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A short Essay: THE ART AND SCIENCE OF EVENT MANAGEMENT

Article · January 2015

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Ifzal Ahmad
Karakoram International University
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 ACOD Management Insights

THE ART AND SCIENCE OF EVENT MANAGEMENT

By Ifzal Ahmad, Assistant Professor

Dept. of Business Management, Karakoram International University,
Gilgit, Pakistan
Event Management is an occasion for which you gather people to celebrate, discuss,
display, create or build (you name it) something. Events can be of various types, ranging
from small to large events such as research conferences, passing out parades, opening
ceremonies, workshops, Olympics or other sports events etc. While on the other hand, there
are business-to-business events such as product launching ceremonies, business
conferences and award ceremonies etc. which need careful and systematic handling to
achieve the organization’s objectives. On the contrary, ignoring careful planning and
systematic handling can become a cumbersome process which may fire back in the form
of destroying your organization’s reputation.

The field of Event Management in Pakistan is in its embryonic stage as compared to other
conventional professions such as medicine, accounting and law etc. However, it is a
rapidly growing area in Pakistan and across the world where thousands of professionals
are now associated who are responsible for planning, organizing, and evaluating of many events throughout the year. This
trend is observed across the globe mainly because of the rapid growth in the event “industry” in terms of the number and
size of the events.

However, managing an event is a challenging job which requires

untiring commitment and dedication from the management team. The The field of Event Management in Pakistan is
workload builds up as the date of the event gets near and near and in its embryonic stage as compared to other
before you even know it, everything is over. It is thus a relentless and conventional professions such as medicine,
challenging effort with no time for relaxation. Among the most common accounting and law etc. However, it is a rapidly
challenges in organizing a successful event is the lack of planning, lack growing area in Pakistan.
of skilled team, poor communication, coordination, project and time
management skills, in short lack of trained human resource. These deficiencies lead to the wastage of organization’s time
and resources as well as to earn a bad reputation for the organization.

Keeping in mind these challenges and the surging demands in this field, Dr.
Donald Getz – an expert of event management and tourism – suggests that
there is no room left for an uneducated and unprofessional event The key behind a successful event
managers. Therefore, people responsible for organizing such events i.e. is to use the correct approach by
“event managers” must understand and be able to explain the using the correct techniques to
importance of events for the society and economy. have a good first impression
because as they say “first
Therefore, it is essential that regardless of the scale, the key behind a impression is the last”.
successful event is to use the correct approach by using the correct
techniques to have a good first impression because as they say “first
impression is the last”. One needs to remember that events are not only
evaluated by the clients but they are also evaluated by the participants and attendees of that event. Therefore, you need a
delicate and subtle approach to deal with the human behavior and idiosyncrasies of the participants too. These skills are
also required for the smooth conduct of the event right from first step i.e. planning, budgeting to the implementation till
the management of workflow and evaluation of the event at end etc. For achieving this aim, understanding the general
ABCs is a must for all the professionals associated with this field which will enable them to organize any type of event
where most of the skills required will be the same.

Page. 6 Jan-Feb 2015

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