Coordination of Event Schedules

💃🏽💃🏽💃🏽 Synchronising work schedules across different countries and cultures is one of the biggest challenges in international event production. The simultaneity of working hours, essential for collaboration, can be complex to achieve. Here are three concrete examples to illustrate why : 𝟭. 🏖️ 𝗣𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰 𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆𝘀 : 𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 Today, November 11 is a public holiday in France 🇫🇷, Belgium 🇧🇪 and Canada 🇨🇦, in commemoration of the Armistice of 1918. Even some regions in New-Zealand 🇳🇿. While these countries pay their respects, others continue their normal activities. Anticipating public holidays in each country is essential for planning meetings and deliverables to avoid unexpected delays. This obviously shortens the number of common working days. 𝟮. 🏕️ 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀: 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀 Weekends are not the same all over the world. For example, in the United Arab Emirates 🇦🇪, the weekend moved from Friday-Saturday to Saturday-Sunday to be more in line with global practices. In Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦 it used to be Thursday-Friday and now Friday-Saturday as applied in Qatar 🇶🇦. These offsets influence common working days and must be taken into account to maximise synchronised working hours. 𝟯. 🕐 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀: 𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗵𝗮𝗯𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 In California 🇺🇸, teams often start as early as 6 a.m. to synchronise with New York (9 a.m.) and Europe (3 p.m.). In Australia 🇦🇺, professionals get up early to share working hours with the rest of Asia and Europe. For example, when it is 6 a.m. in Sydney, it is already 8 p.m. the day before in Paris, making coordination complex but indispensable. Meal times also vary. In Spain 🇪🇸, we often eat lunch after 2 p.m., while in France 🇫🇷, it is more between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m, and in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧or Germany 🇩🇪, it can start as early as 11:30 a.m. These differences influence meeting slots and synchronisation of international teams. And you, have you already taken these factors into account when planning your international projects ? If not, it's time to think about it. At IC (International Consultants) Local Resources Worldwide Events this is where we share stories and habits to better understand each other. #diplomacy #internationalevent #internationalproduction #eventprofs

Organizing Digital Innovation Festival was a journey full of insights and lessons. Through the series #DIFLessons, I'll be sharing the key takeaways we learned along the way—starting with the essentials of solid event planning. Here’s Lesson 1: 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻 𝗪𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 📅 For an event like DIF, early planning is crucial. Ideally, start at least 6 months ahead—if possible, begin right after the previous year’s event. Why? Because if you’re seeking international partners, speakers, or sponsors, timing is everything. 𝟭 — 𝗕𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: Large companies and international organizations allocate budgets for the upcoming year by the end of the current one. Get on their radar early to secure a spot in their plans. 🎯 𝟮 — 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗲-𝘂𝗽: High-profile speakers—CEOs, international experts, or anyone you envision headlining your event—are often booked months in advance. Make sure your event date is set on their calendar at least 3 months before. 𝟯 — 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴: Schedule your event strategically. Avoid conflicting with major international events to keep your audience and potential speakers fully engaged. 📌 𝟰 — 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Engage with your audience early. Give participants and your target audience time to pencil in your event date. 🗓️ Even with meticulous planning, expect last-minute changes. Speakers may cancel, or schedules might shift. Always have backup plans and alternate speakers ready. 🔑 Key takeaway: Thoughtful planning doesn’t eliminate surprises, but it ensures you’re prepared to handle them. See you next week for Lesson 2 in #DIFLessons! S.T

One of the pain points that we experience at workplace is scheduling events. What if you had an AI-based event scheduler? I just built one using n8n. At our office building this usually happens in the following steps. 1) I email the building manager for a room booking at 2pm for 1 hour on July 8th on 1st floor or 5th floor. 2) If the room is available, the manager will confirm. 3) If no rooms are available then that begins a series of back and forth emails 4) Once the time slot and reservation is confirmed, I add this on my Google calendar. I know this can be easily solved using a software system. But until then I built my n8n workflow and have deployed it. All I need to do is type the following 3 things in a chat or in a slack channel:- time, duration and date The n8n workflow will draft an email, send it to my slack for 1-click confirmation (human in the loop), then sends the email to the manager and if the manager confirms, adds the event automatically in my Google calendar. These are the tools I used: Slack, Gmail, OpenAI, Google Calendar and of course n8n. Check out this lecture on Vizuara's YouTube channel where I explain how you can build the same: https://lnkd.in/g6nki4bB

