How to select and manage your event vendors: Tips and hints for event planners

A professional team translates your vision into actual movement and it’s extremely important to keep the group energized and focused. When things are not running well, or the event is running low of registration and you need to reduce or cancel few things, you and your team start to move into a depressed mode. This is the time to react and stand up. Remember, you are the leader and you want their best, so you have to touch their hearts. You can’t buy it with a paycheck. You have to earn it:  Listen intently and ask thoughtful questions, acknowledge the sacrifices they have made on your behalf, and express gratitude for their efforts.

So it’s critical not only that you have cordial relationships with your event vendors but that you also manage them properly to ensure they meet your expectations and those of your clients. Here are a few things to keep in mind when keeping track of them…

Put your expectations down on paper

Yes, you need to verbalize your requirements of each vendor for each job. But you also need to commit these requirements and expectations to paper so that nothing gets lost in translation and so they have a hard copy to work from. This could be as simple as a checklist or as detailed as a full spec sheet with itemized counts and descriptions.

• Nigerian market, very critical to our operations — Multichoice

2. Have a contract (or legally binding work order) for each vendor on each project

Not only do you need to write requirements and instructions out for vendors, but you should also have a detailed, contractual work order that goes into specifics on what they will be delivering and at what price.

This document should include language on what recourse you can take if they don’t deliver as promised, liability terms and any other necessary contractual language to cover yourself. Finally, you and the vendor both need to sign and date the document.

3. Keep your vendors in the loop

Possibly the most critical aspect of managing a vendor is staying in close communication with them. This first requires you to establish a mode of communication in which each party can update the other on progress and changes.

A reputable vendor should be able to deliver without having to be coddled and prodded along the way, but there’s nothing worse than hiring a vendor, assuming everything is going swimmingly and then find out at crunch time that they haven’t been following through. Maintaining contact throughout the process ensures that they are on task and you know what progress is being made.

4.Nail down delivery times early

God knows that a successful event depends on precise timing, so even a short delay in delivery of an item can mean the difference between an ecstatic client and an enraged one. So set exact dates and times from the beginning and have the vendor re-commit to those times throughout the planning process to ensure they are well aware of when and where they need to deliver.

TO BE CONTINUED