How an Event Management Degree Can Help Your Career

Event Management skills are in big demand in today's fast paced lifestyles. The need for the management and organisation of an event are plentiful. Planning a large event is very time-consuming and complicated for the individual. Good management requires the utilising of many skills to deliver plans for projects. There are many different kinds of events being held in current society trends. The acquisition of an event management degree is very useful to any career. This management is prevalent in many industries for promotional, employee recognition awards and many other purposes. It is now also used to coordinate weddings and ceremonies. An event management degree can assist in corporate and personal circumstances.

If you wish to further your career, but are not sure which direction to take, you should seriously consider event management. The qualifications and skills you will gain from a degree course will prove invaluable. They will give your CV an impressive boost that cannot fail to advance your career options and paths. The criteria for many top hotel and tourism job vacancies now, is the necessary requirement for a degree in this management. With a degree qualification you are seen as adequately accomplished to oversee any size or type of event.

Event management is utilised in many business concepts, administrational procedures, marketing and promotional functions. Being professionally trained with a degree in management makes you a valuable asset. The cost of funding this management can create a big hole in the project budget. If an owner or employee of a business is capable of the task then time and money will be saved. It also means communication and updates about the planning can be easier and quicker.

Managing an event can be an overwhelming venture if it is not planned to precision. The capabilities gained from a degree education of event management will equip you with the necessary procedural instruction. Management necessitates a particular approach and certain personalities achieve this easier than others.

If you feel you are logical, cool headed, methodical and a people person, then this type of management could be for you. The responsibilities of an event manager involve event coordination, sales, marketing, selecting venues and publicity. There are many more and they usually include deadlines and ensuring satisfaction. Any event will want to aim to achieve success and impact. The event will be remembered by its attendees and a good impression is one the goals set by a professional event planner.

Wherever you are on your career path a degree in event management will be an advancement to your vocation. The business methods conducted today focus on sponsorship, image and branding. This has been instrumental in the growth of the event management industry. The industry continues to grow at a steady rate and so does the demand for qualified planners. An event management degree will teach you persuasion and negotiating skills. It will highlight the satisfactions of skilled planning and let you study public and customer relations. Just take a peek at the degree contents covered in an management prospectus. You will then understand how much a degree can help your career.

Corporate Team Building & Executive Retreats: Booze, Sex & Other Pitfalls to Avoid

To ensure that you get value from the time and money invested in team building sessions and corporate retreats, there are several pitfalls that your company should avoid.

Team Building Pitfalls

1. 
   Allocate sufficient time for planning
   
   There is no way that you can expect to pull off an effective team building session or corporate retreat if 1 - 2 weeks prior to the session you are just contacting vendors



2. 
   Don't schedule your session to end on a Friday.
   
   Like it or not, focus will become a challenge as the day wears on.



3. 
   Do allocate more time for your session if your group is highly analytical.
   
   Analytical learners need more time to debrief and apply the session to your specific business challenges or they will leave feeling frustrated and that the session was a waste of time. "What was that?" will be a frequent comment on your feedback forms.



4. 
   Don't splurge on food and accommodation and scrimp on facilitation fees.
   
   ou need an experienced facilitator to execute a session successfully. I remember a company that contacted us in a panic. They had blown most of their budget for a top of the line conference facility with all the bells and whistles. They had little left to pay a facilitator. We suggested a couple of cost affective facilities for accommodation and meetings but eventually had to pass on that booking too as they insisted on the high end facility and could not afford a facilitator.



5. 
   Don't just go through the motions of team building.
   
   Team recreation is important. If your goal is a day off work, then schedule a picnic or recreational activity.



6. 
   Get your priorities straight.
   
   We thought we had heard it all when we were asked "Can you cut your simulation down to half a day so that we can have more time to go shopping?" Another time, a prospective client selected a venue that was less than optimal for their activity as they did not feel their staff could forego alcohol for one day and the ideal location was not licensed for alcohol.

Alcohol: Don't Let it Flow Freely

There is no way to address this topic without just coming out and saying it. "Watch the booze." Again it comes down to priorities and liability. I remember doing some location scouting with a prospective client. I should have known we were in trouble when one of the first questions they asked was "Will there be a fridge where we can store our beer?" It was downhill from there. Late night drinking binges, a director passing around a bottle of hard liquor before a physically challenging outdoor event and the CEO having to be confined to his bed on the last day of the session for overdoing it.

