What skills do event crew need?
There are so many different elements that go in to creating a successful event. One of the main considerations when organising an event is your event crew. Without your event crew, it is very difficult for your event to run smoothly.
Here we discuss the skills that event crew need to become a valuable part of an event’s successful delivery.
What are event crew and why are they important?
Event crew can be described as a team of people that assist in the logistical management of corporate and/or public events. Event crew can have a variety of responsibilities that will differ depending on the type of event, who is organising it and who ‘owns’ the event, and the specific role/s that the crew have been given.
Responsibilities
Some of the main responsibilities of event crew include preparing venues for the event such as setting up stages and exhibition booths, siting and building core infrastructure and even working as front of house staff members or operating tills. Whatever their specific responsibilities, experienced event staff are invaluable.
Specialist event crew
Specialist crew may also have the responsibility of setting up lighting and sound equipment, ensuring the venue remains clean and tidy and inspecting equipment for any damage against an inventory list. Event crews are an important part of any event, big or small, as without them it would be impossible to run a successful event. After all, you have spent months (and sometimes years) planning your event so it is very important to have professional, reliable and experienced event crew there for it to run smoothly.
Skills that event crew need
Having a highly skilled event crew for your event is very important. Below are some of the main skills that event crew need and what you should look out for during the hiring process.
Good time management and organisation skills:
Having good time management and organisational skills is one of the most important skills a member of an event crew can possess. Not only does your crew need to show up on time, but they need to be able to complete any tasks given to them in the time allocated and not slip behind deadlines. Remaining organised is therefore essential.
Multitasking skills:
Event crew won’t just be doing one job at a time so they need the ability to mutlitask. There are so many different elements to making an event a success so juggling and managing priorities is a critical skill! Depending on your event, many of your staff will be doing multiple tasks, some of these at the same time as others so they’ll need to be good communicators too and tell their stakeholders where they’re at ahead of time and put contingency plans in place where necessary.
Ability to provide excellent customer service:
For almost every event, every member of the event crew will have to meet your attendees or suppliers face-to-face, so having excellent customer service skills is key. Your event crew must be professional, polite, friendly and happy to help at any time during the event to help your attendees have the best experience possible. It’s also really important that if a crew member doesn’t know the answer to something that they are proactive in seeking out the answer, and following up where appropriate.
Ability to stay calm in high pressured situations:
No matter what, your event crew needs to be able to remain calm in a stressful situation. At a large scale live event such as a festival or sporting event, there may be lots of things to do at one certain time so being able to remain calm and collected is essential to prevent things from going wrong. Anticipating problems and taking steps to mitigate these, is a skill that experience event crew will certainly have. This comes from experience and is hugely valuable for event organisers who employ their crew.
Ability to follow orders and instructions:
A key skill for any member of an event crew is being able to follow orders and instructions from management. After you have organised the whole event, you need your crew to do exactly what is needed at particular times to keep it running smoothly. There will be times when an instruction may not be clear, so it’s important that the event crew feel empowered to ask the right questions at the right time to gain clarity and be able to carry out the task to a high standard.
In summary
At S3K we help our clients create brilliant event experiences. We can help you manage both large scale and small events including assisting you in hiring your very own event crew. Get in touch with us today to find out more.
