EVENT MANAGEMENT

LESSON 24:
EVENT MANAGEMENT

Management of events has traditionally been alluded to as a
post marketing activity and assigned the classic production
responsibility as in any manufacturing firm. The term manage-
ment of events therefore carries a totally different connotation
when used in the context of events. Management theory would
suggest that marketing is also a part of management. Guess,
every industry and its theory has variations! For all practical
purposes, in events one should differentiate between marketing
and event management in a functional way. Therefore, when we
use event management, it is to denote the production of an
event.
A large number of people with different skills and roles are
involved in the execution of an event. There is a complex
interaction of people and their responsibilities. The customised
nature of events as a whole adds to the difficulty in defining
roles of the people involved with the event. A host of decision-
making situations is what management of an event is all about.
Though different from management as a function, marketing
needs to be constantly interacting with the event managers to
ensure the all-critical client - concept - audience fit during
execution. The managers’ job is to physically reproduce this fit
in the event. Therefore, it is critical that event management is
not considered as a lesser I profession than marketing.
Marketing works to get the moolah in by making promises to
prospective clients, management works for making true the
commitments made by marketing.
In the following section, we shall discuss in detail the intricate
planning, organising, staffing, leading and controlling functions
with respect to events. A micro-view of how an event is actually
managed by an event organiser is presented in the following
section.
Activities in Event Management
In events, activities usually vary with the category of event being
organised. Therefore, the following listing is generic in nature.
We will first take a look at the flow of work for an event. We
shall then understand the nature of staffing required and some
common designations in an event management firm and the
skill repertoire that an event manager needs to possess. The
organising and planning processes that need to be followed for
the successful completion of an event will then follow.
Once marketing has managed to convert an enquiry into a firm
order, the hands-on work of event management begins. The
following is a sequential flow of how management actually
happens, i.e. how planning, organising, staffing, etc. gel
together for an event. The flow is divided into three sections-
the first deals with the pre-event activities, the second with the
during-event activities and the last details the post-event
activities involved.
We shall now move on to activities involved in the event
management flow. It is important to note that we have
followed a chronological sequencing of activities and not
segregated them in terms of work content. This has been done
so as to introduce a sense of timing of the activities with
respect to one another. This is necessary so as not to lose sjght
of the woods for the trees.
Pre-event Activities
If one were to count the number of activities involved in the
preparation of an event even before the event occurs, it
wouldn’t be anywhere near infinity. There are only so many
limited activities, of course, the pre-event activities overshadow
the during and post-event activities in terms of both impor-
tance and quantum. We have identified more than fifty such
tangible, discernible steps and these are discussed here in this
section.
Events typically have a team based work environment and a
project type of organisation structure. Thus, responsibilities are
assigned to the relevant staff members in the team for the
event. Coordination of the arrangements required is divided
among the team members. Once the preliminary discussions are
over, and the final concept sold to the client, the very first step
begins when the creative conceptualiser works on the brief (A
briefis a detailed list of input and specific instructions from the
client for the event) with the creative team. Then the project
manager prepares a thorough schedule after understanding the
critical steps and issues involved in that particular event.
External agencies such as architects and engineering contractors
may be consulted at this stage to understand feasibility of
planned concepts. Most event management companies have
experienced production managers who understand the feasibil-
ity of a concept with sheer practical experience and they need not
necessarily have had exposure to specialist education. Then the
project manager draws up a cash flow statement, a budget
statement and arranges budget allocation for the event. A bit of
enquiry and information update then facilitates accurate budget
forecasts for venue hire, construction of sets, special effects,
lighting and sound, etc. It is essential that in the absence of rate
contracts with other networking elements, the event manage-
ment company updates itself with the current market rates of
the aforementioned essential components prior to committing
on any specific creative.
Based upon the project requirements critical dates or deadlines
are drawn up and the best possible solution among alternatives
to achieve these deadlines is chosen. As a fall out of the
deadlines coordination of responsibilities is once again
evaluated with due consideration for contingency situations. It
is essential that at this point, the overall coordinator liaisons
with the client for reassurances on the progress of the project
dispelling doubts, explaining patiently and sharing views on the
event. The overall coordinator along with the sales and market-
ing team should ensure the completion of overall designs,
models of stage, visuals, etc. with graphics included by the

