Entrepreneurial Competencies For Event Management

Introduction

A person who wants to establish her/his events’ business should possess essential skills to establish, develop and manage the business venture in a successful manner. These skills will help you to plan, design, market, operate and develop events. For example, in the area of planning, Goldblatt, the founder of International Special Events Society has mentioned that individuals lack the expertise and time to plan events themselves. If one is just entering the profession, there is a lucrative market awaiting on many fronts. According to Goldblatt, an event planner wanting to enter the profession can work in the following areas: conducting research; event design creation; finding a site; arranging for food, decoration and entertainment; planning transportation to and from the event; sending the attendees invitations; accommodation arrangement for attendees; coordinating the activities of event personnel; supervising at the site; and conducting evaluations of the event. All of these depend on the activities involved in the event business, and the size and type of a particular event. Likewise if one is working in one special events area, there are many directions in which one can expand. By gaining knowledge on entrepreneurial competencies, you will gain the creative and business skills that you require to be your own boss.

Competencies Required: Being An Event Entrepreneur

Who is a successful event entrepreneur? A person who senses an opportunity, mobilizes the resources internal and external, puts them into a product, service for social use, in the process making profit, is an entrepreneur. However the knowledge about the product or service is always essential.

If you are planning to take up event management as your career, you need to look at your attitudes, your knowledge and your skills. Are you a people’s person? Do you believe in the process [ event ] and are you constantly being innovative?

Let Us Understand Some Of The Entrepreneurial Competencies

Initiative

Initiative means taking action that goes beyond job requirements or acting on the demand of the situation. This is a requisite entrepreneurial ability.

Do you take action before being asked to or forced to by events?

Sees And Acts On Opportunities

This means looking for and taking action on opportunities.

Do you see and act on opportunities [ business, educational or personal growth ], and seize unusual opportunities to obtain finance, equipment, land, workspace, or assistance?
Would you like to extend the business into new areas, products, or services such as not just entertainment management, but technical services as well?

Communication And Persistence

Communication and passion are two qualities that are essential for a successful event entrepreneur. Public speaking skills are necessary to persuade and convince clients, with logic and passion. These will also help in representing your business in the right way. Persistence is another essential skill. These skills are required to guide the marketing and project managers, as well as to coordinate every stage of event management.

Do you use energy to present your ideas and creativity in speech?
Do you use relevant facts and vary your tone to make your presentation more dramatic?
Do you take repeated action to overcome obstacles that get in the way of reaching goals?

Information Seeking

Taking action on own, to get information, to help reach objectives or to clarify problems is important. For example, information updates are necessary for budget forecasts on event facilities like sets, special effects etc. and for current market rates of similar events.

Do you undertake personal research, analysis or investigation on how to provide a product or a service?
Do you consult experts for business or technical advice?
Do you use contacts or information networks to obtain useful information?

Concern For High Quality Work

This means those activities that enable the meeting or exceeding existing standards of excellence.

Do you state a desire to produce an event of high quality?
Do you compare your own work or your own company’s work favorably with that of others?

Commitment To Work Contract

This involves placing the highest priority with getting a job completed.

Are you making a personal sacrifice or putting extraordinary efforts to complete a job?
Do you accept full responsibility for the problems in completing a job for others?
Do you voluntarily contribute or work in their place to get the job done?
Do you express a concern for satisfying the customer?

Efficiency Orientation

This means finding ways to do things faster at a lower cost, or with fewer resources, or pool together individuals. This will enable the entrepreneur to effectively utilize existing human and material resources to produce a quality event.

Do you use whatever little resources you have? Do you use information or business tools to improve efficiency?
Do you express concern about costs vs. benefits of some improvement, change, or course of action?

Systematic Planning And Problem Solving

Developing as well as using logical, step-by-step plans to reach goals, and identifying alternative strategies to arrive at solutions is integral to event management. Planning for instance in the micro-level event coordination activities involves liaison with the creative team, discussing, facilitating and arranging for technical specifications namely sound, light, stages and sets.

Do you take a logical and systematic approach to activities? Does this enable you to plan by breaking a large task, down into sub-tasks?
Do you develop plans that anticipate obstacles, and evaluate alternatives?
Do you generate new, unique ideas or innovative solutions?

