As an Event Manager it is vital to act professionally and ethically and to present a positive business image at all times.  We work in a people-orientated industry.  People buy from people and they want to work with those that they respect and have faith in.  You are an ambassador for the company you work for and your conduct adds to your “brand.”  Of course this post isn’t exclusive to the event industry – it will be useful to a broad spectrum of professions.

To be distinguished as a professional event manager and outclass the competition these are my personal top tips.

Timekeeping

Good timekeeping is essential.  Always be on time for meetings.  It is unprofessional to be late and you do not want to keep people waiting.  Should circumstances be beyond your control do of course have the courtesy to phone ahead and apologise.

Always arrive early on live event days – it is completely unacceptable to be even a minute late on the day of the event.  Leave plenty of extra time in case of unexpected eventualities.

Presentation

Good presentation and personal grooming is important.  Your dress must be practical and comfortable as well as smart.

Make sure that you give a proper handshake.

Stay calm and unruffled under pressure – keep your head.

Time Management

Good time management is an essential skill for every Event Manager.

It goes without saying that you must meet all deadlines – events will not wait!  Work backwards from the event date and effectively map the key milestones and deadlines leading up to the date and stick to them.

The nature of running an event does mean that a lot can happen just before the event day – last minutes bookings, substitutions, last minute requests from speakers, etc.  Be prepared for this.  Expect to work late as necessary to get things done thoroughly.

Attitude

Treat others with the respect you expect to be treated with yourself.

Have a positive, professional outlook.

Event Managers should be friendly and approachable and most importantly SMILE!  This is a people business and you should be warm and welcoming.

Correspondence

Develop a professional way of answering the phone.

Know how to write professional letters, faxes and emails.

Respond to emails and voice messages promptly.  However busy I am it is important to me to respond as quickly as possible to emails and any calls I have missed.  I definitely aim to respond within 24 hours but generally reply much more speedily.

Manners

Always ensure introductions are made between speakers, performers, clients and staff.  Be sure to use correct titles where appropriate (Dr, Professor, Sir) and full names.  Try to give job titles, organisations and a hook to enable a conversation to begin naturally.  This might be a shared interest, fact or point of view or some background information which will put them at ease with each other.

Don’t forget your manners.  Common courtesy seems to be a dying art but costs nothing.

Always thank speakers, sponsors, staff and clients – anyone that has contributed to making the project a success or paid for your services.

Business Etiquette

Get everything in writing.  This is particularly important when it comes to contracts, roles and responsibilities, deadlines, health and safety information, venue operations sheets and basically anything important!

Ask for constructive feedback.  Everyone likes positive feedback and affirmation but negative feedback can be extremely valuable if you listen, understand and improve as a result of it.

The customer is always right.  Unfortunately this may not always be true however if you receive a complaint of any description you must deal with it graciously.  Don’t interrupt (even with a solution) before they tell their story.  Then handle the complaint in a calm, rational way.

Act discreetly and confidentially.  Behind the scenes at an event you may find out some top secret information – perhaps that world class “superstar” is actually extremely dislikeable or perhaps you witness someone doing something they shouldn’t.  This is however your secret – it is not your place to sell the story to the media or gossip on social media channels! (or at least not if you want to continue to work in the events industry)

Approach

Find solutions for your clients, even if one isn’t obvious straight away.  Your clients pay you to make things work and “where there is a will there is a way!”

Offer your professional advice to ensure a successful event will be executed.  Clients often presume how things will be done but frankly this isn’t always the best way to do things.  It is your job to explain your vision and why your way is better, quicker, more efficient and will get results.  You have learnt from experience so let your clients benefit from your learning and expertise too – that is what they are paying you for after all.

Professionalism

Don’t complain.  You may have back ache/leg ache/head ache/be worn out from getting up at 4 am to be on site however your client does not need to know that!

Don’t bad mouth competitors.  Although the behaviour and way of working of your competitors can repeatedly baffle you it is not professional or acceptable to point this out publically.  If you cannot say something nice it is best just to say nothing at all in my opinion.

Be careful how you present yourself/your organisation on social media channels – never swear, bad mouth, don’t blatantly self-promote, consider that current or future clients/employers/employees could be reading your updates.  If necessary separate your business and personal profiles.

Separate business and pleasure.  As a perk of the job you will no doubt receive invitations to many glittering social occasions with free alcohol flowing.  Have a good time (naturally) but do draw a respectful line if you wish to receive other invitations in the future!

Business Ethos

Always give your best.  If you are a half-hearted event manager you will never succeed.

Learn from every project, client and event.  Strive to do things better.

Be understanding.  Speakers and clients are busy people and they cannot always meet the deadlines we impose, however much notice we give them.  Be prepared, adapt and be understanding even if it does cause you last minute work and stress.  And then smile, be understanding and don’t complain!

