Association Headquarters

Why Project Management?

By Chris Brown, CEM, CMP

Why should project management interest you? Here is the scenario: your employee evaluation is coming up soon. How do you plan to address your employer’s question: “What have you done for me lately?” Using project management to your advantage, you can provide a solid answer that demonstrates qualified success for your employer, and ensures you a better shot at increased compensation. How is that for incentive?

What else is in it for you? One reason for project management is to enhance your livelihood. You are paid a wage determined by someone else’s perception of productivity, efficiency, team work, and use of limited resources, correct?

Second, you need to prove your level of experience in planning and delivering a more successful trade show or event than the last one. It makes perfect sense to be well versed in the strategy of effective project management in order to accomplish both.

Third, you will be able to visually prove your worth and your planning skills to your supervisor, in the form of charts and timetables that translate projects and resources into action.

And lastly, you will be a better team leader. Event or trade show managers, vendor or media representatives. or venue operations personnel who use project management, generate a better understanding of the entire process and a clearer vision of the goals and objectives. You are then better equipped to lead team members.

How do you make project management your ally? Through the help of a project management specialist, learn the technical aspects of planning, and how to mesh that with the human dimension. It will not be long before you are comfortable with the process, and a bonafide project manager.

So how does project management work? Identifying a plan of action based on the results to be achieved, is the first step. Creating your plan, setting it in motion, “looking in” at pre-determined intervals, and finishing the project, are all segments of “the plan.” You develop a work breakdown schedule – a list of tasks to complete as part of the project. You place these tasks in the context of time along with the human, financial, technical, and physical resources necessary to completing the project.

And what do you get when you mix effective project management with a new or seasoned exhibition or event leader? The answer is success, and the results are limitless. Your value to your employer rises, and you now have the opportunity to present your projects, resources, timeframe, and plans in a whole new light.

Chris Brown, CMP, CEM, is Senior Meetings, Exhibits, and Trade Shows Manager at
Association Headquarters, Inc., in Mount Laurel, N.J.