We Jamaicans all love a great event, especially parties. We love dressing up, the sparkling atmosphere, the delicious food, the hot girls and the gorgeous men, the pulsating music — well everything that goes into making for a fun event. Event planning is serious business and it is definitely not as easy as it looks when it all comes together nicely and everyone leaves with a great experience. At the heart of a successful event are the people behind the scenes, the hired hands (as well as the financial backers — aka the sponsors) who make it pop. This article is about the people skills needed by planners and the hired help who assist us to plan our events.

Events are in the main draw of the communicator’s arsenal. It is our top gun because it is here that we get to meet our clients and potential customers face to face. It is here that the industry shows the people its heart and soul or lack thereof. It is here that our customers either fall madly in love with our products or run like a bat out of hell from us. So, it must follow that at the top of that list of the skills which persons who co-ordinate events must have is the ability to communicate effectively, especially if you are a members of the team who is on the event’s ‘front page’. Being in the thick of things as the event unfolds comes with great responsibility as to the audience you are the face of the event’s owner.

If you are on the customer service end of an event and have to touch base at any point with me and my friends in your audience, people, even the downright annoying ones must delight you — you must be helpful and love to deal with and talk with us. It has been my unfortunate experience to have attended events where it is just that one person who manages to spoil it for the rest of us and leave us with our teeth on edge. A simple act from a churlish usher or a rude waiter can erode your business’s reputation.

You must be able to communicate easily and gain co-operation from us through kind words and gestures. If you are rude and have anger management issues, an event’s front page is not where you belong. Ask the boss if you can work in the kitchen or in the back office, arranging silverware or counting coins. Never underestimate these roles as they too are important.

The last thirty years of my life have seen me, as a participant in many local, national and international events from varying perspectives: as a newspaper reporter, a hired help, an employer of the help and sometimes a reluctant ‘distinguished’ guest. I have relished all the experiences from each and every viewpoint. For example, it was from one of these vantage points that I witnessed personnel at Kings House efficiently provide ‘Home Sweet Home’ lamps when a power cut threatened to de-rail an official dinner during Queen Elizabeth’s visit, segueing us into a warm and fuzzy and memorable moment. The ability to effectively manage others, in the audience and within your staff, when things go awry as they inevitably will at any event, is a key skill in event planning. Something will always not work out as planned during the execution of an event. The bulk of your audience might arrive late because of a competing event at a neigbouring location and so there might be more empty chairs than people, jeopardising your start time and your event’s flow. How you manage the people with whom you work and your audience is a telling mark of your professionalism.

Finally, the one skill that will always separate the good from the excellent professional is your ability to effectively brown nose. The staging of any event is an act of artificiality: where the world created by the event planner will collide with that of the audience members for that brief four hours. Naturally there will be persons attending who in your real world you would perhaps cross the streets to avoid but here where you work, as the hired help, they are your honoured guests. Treat them as you would Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip at any Diamond Jubilee event. Unfortunately, some of us have an annoying habit of sizing up and pre-judging others and treating them according to this personal perception. So whereas they will trip over themselves to usher in the ‘name brand’ guests they pay scant regards to the other ‘lesser’ invitees. This is usually a recipe for disaster. You must be an equal opportunity brown-noser to be successful. Cultivate it if you must and if you feel repulsed at the end of the day, a nice long bath in Milk River usually gets your sanity back.

Yvonne Grinam-Nicholson, (MBA, ABC) is a Business Communications Consultant with ROCommunications Jamaica, specializing in business communications and financial publications. She can be contacted at: yvonne@rocommunications.com. Visit her website at www.rocommunications.com and post your comments.