainment tax and taxes related to moving goods and merchandise from one destination to others. Get PAN card to file Income Tax return. TAN card to file TDS return. Get registration for service tax. The service tax on event management companies in India is 12.36%
Additional Resources
- Procedure for forming a company in India
- Procedure for forming a company in United States (US) - Procedure for forming a company in United Kingdom (UK) - Registration forms for Event Management Company in India - Top Event Management Companies in India
Market Research in Event Planning
Market Research
Before organizing an event, find out whether there is a market (i.e. audience) for your intended event or not. For e.g. you want to organize a fashion show in Oman. If people there have little or no interest in fashion shows, then it is not a good idea to organize such event there. The event will fail for sure.
Market Analysis
If there is a market for your intended event, then do market analysis. Market Analysis means finding information about your target audience. Find out who are your target audience i.e. there age group, sex, qualification, profession, knowledge level, income, status, likings, disliking, personality, customs, traditions, religion, lifestyle etc.
Knowing your target audience's customs, traditions and religion is very important so that we don’t hurt there customs and religion unknowingly through our event. For e.g. if you organize a Hindu wedding and serve beef there, then u will be in mortal danger as cow is considered as a sacred animal in Hindu religion. Similarly serving pork in a Muslim function can bring havoc. Find out where majority of your target audience live so that you can direct your marketing efforts towards them.
There is no point in advertising across US if your target audience belongs only to New Jersey. In this way you can cut down your advertising and marketing cost tremendously. Find out what are the desires and expectations of target audience from your intended event. Find out when (i.e. date and time) and where (i.e. venue) they want the intended event to take place .For this you will have to do survey. All this information will help you in developing a better event plan.
Competitors' Analysis
It means finding information about your competitors. Find out who are your competitors .i.e. their age, sex, qualifications, knowledge level, experience in organizing events, turnover, market value, PR (media and corporate contacts) and market share.
Find out how they promote and execute there events. What they do in there events? Why people come to there events? For this you will have to attend each and every event organized by your competitors and then create an event report. The event report will contain things like
•
- seating and light arrangements•
- promotional materials used•
- blueprint of the whole venue•
- program and food menu•
- contact details of sponsors, partners, clients (for whom the event is organized)•
- service providers like DJs, Anchors, Make up artist, Performers, photographers, videographers, decorator, florist etc.Find out as much information as possible about events organized by your competitors. SWOT Analysis in Event Planning >
SWOT Analysis in Event Planning
Products/Services Research
If you are organizing a corporate event then it is necessary for you as an event manager to do research of the products/ services promoted and sold by your corporate client.
•
- Find out how the company promotes its products•
- How the company wants to build/enhance the image associated with its product (also known as the brand image)?•
- What is the market value and market share of the company and its products?•
- Who are the customers of the product?•
- What are the features of the product?•
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of the product in comparison to competitors' products?All this research will later help you in making an effecting promotional campaign for your corporate event.
SWOT Analysis
In SWOT Analysis:'S'
stands for Strengths'W'
stands for Weaknesses'O'
stands for Opportunities'T'
stands for ThreatsIt is a strategic planning tool which is used to identify and analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats involved in your project. SWOT analysis can also be done on your organization.
Strengths:
These are the attributes of your project/organization which are helpful in achieving project's objectives. For e.g.: experienced event team, high motivation level, excellent PR, good market share etc.
Weaknesses:
These are those attributes of your project/organization which are harmful in achieving project's objectives. For e.g.: social loafing, lack of funds, inexperienced event team, low energy level, lack of media and corporate contacts etc.
Opportunities:
These are those external factors which are helpful in achieving the project's objectives. For e.g.: little competition, favorable economic conditions, support from the local authorities, availability of the state of the art infrastructure etc.
Threats:
These are those external factors which are harmful in achieving the project's objectives. For e.g.: high competition, little or no support from local authorities, bad weather, poor infrastructure, high lab our rate, unavailability of raw material etc. It is very important that you conduct SWOT analysis before developing an event plan to develop a strategy which maximizes the potential of strengths and opportunities of your project and at the same time, minimizes the impact of the weaknesses and threats.
Analysis Report
After conducting market, competitors, product/service research and SWOT analysis, create a report which contain details of all the research work done by you. Documentation of your research work is important, later for event evaluation. Your analysis report will also help you in getting sponsorship for your event.
Event Planning Tips
We follow 5 'W's (i.e. Why, What, When, Where, Who) and 1 H' (i.e.How) principle to create an event plan.
