We’ve all seen those amusing “expectation vs reality” memes circulating on social media. Now, imagine that same meme, but with an event organizer as the protagonist.
In the left box, under “expectations,” everything seems very glamorous. The well-dressed project manager moves gracefully through the hall, clinking glasses with all the guests. The head chef offers a taste of the latest delicacy, and the band has been waiting for the last 15 minutes to take a group photo.
The right box, however, hits with the harsh reality – no matter how well-planned the evening is, unexpected problems have piled up. Situations are, ahem… mostly resolved, but there’s just the small issue of changing those sweat-drenched clothes before the guests arrive.
The job of an event organizer provides experience in all areas of life – from florist, psychologist, decorator, driver, cleaner, emcee, to wardrobe assistant. Our project managers have found themselves in these roles and more, whether before, during, or after an event. So, we asked them to share some of their most memorable moments.
Some Anecdotes from the Everyday Life of an Event Organizer
At a private event in an elegant restaurant, the highlight was a performance by the legendary Anne Veski. Near the end of the performance, her manager approached me with outstretched hands, expecting a bouquet for Anne. It’s customary to present flowers to an artist at the end of their performance as a token of appreciation, something I didn’t know during this first-time collaboration. Smiling, I rushed off to “fetch” the bouquet, all the while panicking internally about how to solve this. Ah yes, there are flowerbeds in the dark courtyard of the restaurant. As I quietly approached the flowerbed and reached for the tulips, I discovered that the ground was quite soft, and I nearly sank knee-deep into the bed. Stockings, heels, mud… and as it turns out, young tulips are hard to break, often coming out of the ground with the bulb attached. But the tulips were picked nonetheless. The flowers were tied together with a piece of string found in the sound technician’s pocket, and to the untrained eye, it might have appeared as though the bouquet was specially ordered from a flower shop.
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Once, I was working as a project manager at an event that was nearing its end. A somewhat tipsy woman arrived at the cloakroom and asked for help in ordering a taxi. When I inquired about her destination, the guest became confused, as she hadn’t yet decided. So, together, we analyzed whether she should go home, to her ex-boyfriend’s place, or to a nightclub. During this fairly lengthy analysis, I learned quite a bit about both the guest and her ex and their relationship. In the end, the woman decided to head home.
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At a major client event at Club Laev, among other cool activities, a barrel sauna had been ordered. Naturally, the foreign guests were very eager to try the sauna, which led to a wood shortage in the middle of the night. The question arose: where to get more wood at night? And, of course, good old Murphy’s law kicked in – there was no car. So, I quickly opened a Bolt scooter parked behind the fence and headed towards the Circle K gas station. I was, of course, laughed at as I exited the store with a large bundle of birch wood and headed back towards the scooter. Thus, a new travel trend emerged: a scooter, a bag of birch wood, and the project manager flapping in the wind atop it.
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Last summer, I hopped onto a bus of summer event attendees traveling from Kreenholm to Narva-Jõesuu. I sat in the seat next to the front door, sending an email from my phone when the driver suddenly braked. Recovering from the initial shock, I asked what had happened and why we had stopped. The driver replied that he would quickly step out to buy some Peipsi onions. Since our bus was the last to depart and we were already racing against time, I didn’t allow the driver to go shopping. Unfortunately, the driver wasn’t willing to comply. After a few minutes of discussion, the onions were left unbought, and the journey continued. A few moments later, I found myself in the role of navigator.
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At a large company’s New Year’s party, I was unexpectedly forced to take over as the DJ. Two hundred people wanted to party, but the hired DJ’s style was far from what they expected, and he had to be removed from the stage. The technical setup consisted of an iPad connected to the control panel and Spotify, where I spent the next three hours dragging tracks into the playlist one after the other.
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Back in the early days of event marketing, my colleague and I were organizing a Christmas party for an important client. There were about 800 people in attendance. The evening was going smoothly until the Christmas buffet was announced open, and people began to head toward the food. At one point, a lady bumped into my colleague, struggling to fit her sauerkraut and meat onto a small saucer. She was holding a teaspoon. It turned out that in the Christmas frenzy, the catering service had miscalculated their logistics, and some of the utensil boxes had been left behind. The situation culminated in us frantically washing knives and forks in a tiny sink in an equally tiny restroom. The real tragedy was that the next day, it was the same venue, the same catering service, but a different client. And everything repeated itself…
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True glamour: As the on-site project manager for one of my first events in Riga, my employer decided that my transportation for the Tallinn-Riga route would be the passenger seat of the tech company’s truck. The event’s revenue was a very large 60k+ euros for that time, but we saved a valuable 15 euros on bus tickets.
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At the Lexus Tallinn showroom, there was an event for a dental company’s sales representatives – all the obligatory formal elements were present: a stage, lighting, speeches, presentations, a smooth jazz concert, and good food. However, right before the event started, what caught my eye were the fingerprints all over the glass wall at the entrance – so, what else to do but roll up my sleeves and start polishing the glass to a shine.
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When important papers for a client are accidentally thrown into the trash by the cleaner, there’s nothing left to do but try to fish them out.