'Gestion de Eventos', or to be said simply, 'Event Management', if this fascinates you, this post is surely going to be an interesting one. Read Harpreet’s experience, a mechanical engineer from UIET 2010 batch, who pursues his interest in event management parallelly with his job.
Me: Tell us something about yourself.
Harpreet: I am working with a leading pharma sales and marketing consulting firm as an Associate Consultant. I am a graduate in mechanical engineering and have core interest in automobile designs. Satiating my hunger for automotive designing, I am part of the organizing team for Efficycle SAEINDIA, a student design competition aimed at designing, fabricating and racing a hybrid (human and electric powered) vehicle.
Me: How did you come to know about your interest in event management, or was it just you tried to get hold of the opportunity and that proved to be a successful venture?
Harpreet: It was sort of hit and trial thing. Since my school days it happened that whatever I was doing somehow I ended up being in various leadership roles. Being vice head boy, gave me additional opportunity of Organizing farewell functions, teachers day celebration, annual function etc.
I actually enjoy the vibrant and energetic environment, which is a driving factor for all events. At the same time it challenges you to think something new, to be innovative and to make every event a new experience. I also enjoy making connections and working closely with new people and event management provides you with ample opportunities to meet and connect with new people
Me: What was your first challenging event, where you took the major responsibility of making it a success?
Harpreet: During the second year of my college I was leading Society of Automotive Engineers UIET chapter and was part of a team, to design and fabricate an ‘All Terrain’ (BAJA) vehicle. SAEINDIA BAJA conducts a workshop each year where top notch designers and engineers from various automotive industries come at a common platform to help the participating students. We thought of hosting this workshop in UIET as it would give us an opportunity to build a relationship with different companies. The biggest challenge was to convince the committee that a new college chapter like UIET can take the responsibility of hosting such a big event, where students from all over India will participate. The success of the event was evident from the amazing feedback we received from the participants.
Me: Getting success in the first large scale event would have been truly motivating. However, you must have faced multiple challenges and might have made mistakes. Would you like to share them with us?
Harpreet: With every event you face new set of challenges. Most of them arise as you try to mark your hold into new domains. I have tried my hands in social gathering events, organizing technical workshops and events, college fest etc.
To handle an event where you have 8-10 sub components, creates a lot of scheduling and estimation challenges. This is the problem which we are facing even after organizing EffiCycle event for 3 consecutive years. For the first season there were 17 teams who participated in the race. The entire event was distributed into 3 days. 1st day being static tests like technical inspection of vehicles, evaluating cost report, design report and marketing presentations. 2nd day is kept for dynamic events like brake test, acceleration test and maneuverability. And the 3rd day is the D day where all teams will be racing for the podium finish - The endurance race. No matter how much time teams get to prepare the vehicles there'll always be something pending to be taken care of at the last moment. When teams are not ready to present themselves in front of judges, no matter how good is your time plan, you can never meet the deadlines. I remember facing this situation on second day when we haven't evaluated half the teams by evening. Due to budget constraints we hadn't installed any lights to support the event during late evening or after it gets dark. At the same time you cannot reject the teams as they had worked hard to prepare the vehicle and had spent lot of money to come to this event. We arranged for torches but the light was not enough. 4 motorcycles were brought to the track and with their lights we got some visibility to evaluate the remaining teams.
The most crucial aspect of event management is to get things done by coordinating with people. At times you just need to push down the work on others whereas sometimes you need to step down on ground with the entire team to accomplish something. Other major challenge when you try be innovative and design new events is getting money to support your idea, No matter how hard you try you need to have strong contacts to pull big chunk of money from market. The challenges don’t end here. In order to keep your team motivated you are required to understand their problems, to provide them ample opportunity to grow.
Me: I can see, apart from time and dedication, thinking in a right way at critical times is crucial. Now you are working in a consulting firm, so how do you make sure that you pursue your interests parallelly. How do you take out time for these activities?
Harpreet: I am leading the events and CSR team in my office. It does take a lot of time apart from the regular work but it keeps me away from work frustration. I think taking out time for something which you enjoy doing can never be difficult. At least it has never been for me. You definitely stretch yourself apart from work but it's worth it if in the end it makes you happy.
