The benefits of a freelance event manager
In this article, I list the most important benefits why it is better for a company to hire a senior freelance event manager. The freelance event manager will always take your event to the next level and achieve maximum result from your event or exhibition. Without compromising on the experience and impact.
But let me first start to explain when a seasoned freelance event manager has the best fit in a company. You can hire a freelancer on a project basis as well as interim basis.
The perfect match
A freelancer is particularly suitable for companies that don’t have their own event manager. These companies have their events or exhibitions organized by a marketing manager, marketing specialist or executive assistant next to their own job.
However organizing an event or exhibiting is a complex and specialist project with a lot of activities, stakeholdermanagement, deadlines, details and alignment. You can’t just do this next to your own role or with some experience in project management. This is a real and hard job to do. You need to invest time and start early to be successful. When you have your own job you won’t have this time as your have your own job tasks and responsibilities. The result is that you postpone your own work, start too late and stimulate a lot of stress. Not good for the employee, nor the company and it doesn’t deliver the right result.
Furthermore, an experienced freelance event manager equals event marketing. and knows how to connect people to achieve a desired result. Hiring an experienced professional definitely pays for itself.
Temporary
Of course, you can also hire a freelance event project manager if temporary and quick support is needed. Because of a long absence, a resign of the event manager or during a bridging period.
What value does a freelance event manager provide?
Reason 1: Specialist knowledge and experience (better result and quality)
An experienced event project manager has at least 15 years of experience in event management and various event productions. Both internally and externally, as well as live, online and hybrid. A freelance event project manager knows better than anyone how you can use events successfully as strategic marketing instrument within your own sales, marketing or communication activities to achieve your business objectives. Moreover, all experience, knowledge and learning are shared with you as client.
In addition, a freelancer also works for different clients, industries and is used to different company cultures, so that knowledge, skills, network and benchmark data continue to grow. This ensures sharpness, knowledge and a network that gives your company a boost.
Reason 2: High productivity (saves time, better quality)
An independent event project manager always goes one step faster and thinks at least two steps ahead. They are entrepreneurs, independent, flexible and true experts in their field. They are broadly skilled, since a freelancer not only use their expertise as a service, but also manage their own company in marketing, sales, finances, website and social media. Freelancers want positive customers with references. Therefore you can expect a high commitment. After all, as entrepreneur you want to achieve the best result for a satisfied customer. In addition, you come in new, this gives the energy and enthusiasm of a new job that a team and company often need.
Reason 3: Costs savings (saves money and time)
It is often a misconception that an experienced event project manager is ‘expensive’. Look at the full picture. You only hire a freelancer for the hours that are needed and you have no fixed costs. In addition, a freelancer works often on a specific event project and you can therefore also include this in your project budget.
An experienced freelance event project manager is also focused on costs control. Due to knowledge, experience, speed and more efficient coordination, this will always lead to lower spend.
An experienced project manager also knows how to make a clear briefing for suppliers with requirements and wishes. This gives you clarity from the start. And you are not confronted with additional costs due to last-minute demands that have been forgotten. Everything has to be fixed retro-activity if you start too late with your event planning, because of time capacity issues. You are squeezed in time and usually confronted with higher costs. By hiring a freelancer you can start in time and better anticipate on requests and changes.
An experienced event project manager also has a professional network of event suppliers. They can be used, which can save time and money when looking for suppliers. Moreover, you do not have to outsource everything to an event organization agency and you keep control in-house. More importantly, you also save on the extra fees (fee, on average 10-15%) that are charged for this.
In short, you already earn back a significant part of the freelance hiring costs by the way of working. The potential savings vary from 10-15% on the total event budget.
Reason 4: Event marketing and strategic approach (better result)
An experienced event manager is a pro in event marketing and helps companies to unlock the full business potential of their events and exhibitions. They do this by taking it to the next level. You profit from every euro spent, while creating the right impact and experience and achieving maximum visible results for your business growth. You can make the results visible through a strategic result-driven event marketing approach. Better results, more return.
Reason 5: Fresh view (saves time, better quality)
A freelance event project manager gives you an outside view of the organization. It is therefore smart to listen carefully to the advice, insights and suggestions this freelancer comes up with. Renewing, improving, to challenge and enthusing within the organization and the team is important. And it is not always easy to take a critical look at yourself and your own organization. An outside expert view can help to get the desired feedback and boost that turned out to be necessary. In addition, a freelancer has a lot of event knowledge and insights from other organizations. That can contribute to the project and the desired result.
Reason 6: Peace of mind (saves money and time, better result)
A professional event project manager can save you a lot of time, money and stress by taking the burden of you and offer you comfort. They have a wealth of knowledge about organizing events and exhibitions and can anticipate potential problems that may arise along the way.
All activities in the project are arranged – you are completely relieved, but remain in control. You have one contact person who coordinates everything and will act as your internal and external point of contact for all matters related to the event. The event manager will liaise with suppliers and colleagues on your behalf. So you don’t have to worry about any issues that may arise during the planning or realization of the event itself.
An experienced freelance project manager also knows what needs to be done at each stage of the process. They ensure everything runs smoothly from start to finish. This can include planning, budgeting, publicity, catering, entertainment, staffing, decorations and more. Everything is taken care off with minimal effort from you as a customer. You can focus on your own tasks.
Reason 7: Continuity (saves time, better quality)
By hiring the same freelance event project manager for a few events per year, you have a constant factor in your company, where the composition of your teams is constantly changing. This way, all knowledge and insights remain available in your company, you build a sustainable relationship and you can get started right away without onboarding and any time wasted. The freelance event manager therefore builds a relationship with all stakeholders. As a company, you can fix the availability of the freelancer in advance, so that you know for sure that the freelancer is available for you.
Reason 8: Access to latest trends and developments (better result and quality)
A freelance event manager is an entrepreneur and follows the latest developments and trends in the event industry. Then puts it into practice. As a company, you are therefore always assured of innovation and new technologies that improve your event or trade show. Consider, for example, deploying AI, Augmented Reality, sustainability or inclusiveness.
“If you think a professional is expensive, wait until you hire an amateur”.
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