✨ Let’s Talk 2025 Event Strategy; Planning Budgets & Schedules 🗓️ 💹 As we head into 2025, it’s time to get strategic about your event marketing. A solid plan can make all the difference in driving results while keeping your team energized.  💡 Today’s Drake’s Takes: Quality > Quantity. Your event marketers should execute no more than 2 events per month. Be thoughtful, plan ahead, and avoid burning out your team! I recently had the opportunity to present "A Field Guide to Building Event Marketing Strategies" during the Event Driven Growth Virtual Summit. It was such a rewarding experience, and I wanted to share a few key snippets from the session to help you prepare for the year ahead: Here's my initial playbook on how to get started.... 📌 Step 1: Establish Goals & KPIs - Align event objectives with your company’s goals (e.g., lead generation, brand awareness, customer retention). - Define measurable metrics for success, such as cost per lead, ROI, or attendee satisfaction (NPS). 📌 Step 2: Budget Like a Pro - Be strategic: Avoid dividing your budget evenly across quarters. Be mindful of resources on event-heavy seasons like Q2 and Q4. - Budget allocations: - Sponsored Events: 40% logistics | 30% booth design | 15% marketing | 10% travel | 5% contingency. - Hosted Events: 75% venue + F&B | 20% marketing | 15% staff travel | 5% contingency. - Consider High-Impact Items: i.e. Premium booth placement for lead generation, or top-notch keynote speakers, etc. - Track and refine: Review budget vs. actuals weekly or bi-weekly and aim for a 3X ROI industry standard. 📌 Step 3: Build Your "Schedule of Events" Calendar - Flexibility is key: Outline your year but only confirm your schedule one quarter in advance at at time. - Planning timelines: Make sure you add buffers in between to account for planning time: - Sponsored events: Start planning 3 months ahead. - Hosted events: Start planning 6–8 weeks ahead. - Identify your top tradeshows/conference first: Since your know their dates won't change. (And add wrapper events to them!) - Then create your hosted events schedule: Focus on your Tier 1 cities, but be open to testing out different event types (networking happy hours, vs. targeted dinners, etc.) - Protect your team: Limit event marketers to 2 (max 3) events per month to avoid burnout. - Coordinate effectively: Align with marketing campaigns to avoid competing promotions (such as company announcements, webinars, etc.) - Get sales buy-in and steer clear of conflicts like quarter-end, SKOs, or team offsite weeks. 💬 P.S. Want a copy of my presentation? Send me a DM! Interested in the recording? The on-demand link is in the comments. Let’s make 2025 your most impactful year for events yet. You’ve got this! 🚀 #EventMarketing #fieldmarketing #2025EventPlanning #DrakesTakes

Coordinating a banquet event requires a lot of planning and preparation. It requires efficient communication not only between your hotel team but also with your client and sometimes, outside vendors. For example, the biggest banquet function I have personally managed was a bank's national family day that required many detailed planning, clear communication and cross departmental cooperation. Normally, the bigger the event, more departments in the hotel will get involved. The key strategy is to understand the event personally, and I will normally get early involvement of all the relevant department by clearly defining roles and responsibilities. Every big event is different. This bank's family day for example also required daily transfers to the local stadium where the e games was held, so front office was in charge of getting quotations for vans or buses and scheduling the participants transfers over a period of 3 days. Once the first deposit for the big event is paid, we will then have regular meetings for updates and challenges. You could also use collaborative tools such as Slack for task management by sharing details such as menus, seating arrangements, logistics etc. The more information, the better for any banquet function, big or small. Listen to the customers to understand their needs but also advise them what can or cannot be done as to avoid confusion on the actual day.