What is event production and logistics and how to start
This lesson may have a lot of emotion, because of the topics of organizing events, taking care of event production and logistics is what I like most. But as this is a course on what makes an event successful during the planning stage, let’s focus on a mechanism that we can put in place to help you in your organization: the event manual.
What is event production and logistics: starting from the basics.
When we talk about event production and logistics, we are talking about the role of event management, ensuring its delivery, experience and compliance with all logistical, legal and resource requirements. The event producer should be resourceful in arranging and coordinating all these relations with other areas.
Here is what happens: it is through the producer that the project manager ensures compliance with the event objective and the schedule — so the manager manages the timetable, but it is the producer who regulates it. Because of this very strong bond, it is very common for the roles of producer and manager to be allocated in the same person.
Among the mechanisms that producers have at their disposal is a logistics support team on the day, the so-called Staff of the event.
The event production and logistics team.
When we talk about the organization or management team, we are talking about the team as a whole, including communication, infrastructure, salespeople, etc.
The staff generally refers to the team closely linked to the delivery of the event and operation during the day, such as security, waiters, hosts, audio and video technicians, accreditation and the like, cool?
The producer stereotype is a person of high energy and always walking with a clipboard, for two very simple reasons: that person becomes specialist, with time, in dealing with unpredictable events. (raises hand).
So much so that nowadays, as my primary function is no longer to organize events but to deliver courses, I often choose to err in certain aspects of planning because I have confidence in my 10-year ability to deal with those situations.
But the thing is: this is not ideal and it will cause you stress, just as it still causes me. That’s why I said in the TARGET framework lesson, that more important than having a maximum score in all aspects, is to know in which areas you are missing.
Let’s draw the big picture here.
A lot will be said regarding the different stages in the event production further in the course. The focus here will be to touch on the subjects project management.
This first topic is how to classify events, based on its level of complexity. William O’Toole suggests four levels:
- Informal level: the event is organized on an ad hoc basis, little is written down.
- Formal level: the event has structured management with delegation.
- Accountable level: this includes the competencies of the formal level and the event and the management can account for their management and decisions.
- Adaptable and improvable level: this includes the accountable competencies and signifies the event management, although a formal system, can respond positively to change and improve for each event.
From the above it can be easily recognized that the capability maturity model relates closely to a competency system for education levels of event management.
There’s also a close relationship time management and job performance in the context of event management, for event managers or organizers work to meet deadlines and the planning process may take months to prepare. So it’s imperative to plan ahead and work on your project management skills.
The process itself of the event production and logistics is not very well documented as on how-to, for it’s not the goal of research usually, but more on its structure and phases, which we will cover on the next lesson. But there is a lot regarding event portfolio management.
How to use event production checklists.
The clipboard part of the stereotype is because experienced producers tend to always have checklists. We do not rely on memory, because we deal with a lot of information — we need to understand audiovisual, to be aware of what is happening in the accreditation, if the materials of session X are right, that speaker A is late, passing on rules and notices to the event security officers, anyway, a lot. Even if there is water for the event, for the participants to drink.
An event production and logistics checklist is a list of tasks that need to be performed, whether in the pre, during or post-event. So, on the clipboard, we have a checklist for everything.
To find out if the speakers all arrived and were introduced to the team, what percentage of the participants has arrived, if the coffee break has arrived, if the gallons of water have arrived, if everything is in place and things like that.
Here is what happens: you will want to live on checklists, for the sake of your event success, for the sake of your mental health and also for the information organization. During the first few events, I counted a lot on my memory for things, but I think it was quick for me to start using checklists.
There are some checklists, let’s say, “guides” that you can put together and several that give general ideas, but inevitably you will have to adapt them to your reality. In the handout, you can find some of these checklists.
Gee, I should sell this booklet so much that I’m promoting it *scoffs*
I hope it’s helping people. If you are reading the booklet, leave a comment to me, so I feel more comfortable that it has been useful!
Some checklists that you will want to implement in your event production and logistics:
- When doing research and technical visits in the possible places for your event, based on the requirements and what you are thinking about.
- Even when the site is online, you can create a checklist of things that are essential to communicate to your participants in advance, such as minimum age, dressing code, location and how to get there, hotels nearby, accreditation requirements, just to list a few examples.
- What are some of the staff you should hire for the day, such as waiter, translators, hosts, accreditation, security, ambulance, etc.