I am also the part of current Efficycle organizing committee and will definitely be present in Chandigarh at time of the event.
Me: Going forward what are your plans, I mean will you be continuing with the job and take out time for your interests parallely, our do you have something different in your mind?
Harpreet: It would be too early to comment on this right now. But the plan is to organize some major events in automotive sector. We do have a new event in pipeline which we will roll out early next year. Meanwhile we will focus on growing Efficycle.
Me: What’s the risk factor, I mean can one solely rely on making career with event management?
Harpreet: One can succeed in event management business if he/she continually innovates. There are a lot of segments in event management. When I talk about event management I talk about the category of events with big budgets. There is no scope of innovation in small events due to budget constraints.
According to me this business has a lot of dependency on owners which limits its scalability.
Me: What skills do you think are necessary for a person to be successful in this field.
Harpreet: Networking and being innovative are the major skills that a person should have in order to succeed in event management. At times you need to be manipulative to get things done (Like any other business it's the dark side of events).
A strong team with exceptional execution knowledge is required to convert your ideas into reality keeping a tab on budget.
You need to have good relationships with vendors as well as your patrons (who are giving you the business).
At any time if you are delivering quality work you will succeed. It's a high visibility work - people participating in your event get to know about the nuances at that very moment. So you need to think through all possible mishaps in advance.
Me: What will be your suggestions to those who are also fascinated by event management. How should they take their first step in this field.
Harpreet: For the beginners I would say try your hands on low budget events by showing them how you can save their money. Learning from smaller events is easy as you don't have high risk stakes. If something goes wrong, it is still manageable.
Do your ground work very thoroughly.
You cannot do an event alone. Build a good team and trust your team. Give each member fair chance to grow and to take responsibilities. Eventually you will grow as they grow.
Think creative and out of the box.
All this put together, contributes largely to event management.
Me: These insights are truly valuable Harpreet, and the readers will surely benefit from your ideas and experience. Thanks a lot for taking out time and sharing these with us. Wishing you a great success ahead.
Friends, hope you found this informative and interesting, so don't forget to leave your comments!
Need some more information? Mail your queries to Harpreet at harpreet.sae@gmail.com
Me: Tell us something about yourself.
Harpreet: I am working with a leading pharma sales and marketing consulting firm as an Associate Consultant. I am a graduate in mechanical engineering and have core interest in automobile designs. Satiating my hunger for automotive designing, I am part of the organizing team for Efficycle SAEINDIA, a student design competition aimed at designing, fabricating and racing a hybrid (human and electric powered) vehicle.
Me: How did you come to know about your interest in event management, or was it just you tried to get hold of the opportunity and that proved to be a successful venture?
Harpreet: It was sort of hit and trial thing. Since my school days it happened that whatever I was doing somehow I ended up being in various leadership roles. Being vice head boy, gave me additional opportunity of Organizing farewell functions, teachers day celebration, annual function etc.
I actually enjoy the vibrant and energetic environment, which is a driving factor for all events. At the same time it challenges you to think something new, to be innovative and to make every event a new experience. I also enjoy making connections and working closely with new people and event management provides you with ample opportunities to meet and connect with new people
Me: What was your first challenging event, where you took the major responsibility of making it a success?
Harpreet: During the second year of my college I was leading Society of Automotive Engineers UIET chapter and was part of a team, to design and fabricate an ‘All Terrain’ (BAJA) vehicle. SAEINDIA BAJA conducts a workshop each year where top notch designers and engineers from various automotive industries come at a common platform to help the participating students. We thought of hosting this workshop in UIET as it would give us an opportunity to build a relationship with different companies. The biggest challenge was to convince the committee that a new college chapter like UIET can take the responsibility of hosting such a big event, where students from all over India will participate. The success of the event was evident from the amazing feedback we received from the participants.
Me: Getting success in the first large scale event would have been truly motivating. However, you must have faced multiple challenges and might have made mistakes. Would you like to share them with us?
Harpreet: With every event you face new set of challenges. Most of them arise as you try to mark your hold into new domains. I have tried my hands in social gathering events, organizing technical workshops and events, college fest etc.
