Top 16 Event Management Skills you need to be best on the Job

Top 16 Event Management Skills you need to be best on the Job

If you are in the event management industry or are interested in getting into it, you will need to develop certain skills and qualities to be best on the job and succeed in your career.

This post reveals top skills and qualities that can help you deliver excellent service as an event manager or other professional in the event management industry.

But first, let’s see what event management is about:

What is Event Management?

Event management involves building up event projects such as conferences, festivals and other large-scale gatherings. It is perhaps the most exciting and rewarding job on the planet.

Now here are the qualities and skills you need to be exceptional in service delivery:

16 Skills and Qualities to be highly effective in Event Management Jobs

1. Communication

Managers and other professionals in the event management field need to communicate effectively with a wide range of people they come across with in the course of their job, such as sponsors, audience, clients, celebrities, artists/performers, guests, vendors, fellow staff and crew, etc. in order to have a smooth operation of the event.

They also need to communicate with passion, have a genuine interest in people and develop the ability to connect with people. They should be nice to people, help them and apologize when necessary, run when they are needed, and appreciate each encounter they have with people.

Event management professionals should further learn how to communicate in a respectful way, accept criticism, and be open to new ideas.

In verbal communication, they should be able to explain the purpose of an event, effectively communicate ideas to a supervisor, client or vendor, understand and process information that is provided.

In written communication they will need to write down event proposals for a prospective client, write contracts with clients and vendors, create materials to market their firm, and send “thank you” notes to guest speakers and VIPs.

2. Teamwork

People in the event management occupation need to help others and be helped too. They need to work collaboratively and effectively in a team setting using a great team spirit and strong desire to make certain the progress of the event.

They also need to be happy to get along with the team’s decision, even if they disagree with it; commit wholeheartedly to the course, and develop the ability to take individual responsibility by doing what they are obligated to do without giving excuses.

3. Leadership

To be good on an event management role, you will need to possess remarkable leadership skills, with an inbuilt quality to lead people. Such skills are important to the success of the entire team. Only a good leader can guide a team towards achieving their common goal and make the event a yelling success.

The leadership fire in you kindles the passion and the ability to take charge of the flow of things, and help guide your team towards the end goal.

As a leader in the event management industry, you need to set the direction and communicate it with energy, belief, and passion, and set very high standards in trustworthiness, integrity, time keeping, support, etc.

4. Multi-tasking

At different phases of the event management process, there are a lot of tasks to be managed which may include negotiation of hotel contract, booking a caterer, interviewing rental vendors, exploring entertainment options, and meeting with the client to discuss potential guest speakers.

As a good event manager, you need to know how to effectively multitask and keep many aspects of the event going smoothly. Your success is determined by how able you are to focus on each task in your priority order without getting distracted by other things that are less important.

You need to learn to stay calm, focused and flexible in order to maintain the attributes you need to become successful in the multi-tasking process.

5. Organization

For you to successfully handle and make events, you need to be able to organize the event in a smooth way as expected. You need the ability to keep client timelines on schedule, keep budgets in check, recall details, meet deadlines, schedule deliveries and setups, and be on time with everything.

You also need the ability to manage multiple things at once using step-by-step checklists and the ability to focus on the big picture while keeping track of all the small details. You need to keep track of several tasks, multiple vendors, and continuously changing to-do lists while keeping your client happy.

To manage events such as annual conferences take more than a year so event managers have to stay organized all through the period. Event management professionals need organizational tools such as software for tracking registration, spreadsheets, and templates for forms. Figure out an organizational system that works for you and stick to it for successful management of events.

6. Time Management

You need the ability to prioritize things in order to be more productive and achieve more within a limited period of time. Remember that there will not always be enough time to accommodate everything you need to do as you have a lot to take care of.

If you are to prove your competence as a reliable event management person, you need to know how to make the best of your time by multitasking. You manage not only your time but the time of the team as well. You should therefore understand that event management is all about planning and re-planning, and managing time properly.

7. Creativity

Your uniqueness in this occupation is determined by how creative you are, and that gives you the ability to excel in your event management career. Creativity removes all boundaries and helps you to organize and present events in a creative way.

If you truly have an inherent ability to resolve problems and challenges creatively, you will become more successful in your career. You need to have lots of ideas and use your creative skills to transform those ideas into something tangible.

Creativity gives you the ability to take a vision and bring it to life. You need the skills to be able to develop a unique theme for any party you are organizing and come up with an affordable decorating solution that meets a small budget.