Applying standards of etiquette and protocol should become hallmarks of you and your company and an integral part of your brand.  As a professional Event Manager these are some of my ways of working.  What are your personal hints and tips for business etiquette?

I have been a proud Kindle owner myself for the last 3 months and have enjoyed its versatility for use in terms of both business and pleasure.  This post will focus specifically on the business case for investing in a Kindle and why I find the Kindle particularly effective for business usage and reading.

Highlight and Annotate

The Kindle allows you to create highlights, bookmarks and notes on documents, books and text as you are reading.  I have the Kindle 3 which has the in-built keyboard and so it is simple to add comments.  You can then easily revisit key sections and notes.

Send documents, reports and PDFs to Kindle

Amazon Kindle

You can send Microsoft Word documents and PDF files to your Kindle to read and digest away from your desk.  Be sure to send to the free Kindle service using “username”@free.kindle.com, rather than your standard Kindle email address though, otherwise delivery charges will apply.  You will need to add email addresses to your Kindle´s approved email list for the files to be delivered successfully. Do this from the “Manage Your Kindle” section of the Amazon website.  The free service works when you have Wi-Fi access.  Alternately, you could connect your Kindle to your computer using the USB cable and manually transfer the files.

The Kindle displays most PDF documents without losing the formatting of the original file and you can magnify PDFs by viewing them in landscape mode.

Make Folders to Group Collections

You can add folders to enable you to group information together.  I like to keep business information separate from my personal reading and the Kindle allows you to create as many folders as you wish, titled appropriately, just “Create New Collection.”

Read Blogs with Kindle

One of the most exciting and helpful tools for me is being able to read blogs on my Kindle via Instapaper.  If I come across an interesting article or blog I can simply hit the Instapaper “Read Later” button from my internet bookmarks bar and this is delivered to my Kindle.  After setting up your free Instapaper account you must tell Amazon to allow Instapaper’s deliveries by adding the email address.  You can specify daily or weekly deliveries to read at your convenience.

Links with Social Media

You can link your Kindle to your Twitter and Facebook accounts to share passages or details of books you have read on your Kindle.  If you so wish you could link to your business social media accounts to share interesting content directly from your Kindle.

GetAbstract

I have also just found out about getAbstract.com which I am interested in exploring further.  They create five-page summaries of all of the top business titles, explaining the main points of the book.  You pay a subscription and then in return summaries for your areas of interest are emailed to you in a format compatible with Kindle.

Read Anywhere

I find the e-ink format a lot easier on my eyes after a long day in front of my computer screen and being able to read my Kindle anywhere is a big bonus.

I have quickly come to rely on my Kindle for both business and pleasure.  Which Kindle features do you find most useful?

Knowledge

Event Managers are an encyclopedia of knowledge.  We often know venues, suppliers and contacts that you may never even have heard of.  These little gems may not have the marketing budget to get them to the first page of Google to compete with the big boys but you can rest assured that they can offer you knock out rates as a result.

Special Offers

We like to be in the know and venues and suppliers ensure they regularly communicate special rates, offers and discounts to us.  Often the savings and offers are only open to past customers and/or event management companies/agencies on their database and we like nothing better than matching up the deals with our clients needs.

Preferential Rates

We have great relationships with many venues and suppliers which encourages them to give us excellent rates.  Venues and suppliers like working with professionals because we understand the process, we are organised, meet all deadlines and save a lot of leg work and time for the venue/supplier as a result.

We really value our suppliers and our suppliers value us.  In recognition of the value of work we place with our trusted suppliers throughout the course of a year we are often lucky enough to get discounts, meaning that our clients benefit from the economies of scale of our total annual spend.  For example our preferred and fantastic audio visual supplier is Active AV.  They automatically offer us 20% discount off all equipment hire.  This saving is then passed on directly to our customers.

We cultivate good relationships with our suppliers which often pays off for our clients in terms of added extras chucked in.

Negotiation

We will always negotiate to ensure our clients get the best possible price.  And then we make comparisions between the offers made.  And then we negotiate some more!

Research

Good research skills are an essential part of every event managers CV.  How can you be sure you are getting the best rates unless you shop around and triple check?

The Bigger Picture

We know the questions to ask.  Unfortunately some organisations and venues prefer to hide the true costs and land customers with unexpected expenditure items after contracts have been signed, rather than being transparent.  We like to ask questions from the start so you are not going to get charged £50 for use of a plug socket (I kid you not!).

We also know where money should be spent and where it can be scrimped without compromising on quality – for instance two pull up banners for £99 – yes please, versus £300 for one (of comparable quality I hasten to add).

Often we can suggest viable alternatives.  Often things can be done differently to make the event slicker and save money.

On event days we are never without our “event managers box” – a box of essential equipment and items close to hand which often prove to be invaluable.

