de Loredana Stancu, Business Developer Evenimente Custom

You might think that event organizers never get bored. Or that they experience new things all the time or get in contact with new people and challenges and all their days are packed with meetings, emails and phone calls. Also, you might think that they have loooots of fun.

And you wouldn’t be wrong at all ?

But I got to understand through my own experience that there is so much more than this.

Yes, indeed, we never get bored. No two days are the same for me and generally, in the world of event organizers – when we have our peak times, we stay in the office from the crack of dawn (not me, though, I am not a morning person) till very late hours (sooo me). And meanwhile… we have calls with our clients and collaborators, we discuss proposals and event scenarios, we have meet ups with our clients to get the best out of their events, we research for new ideas we can implement, sourcing locations and sharing the latest event incentives.

One of my favorite times is when we are brainstorming – maybe only to add a little something in order to customize concepts from our teambuilding license (the biggest in the world) and to better respond to client’s objectives or to find a whole concept that will be expressing the event theme, the visual & branding materials and all communication related to the event.

Because we spend so much time together in the office or at the events, I find the team to be very important. So many times, participants approached us just to let us know they admire the way we work and collaborate inside our team. And I know they mean it. Besides the advices we give to each other, the support when things don’t go exactly as planned (pun intended), the fact that we all look to improve the way we do things and that we have each other’s back (and also the clients’) it’s very important for me.

Another thing that I like is the process of organizing the event. Since I am part of the team that brings new clients in the Universum universe ^_^, I get to have the joy many times to watch amazing events blossom from simple and plain objectives, stated somehow vague like “we want to have fun” to complex events, that bring real impact in our clients’ organizations. Also, I get to collaborate with clients that know exactly what they want, and I become their consultant in how to put this more efficiently into scene and how to bring the “wow effect”.

Then, we elaborate a presentation, to expose the ideas that our team analyzed and tested in so many previous events (or not, which is sooo cool), we build the budget and we meet the client to share our ideas. The whole process is amazing, it brings challenges and we often find ourselves in situations when we make the impossible possible. And then there’s never just one offer. One call you are negotiating a location to get the best deal for one of your clients, the next one you are contacting an international speaker to put the cherry on top of your activity, then you give a brief to your colleagues from the Graphic Design dept. and also start a conversation with other colleagues about this new concept that you thought would work for one of your clients and so on. Does it sound crazy? Well – it is! ? But it’s also sooooo much fun!

I was starting at the beginning that you might think that event organizers also have fun. This is maybe the reason most of us are doing this and will keep doing it – putting aside all the professional rewards – it’s important to have fun, play, enjoy the events you are organizing. We are having fun at least as much as the participants are, since we are energizing them as well during the event and keeping the stakes high at all times. Also, when fatigue kicks in, it’s important to have the back up of your colleagues, to cheer you up and give you energy for one more day (or weekend, or week – depending on the complexity of the events coming up).

And then…there are the events. Like one of my favorite Project Managers ever, Sabina, said – “if you are stressed in the day of the event, you are doing something wrong.” I especially like full day teambuilding events – I love the way participants gather one bus by one… how we wait for them with full energy, perfectly loud music, dancing and how the voice of the event (the Main Facilitator) subtly “lures” the participants into being part of this amazing experience. I enjoy the reluctance on some of the participants at the beginning and I cherish the enthusiasm on the other ones… and mostly I like it how the reluctant people become enthusiastic as well by the end of the day.

That’s when, besides the fact that your client is happy, and you know everything is super ok, you actually feel your mission is accomplished. When, at the end of the day, they feel transformed, even just a little bit – and it’s all over their faces and in their attitudes.

To close this little story in an optimistic way – Jung Lee (a famous event planner) once said “Just because you have planned something, it doesn’t mean it is going to happen.” – sometimes, things do turn out better that you expected/planned and that’s the absolute beauty of it!