Events are taken to a new level when you begin to build social and interpersonal relationships. And the last two years have shown that you need to develop the following skills to successfully adapt to changing events: hard and soft skills.
Fluency in foreign languages, working with technology – these and other technical skills refer to hard skills. Soft skills cover those aspects that are related to personal qualities – communication, emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, and adaptability.
Event managers possess multiple qualities at once – their importance has been revealed during a pandemic that has tested the industry like never before. To solve problems, you need to make quick decisions and strategize ahead of time.
According to a PCMA (Professional Convention Management Association) study, just under a third of event planners cite soft skills as the most important to develop because with them a professional can succeed. They are required to work in an ever-changing environment. According to McKinsey and Company, 69% of companies place more emphasis on skills development today than before the pandemic.
The following are some of the soft skills needed by event professionals that impact success and competitiveness and ultimately the company itself.
Empathy
This quality is often cited in job requirements in various industries. As the work in the sphere of organizing and holding events is aimed at motivating and involving people, this is where specialists must develop empathy; career success directly depends on it.
Past practice has taught that you need to be able to put yourself in other people’s shoes in order to understand the changing needs for safety and comfort. Bringing people together is a big part of what makes an event ambitious. An online, in-person or hybrid event has one goal: to connect participants.
To understand the importance of relationships, you need to have an empathy skill. At any rate, building communication with current or potential clients is the main goal of our work.
Creative problem solving
The ability to act quickly is a key tool in the arsenal of event specialist. Today’s reality only emphasizes this. New tasks appear all the time – for example, to hold two events in one, covering both face-to-face and virtual audiences at the same time.
The number of potential visitors has expanded to a global scale, but the level of competition has also become higher. The reason is that the whole world of events is open to people, and territorial restrictions are gradually disappearing. The best way to stand out is to offer a creative solution. The use of new technologies to translate the planned events into reality also requires an unconventional approach.
Effective communication
Communication skills have always been at the core of the basic skills of an event manager. Customers, suppliers, speakers, landlords, support staff – all rely on the words of the organizer in their actions. In addition, most companies now work remotely, so communication happens digitally. Clear, consistent communication across different communication platforms is critical. And the event manager is the author of the event.
It’s important to competently communicate the goals, objectives and format of the event to stakeholders. This is necessary from the time the budget is approved to the allocation of responsibilities among the organization’s departments, which have some responsibility for the outcome.
Listening Skill
This skill is considered the flip side of communication. Because event managers work to shape a unified process, they must be able to gather feedback from attendees and know their needs. Getting an event strategy aligned is not always easy. Therefore, it is important to hear the needs of stakeholders and do what is necessary to meet them.
This soft skill helps the professional understand the desires of the participants and find the detail that will improve the planned outcome. Not everyone can understand their own needs, much less the needs of others. It is important to develop the skill of active listening.
Collaboration
Event manager is like an orchestra conductor – he sees everything going on around him from a bird’s eye view and knows how to work with individuals and groups to get the best results from them. You need to speak the same language with each team member to easily arrive at the overall desired results. For example, to successfully broadcast an online live casino game, you need to set up processes on the set, talk through all the details with the host, and set the rules for the players.
The organization of the event is not a separate group, as it used to be, but different departments of the company. Therefore, managers have to move quickly from one task to another, while taking into account the needs of the participants.
Sales, marketing, sponsorship, management-each has a role in making the strategy effective. And the executive moves between them and contributes as if he were part of each group.
The field of events is constantly evolving. In this article, we’ve listed just a few of the soft skills you need to be successful in this segment. Measuring and assessing skills is not as easy as understanding a candidate’s hard skills, but focusing on training and developing agile skills in your team will pay off in the long run.
