Page 237 - DMGT304_EVENT_MANAGEMENT

Event Management

Notes Communication is critical throughout the Event Leadership process, and the project management
system will help you facilitate clear communications with stakeholders from many different
fields. Through meetings and documents, project management provides a transparent system to
promote better communications. Many corporate and government organizations already utilize
project management systems; therefore, using this system will help you conform to those that
are already in place in your clients’ organizations.

Accountability is increasingly one of the more important outcomes of any event project. The
project management system helps ensure accountability through the continuous outputs that
are required to update the progress of the event. O’Toole and Mikolaitis believe that, through
the adoption of project management systems, you will be able to increase the visibility for the
profession of Event Leadership. If your work is often invisible until the actual start of the event,
the project management system will provide a continuous flow of information charting the
progress of the event as it develops and will provide your client and others with an overview of
the complexity of your job.
Training is critical for your staff and volunteers. By providing them with a project management
system to follow, you simplify and expedite this training. The project management system will
put your staff and volunteers to work more quickly and will motivate them to consistently
perform better over the life span of the event. In addition to facilitating training, project
management competency helps develop transferable skills that will help you attract the best
people. As a result of working within your project management system, your staff and volunteers
will learn a system that can be transferred and applied to a seemingly infinite number of jobs
and careers.
Finally, as an event project manager, you will establish a diverse body of knowledge that
may be transmitted to other organizations. In addition, you will be able to accumulate and
refine the knowledge you receive from specific events and related projects from around the
world.
After the event has been thoroughly defined, the work that will be required must be carefully
analyzed. During this decomposition period, the work that will be conducted for the event is
broken down into smaller units of work called tasks. This process is described in project
management as the work breakdown structure (WBS). Tasks or activities are generally singular,
independent entities that may be individually managed. They also have specific start and finish
times. Finally, they require clearly assigned resources (labor, finance, time). When several tasks
are bundled together, they form a work package. A milestone is the accomplishment or
completion of an important task.
Scheduling is perhaps one of the most valuable advantages of using a project management
system for your event. Tasks are usually divided into two types of scheduling systems.

Parallel scheduling refers to tasks that may be performed at the same time. Serial scheduling
refers to tasks that must be performed in a sequence, such as when the lighting company must
first hang the lights before the rental company places the tables and chairs for a banquet.
Timelines for your events may benefit from a pictorial tool, such as the GANTT chart or bar
chart, which demonstrates the major tasks that need to be accomplished.
Creating and documenting the critical tasks and critical path are major responsibilities for the
event project manager. The ability of the event project manager to list, prioritize, and sequence
the tasks will ultimately determine the overall success of the event from an operational and
financial standpoint. Influence diagrams and sensitivity analyses are used to mitigate future
challenges. The influence diagram is a chart that demonstrates through boxes and arrows what
tasks are interdependent on others. Most importantly, it clearly demonstrates that events are

232 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY