In this piece we consider why it is so important to manage and report on your event operations clearly and effectively. Come the end of your event, you need to have all essential and relevant information in an organised and accurate way. The 'single source of truth' is the ideal tool for an event manager, knowing that they have the information they need in one place.

For accountability

Auditing who did what and when is crucial. The world's biggest events involve a lot of people, places and processes, and there will always be things that go wrong. In that case, you might need to face regulations and audits to demonstrate how you responded to something going wrong.

It is important that the operations centre has a clear picture of what has happened on an event day, so that they can provide specific details where necessary. This might be to prove that a venue check was carried out successfully, and by who; or to show how an incident of a certain severity was managed to protect the public.

For a single source of truth

At the end of an event day you need an accessible source of information that you know to be accurate. Typically, this can only be achieved by managing your venue checks, run sheets and incident management in an online hub, rather than through a spreadsheet or physical paper.

To ensure no missing information

That single source of truth must be comprehensive! When managing checks and incidents online, if the information isn't there, it doesn't exist. Use your filtered, layered reports to compile important information into an attractive, shareable format that you have to hand for whatever reason you might need it. Whatever system you are using to manage your control operations, make sure that information cannot be deleted.

To learn lessons

This is the area that is easily forgotten! As an event manager, you need to be learning lessons throughout every phase of planning and delivery - and bringing all of that together at the conclusion of your event. When considering event operations, you know it is impossible to deliver the perfect event day every time. Look critically at how the day progressed, which elements fell behind or slipped in quality, and adjust suitably for next time.

Were your venue checks comprehensive and sufficient? Were your run sheets efficient and realistic? Did you have effective procedures in place for dealing with common incident types such as a fire, a lost child, etc? These are the sort of questions you want to be asking and learning from.

This article originally featured in our Guide for Major Event Operations Centres - giving you the tools to manage secure and accountable event control, whatever the scale of your event. To learn more about how using WeTrack can improve your event control, operations and post-event reporting, watch this introductory video or get in touch to arrange a demo.