Beg, Borrow or Steal

Recently a client needed an expensive piece of equipment and had no budget to pay for it.  I was the first person they contacted to help.  It is always good to pick up the phone and hear “I didn’t know where to start but I thought that if anyone will know you will know!”  And it paid off for them too!

Don’t Pay for Things You Don’t Need

We help our clients to work out what they need so they don’t have to pay for things they don’t need.  We always have a clients best interests at heart – for example is a DDR (day delegate rate) really best for your needs or would it be cheaper to pay for room hire, catering and audio visual separately on this occasion?

In terms of catering have you taken into account the speakers that cannot stay for lunch, the late arrivals and the likely number of no-shows?  We can advise on these headaches so you don’t have to worry or waste your valuable budget.

Budget

Many of our clients want us to create and control an event budget so they can make pricing decisions early on in the project and have regular updates in terms of income and expenditure and surpassing the break even point.

We care about the event as much as you do and we will be watching every penny to ensure you maximise your budget throughout the life of the project.

Technology

We like to be up to date with the newest technologies.  We can advise what will have the wow factor and maximise the event experience without necessarily costing the earth.  Text to screen systems, barcoded registration systems, event apps, twitter walls are just a few items that can be low cost but really transform the event.

Do you need a registration site but are you baffled by the different rates and commission charges?  We can look at what you need your registration page to do and the payments involved to give a clear idea of which sites can work best for you.

Work in Your Best Interests at All Times

Sometimes the unexpected can happen and you may need to change to a larger or smaller venue, change dates or even cancel your event completely.  The terms and conditions of the contract can be baffling but should this happen we will work with the venue and suppliers to minimise the penalties and negotiate the best deal for you.

This post has focused on some of the direct monetary savings an event management company will make for you.  Of course one of the huge advantages of contracting an event manager is the time savings you make, leaving you to focus on the job you are paid to do and earning money for your organisation, whilst you leave the planning and organisation to the experts.

This blog has given just a few examples of how Events Northern Ltd add value, save money for our clients and maximize their budget.  Are you getting excellent value from your event management company?  Are they saving you money?  If not, or if you are not so sure, then contact us – we would love to hear from you!

Image by akabilk via Flickr

Readers of Conde Nast Traveller voted Liverpool “the UKs most friendliest city” for the second year running and also recognised it as a place that offers best value for money.  The 2011 awards also maintained Liverpool’s position as the 4th Favourite UK City for the second successive year, ranking only behind London, Edinburgh and Bath.

A few weeks later readers of Group Leisure magazine named Liverpool the “best UK city.” Travel industry professionals’ voted Liverpool their favourite place ahead of Cardiff, London and York.

Liverpool has benefited from major investment in recent years, resulting in new attractions, hotels and events which, together with a rich culture and heritage, play a vital part in attracting first time visitors and encouraging others to return.

Image via Wikipedia

Chief Executive of The Mersey Partnership, Lorraine Rogers commented: “This is a fantastic acknowledgement for Liverpool. Anecdotally Liverpool is often known for its friendly welcome and the warmth of its people – but for this to be officially recognised by readers of one of the leading and most discerning travel magazines for the second year running is a major accolade for the destination. This is a tribute to the taxi drivers, tour guides, hoteliers and everyone who works in the Visitor Economy.”

“We have a great range of world class venues, attractions and hotels which appeal to leisure and business visitors and this asset combined with the warmth of the people and the welcome we give visitors which encourages them to spread the word about what a great time they’ve had. The people of Liverpool are one of our important assets and this award is a very special endorsement.”

“The city has a strong appeal to all types of groups; international visitors on their first trip

Image by nataliej via Flickr

to Britain attracted by our Beatles links; UK groups wanting to see our cultural attractions and spectacular Waterfront – part of the Unesco World Heritage Site- and those looking for fantastic shopping at Liverpool One followed by the legendary nightlife.”

Liverpool City Region’s Visitor Economy currently generates visitor spend of £2.8billion and is estimated to support approximately 41,000 jobs a year.

Rob Yandell, editor of Group Leisure, added: “The group travel market is still incredibly strong. Our readership of active group travel organisers has a tough job ensuring everything they plan runs smoothly so it is particularly interesting to see who, what and where they think is the best.”

Events Northern Ltd love holding events in Liverpool and can confirm that it certainly offers a warm welcome and is a fantastic destination for those attending events in the city.

Would you agree that the Liverpool welcome is friendlier than other UK cities?  What sets the “Liverpudlian” welcome above all others in your opinion?

Blists Hill Victorian Village (Image via Wikipedia)

Becki and Gill from Events Northern Ltd were invited to attend ‘Discover 2011’ – a familiarisation weekend to Telford and Shropshire taking place on the weekend of 16^th – 18^th September.  Organised by Telford and Shropshire Conferences and the Southwater Event Group the trip brought together over 150 event managers from across the UK to give them a taste of what the area has to offer.

