Do good event management degrees deliver good event management candidates for industry? John Fisher argues that more job skills and practice, and less theory would give graduates joining the events industry a better start.
One hundred years ago, when I finished my university degree in Modern Languages, my first job was with an advertising agency. I probably knew more about 19th century French poetry than most of the then French government cabinet put together at that time. But I had no idea what the word invoice meant. I remember having to look it up in a dictionary. Talking over with my manager about what an invoice was, along with other basic business terms, I was amazed to discover that advertising agencies gave away their ideas for free and that their income came from commission on media sales. So a successful client was one who spent lots with the media not one who had a great promotional idea. Call me naive but it never occurred to me that this is how advertising worked and here I was managing several big-name, national client accounts.
Back then though, you could do an arts degree and have no transferable skills other than practice in being able to think things through. But these days with a business degree, you would assume that students would learn how event businesses work, what the basic tasks are and how to be immediately useful to a business. I’m not sure this is always the case.
Before the Association of Event Management Professors and Lecturers, or whatever it is called, organises a lynch mob to defend their curricula, could I just make a simple suggestion as to what would be immediately useful in terms of skills for an event manager joining any corporate organisation or consultancy that does events?
JOB COSTING SHEETS
The starting point for every project is a costing sheet. Whether this is in Excel, Sage or another financial system, students should be able to set up and populate an event cost sheet with up to, say, 50 elements based on a day-by-day line costing. In addition, they should be able to calculate the costs using mixed currencies including the rand, pound, US dollar and euro within the same project. They should also be able to account for commissions, discount deals and other event chain margins that may be applicable. Much of event management is about ‘the numbers’.
VENUE CONTRACTS
Most events require a venue. Most venues ask for a contract to be signed. At first glance venue contracts look like gobbledygook, but after viewing several they all follow a similar pattern. Students should be able to calculate the financial effect of attrition rate policies, cash flow on stage payments, failure to provide rooming lists, late check-out penalties, timely provision of menu choices, meeting room configurations, late changes in food and beverage orders, and local VAT charges and when they might be applicable. Students should also be familiar with airline, coach and ship contracts as there are significant differences from land-based venue agreements.
RISK ASSESSMENTS
All events require a risk assessment as the financial and personal consequences of being sued are significant if something goes wrong. Knowledge of what constitutes high and low risk, who might be affected, what key tasks are being undertaken, hazards, the provisions of the Health and Safety Act, international legal obligations. File management of risk assessments on complex events such as multi-event road shows and international movements would be useful on the basis that statistically someone is bound to fall over somewhere at some stage and hurt themselves, especially if they have been drinking.
DELEGATE MANAGEMENT
Most delegate management (DM) systems are online, so students should have proficiency in populating all the main DM systems in terms of setting up an event, compiling a database, mailing an invitation, responding to acceptances, , etc. When on-site, students should be able to set up wireless links, manage a database live and produce delegate reports/badges/seating plans on demand. Post-event analysis of who did what and when should be a natural consequence of all event projects, so familiarity with how to report complex data post-event and ‘take a view’ of what the data is telling you is a skill that can be practised and learned.
EVENT PROMOTION
All events require some element of promotion. Students should be able to commission a design for event collateral, be familiar with small-scale print production, be able to produce name badges, menu cards, joining instructions, posters, flyers, speaker notes and other related physical handouts. If the event is largely run online, then experience of tablet, touchscreen and handset technology would be needed together with an appreciation of the role of social media networking within the context of event promotion.
TEAM MANAGEMENT
Most events require a team of support people who together produce efficient and memorable events. Some courses include modules on ‘leadership theory’. But the tasks when running an event are much more basic. Students should be able to interrogate a wide range of briefs, ask key questions (especially if the data is missing), write an event logistics plan, delegate tasks both to colleagues and external suppliers, write a critical path analysis, develop contingency plans, write a working schedule for the actual event, conduct live review meetings with the team while the event is happening, gather financial expenditure live and assess team member performance. Personal communication skills can be taught.
It could be argued that most event management courses these days tackle these issues in principle. That may be true, but principles are no substitute for practice and familiarity with the detailed spreadsheets and processes that are the driving force behind all successful events.
Academics may say that practical experience is what the ‘third year in industry’ is for. I would say students should be familiar with standard tools and processes of getting things done before they go out into industry. This not only makes them more useful as short-term employees, but also gives them considerable confidence to play a significant role rather than be a bystander for most of the year.