Why
'Why' means, why you want to organize the event i.e. event objective. What do you want to get from the event? For eg: do you want to organize the event to enhance your company's brand image, to increase company's sales, to promote your client's products/services or to promote a social cause etc.
Defining event objectives at the very start of event planning is very important as it gives you the direction in which you should proceed to accomplish your objectives. Organizing an event without clear objectives is a huge waste of both time and resources.
What
'What' means what you are going to do in the event i.e. what will be the:
Event Name
What will be the name of the event? For eg: 'Auto Expo 2007".
Food and Beverage Menu
It contains the list of food items and beverages you will serve during the event to guests and target audience. Always consult a caterer while deciding your food and beverage menu as he knows the best which wine is served with a particular course (i.e. meal).
Keep event theme, preferences and religion of target audience and guests in mind while deciding the menu. If majority of your target audience are vegetarian, then it is not a good idea to serve non-veg in the event. Similarly if majority of your guests are very health conscious then there should also be some low calories food items in your menu. You don't want them to go back with an empty stomach.
Also keep climatic conditions into account. Don't serve out of season food items and beverages. Like serving ice cream/cold drink in winter, food (like spicy food) that provides warmth during summer or food that provides coolness during winter.
Event Profile
What the event is all about? For eg: This event is an International exhibition on new models of Cars and its accessories
Guests Profile
Who will be your chief guest and other guests? Your guest list must include organizers, sponsors, partners, clients and specially media people. Use your imagination to create good titles to woo your guests. Like 'Guest of honor', star guest etc. Never give special treatment to one particular guest or guests' group.
Event Theme
Theme means subject. An event can be based on a particular theme like : hollywood, hawaaian, egyptian, balloon, clock, red, white etc. Theme based events are generally parties or wedding. Like we can have party based on flowers theme. Such type of parties are known as theme parties. In a theme party, everything from dress code, decoration, games, music, gifts, favors to food and beverages are based on a particular theme.
Service Providers
Who will be your service providers? Any professional providing any type of service in lieu of money is a service provider. For e.g.: DJ, anchor, florist, videographer, photographer, make up artist, performers, decorator, models, technicians, usher etc.
Obligations
These are the compulsions on the guests like dress code or the knowledge of salsa dance.
Type of Entry
Decide how will be the entry. Entry will be by ticket, pass or through invitation only.
Favors
These are the gifts given to guests. We can give gifts to guests when they enter a party, when they win a game or when they leave the party.
Entry fees
What will be the entry fees? If you are going to charge entry fees, then be prepared to pay entertainment tax. Your entry fees should be according to your target audience's status. If you overcharge you won’t get any audience.
Event Highlights
These are those activities which you do to catch your taget audience and media's attention. Like inagrauation of your fashion show by Tom Cruise, performance by Latin singer Shakira or display of the world most expensive car etc.
Promotional Campaign
How you are going to promote your event, organizers, sponsors, partners and clients pre-event, at-event and post-event.
Programe Menu
It is the list of various activities that will occur as a part of the event. Sample Programe Menu of a Conference.
Event Budget
To determine your event budget find out what will be the cost for producing and marketing the event. To determine production cost, create a list of logistics used in the event and then sum up there hiring/usage cost. You can determine marketing cost on the basis of historical data like past advertising expenditure for same or similar events.If you are a first timer, then take help from an ad agency. On the basis of production and marketing cost, determine your operating cost (i.e. cost to run the business). On the basis of operating cost decide your own fees and the staff salary.
If you are organizing event for a client, then the client will bear the production and marketing cost of the event. If you are organizing your own event then you will bear the production and marketing cost. As an event manager, you must be able to recover your production, marketing and operating costs plus you must be able to make considerable profit also. Developing event budget and managing cash flow pre-event, at-event and post at-event is quite difficult and requires help from an experienced professional. Better leave this job to an Accountant if you are organizing
Conference Planning
Monday, 30 April 2007 Tuesday, 1 May 2007 Wednesday, 2 May 2007
8:00 Registration 8:30 Chair: M. Eisenhut; Heidelberg, Germany R Haubner; Innsbruck, Austria Session 4: Amino acids, peptides and proteins
9:10 Session 7: Angiogenesis
9:00 Chair: H.H. Coenen
Opening and welcome addresses 10:00 Coffee break 10:00 Coffee break 10:00 Coffee break 10:30 Chair: K.Suzuki, Chiba,
Japan
Session 5: Interdisciplinary
10:30 Chair: J. Fowler; Brookhaven, USA
Session 8: PET-nuclides II 10:30 Chair: A. Luxen; Liège, Belgium
Session 1: PET-nuclides I
RADIOCHEMICAL YIELD DEPENDENCE OF 3’-DEOXY-3’
12:00 Lunch and Posters 12:00 Lunch
12:00 Lunch and Posters 13:30 Ann Arbor, USA
Session 6: Click labelling methods13:30 Chair: S. McQuarrie, Edmonton, Canada Session 9: Radiopharmacology 13:30 Chair: S. S. Jurisson; Missouri, USA
Session 2: Radiometals
16:30 Adjourn 16:30 Closing & Farewell 15:00 Coffee break
Event Venue Selection
Keep following things in mind while selecting a venue for your event:
1) Target Audience/Guest Size
This means the number of people you are expecting to attend your event. Make sure that your venue can easily accommodate your expected target audience. Your venue should not be too small or too large for your guests. If too small, then your guests will feel discomfort. If it is too large then you will unnecessarily end up paying more for the venue.