Self-Confidence And Assertiveness

Event entrepreneurs are leaders who have the ability to decide on a profitable business proposition and carry out effective management of resources. For this one needs to have a strong belief in self and own abilities. Assertiveness is an essential skill to confront problems with others directly.

Do you express confidence in your ability to complete a task or meet a challenge, and stick with your own judgment in the face of opposition, based on logical outcome?
Can you confront problems with others directly and tell others what they have to do?
Can you reprimand or discipline those failing to perform as expected?

Persuasive And Influencing Strategies

One has to be a persuasive and use a variety of strategies to affect others. Events are physical in nature, and these require excellent persuasive skills to coordinate with clients, the labor and other junior coordinators, based on the time constraints and the one-off nature of events.

Can you convince someone to buy a product or service, and to provide finance? [ personal selling ]
Can you convince someone to do something that you would like that person to do?
Can you develop business contacts and use influential people to accomplish your own objectives?
Can you use a strategy to influence others?

If most of the answers to the above questions from 1-10 are yes then you do posses entrepreneurial competencies.

Event Feasibility [ Related To Competencies ]

All ideas are good but they need to be studied and tested. You as an event entrepreneur should bear in mind that all events require a feasibility process. This process will help in understanding which idea is more feasible and can provide successful outcome of the event. In practice, there is a need for a systematic approach which helps us in situations of limited expertise. The feasibility of major events usually involves intensive methods of assessment, such as cost benefit analysis or investment appraisal. There are three filters [ or screens ] that can be applied to an event. These are the marketing screen, the operation screen and the financial screen. A feasibility study provides a choice of various models for the event. Such a study will enable an understanding of the cost of each model and the benefits of each. With small scale personal events, the feasibility does not take on a formal process, as it is more likely that an informal decision will take place about what will happen like organizing a family dinner party with a size of 30 to 40 persons. There may be constraint about the availability of money to pay for these events and the venue to hold the event. In such cases the events are pre determined and the real issue is how to make this happen.

For large scale events there may be an issue of how to choose from a wide range of possible activities like fund raising, community sales and how to make choices which are likely to be effective.

The Screening Process

Once you have identified the various opportunities and its feasibility you need to finalize the idea. The process of screening is very important. Not only is the event to be made possible, but it must also attract sufficient support to be successful. Let us consider this process in more detail. The first stage of screening is to come up with the initial concept or set of ideas which might be tested followed by the nature of the event, the purpose, how it should operate, what benefits it will provide to the participants and finally arriving at the concept.

General Process of Screening

1. Idea or Objective
2. The general nature of the event
3. The purpose of the event
4. How should it operate?
5. What benefits are there to participants?
6. Concept(s)

In some cases, a better range of ideas might be obtained by skipping through this general process, simply brainstorming a long list of events, and then dealing with the list in a serious way through a series of criteria to evaluate, regarding what really is feasible. There are several possible ways of doing this, by using evaluation criteria such as cost-benefit analysis or concept screening.

Generic Process

1. Many concepts or ideas
2. First screen: marketing
3. Second screen: operations
4. Third screen: financial
5. Remaining concept(s) and choices

Refer to Generic Process on concept screening which can happen through the following stages explained with the help of an example: [1] let us suppose there are ideas for a possible event like birthday party, kids gaming and sports show, flower arrangement show and sale of local dress designers; [2] During the first screening, it may be realized that there were too many sponsored events locally, hence kids gaming and sports show will be screened out; [3] In the screening for operations, it was felt that a birthday party might take a long time for arrangements due to lack of support services like catering, Disk Jockey (DJ), gaming etc., in the vicinity; [4] In the financial screening it was realized that a similar sale of dress designers didn’t make much profits last year. Hence the remaining concept “flower arrangement show” can be considered.

Progressing The Idea

The screening phase that involves brainstorming and filtering of ideas will be followed by serious financial and operational feasibility testing, in case of a major project. The clients or organizers would also have some feel for the acceptability of the event, given their knowledge of the market or who might be attending. In addition, with any event involving a significant budget or complicated organizational issues, a risk analysis might have to be undertaken.