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 creative team within the prescribed deadlines and make a
EVENT MANAGEMENT
researched concept presentation to the client.
At this stage, the legalities of drawing up the contract, agree-
ments and finalisation by signing of contracts between the
event managers and clients becomes a necessity. Contracts with
clients and suppliers including penalty clauses and deadlines are
then mutually confirmed by signing relevant agreements.
Ongoing budget control and supervision is carried out to
monitor deviations from the budget. Authorisation of
payments to the suppliers as per the cash flow and contracts
signed is the logical next step once the event is legally bound.
Committing to suppliers and then delaying payments is a sure
way to kill the company given that the dependence on external
agencies is extremely high in the events industry.
Simultaneously, working drawings need to be completed and
printed for quotation from suppliers. Special effects are decided
and briefs prepared for execution. Keeping the feasibility aspect
in mind, the finalisation of decisions regarding special effects is
taken with the main contractors so that there is no communica-
tion gap and to ensure exact practical outputs that can be
expected. Physical designs are then finalised and contractors
begin work. Acquisition of event production material either on
hire or loan is a common phenomenon as mentioned above.
Fire, safety and insurance issues need to be taken care of.
The coordinators and sales and marketing team are then kept
busy keeping track of the progress made till date and arranging
for catchup plans. At the same time, event coordinators need to
carry out general supervision of contractors to ensure that they
are working with attention to detail for mounting special effects.
Supervision of contractors in workshops with visits, graphic
designer for finalising illustrations and photographs and liaison
with client or clients’ ad. agency on production of advertising
promotions, support literature, brochures, posters, etc. are all
important recurring activities that the event coordinators need
to track constantly.
Logistics is another important area that needs to be given
priority attention by event coordinators. Logistics in events
essentially involves booking of hotels, air, road, and rail
transport for the participants and event managers, arranging
transportation of material which most of the times weighs in
tonnes and dealing with tax, octroi and other government
departments. It is very important at this stage again to keep the
clients informed on the developments and progress to dispel
apprehensions, if nothing else. Fire and safety measures to be
double checked and progress tracking and reassessing catchup
plans are some midway activities which may not be of any
tangible value addition but ensure that small sparks don’t catch
fire.
A joint team of the concept creation team and the main
contractors then need to check out the special-effects equipment
and arrangements. It is now important to maintain liaison with
and supervise the special effects and electrical contractors. Day-
by-day tracking of timing and finance with a feedback on
possible changes i.e., increase or decrease in expenditure on
various items. A constant surveillance of the cash flow is
justified as liquidity requirements are high and an expense once
incurred is money expensed. And since events are mostly
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96
oneoff in nature and one of a kind, it is imperative that
investments in assets be scrutinised.
On the production front again, finished art works by graphic
designer are to be obtained and stored with care. Also, the
production manager has to liaison with specialist producers,
screen printers and colour processors for print media campaign
and audio/video pictures for TV and radio promotions.
Finalisation of cleaning, security, furniture (tables, seating,
barricading etc.), decor (flowers), communication (telephones),
and other service hire contracts (couriers) also take up the
production manager’s time at this stage. The project manager
handles the progress reporting and gets contingency plans
drawn up. The overall coordinator has to continue liaison with
the client with reference to the PR, publicity, press releases, and
promotions on TV; and radio along with the public relations
team. Arranging for a press conference for the clients and artists,
giving out invitations, passes and tickets to the event,
organising the reception for the press with uniforms for the
hospitality hostesses/hosts or staff at the reception is also a
major responsibility for the PR team in the preparatory stages
leading up to the event. Damage control due to artists’ tan-
trums is yet another aspect typical of this field that the PR team
needs to contend with. These have to be tolerated and con-
trolled to avoid any adverse fallouts.
Final visits for quality checks and control need to be made to the
networking components to ensure understandings and confirm
the sime. These typically include inspection of dimensions of
stage and other critical near finished models for accuracy by the
production manager.
The overall coordinator along with the other team members
needs to then arrange for a briefing of site supervising staff
depending on category and type of event. It is essential that the
entire briefing and interaction take place before the event begins.
Once the event gets started the clients and the contractors’ staff
need to be kept away from interfering with the execution by the
production manager and the event coordinators. Controlling
the panic reactions due to I invariable last minute hiccups and
final tying up of all loose ends is a very I important penultimate
task.
Organisation of the welcome reception, which is most often a
very important part of the event, is dictated by the understand-
ing of the social undercurrents in how this initial part of the
event is laid out. A detail of VIP visits, security, toilets, etc.
though seemingly ignorable are nevertheless equally, if not
more important than the event itself. This is especially true for
political events.
The last stage in the first section involves resolution of on-site
wrangles of delivery, permissions, missing orders or items,
close attention to construction of sets-asking whether it was
done correctly, supervision of installation of special effects,
objects, low profile supervision of all site work and any extras
agreed onsite and resisting emotional blackmail from the staff
in terms of threats of walking out of the project by key
personnel.
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During-event Activities

EVENT MANAGEMENT
Unlike most other work profiles, events are unique in that most
ofthe activities for an event are pre-event. During the event,
softer aspects come into focus. For the overall coordinator, it is
important to pass on all credit to supervisors. Event managers
should look humble and be available for the client to call on.
The conceptualisers’ efforts should be appreciated at least
during the event. The nitty-gritty can be discussed later for
improvements. At the same time, there should be a constant
surveillance of the special effects, display objects and the food
and beverages. Thus, monitoring is the gist of the during-event
execution activity that is involved. Photographs and other
multimedia recording arrangements if so desired also need. to
be taken from strategic locations.
Post-event Activities
Beginning with the physical task of dismantling of the sets,
post-event activities also run into accounting and other such
softer minutiae that any company, irrespective of its field of
operation, runs into. Final account settling (bills to be paid on
receipt) is accompanied by explanations for overspends. The
teams need to carry out a postmortem analysis on the event and
conduct an event evaluation. Recording the photographs taken
of the event in the form of a photo-documentary helps a lot.
Performance evaluation of the coordinators during the event
should be carried out immediately so that the lull after the event
can be used for learning. Finally, the overall coordinator should
do the formality of thanking all involved for the wholehearted
and extra efforts provided. Letters should go out to clients
thanking them and these should include a post-event question-
naire seeking to measure client satisfaction. Based on this
feedback, improvements and adjustments required should be
worked upon.
The activities involved in event management as discussed above
can be further classified within the framework of contemporary
conceptual developments in management. This will enable us
to grasp the essence of event management by building on the
broad-based edifice of management theory. This theory states
that the functions of management can be classified into
planning, organising, staffing, leading and controlling.
Notes

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