I’ve been to a few events where there was a large amount of staff. I understand that it’s some kind of a hiearchy and divide and conquer kind of principle, but I’ve never understood how is it possible to solve problems on the go in such a large group of people. Sometimes it feels really fragile and as if it was just pure luck that the event had been without problems. How does it work? How is it organized?
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Like everything else. Someone is in charge of each part of the puzzle, and someone above that is in charge of when things involve multiple pieces.
It’s no different from any business. Everyone just does their job and other people manage and supervise.
It’s not like there’s no boss, no plan, just put out fires.
Think of the event like a pyramid. You have the event day at the top and then all the other steps to get there below it.
Event planners use something called a gannt chart or work back chart. This is made up of all the tasks or milestones that need to be accomplished before the event can take place. Usually this process takes a year or more depending on how large scale the event is.
If it’s like a concert or something that happens regularly (basketballgame) protocols are usually in place already backed by the venue and it’s just a matter of following the steps already laid out by the organization.
If it’s a brand new event you look at everything like risk management, volunteer coordination, food services, waste services, safety and tons of other categories. Each category has a team with a leader and project managers who set meetings with people below them and above them. There usually two people at the very top that oversee everything and make sure the event runs well. Usually called a director. Then project managers then team leads then general staff.
Day of event usually has contact people monitoring all the little things and catching them if they go wrong and problem solving the solution on the spot. You have to be very good at weighing all the options and knowing who to report to if it’s going to go wrong quickly. Sometimes stuff does go wrong on the back end but people in this industry are really good and fixing stuff on the spot and the problem goes away.
With the fyre festival everything came down to a lack of planning, coordination, and communication.
You can’t build a pyramid if you got no idea what to do with the bottom layers.
If you have any other questions I’d be happy to answer. I went to school for event management and have been in the industry for eight years.
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