What I’ve Learned from Working in Higher Education Events

By Katie Evridge

Before we can ever understand such concepts as sponsorship, risk management, marketing, and other topics that IFEA highlights through their webinars, Event Management School, and core classes, we must understand the basics of event planning. Based on my experience working in events at two universities (in two different cities) and one community college, too many professionals I have run into don’t have a foundation of the basics let alone the mindset to explore more complicated ideas. Many of the “planners” are either professors or office staff that are assigned to plan a meeting or event as part of their job description that says “other duties as assigned” which means too often they have little to no experience in the event world. For those that do have some experience, they can get caught up in all the fun parts of events: entertainment, speakers, food, and swag that the foundation is completely forgotten. As an Event Coordinator, I advise that we need people to get back to basics.

A. The Who, What, When, Why, and Where of Your Event

1. You need to know what type of event you are planning with an estimated number of people before you can determine the type of location. If your attendance jumps from 40 people to 400 people, or your event changes from a lecture with no food to a reception, that is going to make a difference in your options for a location.

• Real World Example: Within a span of 24 hours, a group moved their event from outside to inside, then to back to outside again. They were doing an art project and based off the chemicals used, needed circulation. Their original location was outside, but with the high probability of rain they thought that they could move the project into their office. However, when they checked with the company providing the materials, that is when they learned about the circulation, they ended up moving it outside again.

2. You need to know your audience.

• Real World Example: I had a group that was planning a meal right before Thanksgiving for students. During the summer when they reached out, they estimated that they would have two hundred guests. However, a few days before the event, I checked with catering, and they had only ordered food for forty. I checked with the student organizer to verify what the setup needed to be, and she said that whatever was easier for our setup staff. Well obviously, setting up for forty is easier than setting up for two hundred. However, my supervisor was so frustrated with the department at that time that she had the setup crew set up for two hundred. In the end only about fifteen showed up.

B. Understanding Basic Event Terminology and Policies

Your event planners or coordinators should have a basic understanding of terminology and policies. For example:

1. Lecture means no chairs and workshop means tables and chairs (If I got a $ for every time I have had to describe the difference, I would be rich.) In the beginning of my career, I would have groups show up and complain about their setup because they didn’t know the difference between the two, which was when I learned to ask the question as to if tables were needed as well.

2. Even meetings require information

• Unless you are having a meeting in a conference room where you require no AV and only need the door unlocked and the lights turned on during normal business hours (which in my experience is rare) even meetings require some sort of setup. If you need to use the AV in the room and are not familiar with the equipment, then you need to make prior arrangements with the AV team to make sure a staff member is available to have the equipment working before the start of your meeting.

3. A plated meal means that typically you have servers who bring you the food and therefore there is no need for extra tables for food. A buffet is where you have extra tables in the room for people to serve themselves.

• Real World Example: I had a client that I was working with on her setup as it needed changing, and I had asked if she was still planning to have the food served or if she would now need banquet tables as she noted on the original event request that the event would be served. Her response was ‘what does that mean?’

There is a difference between the start and end time of your event and the setup and teardown time of the event. Operations need to know what time you want the venue set up by and how much time it will take for you to clean your stuff out of there so operations can start cleaning and tearing down the space. In some cases, if you don’t show up or show up late for your setup time, operations may think that you are a no-show, and they will start flipping the room for the next event.

If you are going to show a film in a public setting you must have a license for the movie (even when streaming) – despite hearing from a professional that this rule does not apply to streaming services (obviously this person has not checked copyright laws).

Make sure you know the operation hours.

• Real World Example: The coordinator for commencement needed some items picked up from the warehouse on campus and loaded into a truck and brought down to the convention center for commencement. The arrangements coordinator told the people that were loading the truck to start loading 30 minutes before the warehouse opened, and no prior arrangements had been made to get into the warehouse early.

C. How to Handle Changes to Your Event

While the event staff is there to help and can accommodate some last-minute changes, deadlines are there for a reason. Be it catering, the type of setup, technology needs, access to the location (especially outside normal operation hours), need for storage, etc. these changes all affect the staffing of your event especially in university settings where many of your workers are part-time employees or students who are limited in how many hours they are allowed to work.