Certainly there is nothing wrong with a glass of wine with dinner. Many companies are not aware of the fact that if they allow the liquor to flow freely before an activity that involves physical exertion, your company could be held liable if someone gets injured.

There is another area of potential liability. If participants will be driving after your corporate event, hire a smart serve bartender who is trained to detect potential problems and turn off the tap when appropriate. You might also want to have a backup plan and provide a taxi or hotel accommodation for any participants who do become inebriated. The bottom line is that courts throughout the USA are rendering judgements that hold companies liable when employees consume too much alcohol at company-sponsored functions and then cause accident after leaving the event.

Put a Leash on the Libido

During some corporate retreats, excessive consumption of alcohol can lead to poor judgement and sexual indiscretions. Many companies don't realize that they are skating on thin ice when they turn a blind eye to dirty jokes, sexual innuendo and employees skinny dipping in the pool on a corporate retreat or at a sales rally. We heard of one sales rally to which the Director brought along a pornographic video. In the evening, the director, the CEO and several members of the sales team returned to the meeting room at the conference centre and watched it. The next day, a lot of snickering was going on. We are also aware of two unrelated incidents at two different companies during corporate retreats in which employees became so intoxicated that they jumped on the table and started doing a strip tease

If even one employee had decided to file a sexual harassment suit (US) or human rights complaint (Canada) due to any of these incidents, the negative publicity alone could have done a lot of damage to a company's reputation. As Astra USA, the American subsidiary of Astra AB, a Swedish pharmaceutical company discovered, it could also hit you in your pocketbook.

Astra USA agreed to pay nearly US$9.85 million to approximately 80 former employees complaining of sexual harassment and retaliation on the job, at corporate retreats and during sales rallies. They admitted to fostering a hostile work environment, including requests for sexual favors in exchange for favorable treatment on the job. Business Week Magazine covered this story in detail and you can still access it on their web site.

To avoid similar difficulties, have a clear code of conduct for ALL company related meetings, activities, and events. Cover it in your orientation, diversity training and management development programmes. Have every employee sign-off and agree to adhere to this code. When incidents occur that are clearly inappropriate, deal with them and send a clear message that certain behaviour will not be tolerated in the workplace or at company events.

Team Building: The Bottom Line

Team building sessions and corporate retreats can be enjoyable and produce a myriad of benefits for your company. To get the most bang from your team building buck, ensure that there is bottom line results in what you offer. Remember, people don't have to get wasted or tell off-colour jokes in order to have a good time. There is something to be said for brainstorming with co-workers to come up with solutions to some vexing business problems or flow charting to improve a process that isn't working. There is something to be said for relaxing around a bonfire, getting to know your co-workers while you pitch a tent or start a fire, cooking your meals outdoors, learning a new sport like polo, and the many other activities that can add the "fun factor" to your events. From where we see it, there is far more value in activities like that than boozing it up or frolicking nude in a hot tub with co-workers.

© 2006 Executive Oasis International

Using Event Software to Monitor & Analyse Your Event Success

Managing and organising events has always been a very time consuming and complex area. Given the backdrop of the current economic climate, event managers must now also ensure that the events they are running produce a high Return on Investment (ROI). The number of events being organised has dropped since the recession, and of those that are still taking place have seen a fall in delegate numbers. So analysing events and ensuring they have a fast and solid ROI is now more important than ever.

There are many ways of analysing event success, but first event managers must know why they are holding the event, and how they would class the event as a success:

o Why are we planning this event?
o Are you organising the event to increase sales?
o Trying to reposition or create awareness of a product or service?
o Are you simply hoping to raise visibility of your company?
o What are your event success criteria?
o What would you deem a successful event?

Once event managers understand why the event is taking place, they will have a better awareness of the metrics they must measure in order to evaluate its success.

One of the best ways of gathering information is by requesting feedback from the delegates themselves. This can be done in a variety of ways such as talking to them at the event, giving them a feedback card to complete at the end of the event, or calling them after the event to ask them their opinions. However, one of the most effective and efficient ways of amassing this information is by sending out tailored event feedback questionnaires via email, directly to delegates after the event. Email is a popular tool of choice for many event managers; it is fast, effective, inexpensive and a modern tool that the majority of people have access to.

