Volunteering is an acknowledged way of gaining job-ready experience in any career sector, but when it comes to building a career in Event Management, it can also be a way of planning for your professional future. As 2016 progresses into spring and summer, the events season is blossoming with opportunities for volunteering! So what are the vital preparations needed as you spring into action to advance your career by being a volunteer?

Planning

Rather than trusting to luck, planning your way into volunteering will help you to make the most of the opportunities it offers. Areas you might want to plan for include identifying the different event sectors you particularly want to focus on – for example, festivals or weddings – as well as planning any types of role you want to explore, such as marketing, marshalling, front of house or risk assessment and safety.

Planning your volunteering into a schedule is also a good idea. A diary dedicated to your volunteering will help you to identify slots available for key events and to ensure you meet other commitments, such as event management classes and courses.

Although planning is important, do try to remain a little flexible, as the essence of event management is that the unexpected will always happen – so be prepared for the fact that there are some things you can’t plan for. Additionally, remaining flexible about the types of volunteering opportunities you’re willing to consider means you’ll be able to make the most of experiences offered to you, and be well placed to offer your best.

Practice

Of course, practice does vary across the myriad of events, which are possible across the industry, so as part of your planning, consider the practice you could aim to develop through a volunteer role in specific event contexts, such as:

  • Outdoor events – these might include sporting events, festivals or shows such as charity events, animal events. At outdoor events, safety and security can be a particular issue, so volunteers are particularly likely to be involved in marshalling and stewarding. Other roles for volunteers at outdoor events include ticketing, PR, activity management and clearing up.

Post-event clearing up can almost be an event experience in itself as it offers real insight into the eco-aspects of outdoor events. Volunteers are essential at festivals such as Boardmasters, for the significant ‘green clean’ required after all of the surfing and music. If your experience to date has been preparation or on-the-day public-facing, then being involved in an event aftermath can be a great chance to develop health and safety and environmental practice.

  • Themed events – events such as fashion and art shows, wedding fairs or health and beauty events. These types of events may involve relative tasks which naturally fall to volunteers, such as setting up, distributing activity programmes, information and guidance, catering and refreshments and gathering feedback.
  • Charity – on any day of the year there is usually some kind of charity event taking place locally or nationally. But when it comes to volunteering, it helps to consider charity events in three distinct ways:

1) Major projects (such as Sport Relief, MacMillan Coffee Mornings) where main events take place in key venues whilst varied local events (both large and small) take place across the UK.

2) Those huge nationally recognised events where charities are involved as an integral part, such as The London Marathon, or one of the many UK music festivals – take Glastonbury, Bestival and Reading, for instance, which Oxfam plays an integral part in.

3) Local events – for community interest issues or to contribute to a nationally recognised event or cause.

Volunteers are always sought-after at charity events, particularly for marshalling and fundraising and can offer not only the professional benefits of events experience, but also the exhilarating ‘I was there’ personal opportunity to be involved in some of the largest events (and benefit some of the largest causes) in the UK and even internationally.

Professional perspective

Volunteering gives you a unique perspective of what professionalism in event management ‘looks like’. It’s also a way to build professional event management knowledge and experience, because it allows:

  • For the development of new skills needed for this new profession. For example, if existing skills have been built in an administrative-heavy setting, volunteering in a public-facing role plug a skills gap with vital experience.
  • For practicing existing, transferable skills within an events context, for example good PR skills from a previous role could be explored within a very exact events context such as event promotion and in-event activity management.
  • The opportunity to experience particular event types. For example, if all of your events experience to date has been within general event types such as education or training events, volunteering at an outdoor event can help to fill gaps in knowledge and competencies, as well as in your CV.

Portfolio preparation

An incredibly important benefit of volunteering across a season or two is that it brings the opportunity to complement any formal event management training by preparing a portfolio. This could include:

  • Photographic evidence and flyers from general events you have been involved with.
  • Photographic evidence of specific roles and activities undertaken during your volunteering, an opportunity to display competencies in action.
  • An event-timeline which complements a professional CV.
  • Your volunteering schedule, even if this is a working diary, as this demonstrates your commitment to your professional development (as well as the fact you are committing your own time to building your professional skills and practice).

But how do you find those opportunities? Start exploring the idea with a real purpose!

Having a clear purpose for volunteering activities can be useful, particularly if you are studying an events management qualification, as in-course volunteering can bring you networking opportunities, through meeting a range of new colleagues and contacts.

If you are not accessing contacts through an event management course provider, it’s particularly important to be purposeful and pro-active when lining up volunteering opportunities. Making a direct approach to national charities can be fruitful and can allow you to plan ahead as many charities, for example Oxfam, require volunteers to sign up for events well in advance, particularly for those large national events. At a local level, volunteering for local charities and community events can be a convenient way of broadening experience without travel expenses.

Another way to source volunteering opportunities is through online job sites. Many of the large scale events held in UK cities advertise for volunteers in job sites. Although it can be daunting to apply for a volunteer role in the same way as you would for a paid position, applying in a formal way enhances your overall industry experience to include the application and interviewing processes within the events industry.

Another way to purposefully consider your volunteering options is to think event-specific across the spring and summer event calendar of major cities, which bring many possible events which welcome volunteers:

European Archery Championships 2016 (23rd – 29th May 2016) Held in Nottingham, this prestigious championships offers five areas in which volunteers can hone their practice, including: the field of play; VIPs and protocol; administration; sports information and athlete services and event services.

Edinburgh Marathon Festival (29th May 2016) The fast, flat course of Scotland’s largest running festival requires plenty of stewards and assistants along the entire length of the course, bringing plenty of sports-based and outdoor event management experience for volunteers.

Brighton Pride (5th – 7th August) Another Pride but beside the seaside, this Brighton event would not happen without the assistance of volunteers offering roles in stewarding and crowd control, leaflet and information assistance, fundraising collection and social media. Taking part can really assist with CV and portfolio building as well as contributing to a great day out for attendees and spectators.

Notting Hill Carnival (28th and 29th August) Just like London Pride, the Notting Hill carnival also relies on volunteers to keep the event running smoothly. As well as offering plenty of marshalling opportunities, volunteering for the carnival also brings the chance to volunteer for artist support, an extra experience to add to the CV.

Bestival (8th – 11th September 2016) Held on the Isle of Wight, volunteering at one of the largest festivals around allows the chance to see how large-scale events function behind the scenes, as well as hear some of the best bands around.

This schedule of recognised events shows that event volunteering opportunities are not only out there, but can also help to shape your experience across a range of event and task types, demonstrating exactly why being a volunteer can be essential to building a career in event management.

Content provided by: Eventcourse