Fyre Festival takeaway lessons round 2. The latest doco 🔥 has so many things to critique that we thought it would be fitting to expand our event knowledge into a 3 part mini-series.
You could write a book on how much of an abomination Fyre Festival really was but for the purpose of part 2, we want to guide your attention towards the importance of event team management.
To start you off, an example of how not to manage your team would be leaving 200 inexperienced volunteer workers with the impossible task of building a festival in a week👀🔥. As you can image it isn’t exactly going to provide much hope, let alone a sense of comradery.
Inexperienced workers and unattainable goals played a big part in Fyre Festivals demise. Nobody knew where they needed to be and with Billy McFarland steering the ship, the mentality soon became everybody for themselves. The scenes were more relatable to a zoo than a festival and with no team management in place, the environment quickly turned hostile.
Without clear attainable objectives, experienced staff and communication channels you're practically operating as a one man team. By adopting management techniques such as these you'll be able to create a solid base to work off when building your team environment.
As an event planner, it’s highly unlikely you will experience something like the Fyre Festival but if you’re wanting to run a successful event, make sure you have the right foundations set up to ensure your team can complete their objectives efficiently and effectively.
To help you create an effective team culture, check out the following best practices.
Firstly ensure you hire the right staff. Check their background, you don’t want another Billy McFarlane being the forefront of your operations. Before you start your hiring process, think carefully about the skills and experience that is required to carry out the tasks you've created. You should also make sure they’re the right fit personality wise, as you’ll need to check if they align with your short and long-term business plans. The same treatment should be given to suppliers, investors and partners.
When creating the job description, clearly outline what the role will entail so that there is no confusion later on down the track. You might not think it is necessary but having a proper recruitment process will ensure you’re being presented with the best applicants.
To help you get the best candidates, check out The Applicant Manager (TAM). The team at TAM are the experts in recruitment and talent acquisition.
Having goals are a must if you want to see your event succeed but making them achievable is the key. If your objectives are unattainable for you and your team you’ll all be fighting a battle that’s already lost. For example, an unattainable goal could be something like hosting a festival on Pablo Escobar’s island for 40,000 people 👀🔥.
Moral of the story is don’t bite off more than you can chew. As shown with the Fyre Festival, one bad event can ruin your brand and reputation so live within your means. If you want to stick to your long-term business plan then focus on creating objectives that are within reach for you and your team.
After you’ve assembled your team and created objectives it’s important to establish communication channels that will help build a healthy team environment, which will, in turn, create optimal performance.
There are numerous software platforms out there that will help guide your communication operations. Slack is a great option because of its ability to combine group chat, email and instant messenger.
As an event planner, this is a great tool to heighten productivity in a user-friendly environment.
Slack is also very compatible with other tech platforms, such as Blerter. Depending on your requirements, slack also has a diverse range of upgrade options to fit your needs.
As the event planner, you wear the crown, meaning your team look to you for guidance. It is your job to direct them and ensure they’re trained accordingly to handle the tasks at hand.
Although communications channels might be an efficient way for getting things done it doesn’t mean the teams using them will perform well together. To get everyone on the same page make sure you nurture these relationships through group activities and exercises.
To wrap it up you need to be consistent with everything you do. Treat all your staff the same way, equal treatment = a happy team.
When setting your goals, make sure they’re attainable so you can set expectations for your team from the beginning. Consistent objectives will create healthy team dynamics.
Consistency is imperative to your event and if you start to change things up too much like Billy and his team your foundations will fall apart.
Not everyone on your team is going to agree with your management style but creating a healthy group culture will definitely win over a lot of them. If you can use similar methods to the ones above, you’ll have the control you need to effectively manage your team.
Remember that these principles are there to be tailored and personalised to fit around how you like to do things rather than a strict step-by-step guide to success.
Effective team management isn’t meant to be a complicated process. If you stay true to these fundamentals and your own, you’ll unify your team in a rewarding and enriching environment.
