Posted on August 16, 2023
Whether you are a seasoned planner with years of experience or an aspiring planner planning the first event, you must improve your skills.
Each event is unique and requires proper planning. Therefore, you cannot set rules that match all your settings.
Events are like milestones; you need a goal and steps to achieve them. You should also coordinate the vendors and promote the event. Social media and banner ads come in handy when you want to draw a crowd.
Despite all the skills required for planning, many things need to be done if you want to get everything done.
1. Focus on Setting Goals
At the beginning of each event, it is important to define goals. Understanding your goals can help you identify your target audience, select a location, and connect with vendors. Improving your tasks
Planning is a complex process that requires attention to various details, such as choosing a theme, writing WooCommerce product short description, agreeing on the appropriate menus, and getting the proper permissions. You can brainstorm with your team ahead of time to determine the event’s goals.
2. Organizational Skills
Planners have good organizational skills. Some people may work well under pressure, but it’s essential to have a proper plan and strategy with you if you’re working as a team.
This means knowing your part, getting informed on minor changes, meeting work deadlines, placing budgets efficiently, and organizing important documents and material. After all, something that is well organized does not happen by accident.
This requires strong organizational and communication skills, from planning to event analysis. A successful planner remembers the most minor details and is always on top with a smile.
3. Communication Skill
As an event manager, you must deal with customers and other key people in planning. But communication skills are more than that; You must also convey messages.
Ensure your instructions are clear and direct, especially when working with the planning team. Try using an effective tool such as an AI meeting assistant that will take notes of every instruction that you mention so that nothing is forgotten after the meeting ends. Also, make sure you do it in a fun way.
Once you accept the role of a professional organization, you agree to its terms and conditions. Now when you are a team leader of the event, you’re responsible for its success. Your leadership style can make a difference when you provide solid communication.
Keep track of what your team is doing and give specific instructions. Also, you should be open to what your colleagues have to say and be ready to support them if they have problems.
4. People Skills
The ability to work with people is the number one quality that successful event managers possess. According to Prospects, if you are considering a career as an event manager, you must have strong interpersonal skills and the flexibility to thrive in a dynamic environment.
And it’s easy to see why people skills are so essential: You need to be comfortable communicating with senior officials, government officials, customers, employees, help desk representatives, customers, executives, staff, and members.
To successfully work with a wide variety of people, you must resolve conflicts quickly, be a confident but pleasant negotiator, and maintain a sense of humor.
5. Time Management Skills
As you move up the career ladder, you will have more time-consuming tasks, so having some time management strategies in place is necessary. Multitasking is good but keep your work quality high.
There will be many situations where you discuss with a partner, and suddenly you get a phone call about a photo shoot. Also, it would be best if you met many deadlines. The date has been set, and you are responsible for ensuring everything is ready on time.
This situation can be one of the ways to anxiety and depression, or it can reflect a successful event. It all depends on your time management skills.
6. Negotiation and Budgeting
If you think you can trade, you have an essential skill in planning things. Planning how to contract with a sponsor or getting the best deal when buying a place is necessary.
Negotiation is an art that requires a combination of preparation, prudence, and confidence. Budgeting requires forecasting and monitoring costs while budgeting invoices, requests, and expenses.
7. Resilience and Adaptability
Something will go wrong if one thing is inevitable in the world of events. It’s Murphy’s Law! And sometimes you only know what it will be the day.
This is where the skills of resilience and adaptability will be found. This skill instills the “go with the flow” attitude needed to overcome adversity at an event.
The best planners are cool, calm, and collected in front of their clients and behind the scenes. They can think quickly to improve anything thrown their way.
8. Networking Savvy
Event organizers are experienced networkers. Networking is an important event planning skill as the events industry is relationship-based and highly dependent on people.
This requires a vast network of vendors, including photographers, lighting and audio-visual artists, DJs, bands, videographers, and more. This is a network of people you can rely on to make your events unforgettable.
9. Take advantage of technology
Event planning software lets you keep all your lists and plans in one place. You can also use technology to connect with your audience and get their feedback. For example, you can use online surveys to collect customer and visitor information after an event.
Technology can also help you automate registration, visitor management, promotions, and registration tasks. With less paperwork, you can handle administrative tasks more efficiently and effectively, giving you more time to organize a fantastic event.
10. Problem-Solving Skill
It would be best if you thought on your feet about problem-solving. No matter how you choose your favorite event, something can always go wrong.
These problems will be easier to deal with if you can use your problem-solving skills to find essential solutions to any issues that may arise.
Successful event managers can make decisions right away—quickly. The ability to make decisions deliberately, quickly, and confidently are essential qualities of a task manager.
Part of being a good decision-maker is recognizing when it’s too late to change a decision and having the will to stand up for your decision. The more experience you get in the industry (and the obstacles it can create), your decision-making skills will improve.
Let Every Event Change You.
Apply what you’ve learned, making positive changes after each event. Review the feedback you receive from members, staff, and volunteers to eliminate inefficiencies in your management process.
About the Author / Ana Almeida