How vulnerable is the project financially and operationally? What issues might constitute a risk? Are there factors related to fire, health and safety, crowd control, security, hazardous materials or activities which have to be considered?

Having found the preferred concept, the organizers might then wish to review the proposal again in the light of the objectives; does the proposal still meet the objectives? Hall, Catherwood and Richard sought to identify a range of possible objectives for events:

- Development of public involvement in the arts, sports or other leisure activities.
- Fund-raising for a special project or charity.
- Starting a new event to create a tourist attraction, extend the tourist season or make better use of a resource.
- Introducing a new idea to the market.
- Attracting more visitors to a venue or tourist destination.
- Focusing attention on a specified subject or project.
- Creating a sense of community, involving the community or strengthening its goodwill.
- Advancing and promoting the community for public benefit.
- Supporting community or organizational objectives.
- Promoting political and cultural exchange.
- Encouraging participation in, or support of, an organization.

It is common for events to have additional objectives, such as to educate, or to make money, or to leave a useful legacy. To take the idea forward there would have to be some building on the initial objectives, with a draft of the proposal containing the overall objective broken down into several aims, and then into the component parts or component plans for the event. Even relatively simple events may have several component parts. How will these be put together? Who will be doing the organizing and who is responsible for what? Where will the event be held and has more than one venue been approached? When will the event happen and are suitable dates and times available? What materials, supplies and equipment might be needed? What transport, parking or access will be provided? Why is the time schedule for achieving this important, and what are the deadlines?

All these questions will have to be answered. More work can be done later, but even if this is put into a few pages as notes it will be a useful start and the planning can then be built from the initial ideas. The most important aspect of this pre-planning phase is to have enough time, not only to work up the detailed plans properly, but also to determine whether the event is achievable in the time available. In general, volunteer organizations may require more time to deal with complex events than professional or full time organizations, but equally, those professional organizations are likely to have a far more realistic appreciation of the amount of work involved and the likely time it will take to achieve.

Competitive Advantage

The competition in the events business needs to be understood. The new entrants [ organizations/people who are new in the events industry ], the bargaining power of suppliers and clients, and above all the intensity of competition among event agencies are few crucial factors. One also needs to understand factors like price, for example: freelancers can offer very low price as they work on minimum overheads; the competition from other media tools like radio, internet; and unethical ambush marketing tactics used by the client’s competitors.

The crucial issue to gain competitive advantage is to maintain a different approach and level as compared to your competitors. Have a clear understanding on the event quality of your firm, overall coordination of the event, and strategic importance of quality in every aspect by benchmarking to the best being offered in the industry. The variations and the innovations undertaken by the competitors have to be noted. Experience and ability of the sales personnel has to be assessed in the context of other companies and needs to be done in a realistic, competitive environment and in the context of technological advancement. Constant review of profitability is of utmost importance.

Critical Success Factors

Critical success factors (CSFs) are those few things that must go well to ensure success for an event manager or an event management company. They represent those managerial or enterprise areas that must be given special and continual attention to bring about high performance.

CSFs include issues vital to an organization’s current operating activities and to its future success.

In an event, there are important CSFs which are the keys to successful implementation.

- Specialists And Generalists: People working for an event should not only be specialized in their area but have the capability to do other general tasks.
- Versatility And Multi-tasking: Managers, volunteers, and other personnel should be versatile and be able to work on several tasks at the same time. The ability to pool resources together is very essential.
- Time Management: Everyone needs to be aware that event activities are time bound. Following schedules strictly is one of the important factors.
- Strategic Management: In event management, strategy plays a big role. Managers would need to have strategic management capabilities to ensure that the event is managed smoothly.
- Operational Service Management: This is one the most important factors as services in an event are what differentiates one from another. Every event would have a unique set of operational services.
- Passion And Hard Work: Without passion and a strong will, the objectives of the event cannot be met. Being passionate about the work ensures hard work and commitment. These will help you overcome hurdles. The drive or passion to achieve the goals of event management cannot be taught, whereas time management can be taught.
- Communication And networking: This is the key to successful event management. You need to communicate clearly and respectfully as everyone has a role to play, that ultimately leads to the event manager’s success. As already mentioned, communication helps in sharing ideas. One also needs to accept criticism and be open to new ideas.

