An Adaptive Workforce: Event Planners / Coordinators
In this addition to our series “An Adaptive Workforce”, we are looking into the skills and characteristics possessed by event planners and coordinators.
The coronavirus breakout across the world brought an end to months, and in some cases, years worth of planning of events. Music events, business exhibitions, and all types of physical gatherings were all cancelled for the foreseeable future. Not only this, but planning future events was also thrown into jeopardy with no signs on event bans being lifted.
Characteristics Common Amongst Event Organisers
Working as an event coordinator would have likely meant that achieving this job was preluded by lower positions in events planning and education, potentially to a degree level. The role of event coordinator and the pathway you take to become one, including potentially a degree, would all have had an effect on building the traits and characteristics necessary to due that job.
Below are just 3 of the keys traits commonly displayed by events planners / coordinators:
Decision Making
The decision making characteristic defines an individual’s ability to adopt a strategy, be analytical and remain open minded to new ideas and concepts. It is also dictates how decisive a person is, are they able to make an important decision quickly or will they dither, therefore wasting valuable time.
Event organisers, whilst often dealing with one event at a time, will likely have various decisions to make within that event, often at the same time. Time is of the essence to event organisers and decisions made need to be for the best of the event and the goal of the event, whether that be to increase sales, networking or awareness etc. Decisions made will need to be based upon analytics, but also creativity and the brand. There is a lot to take into course when making an event decision as it can impact the overall success of the event!
Intensity
The intensity characteristic depicts how persistent and urgent a person is in their job role, essentially helping to give an overall of a work-rate. Those with a high level of intensity tend to work well in projects, getting involved in multiple stages throughout a projects lifecycle.
Even with months of planning, the closer the event date looms, the more intense the process becomes. The pieces of the event start to come together, it no longer looks like a concept and is growing towards becoming a physical reality.
Both decision making and intensity alike are 2/5 of the conscientiousness scale in The Big Five. This scale refers to a person’s ability to be careful and diligent. This is a brilliant trait to have as it signifies good organisational skills in combination with a high level of efficiency.
Focus
The focus subscale is one of the five subscales of the emotional stability scale. Focus identifies the ability to remain focused on goals and objectives even when things go wrong or take an unexpected turn. It is the ability to get things back on track when they look to be derailing.
Focus can also be about emotional control. It is the ability to see things aren’t going to plan and have an analytical and calculated response, as opposed to letting emotions get the better of you. In event planning, it is quite rare that the initial plan remains 100% throughout. Many budgets and projects can change along the way, and focus will ensure that they are dealt with swiftly and efficiently.
Redeploying Event Organisers
Event planners have a plethora of skills and characteristics that have been enhanced throughout spending time in the industry. These skills and characteristics can be transferred to be successful in the following roles:
Project Managers
Project managers require a high level of decision making and focus. Much like an event, a project can easily take a turn away from the original plan and a great level of decision making will be required in order to navigate through the difficulties.
Events planners will adapt to this role well, already having experience of planning strategies and utilising creativity and analytics in order to achieve results. Events planners will also be adept at communicating with external parties, a skill that can be incredibly useful when project managing.
Charity Fundraiser
A charity fundraisers role is to encourage people and organisations to donate money for their cause. A charity fundraiser needs to be a good communicator, and good at decision making. They can often be tasked with managing their own contacts and sometimes their own events in order to raise funds. It share some similarities with events management in that respect.
Working in events management will have already provided many of the traits and skills in order to redeploy into a charity fundraiser position. The ability to communicate well with external stakeholders is paramount, combined with the ability to stay focused on the end goal and remain intense throughout the process.
How We Redeploy
At Inpsyght Consultancy we test for Decision Making, Intensity and Focus by using MAP. MAP is based upon the Five Factor Model, testing for all 5 scales, including all 25 subscales.
Using this test, we are able to see how a candidate scores in many personality characteristics, including the previously mentioned traits. With this we can cross reference these skills to the new industry to understand where their strengths and weaknesses lie.
To learn more about the psychometric tests we provide, use the following link: https://www.inpsyght.co.uk/solutions/
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