Avoid an Oscar mix-up at your next event

CWT Meetings & Events identifies six simple steps to minimise errors in event execution, allowing your show to shine for all the right reasons

In what was perhaps the biggest mishap in the Oscars’ history, on February 26, movie La La Land was wrongly announced as the winner of the coveted Best Picture award instead of Moonlight. Human error, probability theory, celebrity distraction – regardless the mitigating explanation behind this mistake, the Oscars and the event organiser suffered an embarrassing hit to their reputation.

How can you avoid a similar blunder at your next event? We’ve got you covered with our top tips:

Planning
Attention to detail is key. Always take some time to check, double-check and even triple-check your work. Grab a colleague to take a second look at the project – we’re often so consumed that we may not spot errors a fresh pair of eyes can easily identify.

We always recommend having a pre-planning stage when organising events all around the world. Have procedures in place to minimise the possibility of nasty surprises.

Rehearsals
Carry out full running orders and rehearsals prior to the start of the event. This ensures that all stakeholders during the event, from your spokespeople to your event technicians, know what will happen and when.

Never assume anything and check every single detail during rehearsals. This is the time to answer any doubts and troubleshoot any possible problem.

Behaviour
When an issue does occur, event managers need to be trained in how to behave in order to maximise the best possible outcome.

They can own the moment (like Warren Beatty) or make good of it (like Jordan Horowitz who speedily and gracefully announced there was a mistake), while always remaining focused on the attendees’ experience.

Communication
When the wrong winner was announced, reports suggested that there was confusion among the backstage crew at the Oscars for over two minutes before someone decided to communicate that error. In those two minutes, three thank-you speeches were finished by the time the mistake was made known.

Keeping people informed at all times minimises time wastage and ensures everybody is clear in their roles. Technology and event management tools can play a huge role here in enabling clear and instant communication with all stakeholders.

Partners
Any event organiser will need strong partnerships with their suppliers to ensure the event runs successfully. Trust and familiarity form the bedrock of such relationships.

Having capable partners on-site will enable you to focus on your objective – to provide the best possible service to your clients and deliver an excellent event experience.

Reflection
Knowledge is power. Reflecting on the event within your team and with external stakeholders helps exchange and amass knowledge that would ultimately be useful to your team and future events.

No matter how well (or badly!) an event went, it is essential to carry out a full debrief to reflect on what worked and what could be improved.

People can learn from mistakes, while best practices during the event can be shared as a successful case study for future events.


CWT Meetings & Events, a division of Carlson Wagonlit Travel, the world’s leading business travel and meetings management companym is a  global, full-service, award-winning meetings and events agency with unparalleled experience, providing innovative, effective, end-to-end strategic meetings and event management services. It has more than 1,400 event specialists worldwide, delivering more than 27,500 creative, high-quality events for customers from all industry sectors each year. Visit www.cwt-meetings-events.com for more information.

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