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Top 15 Event Planning Tasks to Delegate to Others

John Hunt, a professor at the London Business School, notes that only 30% of event managers think they can delegate. Of these 30%, only one of every three staff members say that they distribute tasks very well. Thus, only one-tenth of event managers have good enough delegation skills to cope with an event planning tasks list. What we offer is a way to discover how to delegate tasks effectively for organising events successfully with expert help.

What is “delegating”?

Delegating is a managerial quality that many event managers reasonably consider to be the secret of success. People who know how to decide which tasks to delegate more often achieve success in event management. The event manager who is keen on delegating has everything they need to be a good event organiser.

Reasons to delegate your event planning

Event manager tasks may be numerous, and so are the reasons to delegate tasks. You simply can’t cope with everything alone. You have to delegate a portion of your work.

You can’t do everything

Resisting delegation is not recommended, even if you think that you can cope with everything all by yourself. Keep up to date with the progress of delegated aspects and focus on results, rather than procedures.

Assigning important tasks to your staff will make them a valuable part of the team

By delegating tasks, you allow your employees and company to grow.

It will eliminate an enormous amount of stress

Delegating mitigates stress for both the manager and the team members. You specify the outcome you desire to the people you trust to deliver, establish control, identify the limits in the workflow, provide sufficient support, etc.

You will have more time to interact with your sponsors and attendees

When the event organisation process is distributed among different team members, you will have more spare time for the things you do best or things you can’t delegate. Sponsors, attendees and partners should be highly prioritised.

Your events will improve

You get the information necessary to solve problems regularly while delegating. When organising the work, the knowledge is constantly updated, so you should spend time training your employees and the services they provide will become better. Thus, your events will improve.

You will improve and grow as a professional

Your team members receive freedom to act within a set responsibility framework and are given the opportunity for professional growth; as a planning manager, you get an excellent result.

Whom to delegate tasks to?

In order to delegate to the right person, the factors to consider here include:

  • The experience, knowledge and skills of the individual as they fit the delegated task.
  • Do you have the time and resources to provide any training needed?
  • The individual’s preferred work style.
  • How independent is the person?
  • What does he or she want from his or her job?
  • What are his or her long-term goals and interests, and how do these align with the work proposed?
  • The current workload of this person, etc.

To delegate event planner tasks, try to imagine an employee as the perfect image of a delegate. If there is a 70% match, feel free to delegate. Errors will fit within the expected 30%. You’ll correct them in the workflow with the control points.

When to delegate tasks

Delegation should be a win-win. For this, you need to do it appropriately. However, you cannot delegate just anything you want. To determine when delegation is the most appropriate, there are some key issues to consider:

  • Does the person have time to take on more work?
  • Will delegating require the reshuffling of other responsibilities and workloads?

When you choose the right person, delegate your event planning and provide him/her with the resources needed, as well as the authority to do the work.

Tasks to delegate to others

The following types of work are usually delegated:

  • Routine work;
  • Specialised activities;
  • Private and minor issues;
  • Preparatory work.

When you first start to delegate to someone at an event, you may notice that he or she takes longer than you to complete tasks. That’s okay. This is because you are an expert in the field, and the person you have delegated to is still learning. The best tasks to delegate will be the following:

Getting RSVPs

This can be following a routine, such as sending them out on time, utilising an online invitation service, or providing alternate ways to RSVP, making the RSVP date prominent and urgent, providing some incentive for those that RSVP early and so on.

Checking the food and drinks

Checking out restaurants and other venues that attract guests with beautiful interiors, low prices, good advertising, delicious food and drinks, etc. can also be delegated to someone else. Otherwise, how can you be sure of the quality of the products offered?

Communication with vendors

Entrust the task to someone who has many useful contacts or likes communicating with people in the sphere.

Paperwork

Reports, contacts, licenses, bills and other paperwork may also be easily delegated. Invitations, flyers, tickets, and other printed work should also be done by someone other than the event manager.

Event registration

By using a program for organising events, your assistants will be able to easily create events, manage registration, and distribute the data on social networks, etc.

Event check-in

With the help of modern event check-in tools, it will be easy and safe to delegate the event check-in to anyone; even a child could do it!

Customer services

Create and diversify invitations, customise confirmations and registration pages, meet and check in customers onsite and so much more.

Walking the floor

You should assign someone competent to back you up and understand exactly what types of issues you are on the lookout for.

Checking with technical service providers

Apart from caterers, the band or DJ, the venue, the photographers, florists, and so on, you can delegate the task of technical support and final light/sound checks prior to the event.

Post-event responsibilities

Assign someone to track the progress of the event with real-time statistics, reminders and follow-up actions. Preparation for future events, export lists or duplicate repetitive events and other follow-up issues can be delegated out.

Apart from these ten duties, you can also entrust someone else with the following:

  • Budget control & payouts,
  • Deadline control & time management,
  • Research & survey work,
  • Other coordination, discipline issues & household duties.

Be patient: if you have delegated to the right person and you are managing the event correctly, you will find that he or she will quickly become competent and reliable; in other words, the trust is absolutely worth giving.

Tasks NOT to delegate

The event manager controls three major types of tasks: financial, strategic and administrative. The event manager decides what to do, but how tasks are done can be decided by your delegate. Often, tasks that can only be performed by a manager include two more groups of tasks:

  • New projects.

If you launch something that you haven’t done before, you personally keep abreast of any and all developments. Until the project gets on track, the task of the manager is to control the entire process.

  • Tasks that you personally like or are keen to see succeed.

There’s no reason to give up on something you do best or enjoy doing just because you need to delegate things. Keep your favourite things for yourself: communication with partners, customers or media, sending official letters, anything you like.

Delegation tips and tricks

In order to correctly distribute tasks among team members, look through the following delegation tips:

  • The first step is to decide which tasks can be delegated and which cannot. It’s worthwhile to leave only those tasks that are really important for the business to an event organiser.
  • Find out who you should delegate tasks to. In addition, the manager must trust the person who will perform the task.
  • Tasks and instructions given to employees must be correctly delivered and interpreted unequivocally. It will never be superfluous to make sure that employees correctly understand the task.
  • It is important to establish a specific deadline for completing the task and several control points to check on the progress.
  • Give trust and allow freedom of action. The feeling of being trusted will inspire the worker and help him/her become more interested and invested in the task.
  • It is necessary to delegate not only the task, but also the responsibility for its implementation.
  • Do not allow the team to shift the task back to the top manager. Let them either learn or leave.

Ultimately, the company should not sustain employees who do not want to learn.

Conclusion

At first, it may be scary to delegate: team members might not be able to cope, they will consider you incompetent, the company’s reputation could suffer, etc. Fears, however, slow the development of both the staff and the company. It is time to realise that delegation is not a fearsome beast that will only bring trouble. Delegation is one of the five main functions that a top event manager must perform. It doesn’t matter how many employees you have: 200 or 20, nor how large-scale the event you organize: 50 or 50,000 attendees.

GEVME will help you to cope with event manager tasks better. Get in touch with us right away.

Feel free to leave your own comments or suggestions below.

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