For example, there was a study conducted to identify critical success factors for the management of wedding tourism in South Africa. Personal interviews were held with wedding planners and owners/managers of wedding venues; questionnaires were also distributed via email. The following critical success factors were identified: strategic planning, SWOT analysis, human resources, financial management, market segmentation, promotion and operational management. It was clear that services must meet the needs of guests. Operational services like ensuring high levels of hygiene, having a liquor license, accessibility, and secure parking were considered extremely important aspects for a wedding venue. It was revealed that owners of wedding tourism products and wedding planners would have to consider and apply the critical success factors, in order to promote growth of the industry.

Problem Analysis

For a problem analysis or evaluation, two key issues need to be looked into: [1] Has the event met its objectives? [2] What improvements are required for the next edition?

The event objectives should be reviewed, not only for the satisfaction of the event coordinator, but also to ensure that the stakeholders can be reassured of the effectiveness of the event, and that if stakeholders such as sponsors, clients, society Resident Welfare Association, and so on put money into the event, the money is well spent. This is the reason for the publication of final reports and accounts, particularly in case of big public events.

Some formal or structured research and observation at events is necessary to enable what might need to be done for future editions. Identifying and solving of problems can only be done properly if there is enough information to find out what the cause of a problem was. There is no use of simply ‘talking’ about a fight that broke out in the ice cream tent when the ice cream supply got over. We need to know the cause of the problem. If the apparent cause was the ice cream running out, why was this? Was the cause of this an under-ordering, an over-demand, or the ice cream delivery getting stuck in the traffic? Without adequate information we cannot deal with the problem and prevent it from happening again. What were the major problems? Related to this is the question of how to allocate resources and time for solving problems. Were the problems of a serious nature and did they constitute critical failures in the eyes of the visitors?

We should identify persistent problem areas which need time and effort to solve: by collecting and collating the ‘problem area’ information. We can then rank the problems in order of priority or seriousness [ ‘most serious – least serious’ or ‘most frequently stated – least frequently stated’ ]. With this list of priorities, the most serious problems can be sorted out, so that in the next event edition they will not occur and the visitors’ experience at the event will improve. It is best to give the task of solving a particular problem to one person who has the authority and the means to solve it, or to a small subgroup of the organizing committee, once the problem has been identified, rather than having the problem discussed endlessly in big committees and not getting solved.

Amongst the problems, the ones which cause the greatest difficulty should be dealt with first. Where we are looking fairly informally at our list of problems, it might simply be down to ‘gut feeling’ about which would be the best to solve, because, given the limited management time and expertise, not every problem on a list can be solved [ though perhaps some of the lesser problems could be given to junior staff or volunteer helpers to solve; these might even provide more creative solutions than what the professionals might provide ]. On the other hand, we might be running a major event again in the next year, and the effort put into evaluative problem-solving might be well worth the effort.

Opportunity And Resource Analysis

As stated earlier, opportunities in events are increasing day by day. Quite possible that consumers are influenced by media, films or the surroundings. There are various opportunities in event planning, management and functional areas, for different events like social and cultural events, entertainment and art events, business and trade events, and so on. These opportunities can be: Event Director, Event Manager, Event Planner, Event Administrator, Event Coordinator, Operations and Logistics Manager, Marketing and Event Manager, Exhibition Coordinator, Entertainment Manager, Sports Manager, Venue Manager, Tourism Event Coordinator/Manager, Vendor Manager, Security Manager, Wedding Planner, Catering and Food & Beverage Manager, Conference and Banqueting Manager, Light & Sound Engineer, Technology Support Manager, Arts and Cultural Development Officer, Catering Director, Fundraising Event Leader, Event Designer, Costumes and Sets designer, Creative Manager and many more.

