First of all, I do hope those of us involved with events have a spirit of gratefulness. We should all be very grateful for the jobs we do get, and we are paid for what we do. Practicing gratefulness is a super habit that we must all do throughout the year. Why do a blog with this theme? I would like all event vendors and service providers to have the clearest communication and agreement with their clients so all will have the best events possible. I do believe that it is the vendors and providers often take the most heat from the public, the client, and the planner.

My perspective comes from a very hands-on service provision to large and small crowds. At times, I feel like my job is never done and I could be there all night with attendee requests if it were not for firm ending times. Though there are enough times when I can walk out of an event more exasperated and frustrated than when I walked in, this should not be the case all the time. In the downturned economy, attendees often want to take as much as they can. I am told by planners and designers that oftentimes, the decorations and centerpieces walk off at the end of the event. As service providers, we should all know our boundaries before we are pushed beyond our limits. Consumers can be very demanding these days.

Knowing that you are paid appropriately for your work may be the strongest indicator of how great your satisfaction after your work is done. I will ask some rhetorical questions at this point:

–Does underquoting your pricing help get you the job?

–Does giving free service overtime really guarantee your spot for the next event?

–Do you have Extra Time Forms on hand at the event?

I was recently requested by a coordinator at a very large computer company to do something out of the ordinary, after the time allotted at the end of the event. Knowing that her request would take at least 30 minutes of extra service, I let her know that I would expect payment for such a request. She understood, and declined. I don’t want to give out my services for free, just because.

In another situation, I recently had to reschedule their company event three times due to scheduling problems, over a period of 6 weeks. The second reschedule happened within three days of the event. When I mentioned I still had to cover our staff’s time and expenses with a cancellation, she gladly paid for the cancellation date as well as the new date. Not all clients are that agreeable. She was sufficiently experienced in event coordination to know that her company had to compensate for the prime-time dates she was occupying. We had a mutual contract in place for the basis of the financial arrangements in case things got ugly (and they did not!).

Our strong recommendation is to have all of your service conditions and requests well-spelled out before the event with your client or planner. In my last two stories, Event Contract and Riders were in place to cover extenuating circumstances, and were a huge aid in governing the conditions of the event.

Event Lightning apps provide easy creation of customized contracts and invoices. Updating pricing and invoicing at the end of an event is also a snap! It makes it easy to be compensated for the work you have done at events, and appear professional at the same time.