Get firm indications whether guests plan to attend your event by sending R.S.V.P clearly printed on the invitation.
The term R.S.V.P is a French acronym. Its meaning in English is 'Please Respond'. If R.S.V.P is printed on the invitation then the invited guest is expected to tell the host whether or not he/she is attending the event. Since many people don't understand the meaning of this term or don't bother to reply back, it is advisable to individually call and ask your guests about there plan to attend the event. In this way you can get quite accurate idea of the guest size which will help you in deciding food and beverage quantities also.
2) Target Audience Status
If you target audience are rich people then your venue must be a five star hotel or resort and all the services provided during the event must be of very high quality.
3) Target Audience Convenience
Select venue according to target audience convenience. Your venue should not be very far from the place where majority of your target audience live. Your venue should have proper lighting and ventilation. It should not be in a noisy or polluted area. It should be absolutely neat and clean and free from any type of
infestation.
4) Climatic Conditions
Keep Climatic conditions in mind while selecting a venue. If you are going to organize an event during rainy season or during peak winter then selecting an open-aired venue is not a good idea. Always try to organize indoor events if possible as there production cost is lesser than the outdoor events.
5) Venue History
Before hiring a venue check out the history of the venue. Find out how many events have been organized in the venue so far. In this way you can find out whether or not venue and the staff there is event friendly. This will help you immensely when you later organize event there as you will have to do less amount of work in making the venue suitable for the event. If venue has noise ordinace problems in the past like neigbours calling the cops to shut down the event, then it is not a good idea to organize event there especially outdoor event.
Contracting the Event Venue
What is a Contract?
It is an agreement that is enforceable by law.
What is an Agreement?
An agreement is a promise or set of promises.
When a contract is considered to be valid?
A Contract is considered to be valid when:1.) The agreement has been made between two or more parties who are legally competent and authorized to enter into a contract. For e.g. you can not enter into a contract with a minor.
2.) The agreement has been made on the free will of the parties. Free will means, the agreement has been made:
- Without giving threats or use of physical force.
- Without any undue influence i.e. party in the dominating position didn't take advantage of its position or authority to get consent from the other party.
- Without fraud. Fraud means deceiving or misleading someone intentionally. - Without misrepresentation of facts.
- Not by mistake. You can declare a contract as Null and Void if your are able to prove in the court of law that the agreement has not been made on the free will or the other party is not authorized or legally competent to enter into a contract.
3.) The contract contains consideration (i.e. benefits and detriments). A contract without detriments (i.e. damages and harms) is legally insignificant.For e.g. if your contract doesn’t contain the
penalty/compensation if a certain clause is violated, then it has no significance.
4.) The objects and consideration in the contract are not lawful either wholly or in parts. For e.g. the following contract is considered to be void: 'After getting payment of US $ 1.22 million from Black Rose Corporation you will kill person 'A' or you will do a robbery on our behalf.'
Important points to remember while contracting Event Venue
1) Whatever you negotiate, whatever that is offered to/by you or mutually agreed upon (including venue services, fees, items' cost, rules and restrictions), should be specified in a written format on a stamp paper duly signed by the parties who are entering into the contract and who are legally competent and authorized to enter into a contract.
Never negotiate anything verbally. If the other party refuses to accept your proposal or there own promises in a written format, then don't do business with them.
2) Decide the compensation in case your event is forced to shut down or cancelled because of: noise ordinance, venue staff strike, change in the management staff, change in the ownership of the venue, buy outs, bankruptcies or other guests housed by the venue who are not associated with your event.
3) Make sure that the contract guarantees:
- The booked dates, time, venue space, return of deposits.
- Exact, itemized list of all the services promised and the fees associated with those promised services including maximum cost (i.e. the cost will not go over this amount)
- Promises and commitments discussed and agreed upon.
4) Never sign a contract immediately after the venue inspection. Take a copy of the contract agreement home/office. Read it thoroughly several times and discuss it with your team members and attorney. Compare the contract with contracts of other venues and then accept/reject it.
5) Always Consult your personal attorney to review the contract for you and make sure that the contract protects your interests against forceful shutdown of the event, venue staff's strike/shortage, change in the management staff or ownership of the venue, buy outs, bankruptcies or violation of any agreement or clause.
During contracting with the venue manager make sure that your contract contains the
following clauses:
1) There should be no construction/repair work of the venue building or any of its parts without prior approval on the day of the event. (Decide the compensation with the venue manager if this clause is violated.)
2) No other event can take place in the venue on the day of my event. (If this is not possible then make sure that the other event doesn’t affect the services provided to you by the venue like shortage of staff or parking space. It should not produce any party noise, music or announcement that affects your event's programs. Decide the compensation with the venue manager if this clause is violated.)
3) This contract is all inclusive and no other oral or written contract exists between the two parties stated in this agreement.
Event Marketing
Steps involved in creating a promotional campaign for your event
Note: Before creating a promotional campaign get the basic idea of some business and marketing terms.
Step 1: Setup advertising objectives.
Why you want to advertise? What is your objective of advertising? What do you want to get through advertising? For e.g
- You want to advertise to create awareness about your event. - You want to advertise to get sponsors and clients for your events - You want to advertise to thank you your sponsors and clients.
Step 2: Decide your promotional Activities
How you are going to promote your event company, your organizers, your sponsors, your clients and your partners, pre-event, at-event and post-event. Before I go any further, let's get an idea of what is media and what is media vehicle.
Media refers to various means of communications. Broadly speaking there are five categories of media:
Print, Electronic, outdoor, Transit and Miscellaneous media. Print media includes: newspapers, magazines, press releases, tickets, passes, invitations, banners, posters etc. Electronic media includes TV, Radio, Internet, Telephone, electronic signage etc. Outdoor Media includes Hoardings, Billboards, and Balloons
etc. Transit Media includes promotion through cars, cabs, buses, trucks, trains, planes etc. Miscellaneous media includes everything else like: events, word of mouth publicity etc.
Media vehicle is a specific medium. For e.g. if 'Internet' is media, then MySpace, Facebook, Twitter,
Google, Yahoo etc are media vehicles. If 'TV' is a media, then specific TV program like 'Celebrity Apprentice' is a media vehicle. Similarly if magazine is a media, then specific magazine say 'playboy' is a media vehicle.
How Print Media can be used for Promotion
1. Promote your event, sponsors and clients through newspapers ads, magazines ads, trade journals, press releases, tickets, passes, invitations, banners and posters.
2. Imprint you sponsor/client's company name and logo on your staff's shirts and caps and on the pens, diary, gifts, exhibitors' manual and other promotional materials.
How Electronic Media can be used for Promotion
1. Promote your event, sponsors and clients through TV and Radio Commercials
2. Provide free ad space on your company's website where your sponsors and clients can promote their products and services for particular period of time.
3. Develop an event website just to promote your upcoming event and provide a facility for online
registration. All the details regarding the event must be available on the website. For e.g. if your event name is say 'spark2009', then come up with a website like www.spark2009.com
4. Use electronic signage like visual display signage, Plasma Screen, LCD Screen, LED Screen, Projection Screen, Video Walls etc to promote your sponsors and clients.
How Outdoor Media can be used for Promotion
1. Promote your event, sponsors and clients through billboards and hoardings ads. A very large hoarding is known as the billboard. There are two types of billboards: Scrolling message billboard and mobile billboard. Hoardings can also be front lit, back lit, painted, poster, mono pole, unipole and tri-vision.
2. You can also do promotion through Kiosk, Canopy, Flex and giant balloons.
How Transit Media can be used for Promotion
1. Road Shows are generally used in transit media.Steps Involved in Producing an Event
Step 1: Do event analysis. Step 2: Prepare an event plan.
Step 3: Exhaustively test market your event plan
Discuss your event plan with other people to know there opinions and suggestions.
Step 4: Get organizers, sponsors, partners and clients for your event. Step 5: Prepare an event calendar.
