So, You're a Comms Professional Who Suddenly Became an Event Planner?

As a Communications professional, event planning and partnerships are most likely part of your job description. Whether it was in your offer of employment or not, you are expected to deliver on events.

Sometimes, you may not realize how hands-on it is until you resume at a company where you have to be fully hands-on; you set up banners, decorate, schedule emails, ensure guest arrival, plan for catering, update website content for the event, etc.

Some companies work with event planning vendors or agencies. However, if you find yourself in an organization that does not accommodate event planners in their budget, you will experience exhaustion, especially if you have other projects running concurrently.

I need to say this one thing though - you are doing your best and no, you are not lazy! Trust me, you are already doing a lot of work ensuring PR and media coverage, planning and executing internal and social media announcements, email blasts and registrations, developing agendas, and managing key stakeholders for the event, so adding the actual on-ground work can be exhausting.

Exhaustion can lead to low productivity, and you might lose your excitement. But here is what you can do to ensure that you are keeping up and smashing it:

1. Delegate & Ask for help: Please note that I did not say "Dump your work on people". Delegate tasks to other team members and ask for help where necessary. Just because you are a Comms person does not mean that you should do everything by yourself. If you need help, ask. Ask politely because it is not anybody's job to help you. However, the end goal is for brand/product awareness, acquisition, or revenue which everyone within your team is working toward also. So delegate and ask for help.
2. Outline every task: No, you are not a machine; you will forget some things, and the best way is to write every task, even the tiniest things. I have personally trusted my brain too much, and this has caused me some mistakes, I find that writing even the tiniest detail helps. For example: Turn the audience light off and increase the stage light during the keynote speech. You would think that you would remember when the Keynote speaker stands up to speak ??. Don't trust your brain too much, just write it down and assign it to whoever should do it.
3. Never blame a mistake on your teammates: There can be lots of regrets and lots of blame, especially if something did not go as planned. So the conversation should never be "It is your fault"; it should always be "What are we learning from this or what would we have done differently? We, not You.
4. Get over yourself, we all make mistakes: As the Comms person at the centre of the event, you will be tempted to dump all the blame on yourself. You might over-criticize yourself for something you had no control over. Blaming yourself is not synonymous with taking responsibility. Do not blame yourself, only take responsibility.
5. Ask for feedback: Always ask for feedback. You never know where the learning point is. It is not all done and gone; ask for feedback to create a better experience for the next event you plan. You want to be sure that you are improving.

As a Communications Professional and Event Host, I have both organized events and also worked at events as the Host/Compere, and to be honest, the pressure is always high for anyone at the centre of the planning. As a professional MC, I have had to cover for event planners by swinging the flow of events to ensure that the disruptions are minimal. I also have seen organizations hire an event planner, and there were still mistakes during events, which confirms one statement - Nobody is perfect.

So, yes, you can improve, but you are doing well.

Cheers to all the Comms Professionals.

If you know one, mention their names in the comment section.