Build a Winning Events Team.

The key to a successful event is the result of many factors but probably one of the most important is the organising team behind each event. Having a great events team will mitigate any potential issues and get your event running within budget and delivering customer expectations.  

Irrespective if the event organiser is a large corporate or a small independent the job roles and functions remain largely the same, only the scale differs. A large corporate events team may consist of hundreds of staff spilt into functional teams as opposed to a small independent events company that probably rely on a handful of dedicated enthusiastic people with no clearly defined roles. It will help build a good team by allocating roles and responsibility by function speciality:  

Human Resources, the person responsible for recruiting team members who fit the functional roles and size of the events team. The HR function should also be responsible for recruitment, training and management of volunteers.

The Finance function should as a minimum include a qualified accountant who can focus on controlling budgets and managing cost control in addition to payroll, invoicing and payments.

Marketing is such a key component to any events team, it is their responsibility to manage marketing budgets and campaigns to generate ticket sales. They will also control social media, PR and media relations. It would also be logical for them to manage sponsors. 

Project Management, most likely a senior manager type role they will be responsible for ensuring that everything happens when it should. Can also be responsible for Health and Safety compliance. 

Vendor Management, responsible for sales of vendor space and ensuring each vendor's requirements are met. One of the key contacts with your venue in organising pitch space. 

Artist Management, should be performed by someone who is a relationship builder who has knowledge and existing relationships with artists and their managers with experience of negotiating complex contracts.

Although this is merely a suggestion of the key functions an events team needs it is likely that in a small team the roles and responsibilities will cross over between individuals. Teamwork is crucial where specific roles are blurred and team members should be dynamic and prepared to take on roles outside of their area of expertise and pull together as a team. Collaboration and close working together are essential. On the day of the event it is not unusual for all team members to be present fulfilling a variety of on-site roles.

When recruiting and building your teams ensure that individuals have a good fit for the team size and are prepared to perform roles outside of their specific expertise. For marketing and artist management roles you should be looking for specific events experience, for other roles experience in the events industry may be less important.

If you use an event management software solution like FestivalPro you get great features built in for events team members to access and control function specific requirements. 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. The easy to use FestivalPro platform features an element of collaboration for events teams to work together making their jobs easier resulting in greater control of all aspects relating to the event management process.  

Photo by Matheus Bertelli from Pexels

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