Creativity also takes shape in the form of problem-solving when facing the unavoidable problems that arise during even the most industriously, efficiently planned event. To sum it all, your ability to think creatively to find solutions to problems can make positive impact on the success of your event.

8. Flexibility

When you work with several people, things can go out of line or change without notice. In this kind of case, you need to be flexible in order to win the situation.

Event management professionals should be flexible so as to change course quickly when things begin to go unpleasant. Despite regular inconsistencies, they should be able to create amazing experiences and win challenges.

When event managers are ready to face any type of situation, they can easily think out ideas that will help them keep things flowing normal. They should learn to stay calm in order to maintain a smooth-running work flow.

9. Interpersonal Skills

Having great interpersonal skills will help event professionals to talk and listen to other people without any issues. This will help them to understand what the client needs and find ways to fulfill those needs or come up with various options.

It is quite essential that event managers develop interpersonal skills. When you have interpersonal skills, you will be able to manage your team or communicate effectively.

10. People Skills

Events are all about people, therefore a successful event management requires the ability to comfortably connect, understand, and build lasting relationships with high-level executives, government officials, vendors, sponsor representatives, customers, supervisors, supplies, event attendees, and co-workers.

To profitably work with this set of people, you should be able to quickly resolve conflicts and maintain a sense of humor. You need to try as much as possible to have fun with the work you do and with the people you work with, and you will see how they would want to work with you another time.

Remember to work well in teams and motivate them to work together and achieve a common goal. Not only working well, but you also need to communicate within the team or with clients and make your points to be clear and friendly.

11. Experience

In event management job, you are required to have at least 3 to 5 years of experience. You can gain experience through internships, but don’t expect to be paid much. You can volunteer to work as an event manager just for the purpose of getting experience.

You can volunteer with a local nonprofit and help to manage fundraising event, even if you work in a totally different field. You need experience because nonprofit organizations always need help.

People can easily trust you if you have a considerable amount of experience. Your experience will help you to face any challenges thrown at you. Also, when you have experience you will easily have a network of trusted professionals to call on when things get tough.

12. Passion

Your job may be stressful but you have to love what you do. There may be obstacles in the way of your success and things may seem lost, but genuine passion helps you to conquer all the challenges.

Instead of just trying to get through the day, passion will help you to be creative and achieve something out of your job. You need passion, if you really want to succeed in your job.

Passion is what drives you forward and makes you to be different from others. Being passionate about making wonderful parties and making every celebration as a memorable moment helps you to function as the energizer that the team needs to get motivated to work long hours and even weekends, when required.

When you work passionately, you can easily possess the zeal to overcome impediments and move ahead successfully.

Your passionate skills will give you the ability to see your job through to the end, and create an extraordinary experience for both clients and guests.

13. Active and Energetic

Your being active and energetic will enable you to stay lively during the whole period you execute an event. Sometimes, there may be no time to take a break while facing the ups and downs of your career.

Events can be extremely demanding, and if you want to host a successful one, you should be full of energy. You can simply deal with all challenges zealously and passionately when you are active and energetic, and even maintain a good event management standard that your job entails.

14. Detail Oriented

It is very good for event managers to look into things and try to get everything right, using their keen sense of observation to stop little things from blowing up and turning into big issues.

Detail-oriented skills help event managers and others in the occupation to ensure that everything is properly organized and put in place for the event, looking after all the important aspects like arranging audio-visual equipment, handouts and catering, and coordinating with other parties and speakers.

15. Consultation Skills

The skill of consultation helps you to build a team of people around you, who use their skills and knowledge to manage the event successfully.

These skills will help you to get information you need about what is required to make a successful event.
As you are able to consult as many people as possible, you will possibly become a triumphant event manager that acquires considerable amount of knowledge, and hopefully increase confidence.

You need to consider your personality and communication skills as a vital factor on the outcome of the event that you manage.

Your consultation activities include making a lot of telephone calls, writing letters, and making personal visits, and also showing enthusiasm and diligence to win much support.

16. Technology Skills

The availability of technology has made event management to change greatly, making event professionals to learn how to use the present technology to work perfectly.

Event managers should know that the use of technology makes them to get things done faster and also makes them to be more productive.

These days, professionals have access to a wide range of event management software such as venue management software, event ticketing software, and many others that make event management job easier.

Event experts can combine a lot of management software and mobile apps to help prioritize responsibilities and sort things out. A good event manager will know how to use these resources optimally, whether it is the standard Microsoft Office suite or the more sophisticated event management software and apps.

Event Management Skills for Resume

If you are writing a resume for an event management position, you can quickly create a captivating competence or skills section by applying the event management skills and qualities provided above if you have them.