It’s no secret that the success of your event depends on your event staff, and their ability to perform their job functions smoothly and efficiently. This means that learning how to manage your event staff effectively is a key step in securing your event’s success. Is event team management the same as any team management? There are many similarities. However, we’ve compiled an industry-tailored list of tips to help you manage your event team and get the most out of your event.
#1 Connect with your team
True leadership is a reflection of the team itself. Establish a professional relationship with your team built on understanding their strengths and weaknesses, prior experiences, and mutual trust. A positive connection between staffers will lead to clear lines of communication and a higher quality of service. Take up the opportunity to review team building tips on showing love and appreciation.
#2 Carefully select your leadership team
Managers and team leads can make or break your team’s ability to thrive. Selecting the right management requires a keen understanding of your event’s needs. Then, you can select candidates based on their abilities to carry out those functions. In general, you want to make sure your management is open, honest, solution-based, responsible, and has exceptional multi-tasking skills. For event management, you’ll want to ensure they have experience managing past events, and preferably experience as a staffer as well so they have a comprehensive understanding of the tasks at hand. Think of your event needs; would it be helpful to employ management that also has industry or association-specific backgrounds that can help facilitate the event? Taking the time to evaluate these qualities will ensure your event can run smoothly and effortlessly. Read this article for more advice on effective leadership.
#3 Specialized training for event staff
Just as important as the management team’s experience is, the experience and skill level of the staff is just as important. To produce the best results, fostering and progressing their skills is an investment that will pay for itself in the long run. This can look like training seminars, skill development sessions, rehearsals, or other skill-based workshops. Event software is a great example of something you’ll want to provide specialized training for.
#4 Open communication
As stated in the first tip, the way to achieve clear communication is through a healthy connection between the leadership and staff. Open communication means that both parties should feel comfortable expressing needs, creating solutions, expressing concerns, and so forth. This two-way communication leads to staff feeling more valued and motivated, which will in turn lead to better results for your event.
#5 Rewards and incentives
Another great way to extract value from your event staff and assist management, is to offer incentives for completing tasks at or above their targets. Bonuses, swag, and gift cards are great ways to show your appreciation for your event staff’s hard work. Create a clear system of how these rewards can be earned and communicate this pathway to your staff. It’s a great way to motivate your staff and encourage returning for future events. Check out these insights from Harvard Business Review on how Positive Teams Are More Productive.
#6 Set boundaries and expectations
Your event staff must know any and all boundaries and expectations of their job functions. The event staff should know equally the consequences associated with failing to operate within them. Be sure to remain consistent in setting those expectations to demonstrate their validity. This ensures that rules are followed and a sense of fairness can exist amongst all event staff.
#7 Keep records of everything
Another key to effective management is keeping a paper trail of all incidents, employee records, and timelines. This ensures that management is able to maintain a holistic understanding of the event and ‘the bigger picture.’ This can always be referenced later for future events to help learn what strategies worked, which didn’t, or which teams were more successful than others. Keeping records (and keeping them organized) is a great way to extract data from your events and leverage that information to improve your future endeavors.
These seven tips will improve team management your event success with ease. For more help and resources to achieve a highly successful event, be sure to check out Attendee Interactive’s event management capabilities, all in one platform.
