Your event venue will only be as successful as the team behind it. One of the most important parts of running an event is ensuring you’re set up with the right team members. This should be one of the first points event and venue managers focus on before even considering selling their spaces. Â
In this guide, we cover the various roles involved in running a successful event, that is to say, who makes up the event management team. With this knowledge, you’ll know how to hire to boost your ratings as a great event venue.
What Does the Event Management Team Do?
The event management team ensures every aspect of an event runs smoothly. A lot goes into event venue management, with many processes and operations taking place. The entire event cannot be managed and planned by a single person. Instead, a successful event relies on a combination of disciplines and areas of knowledge.
The entire process involves bringing together every different department of a venue to host an occasion that functions cohesively. A solid event management team ensures all the details of the day, from venue marketing and event design to managing attendees and operations, run seamlessly.
Full-service event management may focus on a broader team of planners, organizers, and venue managers who cover every aspect of the event planning process and its execution.
Why Your Team Matters
Quite simply, your team is the secret sauce to your venue. A strong event management team covers back- and front-of-house processes to ensure each element of in-person events is executed flawlessly. They know what needs to be done and how to do it. They work together to create a perfect function that provides a positive client and attendee experience.
How to Build a Winning Event Management Team: Tip - Appoint the Right Roles
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to putting together a solid team. The ideal people will depend on the venue and events you host.
That said, producing events typically involves various departments working together closely to ensure success. Your event management team must cover each of these departments so you have the right expertise on hand. Â
If you’re building your event management team, here are some critical roles and event coordination functions the team should include.
Venue Manager
The venue manager is the main person in charge of running the venue. Their job is to ensure every function and department of the venue operates smoothly and works seamlessly together for a successful event.
A good venue manager has diverse event management skills to cover their various responsibilities. This includes being client-facing and possessing leadership ability. It also involves excellent organization and time management, strong communication, and a solid grasp of essential business processes.
When event planning companies find a venue to work with, the event planner will work directly with the venue manager. While the planner handles the specifics of how the actual event will take place, the venue manager ensures all of these areas function smoothly in relation to the physical venue.
This could include confirming the venue has the right equipment available and that different sections are appropriately staffed and set up (see our guide on how to organize an event). The venue manager also overlooks the other teams within a venue - like the kitchen and front-of-house staff.
Notably, the venue manager ensures the venue operates as a profitable business. They work closely with finances and budgeting and are usually responsible for making payments.
Event Planner
While the venue manager is focused on the physical venue, the event planner handles all the details of the specific event (see our handy event planning checklist for information on what to track). This includes preparing and briefing each team member and event area for the occasion. In general, the two work closely together.
The event planner is in charge of things like branding and marketing events, organizing the event schedule, attending corporate meetings with clients, and executing the client's brief. Whether dealing with private events, corporate events, digital events, award shows, non-profit events, themed parties, or anything else, the event manager sees to it that the client is happy and achieves their perfect event vision.
This role focuses mainly on event production and ensuring the teams the venue manager overlooks fulfill the event's specific needs. For example, the event planner will reach out to the venue manager with a particular menu request for the event, and the venue manager will coordinate this menu with the kitchen team.
Team Captain
The team captain leads the team of service staff at an event. They are in charge of directly managing the bar and wait staff and acting as the point of liaison between these teams and the client.
The team captain supervises staff during an event and prepares them for facing clients and meeting specific requirements the event planner has laid out.
Team captains need to be hands-on. Instead of overlooking or managing from a distance, this person gets involved in the event when required. They might jump behind the bar during a busy event or join the waitstaff during service. Their main goal is to assist these departments in delivering a positive client experience.
An event team captain is a crucial member when it comes to the actual success of an event. While the other management roles are more focused on planning and preparation, the team captain is focused on the actual operations during the event day. If these operations aren’t properly executed, issues can arise. Â
The team captain must work closely with the head chef and back-of-house staff to connect operations with the front-of-house. However, the team captain is not in charge of managing back-of-house operations. Their role is purely focused on what goes on in the section of the event that attendees experience.
Chef/Head of Kitchen
Food and catering play a pivotal role in all kinds of events, and the head of kitchen is in charge of operating this according to plan. The head of kitchen works closely with the event planner to create a suitable menu. They work with the venue manager to stock the kitchen and make it functional, and with the team captain to check that operations between the kitchen and service staff function properly.
The head of kitchen can lead a large team depending on the size of the event and venue. Their main responsibilities include planning menus, ordering stock and managing inventory, overseeing quality control, managing the kitchen team, and making sure that all kitchen operations are performed efficiently.
When it comes to the back-of-house operations at an event, the head chef is generally considered the main leader in charge. Their role is primarily operational, but they also work closely with the venue manager to ensure the kitchen functions profitably.
Creative Committee
The event’s creative committee focuses on turning the vision of the event into life. They style the event, plan the decor and floor plan, and match the event's overall look and feel with the client’s brief.
Sourcing decorations and installations for the event is on the creative committee’s to-do list. They also work alongside the head chef and team captain to create menus and bar experiences that match the event’s vision.
While the creative committee's primary responsibility is getting the event aesthetics perfect, they also play a central role in working with the client. They guarantee appropriate brand experiences and see to it that the overall mood of the event matches what the client aims to achieve.
Operations
Event operations connect the back-of-house processes with the front-of-house. They tie together everything in the event planning process and ensure it rolls out smoothly on the event day. Part of that is checking every department has what it needs to do its job and that the event schedule operates on track.
These event pros might also assist event attendees with tasks like registration procedures. The people are based on-site and can take care of a wide range of tasks that help the event function properly.
Using Tech to Work Collaboratively as a Team
Whether it's a small or large event, having the right team makes all the difference to the event’s success. Although, even the most experienced and well-managed teams might struggle without the proper tools.
To perform at their best, event management teams should be equipped with great event tech. Event tech ties together all the different team members, making planning and organizing the event more transparent and straightforward.
For example, software like Perfect Venue makes all the critical venue management details available in an easily-accessible dashboard. The platform streamlines communication between venue managers and clients and can make tasks such as generating event documents and assigning jobs much easier.
By using a tool like this, event teams can collaborate more efficiently. This is critical, as event professionals are truly successful when they can work together. On the other hand, disconnected teams with siloed operations can cause a severe disruption in event planning and operations.
Conclusion
Before even thinking of hosting an event, your venue must be set up with the right event management team. This is essential for ensuring all the different departments and functions involved in an event operate smoothly. Of course, this team needs to have the same goals and be able to collaborate and work efficiently with each other.
Because events rely so heavily on the people who run them, even the smallest team issue can cause a major disruption in the event. This is why choosing and planning out your team carefully is vital. Building a team should also involve setting it up with the right tools and software so everyone can do their jobs as efficiently as possible.
To try Perfect Venue, sign up for a 14-day free trial. We guarantee it will save you time and supercharge your team’s event management.