Based on the opportunities chosen, expertise such as skills, knowledge and interest, as well as financial resources have to be identified. A list of all opportunities, irrespective of how improbable they seem and in particular any opportunity associated with the specific company strengths, etc. should be compiled. This can be followed by ranking the opportunities in the order of their importance or contribution value to the firm. The compatibility of the opportunities with the company is then determined by checking how heavily the company will need to invest in the opportunity in terms of resources like time and finance. Then the numeric values are assigned to the opportunities selected in terms of potential attractiveness and probability of success.

Efficient mobilization of resources is a relative term that changes its definition as per the dictates of the strategic plan. Once the events company is aware of the possible courses of action, it is imperative that it carries out a check on the resources available. Every business has its own constraints and obstacles. The challenge and thrill therefore lies in overcoming these constraints imposed upon the company. Thus, understanding the limitations of resources available is crucial to authentically go ahead with any plan whether at the strategic level or at the individual event level. A check should be first carried out on the availability of financial resources to develop opportunities. Need for personnel and ability of the organization structure to handle the opportunities should then be evaluated and redesigned if necessary. For example, if a corporate set up for an event company is a constraint, it could very well adopt the flexi-time and project teams’ concept of software companies for a better output. An exhaustive research in understanding brands and their personality should be carried out and concepts should be built around the research thus providing an information resource bank. Still on the personnel resource check, it should be ensured that adequate number of experienced volunteers and labor are available in the production/execution department. Also, dedicated, trained and event savvy sales personnel should be made available at all the branches. The issue of pricing is highly important. The pricing of an event should not be determined by other events, but should rather be on the basis of costs of the present event. It has to be profitable. Costs usually get underestimated. The items should be listed, costed properly and budgeting of items used in the event should be done. Ticket price has to be fixed on the basis of actual costings. It should be considered in the light of competition and what the market will pay.

After the financial and personnel resources, come the networking components in terms of importance. The availability of their time and services is as much a constraint to the event companies as any other resource. If given due importance and sufficient time to deliver, this resource crunch can be tackled. This is built on the foundation of professional relationships. Hence, most often, professionalism on the part of the event company works wonders for the confidence of the network components and they become partners in the event rather than mere components thus eliminating a constraint. Focus should then be shifted to logistics. Most often, the opportunity to invest in long-term use assets reduces the burden of sourcing and dependency on suppliers and transporters, thus improving the efficiency of the logistics function. The resources required for this should therefore, be assessed. Public Relations effort needed to develop opportunities should also be studied since for an event management company, advertising essentially means an efficient PR, and creating hype about the events being handled becomes very important. And there should be sufficient funds and enough personnel for handling the same. The resource availability analysis provides an input into the current situation of the event firm, for maximum gain from limited resources.

Demands And Challenges Faced By An Event Manager

Event management always has demands and challenges that are faced by an event manager.

Clients, service providers, colleagues with their teams and volunteers turn to one person – the event manager, for all their demands. If the event manager is able to delegate the work to others who can take responsibility, there are less demands. Demands in an event are actually requirements which are made more critical due to the time factor and urgency.

For example, the client may come up with a demand of needing a videographer as well as a camera man during his daughter’s wedding ceremony. Although, the earlier requirement was for only a camera man, the sudden need arose due to a suggestion from a relative of the client. Refusing to cater to the demand may upset the client, so the event manager would like to find a solution by trying to arrange for a videographer. The client will be happy that the event manager did try to find a solution and did not outright refuse to make the last minute arrangement.

An event manager will need to handle event risks pertaining to finance, health, safety, causalities, accidents, fires and hazards. The challenge also arises when the event manager needs to find out ways to overcome difficult situations. One of the traits of any event manager is being calm and collected. If one is overwhelmed with the situation and it is felt that things are going out of control, the event will turn into a failure. An event manager should not only be self-confident but should be able to garner support of colleagues and teams to get out of difficult situations.

For example, if a wedding was to take place in an open space as this is required when there is a ceremony, and suddenly it starts raining, the event manager would have known there was a possibility and kept a standby area of the covered porch in the wedding hall. Although smaller, this area would be able to take care of guests who would need to gather around a little closer, but would be able to see the wedding ceremony. The challenge of changing to another venue would require the skills of an experienced event manager and the team.

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