Depending on the event and where you work you can either be working alone or with a big team, both of these have their benefits and challenges but if you can learn how the team fits together and who needs to be responsible for which task, along with understanding what the expectations are for the team, this can make it easier to work together. Events can be a high pressured environment with many deadlines and tasks needing to be ready for a certain time without fail, which means it is really important that the team is working together.

Types of teams

If you are running a larger event you may have several different types of event team structures, where individuals have different roles focused on certain tasks for the event, for larger organisations you may have an overall manager or lead who supervises the team, with an Event Operations/Logistics Manager focused on the organisation of the event, potentially you can also have an Event Registration Manager who will only work on the registrations of delegates and guests, if the event is large enough then this may also include a Catering Manager, an Exhibition Manager for a large number of exhibitors, a Content Manager who looks after the programme, and likely several Assistants or Executives working to support the managers on this event, potentially you may also have someone who looks after the sales for the event and with another individual for marketing the event. This can seem like quite a large team but when you have a large exhibition with thousands of people attending it’s important the roles are broken up, so that each member of the team can focus on their roles and not be overwhelmed by such a large workload.

When you have smaller events, these can be run by individual Event Managers, typically taking on the role of registration and exhibitors or on some occasions content. As the level of work will be lower this can be handled but one person with some support from other members of the event team.

The type of team can also be dependent on the type of event, for example events with larger audiences or a big production setup,  like live events, may require more people to manage the different aspects whereas a small training event can be handled by an individual.

Depending on the type of team it is important to establish who is responsible for which tasks, this is so that the team can run efficiently and nothing is missed when planning and running the event.

Something to also remember is you may also have temporary staff who are employed either directly or through an agency to help out on the days of the event, although they aren’t part of the event organising team it’s important they understand whats required of them on the day to ensure they also working as part of the team.