An event calendar is an ordered list of activities which are needed to be executed in order to produce and market the event. These activities are of three types: pre-event, at-event and post-event activities.
Steps involved in preparing an event calendar
Step 1: Create a list of pre-event, at-event and post event activities. Step 2: Set deadlines for each event activity.
Step 3: Assign event activities to individual team members.
Note: For large scale events, you will have to prepare a separate event calendar for each field of event
production.
Various fields of event production:
Event Team ManagementStress Management and Events Risk Management
Information Management Procurement Management Logistic Management Event Security Management Infrastructure Management Technical Management Program Management
Food and Beverages Management Attendees Management
Quality Management Marketing Management Finance Management
Human Resource Management General Management
Event Team Management
You need a team to organize an event. You can’t do everything by yourself. So I don’t need to tell you further, how important a team is for your event. Event mismanagement is mostly about team mismanagement. Do the following things for effective team management:
Know your team
Just knowing the names, faces and job profile of your team members is not enough. You must have good knowledge of there personality, life style, likings, disliking, family
background, status, educational qualification, knowledge level, customs, religion and especially there needs and wants. By needs and wants I mean there physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs, cognitive needs and self actualization needs.
Every person has different needs and different priority to fulfill them. While for some getting recognition is more important than job security. For others job security is more important. Determine the needs of your team members and fulfill them in order to get optimum results from them.
Physiological needs
The need to have food, water, warmth, shelter and other things necessary for survival.
Your team members will not feel anything, if these needs are met but can cause them discomfort, sickness and pain if these needs are not full filled. So as an event manager it is your job to make sure that all the physiological needs of your team are met from time to time. Just imagine how a team member who hasn’t eaten anything all day will perform his duty in the evening and you will get my point.
Safety needs
It includes need to be safe from physical and psychological harm. It also includes job security and financial security.
As an event manger you have to ensure safety of your team especially women. A person can’t give his best in an unsafe environment.
To protect your team from psychological harm, make sure there are no internal conflicts (like ego clashes, altercations, conflict of interest etc) among team members. If there are conflicts, then resolve them judiciously.
Providing job security to your team is also very important. At no point any team member should feel that his job is under threat either by your actions or by someone else actions.
Take care of your team beyond the work place. If any team member is facing a financial problem, then help him as much as you can.
Social needs
It is the need to feel a sense of belonging and acceptance. Need to love and be loved by friends, intimate partner, family and social groups like your team.
To fulfill this need, there must be cordial relationship between you and the team and among the team members. A team member will not perform his best if he has considerable family problems. Try whatever you can to reduce his family problems. If you can’t do much at least accept his problems and empathize with him. Try to reduce his stress by giving him a day off or engaging him in the sport he likes the most. Ask you team members to be as supportive to him as possible. All this will help.
People who have strong social needs should not be placed in a job where they have minimum interaction with people. They are the best for marketing or PR type jobs.
Esteem needs
It is the need to get respect, recognition, fame and status.
Some people have stronger esteem needs than the other. You will have to identify those team members who have strong esteem needs and then find ways to fulfill those needs. For e.g. if a person is working very hard to get recognition among the team members and you are not giving him the recognition he deserves (by openly praising him or giving him promotion) then sooner or later his motivation level will go down and he will not give optimum results or worst will not perform and quit.
Cognitive needs
It is the need to understand, learn, discover and explore.
People who have strong cognitive needs should not be placed in a job which is monotonous and which doesn’t offer any possibility of intellectual growth. Frankly speaking, people with strong cognitive needs are not suitable for event management jobs.
Self Actualization need
It is the need to be the best. It is the need to become everything, one is capable of becoming. Very few people have such type of need. If you have some one in you team with this need, then you have both advantage and disadvantage. The advantage is that you can always expect optimum results from him. The disadvantage is that he will tirelessly seek for the position of leadership and if he didn’t get it, then he will leave you soon and may even become your competitor.
Risk Management Plan for Events
An event is full of uncertainties like power failure, equipment failure, medical emergency, brawl, stampede, fire, sponsorship withdrawal, last minute turned down by an artist etc. How will you deal with all these contingencies without a well thought out risk management plan.
Risk management is done at each and every stage of event production. For e.g. when risk management is done in the information management field, then it deals with loss of data due to data theft or hard disk crash. When risk management is done in the security management field, then it deals with brawl, stampede, medical emergency, accidental fire etc.
Similarly there are risks associated with: human resource, finance, marketing, quality management, attendees, food and beverages management, programs, technical management, infrastructure, logistic, procurement and team management.
