Invest in Training Events Teams.

As almost all live music events have been cancelled and events companies focus on a re-energised events schedule for 2021 many events teams are experiencing some downtime. There is only so much to do to prepare for events taking place almost a year away so why not use this time wisely to invest in additional training for events teams. 

Many events teams consist of a range of roles and responsibilities and will include differing levels of experienced from seasoned professionals to interns perhaps. It is reasonably straightforward to identify training opportunities within existing roles but it may be more valuable to look into some kind of cross skill training. Now is the perfect time for event companies to invest that time in providing additional training to team members across all functional areas. For a live music event organisation, the typical business functions may include: 

• Operational and Logistics Planning.
• Artist Liaison Management.
• Finance. 
• Marketing and Public Relations.
• Administration.
• Ticketing. 
• Human Resources.

Allocate time to team members for training and assign someone with overall responsibility to implement training sessions. To promote member engagement ask everyone what they would like to know more about outside of their area of specialisation. Get each team to produce a training programme that includes an overview of the objectives of that business function followed by more detailed specifics on each job role.

A key part of this cross functional training should be spending a day or two in other departments to see in detail how they operate. This is in addition to any formal training sessions that could be run. At the end of the training it’s important to test and check understanding highlighting what has been learnt and identifying opportunities for improvement in future training programmes. Aside from gaining an insight into the functions of other departments team members should be enthused by the whole experience.

This form of cross function training can be a great benefit to the organisation as team members obtain an insight into what each department does and gain an improved understanding of the challenges faced on a daily basis. The result should be improved efficiency and a more cohesive team that works well together. In addition, a good cross functional training programme can identify opportunities for people who would like to transfer to other departments perhaps for a career path change. With more people in the events team understanding all the other functions it helps with contingency planning should a particular department become short staffed due to sickness or recruitment issues. As with many organisations in the live music events business the requirement to ‘muck in’ becomes easier and staff feel more comfortable moving temporarily to another department. 

Using an event software management platform like FestivalPro can help live music event organisers manage their teams and assign responsibilities along with scheduling and collaboration including time set aside for training. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and the features are built from that experience and are performance artists themselves. The FestivalPro platform is easy to use and has the features and functionality for every department within live music event organisations promoting cross functional collaboration and working together in teams.  

Photo by Matheus Bertelli from Pexels

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