Posted in Freelancer,
Once an event's date is set and announced, it's fixed and can't be moved.
Over the last few weeks several clients have told us the same thing. An event had been planned and suddenly it needed more help than anyone had time for. Conferences, awards, product launches, festivals: whatever the format, they all told us the same thing.
A bit of short-term help would make all the difference.
Having placed a number of event specialists over the last year, this is not just something clients are mentioning in passing. There is a real demand and it is worth explaining why.
In-house teams are usually built for the day-to-day. Events create a bigger workload. For a month or two, pressure on the team increases and then it returns to normal the moment the event is finished. Taking on a permanent hire to cover this extra workload doesn't make commercial sense. Instead, an interim can cover the busy period and step away once the job is finished.
Because the work has a fixed timeline, nobody is left guessing. There is a start date, a finish date and something specific to deliver. That suits interim cover and whoever is signing off the budget.
"We've found interim support offers the perfect solution in helping us deliver brilliant events for our clients and people alike. Ours is a seasonal need with fluctuating requirements so, when we see a pinch point on the horizon, that is usually the perfect time for us to dip into the freelance market and The Work Crowd has been the ideal resource for us in doing exactly that to great effect."
Events need a mix of people. One job might call for a producer, the next for a project manager, a comms lead or someone who can run the stage and content. Hardly any team has all these people because they don't need to. Hand the brief to someone who has run this type of event before, and they are up to speed almost straight away.
Experience really shows here. Someone who has delivered event after event tends to see the problems coming. They notice the gap in the running order or the supplier going quiet, and they sort it before it becomes a mess on the day.
Ask a team to run an event on top of the day job and something has to give. Usually it's either the event or the everyday work that pays the bills. Short-term cover takes that pressure off. The team carries on as normal while the interim gets the event over the line.
Clients get a well-run event without the stress. Interims get interesting work that they thrive on.
At The Work Crowd, our network of interim and freelance professionals covers events, marketing and communications, and we can get the right person matched to a brief fast. When the date is nearing, speed is the thing that counts.
So if there is an event ahead and the team is already stretched, come to us early. The sooner we see the brief, the sooner we can get the right interim event support in place.
"Our team was nearing freefall without the right events expertise to lean on. It was only when we hit a crunch point that we decided to draft in an interim who immediately eased the pressure, pulled together outstanding threads and added huge amounts of credibility and quality to our overall proposition. I will not make the same mistake twice by waiting next time!"
The show always goes on. A good interim is what ensures it goes well.