To handle an event where you have 8-10 sub components, creates a lot of scheduling and estimation challenges. This is the problem which we are facing even after organizing EffiCycle event for 3 consecutive years. For the first season there were 17 teams who participated in the race. The entire event was distributed into 3 days. 1st day being static tests like technical inspection of vehicles, evaluating cost report, design report and marketing presentations. 2nd day is kept for dynamic events like brake test, acceleration test and maneuverability. And the 3rd day is the D day where all teams will be racing for the podium finish - The endurance race. No matter how much time teams get to prepare the vehicles there'll always be something pending to be taken care of at the last moment. When teams are not ready to present themselves in front of judges, no matter how good is your time plan, you can never meet the deadlines. I remember facing this situation on second day when we haven't evaluated half the teams by evening. Due to budget constraints we hadn't installed any lights to support the event during late evening or after it gets dark. At the same time you cannot reject the teams as they had worked hard to prepare the vehicle and had spent lot of money to come to this event. We arranged for torches but the light was not enough. 4 motorcycles were brought to the track and with their lights we got some visibility to evaluate the remaining teams.
The most crucial aspect of event management is to get things done by coordinating with people. At times you just need to push down the work on others whereas sometimes you need to step down on ground with the entire team to accomplish something. Other major challenge when you try be innovative and design new events is getting money to support your idea, No matter how hard you try you need to have strong contacts to pull big chunk of money from market. The challenges don’t end here. In order to keep your team motivated you are required to understand their problems, to provide them ample opportunity to grow.
Me: I can see, apart from time and dedication, thinking in a right way at critical times is crucial. Now you are working in a consulting firm, so how do you make sure that you pursue your interests parallelly. How do you take out time for these activities?
Harpreet: I am leading the events and CSR team in my office. It does take a lot of time apart from the regular work but it keeps me away from work frustration. I think taking out time for something which you enjoy doing can never be difficult. At least it has never been for me. You definitely stretch yourself apart from work but it's worth it if in the end it makes you happy.
I am also the part of current Efficycle organizing committee and will definitely be present in Chandigarh at time of the event.
Me: Going forward what are your plans, I mean will you be continuing with the job and take out time for your interests parallely, our do you have something different in your mind?
Harpreet: It would be too early to comment on this right now. But the plan is to organize some major events in automotive sector. We do have a new event in pipeline which we will roll out early next year. Meanwhile we will focus on growing Efficycle.
Me: What’s the risk factor, I mean can one solely rely on making career with event management?
Harpreet: One can succeed in event management business if he/she continually innovates. There are a lot of segments in event management. When I talk about event management I talk about the category of events with big budgets. There is no scope of innovation in small events due to budget constraints.
According to me this business has a lot of dependency on owners which limits its scalability.
Me: What skills do you think are necessary for a person to be successful in this field.
Harpreet: Networking and being innovative are the major skills that a person should have in order to succeed in event management. At times you need to be manipulative to get things done (Like any other business it's the dark side of events).
A strong team with exceptional execution knowledge is required to convert your ideas into reality keeping a tab on budget.
You need to have good relationships with vendors as well as your patrons (who are giving you the business).
At any time if you are delivering quality work you will succeed. It's a high visibility work - people participating in your event get to know about the nuances at that very moment. So you need to think through all possible mishaps in advance.
Me: What will be your suggestions to those who are also fascinated by event management. How should they take their first step in this field.
Harpreet: For the beginners I would say try your hands on low budget events by showing them how you can save their money. Learning from smaller events is easy as you don't have high risk stakes. If something goes wrong, it is still manageable.
Do your ground work very thoroughly.
You cannot do an event alone. Build a good team and trust your team. Give each member fair chance to grow and to take responsibilities. Eventually you will grow as they grow.
Think creative and out of the box.
All this put together, contributes largely to event management.
Me: These insights are truly valuable Harpreet, and the readers will surely benefit from your ideas and experience. Thanks a lot for taking out time and sharing these with us. Wishing you a great success ahead.
Friends, hope you found this informative and interesting, so don't forget to leave your comments!
Need some more information? Mail your queries to Harpreet at harpreet.sae@gmail.com
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