Organizarea fluxurilor mari de oameni – Tips & Tricks

by Victor Georgescu, M.I.C.E Division Manager

Participants' energy often influences the perceived quality of the event. This energy can often be influenced by the first impression that participants have when they enter the event space, but it must be maintained throughout the entire unfolding of the agenda.

From our experience in organizing events with large and very large numbers of people, we have identified several key areas and moments where the mood of the participants can be spoiled if their flows are not properly organized. So, we share some of the most important lessons learned along the way:

• Check in at the event - queues are out of fashion

The first impression attendees get of an event is from the registration area. To avoid long, slow-moving queues, we can set up multiple registration points and limit the number of personal details we ask for.

Following a recently organized event with over 700 participants, some of the post-event feedback we received was: We were pleased that participants waited less than 15 minutes at check-in, having waited over an hour in previous years. After having been in a bad mood due to airplane delays, it was a real pleasure the way they felt once they were in your “hand”. This good mood continued throughout the day and contributed to the extraordinary success of the welcome party that evening.

• Food and drink are not things you want to wait too long for

Everybody knows that when you're hungry, the last thing you want to do is stand in line to get food. Often, installing multiple serving lines and multiple bars is the right solution.

In case of a lack of space (generated by the location of the event, for example) or if the event has an organized agenda with several sessions in parallel, then we can plan the lunch in several series of participants, and not for everyone at once. In this way, we can also get savings from using less furniture (tables, chairs, etc.) On the other hand, we have to be careful about the number of people who help to serve/replace food at the buffet, i.e. clearing the tables.

• Handing out the presents when participants leave

More and more events are planned in such a way that participants receive a “give-away” upon departure. This is a nice gesture by the organizer, and if waiting for these small gifts causes frustration, it cannot be accepted. As with the registration, the bottlenecks can be avoided by organizing several distribution points.

Whatever the final gift contains, we can find some customization criteria: either by gender or size (in the case of t-shirts), or by the categories into which the participants are divided (for example, IT developers have blue boxes, business managers have green boxes, etc.). Differences (especially those organized on the basis of personal details) will add value to the gift and, at the same time, offer the opportunity to free up areas with potential crowding more quickly.

• On the other hand, at the party everyone will stay together as much as possible

Bearing all these details in mind, we do not recommend you to fall into the other extreme and oversize other areas of the event, without a positive effect. For example, at the party, it is advisable to have as small a space as possible (and not necessarily a unitary space) in which all the participants can sit. First of all, because at the dance everyone wants to be together.

Numarul foarte mare de participanti de la un eveniment poate fi privit ca o problema, ca o amenintare pentru reusita evenimentului, dar poate fi privit si ca o oportunitate de a aduce mai mult impact. Noi am invatat sa privim astfel de detalii ca pe niste oportunitati de a face ca evenimentele organizate de noi sa iasa si mai mult in evidenta, sa surprinda participantii si sa impresioneze prin fluenta lor. Si toate acestea, pornind de la ideile de mai sus.