Essay on the Event Planning Portfolio: How the Inclusion of Planning Documents Supports a Successful Event Delivery

This essay will describe how planning instruments like the Stakeholder Analysis, the Gantt Chart, Work Breakdown Structure, Risk Assessment, and a Volunteer Management Plan help with the successful organisation of the event.

The role of Gala Dinner and the Awards Ceremony event is to outline and evaluate how SMART objectives are used throughout the event. This means that each letter of the SMART criteria helps the event planners to focus on providing an overview of the responsibilities of the event. On completion of the event, it will be easier to evaluate the result if there have been a number of SMART objectives from the beginning of the planning process. The benefit of using the SMART framework is to outline the event concept, vision and mission statement of the event. This will enable Gala Dinner & Awards Ceremony to meet their planned goals by ensuring all areas of the objectives are met.

In relation to the planning process, it is imperative that events such as Gala Dinner uses a Theory, such as Locke and Latham’s Goal Setting Theory, to emphasize on motivating employees in an event setting. Research shows that using Goal Setting Theory can improve chances of success, clarity, challenge, commitment and feedback. According to Latham, G. and Locke, E., (1991) – Event Managers can present an important role in facilitating goal commitment in subordinates by persuading them that for goals to be both attainable and important, event managers can conduct normative information, showing that the goals provide opportunities for self-improvement.

The challenges of meeting stakeholders needs and expectations can make or break the success of a chosen business. It is imperative that stakeholders are managed using a specific strategy used by the event, so that the event manager can analyse strategies. The stakeholder theory suggests that by addressing the interest of stakeholders, an organisation will be more sustainable and perform better (Van Niekerk, 2016).

The Gala Dinner and Awards Ceremony event can use The Influence – Impact Matrix to analyze the stakeholders. The Influence is the ability of the stakeholder to stop or change the event and the Impact is the priority that is given to meet the needs of each stakeholder.

When an event portfolio is being planned, certain instruments and documents have to be put in place. Some of them are the Risk Assessment, Work Breakdown Structure and a Gant Chart. According to Pielichaty, (2017: 202a), “Risk assessments are documents that are created by the event organizer to record and assess the risks related to the event.” The Risk Assessment helps recognize the Gala Dinner and Awards Ceremony potential risks by identifying the hazards that may occur at the event. The person who is making it has to be competent to point out the hazards and to take precautions for preventing them. While there are similar hazards to most events, it is not recommended to use already done Risk Assessment from another event “as the event organizer has to take responsibility for their own risk assessment and management”. (Pielichaty, 2017: 202b). If an accident does occur at the event, the organisers can fill out a post- event risk assessment that can be “used to produce guidelines for the future and to improve the analysis undertaken for the risk assessments” – Tum, (2005).

The Work Breakdown Structure helps breakdown work components from key sections of the structure. For example: Client – Journalists UK and Event Organisers which has a breakdown of awards, sponsors, venue, event plan and volunteer management. The breakdown chart helps The Gala Dinner and Awards Ceremony structure the event accordingly. WBS is usually used by event managers to visualize organizational structures and roles – Pielichaty, et al., (2017:269a). The creation of a visual display of all the work that needs to be done can assist the staff in understanding the scope of the work, Pielichaty, et al., (2017: 269b) Once the Work Breakdown Structure has been made it can be used to create other tools for the event delivery, such as the Gantt Chart.

The Gantt Chart is an effective tool that arranges and estimates the most efficient and logical sequence to ensure that each task is carried out as estimated. Research shows that underestimating the time required, such as the length and timeline, can delay the event of fulfilling the scheduled tasks on time and will result in the Gantt Chart becoming ineffective Bowdin, (2012: 274).

The Gantt Chart provided in the Gala Dinner and Awards Ceremony portfolio shows the amount of work fulfilled in certain periods of the chart to the calculated time frame proposed. The Gantt Chart is an ideal plan to ensure that the event meets all proposed criteria before the event is scheduled to start. The proposed Gala Dinner – Gantt Chart will ensure that each task mentioned is fulfilled as scheduled on the event. In order for each task to be carried out effectively, each responsibility will be timed as specified to meet the opening date of the Gala Dinner event on 6th of February 2021.

Job Retention is a major issue for HR managers and needs to be addressed at all stages of the recruitment, induction and training process to ensure that volunteers have accurate expectations of the work and that the work will meet the candidate requirements (Wagen and White, 2014). The Gala Dinner event can ensure that the recruitment process provides specific expectations and meets the candidates’ needs. It is vital for the event agency to provide motivation for the volunteers to participate in the event because if the volunteers would like to work in the hospitality and events sector the candidates will gain relevant experience and personal fulfilment. The agency can benefit from having experienced candidates as it will allow the agency to land candidates in more of their roles.

Ongoing communication at all stages, from recruitment to close of an event, is vitally important in ensuring that retention of volunteers does not become a problem for HR managers during the execution of an event (Byrne et al., 2002). Therefore, a clear communication plan between the event agency and the volunteers is essential to ensure the volunteers have all the information needed and to feel valued participants in the successful execution of the Gala Dinner and Awards Ceremony.

In conclusion, having created these a Risk Assessment, Gantt Chart and a Work Breakdown Structure it will allow the event planner to be prepared as it shows that the event has conducted the required research beforehand. This will also enable the event organiser to look back on the charts and deliver the proposed points to stakeholders of the event. By preparing these three charts beforehand, the event agency is prepared and it shows that the planning has structure because, if there weren’t these documents the event would miss an important detail which could be a vital element of ensuring the event runs smoothly.

2.2 REFERENCE LIST

Bowdin, G., 2012. Events Management. 3rd ed. BH.
Byrne, C., Houen, J. And Seaberg, M. (2002). “One Team”, Communication World, p28-

Gardner, J.R., Rachlin, R., and Sweeney, H.W.A. (1986). Handbook of Strategic Planning. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

How to define Event Goals and Objectives that make an impact (2020) Available at: https://www.socialtables.com/blog/event-planning/defining-event-goals/

Latham, G. and Locke, E., 1991. A Theory of Goal Setting and Task Performance. Academy of Management Review, [online] 16(2), pp.212-247. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232501090 [Accessed 9 November 2020].

Pielichaty, H., Els, G., Reed, I. and Mawer, V., 2017. Events Project Management.London: Routledge, p202, 269

SMART Goals for event planners (2019) Available at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/blog/goal-setting-for-event-planners-ds00/

Tag Venue (2020) Whole Venue at the Old Finsbury Town Hall Available at: https://www.tagvenue.com/rooms/london/21457/the-old-finsbury-town-hall/whole-venue

Tum, J., 2015. Management Of Event Operations. 1st ed.Oxford: Routledge: p.161

Van Niekerk, M., 2016. The Applicability and Usefulness of the Stakeholder Strategy Matrix for Festival Management. Event Management, 20(2), pp.165-179.