We arrived on the Friday evening in time to check into the Holiday Inn Telford/Ironbridge, drop our bags and head out to Blists Hill.  This is a Victorian town, part of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust.  Here we could explore the period shops and attractions such as the chemists, drapers and sweet shop and choose where to spend our shillings and pence, which had been issued to each of us on the coach.  Characters in period costumes invited questions and interaction and set the scene for what it was like to live during Victorian times.

We explored the streets, mine and foundry, enjoyed traditional fish and chips, washed down with dandelion and burdock and eventually found ourselves in the fairground at the coconut shy, wooden swing boats and motorised chair swings.  The evening was concluded with a singsong and hot whiskey toddy.  This was certainly an unusual experience and would make a different setting for a group event or indeed a wedding – Blists Hill is licensed for Civil Ceremonies within the Club Room and the Forest Glen.

We had a range of excellent activities and trips to choose from for the Saturday and it was difficult to decide which appealed the most as we wanted to be involved in them all!  We opted to visit Weston Park for a show around the stately home and time to enjoy the

The house at Weston Park

Midland Game and Country Fair taking place on the site.  Becki often attends V Festival at the Staffordshire site but it was great to enjoy the splendour of the house and to see it in its true glory.

The House at Weston was built in 1671 and is set within 1,000 acres of historic Parkland.  The house can be hired for corporate events, conferences, dinners and weddings and comprises 28 bedrooms, each with its own individual character.  When you hire the house it comes fully staffed and is hired on an exclusive basis.

We were particularly inspired by the beautiful Victorian Library which homes 3,000 leather bound (and no doubt first edition) books.  The Dining Room was also impressive, overlooking the formal gardens and with Weston’s finest and most important collection of paintings, including works by Van Dyck and Lely.

Inside the house, Weston Park

The house is licensed for civil ceremonies (various rooms) and is also next door to the Parish Church of St Andrews, which is linked by a private corridor to the stately home – perfect to keep celebrity weddings private or simply if the English weather lets you down!  The Victorian Orangery has natural stone walls, complete with foliage and fairy lights and huge period windows offering superb views over the Gardens.  This would be a truly magical setting for a wedding breakfast for up to 120 people.

After viewing the house we had time to enjoy lunch and cup-cakes and to explore the Game Fair at our leisure.  Although we were a little disappointed to miss out on the jousting and ferret racing (!) we really enjoyed the falconry, gundog and dog agility demonstrations and the numerous stall holders throughout the site.

On Saturday evening we were amongst 500 guests attending a black-tie gala dinner to launch the brand new, 1300sqm Ludlow Suite at The International Centre.  With over 11,600 square meters of event space in total, The International Centre is one of the largest conference and exhibition venues in the West Midlands. The venue provides a contemporary and versatile event location for events ranging from boardroom meetings, gala dinners, conferences and large exhibitions.  The Ludlow Suite offered a stunning backdrop for the dinner, complimented by excellent food, drink, entertainment, hospitality and service.

Discover 2011 Gala Dinner, the Ludlow Suite, Telford International Centre

The 400 metre and relay runner Roger Black gave an after dinner speech, which was particularly inspiring and heart-warming less than a year away from the London 2012 Olympics.  It was an honour to be able to speak to Roger afterwards and to hold his beautiful silver Olympic medal – the medal for his personal best of which he is most proud (despite achieving a gold medal with the British relay team).

Telford is already a popular destination with event organisers – it is situated at the heart of the national motorway network, with direct trains from London Marylebone and over 3,000 bedrooms within a 20 minute radius of the centre.  Discover 2011 celebrated the major investment the destination has seen in the last 10 years, and promoted the ongoing developments that will take the area to the next level, including the £250 million Southwater development programme to create a new convention quarter in the heart of the town.

The weekend was an excellent taster to highlight some of the ideas and versatility of Telford and Shropshire.  It was an inspiring weekend, not only in terms of the excellent venues and facilities on offer, but also in terms of networking and generating ideas with other event professionals.  Throughout the weekend we discussed some great plans for new events, partnerships and collaborations with some of the lovely people we met; and who knows maybe some of these ideas will come to fruition in Telford and Shropshire venues!  Discover 2011 once again proved the power of bringing together people who share similar interests and areas of expertise.  The energy and ideas created by meeting face to face cannot be created in any other way and once again highlights the importance of events and the event industry.

The organising team from Telford and Shropshire Conferences and the Southwater Event Group worked tirelessly to ensure an informative and thoroughly enjoyable weekend was had by all and the variety and quality of venues on offer shone through.  These are very exciting times for Telford and Shropshire and we are looking forward to bringing more business to the area.

