When you’re responsible for planning and producing large corporate events, you need tools that will help you streamline your work and deliver the best possible result for your clients. Ideally, you want to find solutions that take some of the repetitive corporate event production tasks off your hands, so that you can focus on what you do best.

At Mertzcrew, our mission is to button up every single aspect of your production that isn’t actually the production itself. That means that we’ll handle everything from creating compliant contracts to insurance to providing your AV freelancers with a place to log their hours. With Mertzcrew, you can take advantage of specialized crew management to streamline your productions. Here are seven ways that Mertzcrew can help you do the best possible job of managing specialized AV & tech crews for your largest and most challenging live events.

7 Ways to Improve AV & Tech Crew Management for Large Events

One of the keys to producing any large event is efficiency. If you understand how to streamline your AV & tech crew management—and have the right tools to help you do so—then you’ll be able to consistently deliver corporate events that your clients will love. Here are seven ways to improve your AV & tech crew management.

#1: Segmenting Large Events into Smaller Tasks

One of the questions we’re often asked is this: “How can breaking down a large event into smaller projects improve AV management?”

The answer is that any large event is made up of smaller projects and tasks that need to be completed for the final event to be an experience that wows your clients. Segmenting your team allows each employee or AV freelancer to focus on what they do best. Skilled freelancers often have tried-and-true methods for getting things done quickly and accurately. 

Segmentation is one of the best ways we know to avoid replication of effort and ensure that everyone is doing their best work. It’s even been used by the US military: something they call the work breakdown structure philosophy. With segmentation, you can see how each part of your event relates to the whole and map out complexities to avoid problems.

#2: Managing AV Tasks by Specific Projects

AV tasks require specialized knowledge and equipment. That’s why a lot of production companies contract with AV freelancers to do the most specialized work. You’ll get the best results if you manage your AV tasks by specific projects.

Managing the technical aspects of a large event is much simpler when you treat AV tasks as distinct components, rather than letting them fade into the background of event planning. Crew members may be setting up video and lighting in multiple locations, and each section will bring its own technical complexities. 

#3: Using Advanced Scheduling and Logistics Tools

Large events often have complex schedules. For example, a large corporate event lasting three days might have multiple sessions requiring AV in different event areas at the same time throughout the day. Let’s talk about the burning question, which is: “In what ways can advanced scheduling and logistics tools contribute to the successful coordination of specialized AV crews?”

One small scheduling error can throw event planning into chaos. The best way to avoid that is to use a specialized crew management system like Mertzcrew, which is designed for AV and tech crew management. You’ll be able to break down each AV project on your schedule, making sure that your ducks are in a row and delivering a successful live event for your client.

#4: Detailed Planning and Role Assignment

While smaller events can be challenging, large events require more in terms of planning. One of the key elements of corporate event planning is assigning people to their proper roles. You may have small teams working in different parts of the event space and everyone should be clear on what their role is.

Depending on what’s happening in each of your event areas, you might need to assign an audio visual manager to oversee more than one event space. The manager might have several members of your production team working under them to make sure AV equipment is working and attendees have an enjoyable experience.

#5: Maximizing Accountability

When team members aren’t held accountable, your event production can run into problems. Accountability can encompass areas we’ve already discussed. For example, you want crew members for your corporate production to show up on time. You also want them to be dialed into what they need to do and when they need to do it.

A lack of accountability can throw any technical production into disarray. One of the ways that Mertzcrew can help with accountability is helping you build and maintain relationships with skilled freelancers wherever you’re producing a corporate conference or event. You can go into your event with the peace of mind of knowing that your freelancers have the technical know-how to produce an impressive event and the professionalism to be accountable for their work.

#6: Leveraging Mertzcrew for Project Division

Finding the right crew management solution is essential if you want to streamline your event management and avoid making costly mistakes. Mertzcrew is specifically designed to help AV production companies plan and manage events. We can help you:

• Reduce costs
• Improve efficiency
• Save time
• Improve communication
• Give you access to the widest possible pool of AV talent

With Mertzcrew, it’s easy to use our scheduling and planning tools to set up one core project for your corporate event and then, add multiple subprojects. You won’t waste time figuring out how the various aspects of your corporate event connect to one another—instead, you’ll have everything in one place.

#7: Addressing Unique Tech Crew Needs in Corporate Events

One of the most challenging areas of planning a large corporate event is addressing the varying tech needs across event segments. That’s something that becomes particularly important when you’re using highly specialized technicians such as robotic camera operators or LED engineers. These specialized freelancers are in very high demand and event production companies are contracting with them months in advance.

Our Mertzcrew software can help you determine your tech needs across event segments and come up with strategies to meet your tech requirements. We’ve designed our system to be adaptive to evolving AV technologies. That means if your client suddenly wants to add a virtual reality session to their corporate conference, you’ll have the tools you need to identify the right freelancers and manage your crew to deliver the VR experience your client wants.

Overcoming Challenges in Multi-Area AV Management

Even with streamlined management using the ideas we’ve mentioned here, there are bound to be some obstacles when you're producing an event with multiple AV challenges. Here are some key examples:

• Compliance errors and fines. Compliance issues can arise on both federal and state levels and many change from venue to venue.
• Contract errors or omissions. Every AV freelancer you hire needs a compliant contract on file to make sure they’re accountable for their work and that everyone is on the same page about pay and other topics.
• Scheduling inefficiencies. The last thing you want is to present a corporate client with an overtime bill because you didn’t schedule your crew as efficiently as you could have.
• Insurance issues. You’ll need production insurance for your company and a way to track freelancers’ individual insurance policies or obtain insurance for them if they don’t have it.
• Payment problems. Paying freelancers on time and in accordance with their contracts is the best way to make them want to continue working with you.

The good news is that Mertzcrew can help you with every one of these potential challenges that can arise in the course of event production. We can help you track and obtain insurance, create compliant contracts, schedule your crew members’ time efficiently, and much more. Working with Mertzcrew will save you time and money while you continue to deliver the top-notch corporate events your clients expect. Investing in the right software is the best way we know to mitigate the risks of event production and make your job as easy as possible.

Most of the potential risks and issues that can arise in the course of planning and producing large corporate events can be addressed and prevented ahead of time. The seven strategies that we’ve outlined here illustrate the ways that you can streamline your events and ensure their success with advance planning and better management. 

Mertzcrew is crew management software that has been designed for your company and its event production needs. Our features include tools to help you hire the most skilled AV freelancers, create compliant contracts and track insurance, schedule and breakdown events for maximum efficiency, and more. Click here to read more about how we can help you with your corporate events.