Event Management for HR Managers

So, there I stood, surrounded by fifty boxes  of my product ready to exhibit. I had display stands mounted on the wall and five eager sales people fully prepared and ready to sell. We were just hours away from the exhibition doors opening. Unfortunately, I had no hooks on which to hang all my products! I was in London, but my hooks were closer to Loch Ness (For those not too familiar with UK geography, these two locations are over 1,000km apart). Now what? There was no way I could simply let my products sit in their boxes on the floor.

Asituation like this is every event manager’s worst nightmare. Everyone dreads that moment when they realise they have overlooked a vital element of an event, which can often be the most crucial element. In my case, this was the display hooks. However, the key to being a successful event organiser is the ability to roll with the punches, think laterally, and ALWAYS
have a plan B.  Even though it may not seem like it on the surface, as an HR manager, event management is a vital part of your daily role. This is especially true in the current job market. With talent incredibly scarce here in China, it is vital that you can both recruit and retain top people. This means that to attract the best talent to your organisations, events such as recruitment fairs are becoming an  increasingly vital part of a HR professional’s job description. Equally, it is vital that once you have  talented people on-board, you keep them. Therefore, events such as major training programs and large-scale  teambuilding excursions will also be crucial. However, even though events like this can be critically  important for your organisation, they are not necessarily something for which you will have been trained. Nor are they, necessarily, in your blood. In this two part series, I will attempt to break down the roles and  responsibilities of an event manager, and, using the theories of REDS and STRIVE, assist you in creating  systems and checklists that will support a successful event.

REDS
Our first important factor is a concept central to ClarkMorgan’s core values, REDS: Respect, Energy, Dynamism, and Synergy. These qualities are, of course, essential to everyday business. However, in an event management  situation, the need for these skills is magnified dramatically. As Natasha Phillips discussed in her fantastic  article, “Dress to Impress”, in July’s Network HR, the image you and your colleagues convey is the image that  defines your organisation. Therefore, when you are managing an event, you and your colleagues are defining  your organisation. You will be in constant contact with suppliers, clients and other departments. The image of  your organisation that these people take, will be the one you create. So, it needs to be a good one!

“When you are managing an event, you and your colleagues are defining your organisation.”

 I suppose, having built-up the importance of event management for HR professionals, I should now actually give you some useful advice and ideas. So, here is my first valuable piece of insight: event management boils  down to preventing and reducing problems. Your aim is to plan so thoroughly that you can deal with any  unforeseen changes in a clear and focussed manner. By displaying dynamic decision making and plenty of energy, you will ensure that your event evolves into the exciting and innovative occasion you planned.To illustrate this, let me give you an example of the importance of REDS. Last year, I attended a Christmas
party thrown by a Nanjingbased financial consultancy firm at a popular western restaurant. Unfortunately, their event-organiser was not prepared for any eventuality. This meant that when a few things went wrong, he  lost his cool and ended-up arguing with the manager of the restaurant. It was a pretty ugly scene.

Fast-forward one year, the same finance company approached a major hotel with a sales proposal. The financiers  were surprised to discover that the manager of the restaurant where they had staged their disastrous Christmas  party, had since switched jobs and was now the person who would give their proposal the ‘yes or no’. Even though she had switched roles, the manager had certainly not forgotten the disrespectful attitude of the  consultant who planned the party. You will, therefore, not be surprised to learn that the proposal was turned  down without hesitation. And, what is the moral of this story? The consultant’s lack of energy and dynamism  meant that he was unprepared for the event and helped generate a disrespectful attitude and lack of synergy. ll this conspired not just to create a disappointing event, but to damage his company’s image and long-term  interests. It is for reasons such as this that you must consider REDS at every stage of your event management process.

STRIVE
The event management process can also be defined by the idiom STRIVE;Setting Goals and Targets,Research, Initiation, Visualisation, and Execution.

Setting Goals & Targets

Ok, so let’s imagine your CEO asks you to organise a big summer event. This kind of task will probably seem a little daunting, but also very exciting. One of the biggest challenges you will face is deciding where to begin and how to get things moving. So, please, allow me to help. The first question you must ask is, “What does the CEO mean by an ‘event’?” ‘Event’ can certainly be a very vague term. You must be able to specify exactly what is required. However, as well as understanding whether this should be an informal party, a gala dinner, or a cocktail evening, you should also be focusing on the deeper objectives. Usually, your goals will consist of a number of clear, straightforward targets as well as at least one concealed or slightly less obvious objective.

Let me give you an example of an event I planned where part of the objective was not as clear as I first thought. It was a summer music festival for employees and their families. On the surface, the objectives  seemed clear: reward everyone for their hard work and to ensure everyone had fun. Unfortunately, the real goal was not so simple. A few weeks prior to the event, the company had experienced a number of redundancies. Some of the employees who lost their jobs were vital team members who were greatly missed. Because of these layoffs, the majority of employees were concerned about their own job-security. Therefore, my role was to create an event that was not just fun and rewarding, but also showed that the company was still profitable, demonstrated that it was still able to reward employees and emphasised that we could become a much stronger team.

Once you have a grasp of both the obvious and the deeper objectives of your event, it is imperative that you write an ‘event description’. This should include (a) the event mission statement, vision, and key objectives (b) the key stakeholders, and (c) a detailed budget. Creating a clear and detailed description helps you to structure your event. It also serves to create a baseline against which you can continually measure your event.

Research
Once you have set your goals and targets, the next important step is to research what your audience wants. Ask such questions as, ‘What has your company done before?’ ‘How can you improve on previous events?’ It is crucial to find out exactly what your company needs. For example, if the General Manager from another city is visiting your office for three days, your CEO may expect three days of intense discussion. In this situation, you might book three days of conference rooms and very little else.

However, it is important you understand the needs of everyone involved. By speaking to the visiting GM, you may find that he is also interested in relationship building opportunities, which means you may also need to find restaurants and some slightly more social venues. A great way to gain extra know-how and new ideas is to take advantage of hotels and restaurants. Whilst they may not tell you which other organisations have held events at their facilities and how those events were staged, they will share creative concepts with you that they feel could work for your industry. It is also acceptable to ask them if they have dealt with other firms in your field.

“A great way to gain extra know-how and new ideas is to take advantage of hotels and restaurants.”

Tschoiwan Tang, the Beverage Manager of The Sheraton Nanjing Kingsley Hotel and Towers is a firm believer in the importance of researching events. Ms Tang says, “I never organise an event before thoroughly investigating the idea and speaking to my key stakeholders, who in this case are my guests and regular patrons. Once I am convinced the idea is both feasible and popular, I research what has been achieved before, both within the Starwood Group, and by competitors. I have always found the research segment of event management to be the most beneficial.” However, your research should not stop there. Simply researching what others have achieved before is not enough – you need to thoroughly research how these events could be improved. Speak to attendees and investigate their thoughts on improvements that could be made. For instance, you could adopt Dr Michael Howard
Gleeson’s technique, and ask the staff involved about what was good, what was bad, and what could be better.

To be continued…

In the next article we will look at the Initiation, Visualisation, and Execution of STRIVE event management.

We will also touch on the need for evaluation in order for your events to evolve as you develop as an event

organiser. Plus, you’ll discover exactly how I solved my exhibition hook disaster and how the problem lead to

an improvement in my future events.