"More than meets the eye."
- Transformers I absolutely hate reading posts like this one about event managers. Yes, we are problem solvers. Yes, we are friendly. Yes, we can give you ideas on your next vacation.
A colleague popped by my cube area today and said something similar - that the first people he learned to befriend when he started working for our company were the admins and the event people. Admins know everything, and event people can get you the good shift for booth duty and upgrade your room for you.
Yes, those are great personality features of event managers.
But NO, that is NOT what event managers do. Event managers are partners in strategic planning and inserting the appropriate event opportunities that match marketing campaign goals. Event managers understand the business and the business messages. Event managers are experience designers for those messages. Event managers are financial geniuses. Event managers are forward-thinking. Event managers are confident and reliant upon their partners and vendors. Event managers are strong communicators. Event managers are expert project managers. Event managers are professional facilitators between multiple internal clients. Event managers drive the planning process. Event managers are customer service gurus. Event managers are brand ambassadors.
I'm sure the blog post that ruffled my feathers meant its tone to be complimentary and friendly and cute, as did my colleague with his comments, but I'm so tired of having my team put in a menial position doing other people's work, rather than driving the message and managing the experience.
Stepping off my soap box now. Thanks. :-)
1 comment:
Very interesting, CheshireCat! We're late to the game here, but your post sparked a thought: Many folks mistake the symptoms of a personality for the end-all, be-all. The cvent post, as you say, was meant to be warm and fuzzy, but it also made the potential mistake of listing things event planners *do*--and not who we *are.*
Thanks for the post.
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