Five Awesome, Simple Pieces of Advice For Event Planners

Here are five awesome, simple pieces of advice for event planners that will have a mark an impact on whether you succeed or fail.

As I’ve established in the past, not everyone is cut out to be an event planner. It takes a very particular type of individual to excel in event management; the best event planners are quick thinking, charismatic, organized, and creative. Yet simply having the right personality isn’t always enough.

At the risk of sounding vapid, event management is as much a profession as it is a state of mind. How you approach your job will have a marked impact on whether you succeed or fail. Here are a few pieces of advice guaranteed to help you achieve the former, rather than the latter.

Have A Sense Of Humor

When everything’s gone wrong and your entire event is falling down around you, sometimes the best thing you can do is laugh. Being able to find the comedy in a situation not only makes you easier to work with, it helps keep your stress (and that of everyone around you) manageable. Plus, everybody likes a good laugh: getting someone to smile is the first step towards getting on them on your side.

An event planner needs low stress-levels and clear heads to solve problems – relieve tensions with humor.

In All Things; Respect

Don’t let your position as the event runner go to your head. No matter whom you’re dealing with – whether it’s a volunteer or a key vendor – you need to give everyone the same level of respect you expect him or her to give you. If you suffer from a swelled head and start talking down to people, you’re going to very quickly find yourself with a lack of friends and teammates.

A terrific event planner empowers and relies on others. People will go to bat for you when most needed if you’ve treated them with respect!

Maintain A Sense Of Zen

One of the most difficult aspects of event management – and the part of the job that makes a lot of would-be planners burn out – is the stress. In order to avoid succumbing to that yourself, you need to always keep the bigger picture in mind. Whenever anything goes wrong, consider why it’s not worth completely losing your head over. Be Zen, and you’ll find yourself going a lot farther in the profession (and having a much longer life, beside).

Presentation Is Everything

If there’s one thing your relationship with your guest speakers should have taught you, it’s that how you look is every bit as important as what you say. With that in mind, a sense of style – coupled with the clothes to match – is as vital as personal charisma. Sure, a man in rags can still be engaging – but will he be as engaging as an equally charismatic fellow in a suit? I think not.

Dress the part! A professional appearance coupled with charisma will help any event planner stand out with authority.

Always Communicate

Last, but certainly not least, always keep your team apprised of what’s happening with the event they’re helping to run. A team that doesn’t communicate is one that’s destined to fail. Set up easily accessible lines of communication with the rest of your team, and make liberal use of them.

There is a difference between micro-managing and great communication. Planning and a reliable, easy communication system allow an event planner to trust their team.

In Closing

Not everyone is cut out to be an event planner. Even individuals, who are seemingly equipped with all the right personality traits can, if lacking the proper mindset, end up failing. The advice given here hopefully gives some idea of just what that mindset is – and will ultimately help you be a better event planner.