Event managers can use event software to create the questionnaires online - built within their own website. An email is then automatically generated to ask the delegate to complete the questionnaire (a link will be provided in the email). This is an excellent way of gathering the information from delegates; because the form is online on your own website, the information can be automatically populated into your event software application, removing any form of manual data entry. The event software can also be integrated with your CRM platform, automatically updating this as well.

Asking delegates to go online to complete the questionnaire also means that they are directed back to your website. If your event was trying to sell a product or create brand awareness, you can use this opportunity to direct them to the relevant page on your site, boosting sales and conversions - helping to further increase the ROI.

Once you have gathered the feedback data, it is important that event managers are able to analyse it effectively. One of the common complaints from event organisers is that creating the post-event reports can often be more time consuming than organising the event in the first place!

This is where event software is able to help again. By automatically pulling in all the information gathered by the delegate feedback surveys, the event software not only removes the time involved in inputting the data, but it also means that reports can be generated with a click of a button. Managers can choose between standard reports or create fully customisable ones based on a particular event.

Event software reporting tools can also measure other event metrics such as

· Expense to Revenue Ratio (E:R)
· Conversion rate of invites sent vs. delegate registrations
· Delegate registrations vs. Attendance
· Delegate Lead Quality and Quantity
· Delegate Quality and Quantity
· Sales Cycle and Opportunities

Because event software uses the latest technology, all these reports can be created online, and can be split up or drilled down into, for a closer or more general view.

Using delegate feedback tools and reporting software can help make the analysis process faster and easier for event managers. However, using these applications independently from one another may cause conflictions and IT issues. The best way to apply event software to your event planning process is to invest in a full end-to-end event management software application. Event management solutions traditionally encompass online feedback and integrated reporting, but also offer a host of other event software tools:

· Website integration: Integrate your event software with your existing website without the need to re-design or re-brand
· Registration management: Create fully customisable online booking forms allowing you to capture the most relevant information from your delegates
· Email Marketing: Sophisticated, integrated & fully functional email marketing tool enabling organiser to send highly targeted email campaigns marketing to the relevant delegate audience
· Invitation Management: All-inclusive, easy to use, integrated invitation management tool
· Payment Processing: Providing a variety of options to allow your delegates to pay online securely
· Resource Management: Manage and allocate all resources through a comprehensive calendar feature, providing event managers with total control of all aspects of the event management process
· Badge Production: Produce individual delegate badges pre or during the event
· Survey & Feedback Tools: Integrated and automated feedback management tool, allowing event planners to action the opportunities from your events immediately
· Event Reporting: Determine the true ROI through powerful reporting and analysis suites, enabling event organisers to simply and quickly drill down to the data in just a matter of seconds

Using an all in one event management software provides the highest level of organisation and efficiency to event organisers. No longer do you need to manage all your event planning on a dozen different spreadsheets; using an all in one event software solution means you can automate many of your manual tasks and gain not only improvements in efficiency and control, but will benefit from a reduced cost of event planning; further increasing the ROI from your events.

Event Planning Course - Basic Managing Principles

Events are significant in a company's success. There are different kinds of proceedings taking place. These events take place; so consumers can sell their products, appreciate their workers and get new projects.? Due to increase in the number of professional events taking place; the importance of event planning course has even increased. In old days people did not accept the fact that literacy is important for event planning. Now; people with event planning course in their portfolios are called good event planners. In event planning course you learn about the basic management principles. These principles are:

1. Planning of the event:

The first step of managing an event is planning. In this step the event manager makes decisions regarding the event, the place the event is going to take place, the budget needed for the event, the number of people visiting and various aspects of an event. Planning is very important; this allows you to manage the event in a better manner. For example; during the planning step you plan a budget for the event; you then follow that budget and to remain under the budget. This way you do not end up spending more. Planning is given great importance in every business aspect.

2. Organize the proceedings:

Once you have figured out the parameters of the event; you have to organize the event. The organizing part is completely dependant on the plan. If you have no plan; you will not be able to organize. In this step you distribute tasks to your workers. In this step you even allocate the resources needed for each task and you share the budgeted plan with your team mates and workers so they are even aware of the limits and the targets.

