Once your event is in full swing, you and your global meeting planner will have a lot of priorities to attend to.  The last thing you need is to find yourself micromanaging a disorganized event staff.  You need a reliable team you can delegate simple tasks to so you have the bandwidth to focus on more pressing concerns.

Of course, part of how well your staff performs relates to the overall complexity of the training and directives you provide.  If your staff scheduling is a nightmare and you fail to clearly assign posts and duties, staff confusion is to be expected.

Says Josie Rubio, Director of HR & Global Talent Acquisition at AMI, “If you want your staff to perform like a well-oiled machine, you have to create a simple and streamlined plan so that every team member knows where they’re supposed to be when they’re supposed to be there, and what they’re supposed to be doing.”

How can you and your corporate meeting planner ensure that your staff is well prepared to best serve event attendees?  Here are a few tips to simplify staffing concerns at your upcoming event.

Have Your Corporate Meeting Planner Suggest Posts

Once you have your venue locked down and a clear plan of where meetings, presentations, and exhibits will take place, it’s time to sit down with your corporate meeting planner to determine where best to place staffers throughout your event space.

You’ll need registration staff and team members posted throughout the venue to direct attendees and provide assistance.  You might also need staffers posted at doors to check badges, people assigned to act as ushers for presentations, and professionals that can man food and beverage stations, activity booths, and other service locations.

Knowing ahead of time where you’ll need to strategically place staff members can help you to secure the right volume of staff and select professionals that have the experience and personality to excel in their assigned position.

Simplify Scheduling as Much as Possible

Every event presents challenges for the host, global meeting planner, and staff members, and to some extent, you might need to compensate on the fly.  However, it’s best to create a firm schedule for staffing ahead of time.  What if someone doesn’t show up or a staffer needs to leave their post for an unscheduled restroom break?

Your best bet is to have a backup plan, such as a couple of extra team members that can act as runners or fill in as needed.  A well-planned schedule and extra staffing can help you to optimize the usage of event staff and ensure that no post is ever left unattended.

Ask Your Global Meeting Planner to Streamline Maps and Itineraries

Event attendees are certain to approach staff members with questions, and some of the most common will focus on the timing and location of activities.  You and your corporate meeting planner can prepare for this by providing staffers with maps and itineraries and going over them before the event begins.

A good bet is to offer attendees maps and itineraries via the app so they have their own copies, but giving staff members hard copies is also wise since it can help to make their jobs a lot easier and account for potential snafus like a low battery on devices or in-app crashes.