Uneventful: How to Prevent Your Event from Going Wrong

Sometimes, the very thing we want least is to have anything particularly eventful happening at an event, because it might be what we dread the most: utter disaster. Or as Lemony Snicket so rightly puts it: A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Despite all the praying for good fortune, backup plans, and hoping for the best, bad luck just seems to happen. Talk about striking a man when he is down, huh. Ever heard of the superstition to have a virgin girl put chilli and onion on a satay stick to prevent rain for outdoor events? And God forbid she lies about her virginity. Here are some ways we prepare for that rainy day.

Logistical Nightmare

When you prepare for a large-scale event, the amount of logistics will likely be of equal magnitude. Imagine whatever you need for an event, such as printouts, badges, gifts, writing materials and devices but multiplied by the number of attendees Having a lot of guests for your event will definitely take a toll on you. This brings us to rule number 1: more is always better than less. Always plan for the event with buffer time and extra materials to ensure that you have more than enough to correct any unexpected hiccups that may occur prior the event.

Where possible, always do a site inspection before hand to find out the little details that might make or break your event. Are there any physical obstacles or restrictions that might limit your setup such restricted access to the loading bay, or narrow walkways? Decide on your mode of transport and arrange for it in advance and arrive earlier than expected

Technical Faults

Despite all the run throughs and sound checks, a constant worry is that things may still go wrong during an event whether you like it or not. How then do you prevent or minimize it’s occurrence?

• Rehearse with all aspects of your events—you want to know that they can all work well together and the transitions are seamless
• Round up all your crew from technicians to support staff to quickly troubleshoot and fine-tune any problem areas
• Find a solution—Quick thinking and resourcefulness is key
• Plan for a backup- Always have plans B, C and D ready to be deployed at any moment

Manpower Shortage

Suppose you made a detailed manpower allocation for the event and still find yourself having underestimated the number of people needed at the event. It’s too late to regret not delegating more people to work on that day. This happens more often than we think, when we try and save on the number of personnel for the event or decide to deploy more people for another event. This leads us back to rule number 1: more is always better than less. Always plan a little more than you think is necessary for unexpected moments such as these. Even if you end up having a few loafers idling around the event venue, at least it is better than having your personnel scrambling around the venue in an unprofessional haste. You can never be over-prepared.

At the end of it all, when someone asks you: “How was your event?”

You can cheerfully reply: “Uneventful”.