Creative Events (NI) Ltd


	*Beware of Pandora's Box* When Pandora opened her box she unleashed all the troubles of the world. The consequences of trying to do your own event management could be just as dire. I know, you'd expect us to say that, but there are good reasons. We've seen what can happen.

	Certainly, event management looks easy, but anything that's tricky usually does look easy. Remember the time you were convinced you could remove the tablecloth from under your mum's good china without actually moving anything on the table? How hard could that be? You need to ask yourself, "if event management is that easy then why are these people still in business? What do they know that I don't?"
	The problem is that it isn't until you're too far down the road that the difficult questions start to arise: "How do I contact the celebrity host? What do I know about fees and contracting entertainers?" "How do I set up a credit account with six airlines to pay for speakers' flights?" "How do I do email broadcasts and track who's opened it and who's binned it?" "How do I get form results from the web site written to a server-side database and sent directly to the person handling registrations?" "Am I confident negotiating contracts and cancellation charges with hotels?" "Can I accept credit card payments and how do I process bank transfers in Euro and Dollars?" This isn't even a fraction of the questions that will arise. But by the time they do, Pandora will be long gone.
	Inevitably there comes a point when the only thing that makes economic or indeed operational sense, is to engage professional help. Before going off on the DIY route, ask yourself: Does my team have the skills necessary? Do I have the spare time to pick up the pieces? Can the organisation cope with the huge backlog of day to day work that will accrue? What's the real cost/benefit ratio of having my team spending all their time on this compared to getting professionals in?
	Of course you may well still decide to do it yourself. And if you do, we really will have that jaundiced, hound dog look. Take it from those who have chased the car and buried the bone, we're still in business for a reason! BACK