Developing Risk Management Plan for Events
Since risk management is a very important part of event management therefore it should be carried out in a planned and professional manner. Following steps are involved in risk management:
Step 1: Identify those elements or activities which could carry a risk.
A list of such elements is already specified above like information management, security, procurement etc.
Step 2: Identify the risks associated with each element or activity.
For e.g. cargo theft is associated with logistic management. Similarly, data loss is associated with information management.
Step 3: Determine the possibility of occurrence of the risk and the severity of the consequences if the risk does happen. For e.g.
Elements Risk Possibility Severity
Information Management Loss of data Low Very high
Data theft High High
Data Corruption Very high Very high
Step 4: Risk Prioritization
Risks with high severity of the consequences should be handled first.
Step 5: Formulate, prepare and implement strategies to manage risks.
Some common strategies used for risk management are: *Risk Avoidance
Avoid those elements and activities which could carry a risk. *Risk Retention
Accept some or all the consequences associated with a particular risk. *Risk Transfer
Transfer the risk to a third party. For e.g. transferring the event security responsibility to a security agency. *Risk Reduction
Reduce the risk associated with a particular element or activity by developing an effective contingency action plan.
Step 6: Monitor the risks periodically
so that the strategies used to manage the risks can be updated or reviewed.
Information Management in Events
Information Management includes acquiring information from various sources and then organizing, retrieving and maintaining that information.For small size events, you can do information management all by yourself. However for big and very big events you will need an information manager. This information manager may have several assistants depending upon the size of the event.
An information manager is responsible for maintaining database of service providers (like decorators, technicians, DJ, anchor, florist, artists, ushers etc), guests, sponsors, partners, organizers, delegates, speakers, media people, clients and target audience.
The information which is usually managed is the contact details and all the business operations and monetary transactions carried out pre-event, at-event and post event. For e.g. when you hired a particular DJ, how much he asked for his service, how much advance you paid, what were the terms and condition on which there was mutual agreement and things like this.
An information manager is responsible for documenting all such activities. In case of meetings and
conferences, he is the one who records the proceedings. He also formulates, prepares and implements the risk management plan i.e. risks related to information management like loss of data due to data theft or hard disk crash.
There are many event management software programmes available on the market which can help with information management.
Logistic management is all about moving goods and merchandise from one destination to the other in the most efficient and cost effective manner.
For small or local events you can do logistic management all by yourself. But for large events, especially national level or international level events you will have to take the services of a logistic manager (also known as clearing and forwarding agent).
A national or international level event may require: 1) Guidance on pre and post shipment services
2) Liasoning with various govt. departments and organizations. 3) Preparation of documentation required for import or export of cargo. 4) Multimodal transportation by road, air or sea.
5) Warehousing and distribution of cargo 6) Cargo Insurance and tracking 7) Cargo consolidation
8) Custom clearance, shipping clearance and various other clearances.
9) Various types of procurement management and resource management services.
10) Formulation, preparation and implementation of a risk management plan i.e. risks related to logistic management like cargo theft.
A logistic manager is expert in all the aforesaid areas. He has extensive knowledge of the rules, regulations, policies, procedures and documentation necessary to import, export or move goods and merchandise. He has extensive knowledge of the transportation cost, custom clearance, banking practices etc. Therefore he is indispensable for national or international level events.
Security Management in Events
Security Management includes formulating, preparing and implementing security plans and strategies for events i.e. how to protect delegates, guests, service, providers, organizes, sponsors, partners, clients, target, audience, media people goods and merchandise and yourself from unforeseen circumstances like:1. Fire
In case of fire at the event venue, use fire
extinguisher to extinguish the fire. In the mean time take everyone out of the venue safely. Develop a separate emergency exit plan for this. If fire is uncontrollable then call the fire brigade.
Follow fire code and safety regulations to prevent the fire as specified below:
1. Don't place any combustible or inflammable material in the venue esp. near green rooms, guest rooms or seating area.
2. All materials including prop must be properly treated with fire retardant solution.
4. Make sure that the event venue must have separate entrance and exit ways, fire alarm system and fire extinguishers.
5. Use only those electrical equipments which are branded and which use three core wires.
6. At least one doctor with first aid box along with the ambulance must be there at the venue to handle medical emergency.
7. Your staff must be well trained about giving first aid like CPR and must be able to handle fire extinguishers and crowd in case of fire.
2. Power Failure
If you are organizing event at a place where power failure is common, then you should have adequate power backup.
