Event Staffing: How to Build an All-Star Events Team

One of the hardest and most important elements of leadership is building a team that you trust — a team that you can delegate to and know things will get done successfully. Experienced staff, from promotion to the box office to the gate, are critical to creating the perfect experience for your attendees. Hire the right people, and you’ll be set up to run a smooth, professional event — and position yourself to grow.

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It’s two months before event day, and ticket sales have picked up, but so have the attendee questions — who is on point to answer them?  It’s three days before event day, and rain is in the forecast — has anyone prepared a back-up plan? It’s the day of your event, and the lines are longer than you expected — how can you reallocate security and staff?

One of the hardest and most important elements of a successful event is building a team that you trust — and a team that can scale.

Download this ebook to learn how to:

  • Pinpoint the must-have skills your team can’t live without
  • Identify gaps on your team
  • Scale your team as your event grows over time

Preview

Common challenges of building an events team

Rule number one of building an events team: Don’t act like a superhero. Much as you might try, you can’t carry the burden of your entire event alone. Whether your team is small but mighty, or large and in charge, it’s your job to hire a team who can get the job done. Unfortunately, putting together an events team isn’t always simple. Read on for three common challenges of building a team — and what you can do to ease the stress.

Mistakes event owners can easily avoid

Managing an events team is time consuming — and expensive. Here are three common mistakes you can easily avoid when building your events team.

The roles you need on your team

Whether your event has 100 or 100,000 attendees, your core events team will always be working hard. Regardless of the size of your staff, here’s how your core team should be built. Keep in mind that for large events, each of these roles might lead their own sub-teams; for smaller events, one person might play more than one of these roles.

Filling out your team

If you’re a large festival or multi-day conference, you might have resources to hire additional full-time staff. If you’re a small pop-up, you can hire other roles as part-time positions.

How to find your next hire

Ten years ago, word of mouth was really the only way to find candidates. Event management wasn’t really considered a profession, so resumes weren’t being passed around. But over the years, live event experiences have gained more respect in the industry. In fact, some brands have a branch of their company where live events are a huge part of their revenue.

Interview questions for your next hire

Once you’ve found viable candidates, how do you make sure you hire the very best? Industry veterans Joel Strycharz, senior field operations manager at Eventbrite, and Tommy Goodwin, director of field services at Eventbrite share their secrets to hiring the best events professionals. Read on to find out the questions you should ask when hiring the next member of your events team.