The need for quality events with good thematic content has been long recognised in AEGEE and last year, the Events Committee (EVC) was created to help the event organisers achieve just that. As the next step, the EVC decided to organise a workshop at this Agora to create a discussion amongst members from different locals about what makes a good event, share their experiences and hopefully give them some new ideas which they would put to use in the future.
Clarifying priorities and expectations
The workshop started with a discussion about the priorities of organisers and the expectations of participants in regards to an event. Marit Veeber from the EVC was very happy to see that everyone agreed upon the content being the organisers’ top priority, but it was also agreed that different participants come to the event with different expectations, and whilst the content part may be the most important for some, others come for company and the social programme.
Do’s and Don’ts
Then the topic was changed to giving tips and tricks, and the participants of the workshop came up with following pieces of advice:
- Have clear task division among your team!
- Have a set time frame of all the things that need to be done during (and also after and before the event) – make sure that all members of the team are aware of this and stick to it
- Leave time buffers that are long enough between activities
- Make sure that the participants know whom to turn to when they get lost
- Double check everything
This last tip was mentioned during the second part of the workshop: risk management in event organisation. Then the discussion was continued with considering different things that could go wrong during an event and how recognising and addressing some possible issues before they arise (using common sense, of course) can help the organisers be much less stressed during the event itself.
Here are some suggestions
- If the event is dependent on some sort of outside factor which one cannot influence (e.g., the weather), it is always advisable to have an alternative activity which could be the replacement in case everything does not go according to plan (e.g., raining cats and dogs could ruin the prospects of a beach party)
- Inform the participants to bring their European Health Insurance Cards to the event, advise them to get travel insurance and know where the nearest hospital is
- Main organisers should also think about themselves and from the very beginning have a right hand person who also has all the info about the event so that the team has someone to turn to in case the main organiser, for some reason, is unable to perform their duties (e.g. illness, exams, travelling before the event etc.)
- while planning the budget, leave about 10% for unforeseen expenses – and also think about how this money is spent if non-necessary for emergencies (otherwise one might be asked to give it back).
Written by Marit Veeber, AEGEE-Tartu & Speaker of the Events Committee