In case of a power failure, switch on the emergency lights and then turned on the generators. If you have UPS (uninterrupted power supply) system, then it is the best. If you cant arrange such types of power backups, then at least you should have torch or candles.
Create a separate emergency plan to handle crowd and guests in case of a power failure.
3. Equipment Failure
Use equipments of only reputed brands so that the possibility of their failure is least.
Hire only those light and sound technicians who know how to fix up their equipments in case of any problem and who carry backup equipments also.
Create a separate emergency plan to manage programs and performers in case of a power failure.
4. Medical Emergency
A paramedical team along with ambulance must be present at the event venue. If this is out of budget, then at least a doctor with first aid box must be present.
Your whole event team must be well trained in giving first aid like check for breathing, CPR, controlling bleeding, effecting a prompt rescue.
If possible try to know the medical history of your guests in advance and then prepare your medical emergency plan accordingly. For e.g. if a guest is allergic to grass and weed pollens, then you should make sure that he doesn't sit near grass.
5. Brawl/Stampede
6. Bad Weather
7. Last Minute Turn Down
8. Sponsorship Withdrawal
Event Evaluation
Steps Involved in Writing the Evaluation of an Event
Event evaluation is necessary to make you and your team more efficient and effective, the next time you organize an event. It is all about finding your mistakes and learning from them.Event evaluation should be done immediately after the event is over or the next day. Conduct a meeting with your team members to evaluate your event.
Step 1: Determine the extent to which event and advertising objectives have been achieved.
If you are not able to achieve your event and advertising objectives through your event, then no matter how much people enjoyed the event or how much popularity your event got, it is a complete failure on a commercial level.
Step 2: Get feedback from your clients and target audience.
One good way of getting feedback is through feedback form. To make
sure that your clients give you feedback, make the feedback form part of your Exit pass form. The exit pass form is required to get exit pass for security clearance, to remove exhibits from the facility.
To get feedback from target audience/ guests, make feedback form part of your gift voucher. A guest can redeem the gift voucher only when he/she fills the feedback form and give it back to an attendant. These tactics are required to get feedback, as people are generally reluctant to give any feedback in writing. You can ask following questions in your feedback form:
Q1) Did you enjoy the event? If no, then please state the reason. Q2) what do you like most in the event?
Q3) what do you like least in the event?
Q4) what are the problems you faced during the event? Q5) what could have been done to make this event better?
Q6) How do you rate the various services provided by us (please check one of the option): Hospitality: Excellent, good, average, poor
Catering: Excellent, good, average, poor Transportation: Excellent, good, average, poor Management staff behavior: Excellent, good, average, poor Management staff services: Excellent, good, average, poor
Q7) would you like to participate in our next event?
Note: Your questionnaire should not have more than 10 questions. You don't want to irritate your guests.
Ask only relevant questions and keep the questionnaire short to 5-6 questions. Of course the type of questions you will ask may change from event to event.
And don't forget to mention the following line in you feedback form: "Thank you for taking the time to
Event Equipment
DJ EquipmentsDJ Sound DJ Light Pyrotechnics
Special Effects in Events Promotional Materials used in Events
DJ Equipment for Event Planning
1. DJ Dance Floor
A DJ dance floor (also known as illuminated dance floor, LED dance floor or disco dance floor floor) is made up of fiber sheets or panels (tiles) which light up with different colours. The floor can display different lighting patterns which can be changed through a controller or according to dancers' movement, provided tiles have pressure sensors.
The dance floor size ranges from 12' X 12' to 28' X 28' or according to customer's requirements, type of dancing and room size. The number of panels used in a dance floor varies according to the size of the dance floor or the size of panels themselves. For e.g. a 9'X9' dance floor may require only 9 panels, whereas a 30'X30' may require 100 panels or more.
Generally, installation of a dance floor is included in the rental price but sometimes there can be additional fees for installation if it has to be done on an irregular or uneven surface.
2. Turntable
A turntable is a circular horizontal platform that rotates a phonograph record and is primarily used by Club DJs along with a mixer to manipulate sounds and create music through beat mixing (a DJ technique of mixing two tracks so that the beats of both tracks occur at the same time), scratching and beat juggling.
3. DJ Mixer
A DJ mixer is a type of audio mixer which is used to combine (two separate sound sources and play them as one), route and change the level and dynamics of audio signals. It is one of the key equipments of a DJ and is generally used along with turntables.
4. DJ Headphone
This equipment is used to hear a track while mixing.