- Legal requirements for your event, such as health department permit, fire marshal permit and the like.
- The day before your event, how your venue must be. Auditorium, number of seats, decoration, arrangement of the plenary, foyer, hall, if the exit and flow signs are well marked, how the WI-fi connection is, etc.
- Hours before your event: if the extra equipment is in the right places, if you have extra batteries for the equipment, if the badges are at the reception, if the garbage is empty, if the sponsors’ logos are in right order.
- During the event, you will want to have conference checklists, if at X time all speakers have arrived, if every y hour the trash has been emptied, and at z o’clock, the final musical attraction has arrived, things like that.
Anyway, there are a lot of checklists that can be done. And you, as a producer, can create checklists for your team too. This way they check the checkboxes with the things they did, to ensure that they are not forgotten. In my paid course, I talk a little more about Staff roles you can have during your event so assist you with that.
Event Manual: what it is and how it can help your event.
Now let’s talk about the event manual. This is a tool that guides and serves as a reference for all team members working during the event. I created it, but it’s nothing magical. It is a well written document — or it can be a ppt, as in the latest versions that I have created recently.
It gathers all final decisions on the most diverse subjects at the operational levels. Its intent is to give some freedom of information and autonomy to the members of the event. It’s not possible for them to go after someone every time to ask questions, without affecting the experience of the public.
Do you need a manual? My automatic answer is that “yes”, especially if it is your first event. It will ensure that all operational aspects are compiled into a single document.
This will avoid one of the reasons why your event will go wrong: disorganization of information, cool?
Therefore, when we speak of the event itself, the people who deal with the audience and any other agents will be working on the same information.
How to use the manual when organizing the event?
The manual is the event producer’s responsibility. But if other aspects of the operation are being planned and organized by a third party, make sure that the manual reflects the decisions made. That is, someone will have to collect this information and put it in the manual.
It is important that organizers agree with the manual’s recommendations and methods of explanation before it is distributed.
Every event staff member should receive a copy of the manual. For less technological-savvy events and on the day, you can print the document, including marking what is most crucial, to make it easy to find.
Versions of the document must be arranged in strategic places, such as the HQ of your event, as I call the room where the staff meets, or under the reception desk.
You can also create an online version of the document. A good practice is to put in the title of the document the last date it was updated. For those who are more technological, you can add a log to report what has been changed in each version, but it is more technical there.
I don’t really like local virtual documents, that is, when they are on the hard drive of a computer. Since they are not online, two people may have different versions of the document, so I always use it online. But I understand that this is not always possible for everyone.
What should be included in your event logistics manual:
In the manual, you should write down all the procedures, practices, regulations, questions and answers that will guide the staff, as well as general information about the event. To help you get started, add and adapt the following guides to create a relevant manual for your event.
Your manual may contain:
- Index: to inform about all sections of the manual and where to find them.
- Copies: where copies of the manual will be and where the manual will be available.
- Who’s who: create a list of event staff, contractors, suppliers, organizers, their roles, responsibilities and where they are in the chain of activities. Also, their contact information.
- Description of the event: include the event’s agenda and the slogan; the event map; all facilities and where each service can be found (bathroom, water, in case of emergency, coffee break, etc.).
- Procedures, practices and rules: what are the rules of the event and procedures that all staff must follow in their routines and implement in case of decision making.
- Detailed agenda guide: what will be happening at each moment of the event (there may even be a script every 10 minutes), who is responsible for the delivery of each part, necessary preparations and equipment and what else should you do so that next step happens.
As material for this lesson, I created a document that you can copy from the event manual, so you have a kick-start for you to create your document, cool?
I think we managed to cover quite a lot of what is event logistics and production. There’s a lot more, I couldn’t wait to contemplate everything in one lesson, but I hope it helped you to better guide yourself on your way to being an event professional! As we say in my hometown: better than that, just twice that.
The article’s treasure:
In the end of each article, I will write a final recap for you to memorize the main takeaways.
This is what I presented in this article:
- We learned what an event producer is and his responsibility.
- We also learned about checklists, examples, how to use them.
- Finally, we understood the concept of the Event Manual and what it should contain and how to create yours. Don’t forget to download the event manual in the description.
In the next lesson, on how to set and follow a schedule, we will talk about how to set your timetable, the Stage-gates model and the main mistakes of those who work with the schedule.
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Always look both ways. See you in the future.
