10+ Sure-fire Strategies to Avoid Death by Committee
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Photo by Cayusa via Flickr
Due to the global economic meltdown, some organizations have cancelled corporate events. Others are using a variety of strategies to streamline their corporate events budgets including:
- closing event planning departments or laying off event planners
- laying off executive assistants, getting each executive assistant to support 2 – 3 executives, delegating their event planning duties to less experienced employees
- forming cross-functional teams of employees to plan and execute corporate events
Cross-functional teams provide an excellent opportunity for building the skill set of your team. If not thought through, there can be unintended consequences that can derail your corporate events. Some of the unintended consequences include:
- committees of junior employees tend to make decisions based on what is “fun”, not what is of strategic importance, doable, practical, or logistically advisable
- equal weight tends to be given to the vote of each team member regardless of experience, groupthink sets in and decisions get watered down to the lowest common denominator
- expectations of suppliers such as event planners, venues and caterers can be unrealistic and this places a strain on relationships
- the planning cycle can get thrown out of its usual sequence leading to delays and “spinning your wheels”
Here is a baker’s dozen of sure-fire strategies that every event planner would be wise to share with clients to help nix the “death by committee” syndrome.
5 Wrong Moves that Could Derail Your Corporate Event
10 comments so far This post is by Anne Thornley-Brown, President, Executive Oasis International, corporate event planning. Meet the rest of the team!
Many corporate events are derailed when committees or representatives from the client organization refuse to heed common sense advice from event planners.
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Some of the requests that corporate event planners receive can make us feel as if we’re entering The Twilight Zone. What is disturbing is the lack of a practical focus. Some client organizations appear to be particularly resistant to following the advice of professional event planners who are familiar with specific destinations. Instead, they seem to be interested in engaging firms that will work as order takers to implement their plans no matter how flawed. Even if they are considering an event in the wrong location, during the wrong season, with the wrong geography, and the wrong timeframe, some client organizations are not open to modifying their plans.
As the recession deepens, this seems to be increasing. It will become easier for prospective clients to find your competitors that are hungry enough for business to deliver exactly what they request. As an event planner who is interested in growing their business, it can be a challenge to walk that fine line between pleasing your client and giving them your best professional advice.
Here are 5 wrong moves to avoid no matter how much pressure you are facing from clients or prospective clients.
1. Wrong Location
A prospective client from the USA insisted on staying at an airport hotel. They then proceeded to request an activity that would take place in downtown Toronto. They simply would not listen to advice that, given traffic patterns, it would have been more prudent to stay downtown, even if it were just for the night before their planned activity.
Despite the fact that they wanted to explore the heritage areas, a prospective client from the USA insisted on staying at a beach resort for the duration of their time in Dubai. They would not listen to advice about where to stay for that part of their itinerary to avoid traffic gridlock. The company booked an event planning firm with no experience in Dubai. They had a terrible time and received numerous complaints from employees who were stuck in traffic for hours at a time.
A company from Quebec was interested in dog sledding during their January sales meeting. Although they were advised that it would take 2 hours to travel to an area with enough snow for dog sledding, they insisted on staying at a downtown Toronto hotel instead of at a resort in the Muskokas.
When planning an event, transition times and traffic patterns have to be taken into account. No group will thank you if they end up stuck in gridlock or stuck on a highway because predictable inclement weather has caused a 30 or, heaven forbid, 200 car pile up. It’s much better to encourage clients to plan their arrival and movements for low traffic periods. It’s also a good idea, to split the itinerary between hotels in different areas to give the group more comfortable access to certain attractions and activities.