Thanks and credit to Southwater Event Group for providing the photos of Discover 2011 featured in this blog post.

New Events Northern website

Our web design company automatically suggested using the Blogger logo alongside our other social media buttons to click through to our blog.  As we have a WordPress blog though we were resistant to this.  Although we realise that the Blogger logo is widely recognisable to many people as a blog link, we have a WordPress blog and so it seemed wrong to us to use in essence a competitor logo to click through to our blog.  However we discovered that the WordPress logo seemed to be less identifiable to people.  After a quick straw poll we found that some did not recognise and relate the WordPress logo to a blog at all and others viewed it more as a content management system or website builder platform and so it seemed to confuse those that we questioned about it.  This came as a surprise to me as I was familiar with WordPress as a blog publishing platform long before we started our own company blog and anticipated that others would also recognise it most strongly with blog content.

This led to a debate in the office about the best solution and we turned to the READY2SPARK LinkedIn Group (marketing communications for event planning) for some guidance as we didn’t want to hold up the launch of our website.

Lara McCulloch-Carter (@ready2spark) and Jim Spellos (@jspellos) were particularly helpful responding to my post.  If we decided against using the WordPress icon Lara suggested having a blog header or creating our own custom blog icon that signified a blog.

Jim advised that the B Blogger logo, technically, is the Blogger logo from Google. He advised that although many people appear to be using it as a generic blogging icon this is not accurate.  It is a trademarked icon so people should tread carefully and definitely avoid using it incorrectly as this is infringement.  He explained that

“It would be like using the Facebook logo to redirect your users to MySpace or another social networking service.”

He also flagged up Google’s terms of use which prohibit the use of the logo outside of their terms.

Universal blog icon

We were in agreement with this advice and luckily we then stumbled across a solution in the form of a blog post by Brendan Mitchell from March 2009.  Brendan had come up against the same problem years earlier and couldn’t believe that with the prevalence of blogging there was no standard icon for blogs.  He therefore tasked himself with creating a universally recognised, standard blog icon in the hope that in years to come everyone would be using it.  He based the icon design on the standard RSS feed icon and through his website (www.theblogicon.com) he provides various formats and colour variations of the logo for free and without any restrictions, including various sizes of the logos in PNG, GIF formats, plus Photoshop & Illustrator vector files.

We were delighted to find a universal and recognisable Blog logo which we are comfortable and happy to use.  Brendan’s orange version of the universal blog icon now has pride of place both on our website and on our email footers.

I hope others can benefit from using the logos too.  To show our gratitude to Brendan and to save other businesses the time searching and deliberating over this issue we hope that our blog post will further spread the word!

We would love to hear your thoughts and comments!

To share your support for the universal blog icon please follow the links below:

www.theblogicon.com

http://www.twitter.com/brendanmitchell

http://www.facebook.com/brendanmitchell

http://www.linkedin.com/in/brendanmitchell

I was 17 when I set my mind on my future career path and I have enjoyed writing this blog post and looking back at the information and learning that I would give today to anyone just starting out on this journey.

Be warned and be prepared though; this is a very competitive marketplace with hundreds of people applying for every university place and job.  To succeed you will need to stand out from the crowd and be the cream of the crop!  Here are some of my top tips to give you the best chance of a long, exciting and rewarding career in the events industry.

Read all you can

Read as much as you can about the events industry, including event management books, industry magazines, press releases, blogs, websites, etc.  This is a fast-moving industry and it is important to keep up to date.  Not all of this information has to be purchased – there is a wealth of free information out there which will help to give you the bigger picture and teach you some of the basic principles about event management.

If you are looking to study for an Event Management degree authors such as Goldblatt, Getz, Bowdin, Watt and Tarlow (to name just a few) will help to introduce you to the subject area.

Don’t just limit your reading to purely event management based articles either, reading around marketing, customer service, presentation skills, health and safety, social media, creativity, project management, business planning, management, negotiation, finance/budgeting and so forth will all help in any future event management role.

Don’t specialise too early

Even if you are adamant that you wish to work in a particular area of the events industry I would urge you not to specialise too early, to ensure that you gain a broad range of skills and experience.  Although organising a music festival is a very different area of expertise to organising a conference or exhibition the basic principles of event planning are the same and experience of managing a live event in any shape or form will help to make you a better and stronger Event Manager.  When I started studying for my event management degree at Leeds Metropolitan University I was certain that I wanted to specialise in the music industry, organising festivals and gigs.  Throughout my career I have been lucky enough to work on every type of event imaginable; from fashion shows to awards ceremonies, exhibitions to weddings, music festivals to conferences, sporting competitions to open air movies and everything in between.  Today though, although I still really enjoy working on every single event management project, I get the most satisfaction from organising conferences and this has become my personal niche and speciality.

