How to Effectively Communicate with Your Event Team

Planning an event is often a group effort. You may be delegating tasks to your team while also collaborating with vendors, venues, co-hosts, and other outside parties. 

The key to managing it all: Communication.

Effectively communicating with your event team will ensure that your event runs smoothly. It will also make life easier for you and for each member of the team. By setting clear expectations for everyone, you’ll head off confusion and keep the team motivated and happy.

Before you start doling out tasks, read up on these four tips for effective event communication.

1. Set clear expectations.

First things first: Have you set clear goals and objectives for your event? If not, don’t skip this step. You need to be able to articulate what you hope to accomplish with your event, whether your aim is to build community or sell a product. Communicate these goals and objectives to the rest of your team so they can get on board with your game plan.

From there, start assigning roles and responsibilities to team members. One way to break down duties is to think about what needs to happen before, during, and after the event:

• Before the event. Who will update the events and ticket pages on your website? Will you send an email invite to attendees? Do you need someone to coordinate paid or word-of-mouth marketing efforts to promote your event?
• During the event. Do you need someone to handle registration and sign-in? If money is changing hands, who will be in charge of the cash register or payment device? Logistics vary across events, so spend time thinking about all the duties you need to assign to ensure a smooth event for your team and your guests.
• After the event. Who will be handling immediate event clean-up? It could be you, a team member, or the venue. Assign a team member to send a post-event survey to attendees, follow through on unpaid invoices, and schedule time for your team to come together and review what went well and what you can improve for next time.

2. Use the right communication tools.

You’ll likely rely on multiple communication tools and channels to communicate with your event team and spread the word about your event. Here are some tools to keep in mind:

• Email. Keep your emails organized as you correspond with your team, your venue, and your vendors. Consider creating a subfolder or label so that you can easily pull up all the important emails related to your event.
• Project management software. Whether your team uses Asana, Monday.com, Airtable, or any of the other myriad project management products on the market, your team’s system will serve as a hub for assigning tasks, monitoring deadlines, and staying accountable.
• WordPress plugins. When it’s time to spread the word about your events, take advantage of tools for your WordPress site. Our free flagship plugins—The Events Calendar and Event Tickets—let you promote events on your website, sell tickets, and collect RSVPs. Our premium Promoter plugin makes it easy to send automated emails to your guests. If you’re planning a virtual or hybrid event, use Virtual Events to embed live streams or video conferencing within your event.
• Automation tools. If you use The Events Calendar plugins to manage your events, you can also use our premium Events Automator plugin to connect your calendar and tickets to thousands of the most popular apps via Zapier. Make it easy for your team to handle every stage of the event planning process by connecting and automating all of your tools in one place.

3. Encourage open and honest communication.

To foster a culture of openness and transparency with your team, lead by example. Encourage each member of your team to share feedback and ideas—and be open to their ideas and suggestions. Show that you value your input by trying out their ideas and setting your own ego aside. 

Consider scheduling regular check-ins with your team to talk through any questions, concerns, or ideas in a non-judgmental environment. And when concerns come up, address them promptly.

4. Manage conflicts like a pro.

This goes hand-in-hand with open and honest communication. Try to keep your emotions out of conflicts—it can help to seek out mediation or outside help if a situation escalates. Give your team members, vendors, and other collaborators the benefit of the doubt, and try to handle difficult situations with grace. Not only will this help you avoid an awkward situation on the day of your event, but it will help you preserve important relationships with your event team.

Communication: A key to event success

The way you communicate—or don’t communicate—with your event team can make or break the success of your event. Start the event-planning process with specific goals and a plan that you clearly communicate with each member of the team. When everyone is on board with your goals, they’ll be engaged and aware of how their individual contributions matter to the success of the event.

Looking for ways to simplify event management for yourself and your team? Check out a demo of all of The Events Calendar plugins to see our free and premium tools in action.