r/EventProduction

Disclaimer: the study was based on my own biased network, but I'm open to talk to more professional event planners.

The biggest takeaway: organising events is still surprisingly manual.

1. 7 out of 14 said finding or booking a venue is painful.

Finding a place is easy. Finding the right place, checking availability, understanding the conditions and actually booking it is another story.

2. 11 out of 14 are not using any event planning app.

Their events are managed through group chats, Google Forms, spreadsheets, private messages and whatever else gets the job done.

3. Even using event planning apps does not necessarily make things easier.

One organiser described a lot of friction and hecticness while trying to manage events with existing tools.

4. Private party organisers generally feel their current workflow is fine, until they retell what actually happened.

Among the 7 organisers who mainly organise gatherings for close friends, 5 mentioned annoyances such as last-minute cancellations and constantly having to communicate updates.

5. 13 out of 14 are organising on a not-for-profit basis, but many still need to collect money.

They need to cover venue, food and other shared costs. Yet payment tools can become surprisingly cumbersome when the organiser is an individual rather than a business.

What surprised me most is how much event organisation still depends on people manually connecting chats, forms, payments, venues and attendees.

Event organisers, which part of organising still creates the most unnecessary work for you? I'm constantly interviewing, so if you have something to share, I'd love to have a chat with you!

Hi! i want to ask for advice on how to send an email to a big brand, my plan is to present them a solution for a problem they have in marketing by changing their concept in our fashion event. I’m part of a team that produces electronic music events and this is our first time creating this. Would love any tips! thanks

I've run ops for a tech conference and recurring cohort programs for a while now, and there's a pattern I can't stop thinking about.

The event ends. Everyone's exhausted. There's a debrief, maybe. Sponsor reports go out late or not at all. Attendee data sits in a spreadsheet nobody opens. The community that was buzzing for three days goes completely quiet. Then four-ish months later everyone panic-restarts like the last event never happened, digging through old emails to remember which vendors were good and which speakers to invite back.

Meanwhile that dead window is when sponsors decide whether to renew, when attendees decide whether they're coming back, and when all the momentum you paid for quietly evaporates.

So I'm curious what everyone else's off-season actually looks like:

What do you do in the first 30 days after your event?

Does anything happen with your community between events, or does it go dark?

What falls through the cracks every single time?

Full disclosure: I'm building in the event software space, so part of this is research. But I've lived this problem as an organizer and I genuinely want to hear how other people handle it. If you'd rather talk than type, I'm happy to do a 20-minute call and I'll share back whatever I learn with the sub.

I'm looking at a few platforms to replace Evenium for our corporate events. We mainly organise seminars and a few clients events, so I need sth for invitation, check-ins and bagde in particuar ...

What have you tried recently ?

It’s the space for our wedding, there’s a lot of old wood in there, I’m terrible at estimating square footage but it’s a place that fits 100 people with a bit of a squeeze if that helps. It’s long and narrow with double doors on both sides that open to the outside. I was just wondering, are there best practices for addressing the smell? We can’t have candles. Air diffusers? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Im currently in the planning stages of hosting a massive party for high schoolers planning around 300+ people. I have an idea of majority of the things i will need such as security dj and more im just wondering what are some things i should lookout for and to have the best turn out. Security would also be needed. Can anyone help share some insight?

Hi everyone! I am planning a corporate gala and we have previously done manual check in but this year we are looking to upgrade to having our guests self check in with iPad stations (with staff around to help if needed). My boss is requesting I find a software that once you submit your name and email address, your table number will pop up on the screen. I’ve done some digging and I can’t seem to find software that does this but he says he’s been to events before that use this so it’s got to be out there. Thanks!

I’m taking the CMP in October, and I’m reading/annotating the manual, have a quizlet with terms/definitions and some study exam questions I found online, and I’m studying on Pocket Prep.

I’m a bit worried that I’m not studying enough, and since my work experience is limited (I just barely passed the qualifications to apply by a few months), I wanted to know how you guys are studying/studied for the new exam?

I handle facilities for my church and I need to order around 40 folding chairs for an event space we're setting up there. All the church chairs i see on amazon look identical to the commercial chairs going for way more tho. I started looking into the listings and theres a bunch of specs i dont fully understand. I found bizchair while googling and their site has more of a breakdown so at least i have something to compare against, but still feels like im guessing so can anyone help? Tryna to figure out if theres price gap or if theyre marked up, and what separates commercial grade folding chairs from consumer grade ones

I've been thinking about this while working in event technology.

Whenever AI and events come up, the conversation usually goes toward the big stuff like AI planning events, replacing event staff, automated venues, etc.

But I'm starting to think the more interesting changes might be much smaller.

Things that remove little frustrations for attendees or save event teams from repetitive work, without anyone really thinking about the technology behind it.

I'm curious what people working in events, attending large events, or building event tech are seeing.

What is one part of an event experience you think AI could genuinely make better?

And what is something where you think AI is completely unnecessary?

Hi!

So I recently took a new role in corporate events having worked in comms previously, and want to fully move into events (the dream is live events) so I was wondering if there is a good course people can recommend?

I’ve seen a few online from the event academy etc, but wanted to know if people had any first hand experience on doing something like a level 4 or 5 diploma?

Thanks for your help!

I just had my first experience organizing a festival and the biggest headache and time consumption was finding sponsors.

I’d like to hear from the community on what to expect to pay sponsorship managers for fests that range from 2,500 to 10,000 in attendance.

