As an events and association management company, one of our jobs is to support our clients with onsite event management.
When rallying an onsite team, there are a few considerations to make. It is important to consider which client the event is for, the number of delegates, and how long the event is. These factors help us decide how many members of our team to send to the event, and who is best suited to attend. Where possible, we aim to send members of the team who have worked on the events planning to help onsite. Our team all undergo health and safety training before attending an event. Additionally, our event managers work alongside the venue to complete risk assessments to ensure that everyone is in safe hands.
Registration and Set Up
When managing an event onsite, our team are always up bright and early to help the venue. This involves ensuring that the exhibition and any sponsorship materials are prepared and displayed, as well as the registration desk. Depending on the size of event, we may have anywhere between two and ten people manning registration. It’s important to ensure we have enough team members on hand to avoid long queues forming. Once the attendees are registered, our job then shifts to liaising with the venue to ensure everything is running to schedule. This includes making sure exhibitor and delegate lunches being brought out at the right time, and ensuring there are enough refreshments supplied throughout the day.
Speaker Support
As well as making sure delegates enjoy themselves, it’s important that we provide the event speakers with the required support to ensure they have a positive experience. Once speakers have registered, we make sure to introduce them to the AV team. This gives them a final opportunity to review their slides and make sure they are happy with their presentation. In the occasion that speakers are running to a tight schedule and need to head off early, we are always on hand to help them sort travel arrangements to get home.
Social Events
Once the main sessions for the day have finished, many clients chose to host social events for the conference attendees. These social gatherings can take many forms, such as gala dinners, award ceremonies, networking nights or drinks receptions. Social gatherings add another element as our team help the venue in setting up the rooms with the chosen décor. Our team will also attend the social events to make sure they go off without a hitch.
As well as manning conference-wide social events, we also attend dinner the night before conference with the client and speakers. These dinners are a great opportunity for the speakers to catch up and discuss their talks for the following day, as well as get clarification from the onsite team for any last-minute queries.
Personal Assistant (PA) Duties
When providing onsite event management support for our association management clients, the PA will join the event team onsite. However, their duties differ slightly when compared to the rest of the teams’ job roles.
When onsite at events, the PA will staff the associations own stand within the exhibition hall. These stands may offer delegates a number of resources, such as information on membership and education opportunities. As well as managing the stand, the PA will also attend and minute any meetings.
Supporting our clients through onsite event management is only a small part of what we do here at Fitwise. If your association could benefit from either our event or association management services, get in touch!