Organise anything you can

If you are considering working in the events industry you are probably already seen as the natural organiser within your friendship group – the one that makes things happen and generally looks after the arrangements and finer details.  Although organising friends birthday parties, holidays and nights out may be on a much smaller scale compared to organising public events it is still a little more practice for your future role and every little helps!

You can make other opportunities for yourself too.  Could you organise an event for a local charity for example?  If you are willing and able to take the initiative and help with fundraising on any scale I guarantee that they will be very appreciative.  And what about getting involved with your local amateur dramatics or other performance group?  That would be a great opportunity to shadow a sound and lighting engineer and to learn a little bit more about how it works behind the scenes.

During your career you will often be working with a tight or very small budget and so being imaginative, negotiating, making every penny count and generally making magic on very few resources is something that you should be working on at every opportunity (and your friends/local charity/theatre group will thank you for it too).

Get to grips with Social Media

You are no doubt already really comfortable with the internet and social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Blogging and Google+.  Incorporating social media and marketing into events is common practice nowadays so ensure that it is a routine part of your day/week too and think about how you could use it in a professional rather than a personal capacity to help promote your own future events.

Start to follow #eventprofs on Twitter and learn from the thoughts, knowledge and discussions they inspire and share.

Ensure you have a good computing skills

A lot of administration is required when planning an event and as an Event Manager you will need to be well versed in using a range of different software and tools.  Get as much working knowledge as you can of Microsoft Office (particularly Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher) and also learn basic accounting, project management, web design, video editing, design, writing and marketing skills if you possibly can.

Being familiar with the keyboard and typing quickly will be essential!  Likewise experience of writing professional correspondence in the form of emails, letters, reports and budgets will be a regular requirement.

As an Event Manager you will need to be technically proficient in many areas so seize absolutely every opportunity to learn.

Get a driving license

Event Managers often work unsociable hours and venues are not always accessible by public transport, particularly at 5 am!  Likewise you will often have a lot of equipment to transport so having a driving license and ideally your own vehicle is essential in my opinion.

Volunteer and get work experience

Volunteering and paid or unpaid work experience are absolutely vital and this cannot be stressed enough.  This shows a future employer that you are serious and committed to your chosen career and hungry to gain experience whenever you can.  Find out about local events and event management companies and ask them if they have any opportunities for you to get involved.  Don’t just think this should relate to the live event period either – the hard work is done in the office during the planning stages in the weeks/months/year leading up to the event.

Often it is possible to volunteer for events such as music festivals and aswell as gaining essential work experience and knowledge of a live event you often get a free ticket and “time off” to enjoy the festival in return for a set amount of working hours per day.  Regardless of whether you have chance to work on large-scale events such as the Olympics, Glastonbury, V Festival, etc, or events on a more local level, nothing should be discounted.

Although it may be difficult juggling your paid work commitments with your eagerness to volunteer you must do it to set you apart from the masses.  This has to be done as a long-term investment as without proof of experience working on actual events you are unlikely to even get to the interview stage.  Show willingness to volunteer and prove yourself to an Event Manager and this may of course then lead to paid work in the future.  Without getting your feet on the first rung of the ladder though you are never going to progress and develop your skills.

Of course if you can gain paid experience in the events industry that is even better.  Be open-minded about how you can gain experience too, for example could you work as an event steward?  This is a good grounding in terms of managing crowds across a venue or event site, dealing with different health and safety issues and ensuring the smooth running and safety of all attendees.

Go to events

At every possibility go to a broad variety of events and observe how things are done as a spectator.  What has worked well, what could be improved?  Why do you think things have been set up that way?  How has it been marketed?  How is everything managed?  What did you learn?  Consider jotting down notes, questions and observations that you can refer back to in the future.

I hope this post has inspired you to begin your exciting career in event management.  I love my role as Managing Director of Events Northern Ltd and find it extremely satisfying and rewarding working on events both large and small.

We wish you the best of luck to fulfill your dreams too!

There have been so many exciting advances in the event industry this really got us thinking what would appear in our top 5 list.  The landscape has developed drastically even in the last 10 years, never mind the last quarter century!  Events Northern Ltd were keen to support this Twitter promotion as the QEIICC is an excellent venue that we have really enjoyed working with.