DJ Stand or Turntable stand is used to keep DJ equipments like turntables and mixers.
6. Groove Box (Music Workstation)
Groovebox (or Music Workstation) is a synthesizer cum sequencer which is used to do sampling, producing loop based electronic music or for integrating audio and video in a performance. The main advantage of using Groovebox is that you don't need to know piano/keyboard in order to use it.
7. Sampler
This equipment is used to play pre-programmed samples. A sampler is DJ equipment which generates sounds from samples of sounds added by a user.
8. Beat Counter
Beat Counter is used to count number of beats per minute of a track. Majority of mixers have beat counters.
9. Beat Machine
10. DJ Case (Coffin)
DJ Sound for Event Planning
1. ReverberationRepeated resounding or echoing 2. Attenuation
To reduce the intensity of sound waves 3. Decibel
It is the unit to measure the level of sound. 4. Microphone
It is a device which is used to convert sound waves into electrical signals. 5. Microphone Mixer
It is a device which is used to combine two or more electrical signals. 6. Amplifier
It is a device which is used to amplify (i.e. increase the strength of) electrical signal. 7. Amplified Speakers
This speaker contains a built in amplifier. 8.P.A. System
It is an abbreviation for Public Address System. P.A. System consist of microphone, mixer, amplifier, speakers etc.
9. Feedback
It is a ringing nose which is produced when a microphone regenerates the sound picked up from a speaker. 10. Sound Source
It can be a speaker, vocalist or an instrument or any device which produces sound. 11. Frequency Response
It is a way a device like microphone or environment like a room respond to different frequencies. 12. Flat Response
It means a device like microphone respond in the same way to different frequencies i.e. whether the frequency is high or low, the device is going to respond in the same way. No device or environment can have a flat response. However they can have a nearly flat response.
13. Ear Plugs
This device is used to attenuate sound waves. It is worn by people who work in noisy places like clubs to prevent permanent damage to hearing.
14. Noise Reduction Rating (NRR)
Any device which has a NRR of less than 20 DB (decibel) is not of much use.
Types of Microphones
1. Corded MicrophoneIt is a microphone connected to a wire. 2. Wireless Microphone
Microphone without wire 3. Handheld Microphone 4. Lectern Microphone
This microphone is connected to a microphone stand or is placed on a lectern. 5. Lavaliere Microphone (or clip-on microphone)
This mike is placed on the upper part of a tie or the collar of a coat or a shirt. The head of the lavaliere mike should be as close to the mouth as possible.
6. Head worn microphone 7. Hydro phone
It is a water proof microphone. 8. Miniature Microphone 9. Condenser microphones
10. Dynamic microphone
These microphones are generally used in live shows.
Microphones can be classified on the basis of sound pick up pattern or response pattern as:
1. Directional Microphones These microphones are of two types:
a. Unidirectional microphones
This microphone picks up sound only from a particular direction. The most commonly used unidirectional microphone is Cardioid microphone. Hyper cardioid and shotgun are other unidirectional microphone. b. Bi directional microphones
This microphone picks up sound from the front and back of the microphone but reject sound from the sides of the microphone. It is also know as Figure-8 microphone.
2. Omni directional Microphone
This microphone picks up sound evenly from all directions.
DJ Lighting for Event Planning
1. Incandescent LampIt is the light bulb which we usually use in our homes. 2. Halogen Lamp
It is a type of incandescent lamp. However it emits whiter light, last longer and cost more than the traditional incandescent lamp.
3. Lighting Fixture
It is the lighting unit which comprises of a lamp, a lamp housing and some type of clamp to attach it to a mounting structure.
4. Gel
It is a color filter which is used to change the color of a projected light. 5. Dimmer
It is a device which is used to control the intensity of lighting fixtures. Most of the dimmers are computer driven.
6. Cue (light Cue)
It is a signal given by a controller to a lighting fixture to perform certain actions like: * Decrease the intensity of light
* Move the light beams in a particular direction * Chase the lights
* Blackout etc 7. Controller
Any device which can control the functions of lighting fixture, dimmers, rope lights, strobe lights, PAR CAN, Pin Spots, Smoke machine etc from a remote location is a controller.
8. Intelligent Light
Any lighting fixture whose functions can be controlled from a remote location is an Intelligent Light. 9. Stand Lighting
10. LED Curtain
There are two types of LED Curtains. 1. White LED Curtain
It has only white LED lights 2. Multi-colored LED Curtain.
It has red, green, blue and yellow LED lights on it. 11. Light Stand or Truss
12. Clamp
