Week of 31st January: Events - love or hate

[editoruk]

An event organiser recently told me that putting together an event is supposed to be a 'fun, social task'. So do you secretly enjoy ironing out the fine details of  the company conference, or could you gladly live without it?

Clare
Editor UK

[unique]

Hi Clare

I thrive on arranging this type of thing - I don't get the chance too often - but I love it.

I enjoy seeing everything coming together, and luckily, I've not had any disasters.

It is hard work - not all fun/social - but what a buzz.




Pam
Peer Moderator

[diamondlady]

I'd have to agree with Pam.  I organized our Holiday party this year with another co-worker and to see it as a sucess was wonderful, indeed.  But I know how stressful planning can be and can well imagine how functions can be that way too.  

I used to plan Financial functions for my boss out of state with all of our field staff and organizing 12 different facilities with the CFO can be a bit overwhelming at best but very rewarding indeed.

Diamondlady fka chris68
Peer Moderator

[countrigal]

I guess I'd have to say I thrive on the stress and planning and contacts with diff folks that comes with planning events... and love to see the final product go smoothly.  Love to be "in control" of these types of functions, just tell me an idea of what you want and let me go and see what you get.  Unfortunately, I don't get many opportunities for this in my present job, adn the few I do get are micromanaged to the nth degree, which takes all the fun from it, so I gladly turn it over to others to handle -- or mishandle as the case tends to turn out.

CountriGal
Peer Moderator

[gee4]

Organise is my middle name and people notice that if I'm not organising something, either in work or outside work, then there is definitely something wrong.  

I thrive on the buzz and enjoy fixing anything that goes wrong.  I organised 2 Christmas dinners for 2 separate groups  in December.  They both went brilliantly and were thoroughly enjoyed by all who attended.  I even sourced the venues and chose the where we ate and where we moved onto afterwards.  

Last November I organised for a group of Europeans to visit our project site in Belfast and these things are not organised overnight - sometimes they take weeks and months of planning with constant emails back and forward to both attendees, catering suppliers, venues etc.  I also organised for another group of Europeans to visit a site in the UK in January, so I was physically not even going to be there but had to liaise with the onsite events people, security and catering manager.  That particular event had been in planning since maybe last October.

G

[chevygirl55]

I hate it!  No matter what you do, what details you iron out, how many people you try to accomodate, it is never good enough.  For the last 11 years I have planned our company holiday party and our family picnic and all you hear is griping.  The date was wrong, the venue wasn't very good, something was wrong with the food.  Try to get input or assistance from any of these people in planning the next event and it is like talking to a blank wall.  Ask them what would be a good date, and you get, "Oh, anytime will be fine."  What kind of food would they like, "I'm not picky."  You get my drift.  

This year I had to put my longtime companion to sleep the morning of the festivities, got everything together, had a great venue, great entertainment, great food, and no one even said thanks.  Just "Why did we pick this date?"  

No, I do not find planning events for spoiled children a challenge!

chevygirl55

[sobriquetnic]

Hi Clare

I don't have to get involved with planning many of these but like chevygirl said, you just can't seem to please people!

Our Christmas party is organised and put together by a few of us.  I am responsible just for the raffle and the seating plan for our side of the company.  Honestly, the politics involved is amazing!  "Oh I can't sit with that office because 100 years ago one of the girls was a little bit off with me" etc etc!  I did get a lovely thank you though during the speeches at the party this year though so it's nice to be appreciated.

I don't mind organising things like meetings or trips away for our managers because we work in the travel industry, it's easy to do with our contacts etc.

All the best,
Nicola.

[queenbean]

I've been organising company-wide events as part of my job for 5 years now, and I think I've finally got the hang of it!  I do get a real buzz out of it, and I much prefer to be busy behind the scenes doing all the trouble shooting, but it's true that you just can't please everyone.  We have an annual event which is a combination of a quarter brief, a training event, a bit of hands on fun, and a belated Christmas party all rolled into one.  We always ask for feedback afterwards, and I used to take some of the nit picky comments really personally.  I don't any more - people will always complain for the sake of it - and I'm always very touched when people take the time to compliment the organisation of the event.

I've just started work on my favourite event of the year - I get to take a group of about 20 people to a coffee conference in the USA (Seattle this year, can't wait), stay in great hotels, put together a tour of the funkiest coffee bars in town, and eat and drink till we're sick.  Brilliant!

QB

[dettu]

Not only do I hate planning anything like this, I even hate attending one! I never complain to the event organizer because it's not her fault, but I just don't want to socialize with co-workers any more than I have to--and at my last job, my boss felt very strongly that I had to attend EVERYTHING, no matter how miserable I might feel during it! I suppose that when I'm planning events, I imagine myself at them and can't see past my own annoyance to put the "fun" together.