Event management
Summary
©Luc van de Zande – 2021. It is not permitted to copy, copy or otherwise
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,©Luc van de Zande – 2021. It is not permitted to copy, copy or otherwise
reproduce information document
, 1. Introduction to events management
1.1. What is an event?
Events can be defined as a temporary and purposive gathering of people.
Whereas event management is defined as the organization and coordination of
the activities required to achieve the objectives of events.
Furthermore, generally events consist of four characteristics:
1. Temporary in nature
2. Gatherings of people
3. Displays of ritual
4. Unique occurrences
Events further are experiences rather than a product.
1.2. Events, human history and culture
Events management is largely the modern-day practice of age-old expressions of
human social interactions and activities.
2. Event project management: feasibility, planning,
delivery and evaluation.
2.1. Events as projects
Events can be seen as projects. In this case. There are some characteristics of
events as project management:
1. Leadership: Events are often the ultimate responsibility of one lead events
manager who coordinates specialist functions. The degree of the
leadership role is mostly dependent on the scale of the event.
2. Budget: Events almost always have specific budgets allocated to them.
3. Life cycle: each event has a defined beginning and end within its life cycle.
4. Tasks: Events often require tasks to be performed that will not be
repeated, even in the case of reoccurring annual events.
5. Cross-functionality: Event organizations are likely to be required to work
cross-functionally without formal authority. Events managers always need
to have multiple skills such as HR and marketing.
6. Teams: Events require working teams to be brought together only for the
duration of a particular project.
7. The event project life cycle: events have a distinct timeline and lifecycle.
A project is usually described as a complex non-routine one-time effort limited by
time, budget, resources, and performance specifications designed to meet
customer needs. According to this definition, events are projects.
2.2. Project management perspectives
When considering how to apply project management to events, a project leader
should consider their overall perspective. There are six major perspectives to
project management, all of which can be applied directly to the management of
the event project:
1. Task perspective: focusses on the delivery of the event as specified, on
time and within the budget.
2. Leadership perspective: leadership philosophy, style and techniques,
decision making, reviews and feedback.
©Luc van de Zande – 2021. It is not permitted to copy, copy or otherwise
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, 3. Stakeholder perspective: identification of key stakeholder groups and the
management of their relations to ensure event success.
4. Transaction-cost perspective: views the production of an event as a
commercial transaction with focus on governance of cost structure.
5. Systems perspective: the event as a holistic system rather than individual
components.
6. Business by project perspective: views events as individual investments
which generates returns or benefits in their own right.
2.3. The core competencies of an event project manager
For event managers, it is important to have several important skills. This varies
from selecting suitable projects to assemble project teams. Furthermore, contact
with stakeholders, agreements with organizations that are important for an
event, planning the event, highlight areas of conflict, risk management
communication and human resources are highly important.
2.4. Event project definition, organization and framework.
It is further important to consider the most effective type of an organizational
structure. There are three main different organizational structures within event
management:
- Functional organizations: group people into departments that perform
similar tasks.
- Project-led
organizations:
group people into
temporary teams
for the duration of a
project.
- Matrix
organizations:
combine functional
and project-led
structures in order to perform both focus at the same
time.
2.5. Project leadership:
The structure that an organization will use for an event, will
usually dictate the type of leadership which is most suitable
for the particular structure. Project leadership is defined as
involving inspiring, motivating, influencing, and changing
behaviors of others in pursuit of a common goal. Event project
leadership therefore differs from management and
administration tasks and responsibilities that are mostly
functional and focuses on the actions of an individual’s
relationship with others involved in the event.
There are three different important leadership styles which can be distinguished:
- Authoritarian: Top down model where a leader makes decisions on behalf
of the team and devides work tasks and processes accordingly, providing
critique of the teams performance while often not closely engaging with
the team.
- Democratic: leaders who consult team members in order to arrive at a
consensus regarding important decicions. Usually offering guidance,
praise and give constructive feedback.
©Luc van de Zande – 2021. It is not permitted to copy, copy or otherwise
reproduce information document
