Warm safari greetings to you!

That’s the thing about Grand Safari Events or any special occasion for that matter. They run a course – or discourse depending on how they were planned and managed and there ain’t no surprise in that.

So often the primary concern is whether the venue has the correct number of beds for the group – or if a few more can be created out of thin air – it’s a consistent juggle to ensure these guests share with those guests, these are seen together at dining tables and those are sat far apart. This juggle could continue right into the middle of the event with frantic welcome letter swops and bedroom turnaround’s and final menu critiques right into the 13th hour.

This sort of noise has nothing to do with the movie. Its noise plain and simple. Pretended importance and most of all it’s designed to derail the choreography of the event itself. It can become a nightmare for the venue as it struggles to channel the management of the event in an orderly fashion.

Well that’s “eventing” I hear some say. Perhaps not, based on my personal experience with a myriad of MICE agents and clients direct over the last twenty five years. Some events run like liquid gold while others just won’t take off due to a never ending conveyor belt of “unforeseen circumstances and more than late bright ideas and special requests”.

This got me to wondering, why many special events don’t come up to scratch and leave a lot to be desired. Where, one wonders, did it all go wrong? And who should stand forward and take it on the chin? Sure, ultimately the agent is to blame or if not the agent, the supplier/venue. But how often can the event itself start slip sliding away due to a client who ignores the deadline due dates, cannot make the terms and conditions of the event and ignores both the agent and the venue’s advice on how to optimize the guest experience, the type of client who specializes in non communication and cross orders?

With each award winning event we’ve been part of over the years, the primary winning formulae was COMMUNICATION. The better the detail in the choreography – timeously conveyed in writing (if it isn’t written it’s not true) – the more successful the event. THE MORE THE COMMUNICATION – THE MORE SPECTACULAR THE EVENT.

And so the opposite to that would be – THE LESS THE COMMUNICATION, THE MORE THE CHANCE OF EVENT FAILURE.

Of course to add to this one must define the word COMMUNICATION. One definition I found that describes it with regards to this letter to you is “The interchange of ideas across space – from source point across a distance to receipt point with the intention of bringing into being at the receipt point a duplication and understanding of that which emanated from source point”.

Here’s another one “Two-way process of reaching mutual understanding, in which participants not only exchange (encode-decode) information, news, ideas and feelings but also create and share meaning.” I’m sure there are many more definitions, but one thing is for sure, when a communication line is corrupted or non existent or sloppy, the event cannot function.

So, I’m sure you have been on the backend of a non-communicative event. And I’m sure you have experienced and delivered an event that was flawless. Was the level and quality of communication the deciding factor for you? I’d love to hear your response to this and any suggestions you may have that you use to enhance the event experience for your guests would be welcome.

It’s been great chatting to you again.

Happy tracking