The Universe of Events

Chapter 003

Teamwork makes the dream work. 

We’re not the first to tell you that events require the highest levels of teamwork and collaboration (at least we hope we’re not the first 🤞) — both internally and with any external partners.

In this chapter, we'll not only help you organize your event team, we’ll also share team management techniques (+ templates!).

Here's what we'll cover:

1. Staffing the Perfect Event Team

2. How to Identify Key Stakeholders

3. The RACI Model

Staffing The Perfect Event Team

Event planners are nothing short of superheroes, but behind any great event organizer is an equally-great event team (of all shapes and sizes).

So how do you staff your team? Who do you hire? Which roles matter? We've put together a framework that will not only help you hire the right people, but also make sure you've covered every major area of your event marketing strategy.

Keep in mind: your company may have different titles or you may have a small team (people often play multiple roles or freelancers are hired to fill in the gaps). Use this as a guideline, and modify it for what works best for your organization.

7 Common Roles of an Event Team

1:4 is the Most Common Ratio for Event to Marketing Roles

According to a recent event marketing study of 739 global companies, 1:4 is the most common ratio of event roles to other marketing roles at global, enterprise companies. Which means: for every four marketing employees you have, one of them should be dedicated to events.

But… the number of dedicated event staff really depends on the size of your organization. What’s more important is that you ensure you have all the important parts of your event covered.

How to Identify Your Event’s Key Stakeholders (and Why it Matters)

An important step early on is to identify who else in your company is a stakeholder in your event, and get everyone involved from the start. These people should be looped into event planning, strategy, and likely the execution. Above all, your event team should never be working in silo.

Your event’s stakeholders usually depends on your goal, for example:

The RACI Model: Team Management Made Easier

Like anything that requires teamwork, events also require a lot of communication (and over communication) to ensure that every task is planned and executed efficiently.

At Splash, we use the RACI Model. RACI (stands for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed) is a common project management framework that can help you organize responsibilities across your team and ensure everyone knows who’s in charge of what.

Here’s a breakdown of each part of the model:

Responsible: the person who ensures the work (aka the particular project or task) gets done

Accountable: the person who actually executes the work (this could be the same person as “Responsible”)

Consulted: the person who gives final approval on the work and that it’s been completed

Informed: this person is on an FYI basis — they’re aware of the work, but are not involved in the execution or approval

Want to get started with the RACI Model? We created a RACI template that you can use for your own events (simply make a copy of the spreadsheet and then start filling it in and customizing as needed).

Getting your team aligned is one thing, getting the logistics down is another. In the next chapter, we talk venue, vendors, partners, and everything you need for the big day.