A summary of some of the top tweets and suggestions put forward by other key industry figures are listed below:

‘Comfy shoes!’
Mike Fletcher @MikeyFletch

‘25 yrs ago we used glass slides – chaos. Then PowerPoint invented; most important change ever!’
Martin Lewis @meetpie

‘Internet changed events forever. All could access info, so organisers had 2 show added value’
Rochelle Long @meetpie

‘Internet, opened regional events 2 world: instant comms, bringing people 2gether virtually 2 improve face 2 face’
@harrisonrobert

 ‘The advent of social media & its ability to extend an event community, before, during & after’
@mexiaPR

 ‘Mobile phones, whatever you need there’s an app for it, or there will be soon’
Michelle Chenery @ITCMmagazine

 ‘The impact & importance of providing a sustainable catering service 2 clients’
Leiths @compassgroupuk @limevenues

‘Innovative minds creating successful conferences – confirming events will prosper & survive’
Ernest Vincent, CEO, QEIICC

 ‘The Event Safety Guide -where would #eventsprofs be without that purple bible’
Caroline Clift @StandOutMag

‘The single European market may still fail banks but it helped shape border-free event explosion’
@MikeBellDotEu

This campaign really got us thinking about the top innovations we wanted to put forward.  We finally settled on our final top 5 as follows:

5. The memory stick

Even the simple memory stick has made our life easier and has made saving and loading presentations so much faster!  Gone are the days of floppy discs with limited space capacity or CDs which take so much longer to transfer files and save data to them.  Memory sticks are an essential part of every event managers tool box – be it to load final presentations from speakers onto the laptop and save back the final version at the end of the event, to check electronic information quickly or reprint an extra copy of something onsite.

4. Laptops, netbooks and tablets

Technology is mobile – now wherever you are in the world your desk can come to you!

3. Communications

How did we survive before email?  Emails ensure we can be responsive and adaptable right to the last moment.

Mobile phones and radios are essential for communication between event staff and often save lengthy trips across large venues or event site.

The internet has revolutionised the way we research and has opened up conferences to an international market.

Social media has revolutionised the way events are marketed and how delegates communicate with each other before, during and after an event, especially now smartphones are so widely utilised.

2. Online event registration systems

Gone are the days of hard copy registration forms which had to be painstakingly typed into the database each day.  Now delegates have a fast, painless online form to complete and submit so they know immediately if their place is confirmed.  Importantly this gives us the details we need in real time, ensuring we have up to date registrations and information available 24 hours a day.

1. Barcode registration management

In our opinion this is the only effective way to check in 1,000 delegates in under an hour and we couldn’t operate without this technology on our largest events!

Which innovation do you think has made the most impact on the events industry in the last 25 years?  Do you agree that it is one of the advances listed in this blog or is there something we have overlooked?  To join in please comment via Twitter using the hashtag #25QEIICC on your tweet or comment on this blog post.  You can follow the QEIICC on Twitter @TheQEIICC.

Love it or loathe it though networking effectively is an important part of business.  We hope this blog on networking will help minimise any uncomfortable situations and enable you to get the most out of any forthcoming networking opportunity.

Be Prepared

Never go to any business function, conference or networking event without business cards – and lots of them!  For a small investment you can ensure anyone you connect with has a way to contact you in the future.  Even if there is no immediate business opportunity you never know what may change or who that person will talk to down the line.  You want to ensure they have a card from you so they can hopefully dig out your business card when needed.  Think carefully about your business cards – do they stand out for the right reasons and represent your company, do they explain succinctly what you do, do they have all of the communication channels listed for you and the business?  Nowadays many people are adding their Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn details on their business cards or even QR codes.

When you exchange business cards take a moment to look at the card and the person and try to memorize the two.  Whilst the contact is still fresh in your mind it may also be worth noting on the business card where you connected (we often note date, event and venue to jog my memory) and any particular business opportunities between you, for instance have they requested a brochure is sent out to them or would it be worthwhile to set up a meeting?

Explaining your Business

Can you succinctly introduce and explain what your business does?  The ultimate crime of networking is not explaining properly what your organisation actually does, presuming that it will be obvious from the business name or that the other person will know your industry like you do.  People will quickly lose interest if they do not understand properly from your brief introduction.  And under no circumstances should you use technical jargon as this will often switch people off.  Why are you different from your competitors?  What is your niche?

You should practise a brief clear introduction for the company and your role within it.  If you are looking to network and specifically find a business contact or requirement don’t be afraid to state this too – the person you have connected with may be able to introduce you to someone they would recommend or offer some advice even if they do not have an immediate direct need for your product or service.

Getting Started

Don’t forget that if you are feeling nervous others will be too.  When you first arrive look for other people that are not deep in conversation or ask to join onto a friendly looking group.  I always just simply say “Do you mind if I join you?” and so far I haven’t come across a group that hasn’t been accommodating.  Conversations can often be struck up easily at the refreshment table too.  Being confident to strike up a conversation does become easier with practice if it isn’t something that comes naturally to you at first.  Smile!

Don’t judge a book by its cover – you cannot tell by looking at someone what industry they work in or their seniority within the company.  I set up Events Northern Ltd at the age of 23.  I would hate to think that people may have passed over speaking to me thinking I was perhaps too young or not senior enough to make purchasing decisions.  Instead they would have connected with the top decision maker!  Talk to anyone and everyone.

