In the present economic environment, its fundamental that event managers work as efficiently as possible. Running lucrative events is a time consuming and complicated process. It can take many years of training and on the job experience for an event manager to become extremely effective at what they do.
One of the troubles event management faces is the huge number of activities and procedures that are involved in setting up and running events. Having the capability to multi-task and being well organised are traits that event managers need to develop and perfect as they gain experience in the field.
The benefits of working efficiency are basic:
Time savings
Cost savings
Improved event performance
Drilling down into these areas we can see the particulars of how and where the efficiency gains can be made:
Saves Time:
Its important that the event manager has clear and efficient procedures they adhere to when running events. Establishing processes that other people can keep to also means that other team members can aid or take over the management of an event with ease. Team members are able to comprehend instantly what stage of planning the event is at; cutting down on meetings and training sessions.
Many event managers will generate and revise their processes with each event; learning from their experiences to make the process of managing each event more effective and efficient. Having a set process that is written down means the events can be planned and managed far easier – important areas are never missed out and realistic timescales can be easily produced. Having dedicated processes saves time because event managers do not need to generate procedures from scratch for each event. They can reproduce each event process again and again, building on in and improving it with each event.
Being efficient in the event planning process also helps with event analysis. This involves analysing the performance of suppliers – knowing who has been used previously to provide goods and services and having details of the relationship can help analyse if this association is working at maximum efficiency. Its imperative to understand if suppliers standards are falling, and this can only be done if the event manager is running efficiently and monitoring the relationship with each event. It is massively valuable for event mangers to be able to employ the same suppliers over and over again – sourcing different suppliers is an especially time consuming process. Additionally having suppliers that let you down can be a huge drain on time as event managers try to resolve the issue at the last minute. So understanding and staying on top of existing supplier relationships is a fundamental part of efficient event management.
Post event, its important for event mangers to be able to swiftly and efficiently get management information on that event to analyse the success of that event; was there an increase in delegate attendance, did delegates rate the event well, did you get a good return on investment (ROI) etc. These are critical event metrics that need to be analysed quickly and efficiently. A frequent issue event managers have is that they are so busy arrangement numerous events, that they do not have time for this crucial event analysis stage. However, it is only by analysing events that you can help to improve the performance of future events.
Saves Costs
The common idiom time is money is very applicable in event management. Having an event manager who is efficient at their job, who understands and follows best practice event management processes and who has excellent relationships with effective suppliers is a crucial part of making a high and fast ROI. Bad event managers can cost an organisation huge quantities of money due to their poor efficiency and organisation.
Working with suppliers and building good quality relationships can also save money – the better the relationship, the more probable that supplier discounts will be involved. Running efficient events also means paying your suppliers on time – a critical part of gaining supplier discounts and bonuses.
An ineffective event manager will cost an organisation through the errors they make. Doubling up on orders, missing crucial parts of the process and other mistakes can be costly in terms of the time it takes to resolve, but also through being forced to obtain items at the last minute.
Improved Event Performance
Being able to efficiently run events also has an impact on the performance of the event. Delegates will have an better experience if the event runs smoothly and without mistakes. Being efficient ensures that delegates have an pleasurable and mistake free journey – from the point of booking, to payment, registration on the day, experiencing the event and providing post event feedback.
Events with efficiency concerns are likely to be poorly managed, with |mistakes and errors causing delegates to have unsatisfactory experiences. Ensuring that you provide the best possible experience for delegates is very important for the success of future events.
Increasing delegate attendance is something many organisations battle with, and if an organisation has issues over its reputation, due to their inefficiency, that will have a knock on consequence on future event registrations. A important part of profitable events is building up reputation in the industry and creating a long list of loyal, repeat purchase delegates.
Finally, being an efficient event manager also means that they are able to organise more than one event at a time. For companies that are dependent solely around event organisation, or for companies that simply happen to host numerous events, this is a critical part of the event management process. Event managers must be able to effectively organise the planning and running of multiple events and this can only be done if they are running to best practice, efficient event processes.
Improving Event Efficiency
Event managers can help to improve the efficiency of their working practices by making use of event management software. Event software is able to take best practice event processes and automate and manage them from one central platform. Taking away inefficient spreadsheets from the process and working on a software solution designed specifically for event management has demonstrated to have huge cost and time saving benefits.
Event management software solutions are able to manage all areas of event planning from:
– Website Integration
– Online Registration
– Event Communication
-E-Invite
-E-Survey
– Badge Production
– Resource Management
– Management of Financials
– Event Reporting and Analysis
With the event management industry being hit with increasing costs and lower delegate attendance, its vital that companies organising events fight back by being as efficient as possible and continually improving their processes. It is the companies that deal with efficiency problems head on, and utilise the use of technology who will make sure their events are profitable now and in the future.
For more information on event management software solutions, talk to evocos. In the past year alone evocos event software solution has created over 7000 events, managed roughly 75,000 delegates and has taken over 50,000 registrations online.
Incorporating built-in reporting and analysis resources as well as social media, email marketing, website integration, registration, online payment, badge production, resource management and event surveys, evocos is one of the most all-inclusive event management software solutions on the market today.
The evocos event management software team ensures you are able to seamlessly manage your events; gaining vast cost and efficiency benefits.
