Tell me about a time when.....

Tell me about a time where you've had to deal with a situation where things didn't go to plan...

We've all been asked that question at least once at an interview. Especially if you work in the live events industry, it’s one of the standard lines of questioning. And yet, every time you’re asked it, you are transported back to that moment in your career that knocked you for six; where your voice catches in your throat and you have to take a deep breath before you tell the story.

So here we are. Seven days ago, I proudly posted to this site that this was #CivilServiceLive day; a day that 49,000 civil servants were looking forward to. 

We had six virtual streams of live content, 86 interactive sessions, 400 speakers, 130 volunteers. And ZERO output.

Read that again. Nothing was broadcast live on day one. A year of meticulous planning and hard work and all we had was a collective, spinning wheel of doom and a heavy sense of disappointment and deflation.

So what do you do in that situation? Well, one of my first managers, a wonderful woman called Diane, was a wizard when it came to managing difficult situations. And now, when things are going wrong, I conjure up Di and her approach to everything: how do we fix this as quickly and easily as possible? 

It comes down to three things:

1. Pick yourself and the team up, 
2. Get some perspective and 
3. Problem solve.

And that’s what we did. At the end of the day, nothing really bad had happened: no one was hurt, no one’s life was in danger. IT WAS GUTTING - don’t get me wrong - but do worse things happen? Yes, they frequently do. 

Equally, no one on site was to blame: a tech failure of this magnitude was out of our hands, and no risk registers or mitigation plans could fix this now. Boost morale, blast out some Whitney Houston and identify the positives - in this case, we were still able to record all the content - and implement a solution.

From a total failure to launch at 08.30 on Wednesday morning, we were delivering live sessions with audience interaction by 3pm. We used the same solution on day two and had more than 120k viewers across 43 sessions that day. The team is amazing and continues to work to promote the excellent content on demand and increase engagement.

Until last week, the most difficult event I've ever managed was one of the first events I was responsible for - back in 2007. A black tie dinner for 500 people, hosted by the Vice Chancellor of the University of Birmingham, that was literally washed out. I'm talking about rainfall so heavy that the caterers couldn't make it on site, winds so high the champagne reception (and associated glassware) was blown over and floods so severe that 380 of the guests were not able to attend. 

Wanna talk about an epic fail? This was it. 

Did we deal with it? Yes. 

Did I learn how to pivot swiftly, lead a team to find a solution that worked and deliver the best we could in the situation? Yes, I did.

Did I ever want to experience anything like that again? ABSOLUTELY NOT. The reality, of course, is that working in events means you will always experience some unexpected problem. But it’s how you deal with it that makes all the difference.

I look back on that as the event that made me as an events manager. The one that provided me with the skills and perspective I've used and honed at every event I've been responsible for since; an interview example to end them all. If you can deal with that much broken glass while wearing a floor-length gown, you can deal with anything.

Being an events manager is like being a swan; looking serene and remaining calm under pressure while you’re kicking for your life to keep everything afloat. The variety of events I’ve led and delivered has afforded me a front row seat to some wild situations - working with children, military veterans, animals, students, ministers and celebrities - all of whom, in any combination, can cause chaos. Lost a child at an international commemorative event? Yep, done that - and turns out our crisis plan was fit for purpose. Gun-man loose on a site with 3,000 delegates? Yep. A march that becomes a riot? Sure. Verbally abused, broken bones, close protection officers - you name it, I’ve probably dealt with it. That and vomit. Loads of vomit. 

Most issues come with a quick fix, some are dealt with time and again, but all come with some learning for the future. 

So what have I learnt over the years? An “epic fail” is only as epic as you allow it to be. In “being more Di”, I can see that nothing is ever as bad as it seems, that when things go wrong, the people I work with are great and we all want to find a way to solve the situation. At the end of the day, everything feels better when you can get to the point where you’re able to laugh about it. 

Are the CS Live team there yet? Maybe not. 

Will we get there? Absolutely. 

Soon we'll be laughing about this in the same way I casually joke over a pint about twelve police cars pulling up at my event to arrest the man with a gun.