At one point in your organizing journey, you might encounter a party crisis that may potentially jeopardize the whole event. While we understand that it is easy to panic when a supplier backed out, when the venue runs into troubles, and when the weather suddenly turns bad, a truly skilled organizer and host would do everything in his or her power to find alternatives and find solutions to the problem.
Define the Problem
What is the problem? When did it crop up? Has it done permanent damage to the party’s schedule and logistics? What caused the problem?
Before dealing with the issue of finding good alternatives, you have to first identify what the issues are and come up with a list of reasons why these happened. The process would teach you how to zero in on the core of the issue and how the event catastrophically affected the success of holding the party.
In terms of handling the present issue, defining what the problem is before anything else will give you a better grasp of what strategies will work. For future events, this process will allow you to work out a set of rules and guidelines that would prevent the same thing from happening again.
Meet with the Stakeholders
When the problem has been identified and when it is finally isolated from the rest of the issues, the host or the organizer can then meet with the stakeholders—the owner, the investors, the clients, etc. Every single one in the team who would be affected by the changes in the plan would have to be met and the reasons for the changes explained.
The organizer must know what each stakeholder is worried about and what are the factors important to them. All of this information would play a role in crafting a sound strategy to address the issues of the event.
Find Alternatives
A crisis will only be a serious problem if there are no choices and alternatives offered. The client may have to adjust his expectations a little but that is better than having nothing at all. The test of a true party organizer is the ability to have a Plan B, Plan C, and all the way up to Plan Z. There should be no limit to the kind of choices that an organizer can offer.
Have an Open Mind
The problem with most party hosts and organizers is that they are stuck to one idea; they could not forgive themselves for having to move away from the original plan. An organizer needs to be flexible and willing to deal with the problems as they arose. And not just deal with the problems. They should be ready with alternatives. As an organizer, you need an open mind to deal with issues and problems that will surely come.
There is no party without a crisis. Every great party has surpassed a great test and a major crisis. It’s all about having the right attitude and the determination to see the party to success.