Since there is very limited information about the CMP exam online, I wanted to share my experience and hopefully help anyone who is currently preparing for it.

Based on the comments here, I subscribed to the Rocket Prep app and mostly focused on practicing the questions there instead of reading the entire manual. BIG MISTAKE.

The exam was heavily based on the manual, and honestly, very little felt like the app. I can say that the questions on the app were A LOT harder than the actual exam.

For my exam, there were no scenario-based questions. The questions were mostly based on memorization, so I highly recommend reading the manual front to back and making sure you know the definitions and descriptions.

There were only 3 math questions, and they were fairly easy. They were mostly about calculating profit or being given a profit percentage and having to determine the registration fee.

Unfortunately, I didn’t pass the exam. 😔 💔I barely managed to afford the exam fee in the first place, so I’m honestly not sure if it’s worth taking it a second time and paying all the fees again.

I hope this helps someone preparing for the CMP exam. Good luck to everyone studying! ❤️

https://preview.redd.it/hris9deotkih1.png?width=1504&format=png&auto=webp&s=169210b3f9e85dbd3ecf62dc2e52ce77cbbb642a

I'd love ideas on how to finalise a wedding reception floor plan in this venue.

Please ignore where it says 'cocktail bar' and 'DJ' in the top left side (those are indicative and could go anywhere).

Looking for:
- headtable of 6 people facing a 6x6m dance floor
- DJ
- buffet station
- 15 round tables of 10-12 people each

I was thinking something like this:

https://preview.redd.it/8uxarcsptkih1.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=18b2542a9d228351232f751ef152f83145c97c31

I’m 22 and graduated college this year. I’m trying to build a career in live event production, with the eventual goal of being backstage at concerts and hopefully touring with artists doing AV/production.

Right now I’m freelancing with multiple AV/event production companies and taking gigs when I can. I’m getting experience and making connections, but I’m still trying to figure out how to go from doing various local events to actually getting into the concert/touring side of the industry.

I’m also still living with my parents right now. I’m grateful I can, but obviously I want to eventually move out and support myself. I’m trying to figure out how people in this industry managed that transition, especially when starting out with inconsistent freelance work.

For anyone who works in event production, how did you actually get your foot in the door? Did you start with local production companies and venues and work your way up to larger events and concerts, or did you take a different route? I’m basically trying to figure out what I should be doing now to eventually get to the point where I can make a living doing the kind of production work I actually want to do.

Hello! I was recently at a conference event and there was a live painter. He painted the room scene live at the moment.

I was in awe of his work, and I help a lot of organizations plan events so I really wanted to get his info. but he was so focussed in his work I didn't want to disturb him.

I think if I emailed the person who held that conference event, I could get the live painter's info.

But the thing is, I don't know the conference event's host. I have their email but I've never spoken to them and i've never spoken to the live painter. So, I don't want to come off as creepy or like a scammer.

I'm really new to the event-hosting industry, so is it acceptable to cold email the host to get the contact info of the painter? Is this networking or just plain creepy?

i’m 18 years old and i’ve recently trying to get local bands to start playing in a music bar i regular. I set up an instagram account to promote the first gig and to explain how we (me and my friend) are the only non profit organization that is non profit.

What i didn’t expect was the overwhelming amount of bands from all throughout the country wanting to play a show through our organization, at the music bar. We’re based somewhere in Europe and so far i’ve also gotten 2 UK bands wanting to play and one band from Switzerland, The account has barely existed for 2 weeks and was supposed to be for the local community only. I don’t want to say no to anyone because it’s awesome to see people are interested and it makes up for a really fun night out, but i have no clue how to do this. especially because it’s non profit.

So far i’ve put in about 30 hours of ‘graphic design’ and general communication because it’s the first show and im still figuring it out as i go. All good, except for how my friend hasn’t been doing much, my names under it so i do have to make sure things work out. I also work part time and i’m a full time university student so time is very limited for me.

Is there anyone that knows a way to figure out the planning without getting extremely overwhelmed by the amount of things that are your responsibility? I’m sure there’s some kind of theory/system/plan i can put in action for this, but i don’t know what since i have no clue what i’m doing so far anyway.

any advice is highly appreciated!

I work as a marketing specialist and help coordinate our attendance by sales at events. We have big conferences as part of that and it seems my duties change based on the sales team and how needy they decide to be.

So I'm wondering what duties other marketers perform for events and what duties lie with the sales team.

Mine include:

• Setting up the coordination meetings - we have anywhere from 3-8 for the big conferences
• Ensuring attendees register and book their hotel/airfare
• Vendor communications
• Managing PP presentations
• Managing SWAG, booth, signage, and collateral to be shipped out
• Other logistics for sales attending the event
• Uploading the attendee list for ROI tracking
• Now added: Special handholding for sales by setting up and managing a conference calendar for them, sending the meeting invites for their conference meetings that I do not attend to people who have no idea who I am, researching places for sales to hold the meetings at the conference, calling restaurants to make and alter dinner reservations for sales meetings while at the conference, and *other duties as assigned because my manager volunteers herself and me to go above and beyond assigned marketing duties.

Okay maybe this is just venting about my experience at my current employer but I'd also like to know if anyone else is in marketing and what their duties entail.

Any suggestions? All policies I can find don't cover subcontracted staff, despite it being very normal in the event world to bring on casual one-off event staff (barely event sole proprietors, certainly don't have their own CGL). Wondering what insurers others are using or how they are navigating this!