3. Controlling and monitoring the proceedings:

Your work does not end after allocating tasks and resources; now you have to control and monitor your workers and team mates and check whether the processes are done in the correct manner. You have to keep a tight watch on all your employers and make sure that the plan and the budget is being followed. Remember that your goals should be realistic other wise your workers will fail to achieve them.

4. Evaluate:

Once the entire planning process is over; you have to evaluate the effectiveness of the plan. You have to check whether your employers have achieved the desired goals and whether they have remained in the budget. These are the basic four principles of event management which can be learned through event planning course.

Event Insurance: Why Do You Need Insurance Coverage for Your Events?

You are all set to host an important event, everything is in place when suddenly you receive a call from a friend who informs you about a hurricane expected to hit town the following day! You have very little time at hand to prepare a Plan B. What will you do?

As an event planner you put in a lot of effort and investment to organize an event. However, unforeseen factors may let you down and your work may go in vain. Adverse weather conditions, safety issues or any other risk factor may jeopardize your plans resulting in losses. It is therefore, imperative for you to undertake necessary steps to prevent any financial loss caused by a mishap or cancellation.

A few years ago, cancellation or postponement of an event spelled disaster for organizers who found their budgets going haywire. Fortunately, the situation is now under control to a considerable extent and you don't have to bear the losses if your event is not held on the scheduled date.

There are several private event insurance providers who specialize in offering affordable solutions to meet the requirements of different organizers. Notably, an increasing number of organizers are opting for these insurance covers to prevent monetary losses in wake of any accident or any other unanticipated calamity. There are a host of specialized insurance plans offered to the event organizers. For example, the cancellation insurance cover helps recover the money lost due to the cancellation of an event.

An event insurance cover helps you to minimize damages resulting due to any unforeseen factor. Some of these may include the following:

繚 Despite planning everything, you may have to cancel an event due to lack of ticket sales or sudden unavailability of the chief speaker

繚 Adverse weather conditions such as hurricanes or heavy snowfall may prevent you from hosting an event

繚 A mishap such as fire or damage to the property may also prompt you to call off the event

繚 Equipment is damaged or lost during the show or conference

繚 Attendees are injured during the event due to negligence

Considering the potential hazards involved in hosting events, several insurance covers have been introduced for event planners. These insurance covers extend several key benefits to the organizers. These include the following:

繚 With an insurance cover, you can insure any kind of event hosted almost anywhere in the world. From a fundraiser for your organization to a global convention for guests coming from different countries - you can insure all!

繚 Specialized insurance policies for event organizers have several key features and additional benefits. One of the chief benefits of such policies is covering the costs for damages caused to the venue, property and equipments in the aftermath of an accident or calamity.

繚 In wake of an injury that occurs to your participants, you will be required to shell out a hefty amount for the compensation. With the help of an insurance policy, the medical bills of the injured person can be covered effectively.

Irrespective of the scale of your event, selecting an appropriate insurance policy is extremely important to minimize the risk factors. An insurance cover can protect you from potential hazards caused by a host of factors. Considering that there are various kinds of insurance covers available for organizers, you can opt for a policy that meets all your requirements and protects you properly.

Corporate Event Planning - Tips To Help To Stay In Budget

Staying within the allotted budget is important when planning any event. There are so many things that need to be taken care of. So here are points to help you stay within the allotted budget and maybe even below it!

Controlling the Budget

Event planning budgeting is the most crucial component of event planning. Think about all the aspect and components of the event before deciding the budget. Here is couple of tips to help you set up a budget and watch the expenditures.
• If you are following an older budget that was used for a previous then increase by 10-15% to account for higher prices. Also add 10% to the final budget to deal with contingencies.
• Keep a daily tab on the expenses so that errors and over expenditure can be corrected.
• Stick to your budget when it comes to the venue. Discuss your budget restrictions with the venue and the contractors. Since they will want to keep your business most of them will try to work something out.
• Ask for discounts if you pay in cash. Since the vendor won't have to pay the credit card charges you are saving them money. Ask them to reciprocate and give you a discount.
• Limit the money decision to a limited number of people. Too many cooks spoil the broth. This old adage applies to this situation. If you have too many people making monetary decisions, you will have financial chaos.
• Be flexible with your event date. For example, holding the event on a weekday will ensure you get better service
• Give a history of the previous events when talking to possible venues and vendors. This will get you better service as the contractors will try to secure your future business.