• Real World Example: I had a client that was renting tables and chairs for a career fair instead of using the venue’s tables and chairs. The event was on a Friday evening, and she asked if the vendor could come pick up the tables and chairs

Saturday morning. While officially we were closed on the weekends, due to an event going on outside our building, we did have some staff on site for limited hours on Saturday, so I told the client that was fine if the items were picked up during those Saturday hours. Then one to two days before the event, she informs me the vendor is now picking the items up on Friday evening but could never give me a specific time. The evening of the event I ended up staying as it was not fair for my student to have to stay longer than necessary as that had not been part of the original arrangements leading up to the scheduling of the students. Also, the client had told the vendor to come an hour after the event was over instead of the end time of the event. When the vendor showed up, all the tables and chairs were stacked, and the vendor commented had they known that everything would be ready for them they would have come earlier.

If changes are involved, you may need to contact multiple departments. Thankfully at one university, my department shared offices with our catering department, and between myself and catering we got in a good rhythm of checking in with each other. If you have changed your catering numbers, moved location, or cancelled the event completely and only told catering that does not mean that operations are aware and vice versus as they tend to be separate departments. Similarly, for those events where multiple people are involved and potentially could be making changes, share that with your operation people. I don’t know how many times I had someone reach out to me about making some changes with an event, and they were not my original point of contact, and after some back and forth finally determined that we were talking about an event that was already booked and not a brand-new event.

D. Deadlines or Lack of Deadlines

What is the deal with colleges either (a) having no deadlines regarding attendance for their events, or (b) on the rare occasion when they do, especially when it comes to events with food, the deadline is three-four days before the event?

When dealing with events (especially those inside) your space does have a max capacity. It is always easier to cut down than try to add seats. While if you book an event a year from now, I don’t expect you to know the exact attendance, but once we start to get a few months and especially a few weeks from the event at some point I need to know your final number. Many event planners are known to criticize campus’ catering companies. However, I will defend them as I have witnessed the crazy last-minute requests that they deal with.

E. Don’t Assume Anything

For those annual events, don’t assume that the staff will be the same. Saying just do it like we did last year doesn’t help when new staff are involved. Gone are the days when many people stayed in a position or with a company until they retired. Companies are not known for sharing records of individual employees’ responsibilities.

Due to COVID-19 many organizations and venues did invest in upgrading their technology to accommodate virtual or hybrid events. However, don’t assume this to be true. At one university I worked at they had not done so, so our virtual options were limited if you only needed to see the speaker but did not need the speaker to see the audience. For those places where technology has been updated it may not be a simple switch of a button to make your technology work, but bringing in additional equipment, more staff, and depending on the space changing your setup.

Don’t assume that your venue has storage. Colleges rarely have enough storage to hold their items let alone decorations, swag, name tags, etc. You may have to just deal with coming in early or staying late. Welcome to events, it’s not a 9 to 5 job.

F. Dealing with Operation Staff

Once you have scheduled your event, hopefully part of the reason that you have chosen your venue is not only will it work for the type of event you have and works with your budget, but you will trust the staff. Therefore, if that is true, listen to them!

• Real World Examples: o If they say you do not need (3) days to set up a ballroom for twenty people (even if it is high profile group) listen to them! o If they say along with other vendors that external lighting and sound can be set up the morning of an evening event and then torn down in the same day, listen to them! o If they say your setup or tech cannot be done in your given space, and they have given you alternative options, listen to them! o If you are annoyed by the constant phone calls or emails from operation staff asking you for information such as your run of show and payment, then simply give them the information they need at the time they need it, and they will stop bothering you.

It’s easy to get bogged down with all the pomp and circumstances that events entail, as that can be the fun part. However, where events have the tendency to go wrong is in forgetting or not understanding the basics. With more and more events available for attendees to choose where they invest their money and time, you would hate to lose a potential guest or client because you could not get the basics right.

Katie Evridge works as the Education Events Specialist for American Retirement Association. Her past experience includes Event Coordinator at the University of District of Columbia, Administrative Specialist at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, and Event Technician at Pellissippi State Community College. In addition to working on her CFEE, she is interested in learning to make events more sustainable and is planning to earn her Sustainable Event Professional Certificate.

www.kaliff.com