Ensure the flow of conversation is fair – ask questions as well as giving information back.

Be positive!  People do not want to know about your personal problems, they are there to talk business.

Always give your full attention to the person you are talking to but don’t be afraid to move on when both parties have introduced themselves and cards have been exchanged.

Likewise do not be tempted just to talk to those you know and not to approach anyone new.

Seize every opportunity – after all if you don’t talk to people during this networking opportunity your paths may never cross again.  You want to be sure that you have made the most of it.

Follow up

After the event follow up on any warm leads and actions as soon as you can so it isn’t forgotten about.  Did you promise to send over a brochure or price list?  Would it be worthwhile to connect on Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/Google+?  Should you set up a meeting?  Under no circumstances should you be contacting or meeting with everyone you talked to – only those where there is a strong potential for future business.

Don’t forget to facilitate worthwhile connections between parties when you can.  In the world of business we strongly believe that “what goes around comes around” and you never know in the future when someone might return the favour.

With any event we organise we are always keen to allow time for networking as part of the schedule.  We ourselves are also embracing the influx and variety of networking events currently being scheduled and we are enjoying attending as many networking events as our diaries allow.

We hope our paths may cross at a future networking opportunity and if so make sure you say “hello!”

We all know people that have amassed hundreds (or even thousands!) of Facebook friends.  Interestingly Facebook itself stipulates that your account friend limit is limited to 5,000 maximum contacts.

Are people really and truly that popular?
Are your Facebook friends actually “real” friends? 

In the 1990’s Professor Robin Dunbar (Head of ICEA, University of Oxford) identified that there is a cognitive limit to the number of people with whom you can maintain “stable social relationships” (in other words friends).  No exact number can be given but this is commonly agreed to be a maximum of around 150 people.  This theory has become known as Dunbar’s number.  It seems that the average human mind is incapable of managing strong relationships with over 150 people as it is limited in essence by the size of the human brain.

This number doesn’t just relate to friendship groups either – numerous different studies have shown that Dunbar’s number also relates to any group – be that in terms of company size, tribes, civilisations, villages and so forth.  If above 150 the groups become difficult to manage and can naturally begin to break down and people leave or splinter off into smaller sub groups.

Do you have more than 150 friends?
Do you have more than 150 Facebook friends?

A meaningful relationship has been defined as a reciprocal bond based on trust, the understanding of who that person is, how that person is connected to other people and your ability to maintain a connection and understanding with that person.

Apparently no matter how sociable a person is, 150 is the maximum number of personal, reciprocated relationships that an individual can maintain (including friends and family).  Ongoing research by Dunbar has shown that social media does not change this pattern – despite many people having many more than 150 Facebook friends.

In theory, if you look honestly and closely into your own core circle of friends and family Dunbar’s number dictates that your true friendship group will number less than 150 people.  In real life (and mirrored on Facebook) these will be the people that you engage with the most and are the people that we can discuss important or personal matters with and that would be happy to do a favour for us if we asked them.

Of course Facebook and other social media channels give us the tools to conveniently connect and stay in touch with a larger number of people more easily.  It is also notable that Facebook perhaps enables people to stay in contact in situations where the friendship would have ended naturally otherwise.

The fact however remains that without getting together for real face to face contact relationships will eventually break down.  It seems that this is particularly important for men who are not as good as women at maintaining relationships just by talking to each other (now who would have guessed that?!).

In watching various interviews with Dunbar, to research this blog post he explains that face to face contact is so important because we are a very social species.  We need to trust people to maintain friendships and business relationships and understandably it seems that trust comes from looking each other in the eye and interacting on a personal level.  We take cues from facial expressions, touch and body language which either “tune us in” or not to the other person.  We need this physical experience to build connections and renew existing relationships.  Face to face interaction releases endorphins and a connection which simply cannot be triggered via virtual online conversations.  Friendships are fragile relationships which need nurturing to keep them on track.  Without this personal interaction sooner or later relationships will start to deteriorate.

As an event and conference management company Events Northern Ltd are big believers in meeting up face to face.  Of course we enjoy and see the value in using social media too, in both our work and personal lives, but we understand that it cannot replace or replicate the euphoria of a celebration or special occasion shared with close friends or the buzz, networking, ideas generation, selling and business opportunities of a conference or exhibition.

For us the moral of this blog post is to enjoy Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc as part of your personal and working life but just don’t leave it too long until you meet up in person!  Time and effort need to go into personal relationships – regardless of whether they are of a personal or business nature.  Social media is a great way to keep in contact with both real friends, more casual acquaintances and contacts but don’t forget to connect face to face to ensure your real friendships and working relationships stay strong and true.

Related articles

• Think You Can Handle Over 150 Facebook Friends? Not! (allfacebook.com)
• Don’t Believe Facebook; You Only Have 150 Friends (npr.org)