The event you are planning is finally coming. With your team, you are happy to yet open the doors and welcome guests, especially after living such an uncertain 2020, due to Covid-19. You took care of all details, safety measures, Covid-19 trained temporary event staff, signage, and much more, and everything finally looks in order. However, some events fail, many things can go wrong and often it’s too late to amend them.
An event happens in real-time and once finished, it’s past. You can fix some aspects during the event but not all of them. However, you can avoid many problems if you know the most common mistakes event organisers make.
In this article, we put together the top 10 mistakes to avoid when organising an event so that you can plan the most successful and memorable one.
Rox Event Staff is the only event staffing agency in the UK that helps you take the headache out of staffing and event marketing in one place.
We operate nationwide across the UK with over 2,000 dynamic COVID-19 trained event staff on our growing roster. We have dedicated account management, event marketers, staff’s right-to-work checks, training and skills tests on all workers, taking care of payroll too.
We are leaving you free to focus on your business!
1. Not organising far enough in advance
Time may look abundant on paper; however, often, the truth is everything takes longer than you thought. Not planning far enough in advance can make your whole event fail. Most probably, event venues that you would like to book have a long confirmed program for months or even a year. These are the timings you should consider if you want to ensure your event will happen exactly the way you planned.
How to avoid this mistake
If your event’s focus is on special guests or a specific venue, don’t plan nor share the final date of the event before verifying the availability of speakers, artists and desired location.
2. Not hiring Covid-19 Trained Event Staff
You may have thought on hiring temporary event staff such as hosts and hostesses, brand ambassadors, lead generators, promotional models, interpreters, registration staff or other corporate event staff. However, do you know if they are certified to work at events safely? Do they know how to keep themselves, clients and event attendees, safe from Covid-19 associated risks?
How to avoid this mistake
The event industry is struggling to get back to what it used to be, and event professionals need to take their responsibility now more than ever. To make events happen again you should hire only Covid-19 trained event staff, that knows how to stay safe at events and supports your attendees and clients to do the same, identifying dangerous situations and eventually quickly react or report them. Hiring certified Covid-19 event staff is a vital step if we want events to be safe and fully running again. Virtual is excellent; however, trading face-to-face is irreplaceable, and it’s critical for the global economy. Make sure you hire only Covid-19 Trained Event Staff at your events.
See also: How to Overcome the Crisis with Covid-19 Trained Event Staff: 3 SPECIAL OFFERS!
3. Over (or under) estimate attendance numbers
If you don’t make a realistic expectance of event attendees, things will start falling apart. Regarding the location, too few guests in a prominent venue give a wrong impression. Too many visitors in a too-small area will be the perfect ingredients to make everyone unhappy and most of all, making them feel unsafe and probably against Covid-19 safety measures. In both cases, attendees experience will be poor. The same stands for catering, if you order too much food and there are too few people to eat it, you will have wasted your budget. Too little food for too many guests? The result is, again, many very unhappy visitors.
How to avoid this mistake
Define clear objectives in terms of the number of attendees and make clear strategies on how to reach them (best known as a sales funnel). Most of the time this is based on identifying your buyer personas and target audience, what they are interested in and what their problems are, which you offer a solution for them. But we are carrying ourselves away into event marketing now J
Nobody has a crystal ball that will tell them exactly how many participants will attend the event. And it’s because of this that, for the event venue, the rental contract should list the cancellation policy. You always need a plan B (and if possible, even a plan C!), especially now that Covid-19 safety measures are continually changing. You should be prepared to change location if the registration rate is hugely lower than your expectations.
4. Assign the right tasks to the right people
Many event organisers think that if they know themselves how to do some specific tasks about the event, assigning them to someone else means “team playing”. However, this can create more damage than good. Not giving the right job to the right people (that should have the skills and experience to complete them) can bring a poor execution of these parts of the project. Furthermore, as a project manager, it will take you more time to adjust the mistakes made by your unqualified team members.
How to avoid this mistake
As soon as you defined the objectives of the event and you understood the main steps to plan (location, logistics, marketing, Covid-19 trained event staffing etc.), create a team that includes skilled members and qualified suppliers to work on them. It will be tempting to work with interns and volunteers to save up on the budget, but even with them, you need a selection system.
For example, if your event needs professional and experienced event staff that knows how to handle VIP profiles in standing all day on their feet and still smile after many hours, it’s better to source them through an external event staffing agency. A professional agency will be able to manage every single detail for your event with the highest professionalism. These details can space from account management, event marketing, event staff’s right-to-work checks, training and skill tests on all workers, payroll and much more. An external event staffing agency can take care of all this, leaving you free to focus on your event!
5. Not having an emergency plan
Your event may face dangers that are out of your control. Essentially, it’s nobody’s fault if it snows, if airlines cancel flights, if the electricity goes out, if guests are a bit too energetic, terrorist attacks or pandemics. However, if your event will suffer the consequences, it’s your responsibility to have a plan B or an emergency plan. It would be best if you worried about guests not being able to take cover from the rain to a severe loss. Not having an emergency plan is a critical mistake.
How to avoid this mistake
There are several steps you can take to avoid this mistake. Ideally, you should fulfil them all:
- Organise your emergency plan with qualified personnel and with the right tools (for a suspect case of Covid-19 for example, all event staff should know how to handle the person in question and where to isolate him/her until authorities can move this person to a safer area, without alarming the other event attendees)
- Make sure you have contracts in writing with all suppliers
- Create a plan to manage an emergency
- Use insurance that covers all aspects of the event.
These are our Top 5 mistakes to avoid when organising an event. If you are recently starting in the event industry, keep this article as a reference on what you can easily prevent, to schedule a successful event. An even if you already organised many events, keep this article as a reminder. Prevention is better than cure!
About Rox Event Staff, Event Staffing Agency in London
Rox Event Staff is the only event staffing agency in London that helps you take the headache out of staffing and event marketing in one place.
We operate nationwide across the UK with over 2,000 dynamic COVID-19 trained events staff on our growing roster. We have dedicated account management, event marketers, staff’s right-to-work checks, training and skills tests on all workers, taking care of payroll too.
Hiring a professional Event Staffing Agency leaves you free to focus on your business!
Contact us to let us know your requirements. We will let you know how we can make that happen!
