This past semester has truly opened my eyes to what it takes to be a successful project manager. I am employed by a global IT company, and actually sit in the same room as our US project management team; it refreshing to now understand what their day to days consist of. When assigned this project, there was no hesitation as to what I wanted to discuss. Each year since our company was acquired by Endava, we hold an annual “KickOff” meeting, and for the past 4 years, it has been solely my responsibility to organize the event. This paper will show you my approach to planning the event, as well as discussing the best practices in project management today.
The KickOff meeting typically occurs around the same time each year, October-November to be exact, but planning begins in March. It all begins with a calendar invite from the chosen project manager in our London office. This initial phone call is crucial to attend, as it outlines the expectations and theme for the year’s event. (Initiation). This year, for instance, Roxana Cherggi is our fearless leader; she oversees all 8 locations events. After the call is complete, it is up to each locations appointed individual to reach out and research venues for the occasion to take place. This tends to be a bit tricky for locations that do not have a preferred venue, because we do not receive the budget at this time. Luckily for our location, I have found and created a great relationship with the Governor Morris Westin, in Morristown NJ. Last year’s gathering was such a success, that our CEO requested that this be the official venue for the US party. I was relieved to hear this, as finding a venue is a tricky ordeal; this year as soon as I hopped off the initial phone call, I reached out to the venue and set up a lunch date so I would be able to secure our spot.
What is interesting about this year’s KO is the fact that I was assigned a project manager to help me along the way. This has never been the case, and I am extremely grateful to no longer be a one woman team. Staring about a month after the initial meeting call, weekly meetings begin in order to make sure we are following closely to the schedule. Our first weekly meeting consisted of learning our budget and date for the event. This year my budget was $50,000 USD and a kickoff date of October 10th. Once this information is received, we can now dive directly into our project (Planning). Scott (my assigned PM) and myself are truly the only team members working on this project; this is nice, because we have a good working relationship and I find the less team members, the less confusion. To begin, Scott determined our scope for the project, including the necessary goals, tasks, deliverables and costs associated with the project’s success. This was fairly simple, due to the fact that I have been running this project for the past four years.
We decided that Scott would oversee the necessary activities while I focused on carrying each of them out on time. I like to start with all things that pertain to the venue; this includes our 50 room block, selecting a conference room, preparing the menus for cocktail hours, the main event, and of course selecting the alcohol for the open bar. This step typically takes me up to 2 weeks to complete. After complete, I will notify Scott, and check that we are still on schedule. Once most of the venue details are worked out, I need to work with our travel team to set up car transfers for employees flying in from out of town. I am responsible for ensuring that all overseas employees are taken care of from the minute they land, to the time they get on the plane to travel home. This step is not difficult, as we have a specific vendor we use for employee transfers; it is key to create an XLS of who will be needing services, and what time their flights arrive and depart. With about 20 colleagues traveling from Europe, it is crucial to stay organized.
Venue, check! Coworkers travel, check! After both of these tasks are completed, we take a look at our project schedule and budget to make sure we are headed in the correct direction. If all squares up correctly, we can move forward and begin to reach out to the additional vendors needed to pull off this event. An A/v team, photographer, videographer and DJ, all need to booked in order to carry out my CEO’s vision. Once again, I have made some wonderful contacts over the years, and I utilize the services of those “Endava preferred” vendors. They are usually expecting the phone call and are eager to sign contracts. Our next steps are to go through our task list, make sure all resources (vendors) have been booked, payments have been made, and that we are still running according to schedule. I would then set up a meeting with our CEO to make sure all details are up to his expectation, as he is the greatest stakeholder for this event. All the T’s have been crossed, and I’s dotted; now we must wait for the date to arrive. On October 10th, I must be on my toes to oversee that all details of the event are met, and the agenda is running on time (Execution, Monitoring and Controlling). Each year a few tweaks are made to make sure all employees gain the necessary organization information, and have fun at the annual company meeting. The day after the big event, I utilize the services of SurveyMonkey to gain feedback from all attendees (Closing). A month after the surveys are sent, I can analyze the results, and use this information to make the following years party even more successful than the year before (Pre-Initiation).
The breakdown of the event itself discusses how tools from project management were used; now to discuss a few of the best practices when planning a corporate meeting. First, selecting a venue is a crucial step in the process and its imperative to do your research. Karen Shackman of Shackman Associates states how the venue choice can make or break an event (Shackman, 2017). This is an excellent point; the environment needs to align with the purpose of the meeting, and the culture of the organization. The venue I chose to hold our company event was based on a few factors, but location was the most important to our CEO. The location is in Morristown, NJ, and I chose this because our event ends around 11 PM, and some colleagues still would like to catch up. The Westin is within walking distance of downtown Morristown, where colleagues can grad a late night bite to eat or even continue drinks at the many bars available. When the night begins winding down, my coworkers are just a walk away from their accommodations for the night. This location allows for Endavans to enjoy themselves, without the worry of having to drive home (my colleagues enjoy drinking and celebrating, especially the Europeans).
As stated above, I begin planning for this event months before the actual date. Chrissy Devenny from Dynamo Events agrees that starting early is key (Devenny, 2017). In my mind, the earlier the better, as this allows you to truly look at the event from every angle and reduce any possible risk. Third, organization is everything when planning an event. There are multiple vendors, costs and high communication; making a clear task list and WBS will only help in making the event a successful one. Lastly, one of the most important things you can do while planning any type of event is evaluating customer feedback; in my example, my peers and superiors are the customer. Create a survey or questionnaire, and give the customer a chance to voice their opinions. Gathering constructive criticism will only benefit the planner, and will aid in crafting a better event next time.