Location

Choosing the right location is a major part of making the event a success. So here are some tips to help you get the right venue at the best possible price.

• Do the venue research online. This will save you the time you would have spent visiting venues. Get in touch with your local Chamber of Commerce about possible venue options. The administration tries to keep as much business as possible within the city and they will help you find a suitable venue in the city. In fact, they have a database of venues in the city and they will do most of the calling and legwork for you.
• Keeping the event local will lower your costs considerably compared to organizing the event in some distant city.
• Take a camcorder or camera along when you go location scouting. Take pictures of all the venues you visit. This will help when you sit down to decide on a venue.

Following these points will help you stay within your San Jose Event Planning budget.

Invitations 101 Review

Review of Event Leadership Institute Class:
"Invitations 101"

When planning a wedding or party, it is easy to get preoccupied with the visible aspects of an event: food, music, venue, decorations. Yet none of these elements will be enjoyed by guests or clients if invitations aren't designed well or delivered on time.

That is the message of a just-released online class from the Event Leadership Institute titled "Invitations 101: Folds, Papers, Printing Techniques & More" which offers some outstanding advice for professional and first-time event planners on how to get the most out of your invitations and make a great impression for your event.

Knowing all the options for successful invitation design, production and fulfillment is often the first step in successful event planning, according to class instructor and graphic design expert Steve Paster, president of Alpine Creative Group. The 30-minute video course covers the multitude of invitation options the event planner has at his or her disposal, as well as the financial and aesthetic factors the professional must consider.

Paster, who has worked on birthday invitations for LeBron James and Sean Diddy Combs, wedding announcements for Billy Joel and other entertainers, and event invitations for Hollywood events including Queen Latifah's VIBE Gala, says that the most expensive invitation is the one that's never opened. Also, if scheduling, budgeting or even legal problems get in the way, you might as well say goodbye to future assignments.

Paster has some advice for event planners that can make the difference between a smooth job and a nightmare:

• If your client changes his or her mind on an invitation design after the project has begun, make sure those changes are documented in writing.

• Custom stamps add approximately 40% to the price but definitely add flair to the project.

• Always have an invitation mailed to yourself to check timing and quality.

• "Evites" are a lot faster and cheaper than mailed invitations, but sometimes they end up in spam files or are assumed to contain viruses.

• Always ask your printer about lead time, potential cost overruns and additional services offered. It may be cost-efficient to have the same shop do the fulfillment.

• The first thing you should discuss with the printer is the due date, and get a written guarantee it will be met. Even gorgeous, persuasive invitations are useless if they're late.

• Shorter lead times usually increase price. Start the process early.

• If you use artwork, make sure it is not copyrighted. No matter how successful the invitation, if your client is sued when it's all over, it will hardly matter.

• Always ask for advance proofs before final printing. You don't want your client's company name misspelled.

• Carefully review all the options for paper, ink and printing. There are many variables to weigh. For instance, thermography (raised printing) is less expensive than engraving or embossing, but often looks cheaper, as well. Stamping with metal plates can use thick paper that has an impressive impact and leave behind a substantial image on the paper, but it also one of the more expensive options. Foil stamping is the least expensive, but cannot be used for small text.

• When deciding between a 2-color press or 4-color press, remember that 4-color can run either Pantone colors (specific spot colors) or process colors (combinations of CMYK), but it's a slower and more expensive option than using a 2-color press, which can only run Pantone.

On one hand, it's really a numbers game because of all the options. On the other, it's a lot more critical than a game because the first impression recipients have of an event comes from the invitation.

When event planners have to decide on the kind of paper to use for an invitation, they can select text or cover stock, coated or uncoated stock, vellum, skin, brushed, plastic or acrylic stock. They also have to decide on whether to use offset, digital, engraved, letterpress or various other kinds of printing, as well as die cutting, flush mounting, bordering, edging or other creative techniques. As Paster says, it really pays to know the difference.