When you work for any of the event planning companies in New York, you already know that time and effort is required in order to successfully execute multiple events simultaneously.
That’s even truer when you outsource tasks to communications and event marketing departments, or even to a personal administrative assistant.
Now, we’re not saying that having an assistant isn’t awesome in terms of dealing with the daily to do list and logistics, we’re just saying that if you have help from someone who has experience or training in planning events, daily operations for event planning companies wouldn’t feel so overwhelming and burn the staff out.
Nonetheless, there are many corporations or organizations that decide to solely depend on the assistance of event planning companies every time they’re hosting an event.
The downside about that is that it can get costly and like a snowball effect, the costs only get higher with each event you plan for the business.
So, what’s the solution here?
That’s right! If you work or represent a large organization or company and you’re hosting several events each year, you may want to consider the option of constructing an event planning team in-house.
Do You Need an Event Planning Team?
When you design an event planning team that can focus on your company’s events, they have the ability to concentrate on your event marketing approaches all while strategizing your end goal in a more productive method.
Secondly, the staff members assigned to focus on event logistics can help you create a specific event protocol as the trademark of your brand, all while assembling a sequence of good practices that will be aligned with what your audience wants.
Thirdly, you will have all of the control over the events and planning budget.
So, what’s the best way to create an event planning team from within the company?
Let’s go over a few steps you may want to consider when opting out of using third-party event planning companies and creating one in-house instead:
Assigning Roles
Let’s get one thing straight, it is nearly impossible for just one person to be assigned to manage event logistics by themselves. You will absolutely need a team where you assign roles and distribute tasks.
These days, it’s anticipated that the event manager be the one to execute tasks like designing ads that will be promoted on social media, negotiating with vendors, analyzing event data, creating mobile event apps, etc. However, best practice would be to contract an event professional that specializes in each niche so that the collective work produces a flawless and memorable event.
When opting out of using outside event planning companies, and instead you decide to build an in-house planning team, you can assign the following roles to your new team:
- event coordinator
- meeting designer
- event data analyst
- event marketing professional
- brand experience designer
- media manager
- production crew manager,
- etc.
The key to designing an efficient team is understanding the composition of the lineup.
Selecting the Team Leader
The team leader will be the person in charge of designing your event strategy and who ensures that it’s properly aligned with your brand or business goals. The event planning team leader should also be responsible for conveying the culture of your brand to the entire team by implanting your brand’s viewpoint and values.
Having the role of team leader of the entire event planning team means that the assigned person is who will decide the event vision and turn it into a reality, by combining the collective power of the entire team.
Academic Credentials vs Work Experience
In most industries, decision makers tend to lean on hiring professionals that specialize in specific areas like a lawyer or an accountant. But when it comes to event planning that’s not always the case.
In fact, the academic offer is quite limited for future event professionals.
Besides that, event planning is something you perfect over time through experience, and not by sitting behind a desk while taking notes in a class while someone dictates the ideologies of event planning.
That being said, rather than looking for impressive event management credentials when interviewing prospects for your events team, focus more on their working experience.
- Does the candidate have a good number of years working in the events industry under their belt?
- Are they coming from working for another event agency or were they working for an in-house events team?
- What is their level of expertise, and in what niche of the events industry?
When you’re looking to employ an event professional, the questions we listed above will have more significance than the type of degree they've earned.
Work Dynamic
Once you’ve developed your own in-house event planning team, you’re going to have to go over the annual calendar together, decide and schedule the dates for each upcoming event, and go over the characteristics of each event.
Afterwards, you’ll want to design a work dynamic and decide how your event planning team will execute your events.
The biggest step towards achieving your desired results is asking your new event team to measure their needs and make a list of the digital tools they’re going to need to complete their tasks.
Finally, you’ll need to establish an event planning protocol and configure an accountability scheme that will assist the entire team with executing their tasks in the most seamless form possible.
Conclusion
If your company is only managing a few events each year, then you really don’t need an entire in-house events team dedicated to managing your events. In this case, you can just outsource the work to any of the local event planning companies.
But, if your company is running a large number of events each year, the best thing to invest in is building an in-house event planning team that will focus on the brand’s event strategy and align them with your business goals.
Each year The Event Planner Expo brings together Event Planners from around the world to display all that is trending in the events industry. Event professionals enjoy the networking opportunities and workshops that The Expo offers, all while enjoying all the local amenities and entertainment that New York City has to offer. Be sure to get your tickets now before they are sold out!
