As the principal owner of my own company, I know the
importance of keeping my ducks in a row and making sure on
game day that my vendors show up on time and at the right
location. But what happens when one of your vendors
doesn't show up to your event? How can this happen? What
do you do?
This scenario recently happened at a major Hollywood Studio
A-List premiere. When I heard about this, my first
reaction was how could this happen? Where was the
communication breakdown? Apparently, the date was changed
and the event coordinator did not relay this information to
the caterer. There was a production timeline sent to all
the vendors but by mistake the caterer was over-looked on
this piece of information and they never received it. Ok,
mistakes happen but with an event of this size, magnitude
and publicity surrounding it, why wasn't there verbal
communication between the event planner and caterer 48
hours to a week before the event?
Call me neurotic, but I always check in with my vendors a
week before any event no matter if it is a 10 person
sit-down dinner or a Hollywood A-list live television show
such as the SAG Awards®. Then, 48 hours prior to the
event I call each vendor again and speak to them personally
to confirm numbers and answer any outstanding questions
they may have.
I may drive my vendors a little crazy at times with my
phone calls but better to over communicate with your
vendors than to assume everyone knows the program and are
all on board the same ship.
So how did this happen at this recent movie premiere?
Maybe because both parties involved have many years of
major event experience they just relied on the fact that
something like this could never happen. Wrong!! Whenever
human beings are involved in anything mistakes can happen
and these are the types of mistakes that ensure we learn
our lesson for the next time. Remember the saying that a
million dollar mistake never happens twice because you
learn after the first time what went wrong and how to
prevent it so it doesn't happen again.
Ok, so now we know human beings are prone to making
mistakes and that a major vendor can potentially not show
up at your event. What is your action plan? How do you
provide the missing element hours prior to the event start
time? First, I always have a worse case scenario action
plan in place prior to the event. Since day one when I
opened the doors at A Wynning Event, I have always had this
action plan in place for every event I produce so I am
prepared to deal with any hazards should they arise.
Thankfully, whatever incidents have come up over the years
I have been able to quickly and efficiently squelch and fix
them prior to guest arrival and no one had ever noticed
that anything was amiss.
My second approach to preventing this type of incident to
occur is to communicate. Not once, but continually up
until the actual event day. Never leave anything to chance
or think that the other participants involved already know
everything about your particular event. Remember, most of
your suppliers are dealing with multiple events the week
and sometimes the day-of your event so you need to
communicate with them often to ensure that they are on the
same page as you regarding your event.
Finally, when you send out your production timeline, call
each vendor afterwards to ensure that they received it and
read it. Again reiterate the date and time they are to
show up at your party. When you call and get their
voicemail, leave a message for them to return your call so
you are assured that they received the timeline, read
through it and don't have any questions. Use your vendor
contact sheet to generate the written communication and
timeline; don't go off the top of your head thinking you
have noted all the vendors.
Check and double check your work. After all, that is why
your client hired an event planner and expert to produce
their event. Your client doesn't want to leave anything to
chance and neither should you.
----------------------------------------------------
Andrea Wyn is a marketing and special event planner with
over 15 years of special event industry experience. For the
past ten years, she has been the Awards Event Supervisor
for the Screen Actors Guild Awards(R). She holds an MBA
from the University of Chicago and a BA from UCLA. To
Twitter her about events and learn more about special
events and social media then go to
http://www.awynningevent.com
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Really Nice article, Keep it up.