Why miscommunication happens in event teams and how to fix it

Events can be intense pressure-cooker environments. Backstage production, marketing, ticketing and door-sales, sound, catering, security and more, must all work in tandem perfectly.

You're in a conga-line, trying to perfectly choreograph every move, without stepping on anyone's toes. But if you focus too much on avoiding issues, then your conga-line becomes more of an anxious shuffle than a beautiful dance.

In event terms: if you focus so much on avoiding miscommunication and your internal processes, then you lose focus on what really matters: putting on great events.

In this article, we are going to dive deep into why miscommunication can happen in your event teams, common pain points, and how you can address this to get back to doing what you do best for your events.

What Causes Miscommunication in Your Event Teams?

Miscommunication in event teams is rarely a 'people problem', it's a systems problem. When miscommunication occurs, it's easiest to start swinging your finger around and pointing, trying to find the right person to blame. But looking at where your information lives, and how it's communicated, is the best way to pinpoint where things are going wrong.

In events, the biggest culprits of miscommunication are tool sprawl (using too many disconnected tools, systems and apps to gather and manage information), information decay (when your information quickly becomes out-of-date over time), and manual process fatigue (when too many manual processes creates too much room for error). 

When your teams don't have a Single Source of Truth, and your data and processes live in silos, they rely on memory, outdated information, and naturally, miscommunication follows.

Simply put: Without a central nervous system, your team isn't working from the same script.

How Can You Combat Tool Sprawl for Your Events?

Many venues, festivals and clubs suffer from tool sprawl, using too many disconnected platforms to manage their events. Minimize tool sprawl by centralizing your data, and creating a Single Source of Truth for your events.

Imagine the typical Friday night:

• The bookings for your venue are in a shared calendar and a big master spreadsheet on your laptop.
• But you also have separate spreadsheets for the production of each event. And all your information is coming via multiple email chains, so you better be on top of your inbox!
• And you're getting some urgent updates from the band playing tonight via WhatsApp.
• You also need to download the latest ticket sales and import that into your marketing software before the weekend starts.
• And an external party also needs information on the attendance for tonight, you should also call them and let them know...

This is a recipe for disaster. The most important piece of advice we can give to minimize miscommunication is to create a Single Source of Truth for your event. 

This should be a living system, where information is always up-to-date whenever adjusted. It needs to be accessible for all of your teams, not just by those in the back-office, but also your front-of-house crew. 

You can create this yourself, or you can rely on an integrated platform like Stager of course 😉(cue the self-promotion). 

But really, we've seen the backstage planning and internal processes of a lot of venues, festivals and clubs, and way too often, it's a spiderweb of tooling, integrations, and DIY spreadsheets that always lead to more work and more mistakes. We aren't an all-in-one tool because it's easy, but because it's actually helpful!

How Can You Avoid Information Decay?

Information decay occurs when your data is constantly becoming out-of-date because of changes and additional information added, and can be easily fixed with a live data system. For example, when technical riders are adjusted, or when new guestlist names are added. 

If your Downloads folder is flooded with files ending in v1, v2, v2, FINAL, REALLY_FINAL... etc., then it's likely that you're struggling with information decay. 

The moment you "Save as PDF" or "Export CSV", you create a snapshot in time. But this is not a living document, and this leads to information decay. This creates issues if people do not have access to the most up-to-date information, or simply check the wrong file.

The solution is to have a live data system, where all your information is placed and updated. A link to a cloud document or spreadsheet works, and a platform like Stager does this in an intuitive way.

For example, with a single link in Stager, you have an always-up-to date itinerary and schedule of an upcoming show. Any changes made to the rider, guest list or timing is updated immediately in this itinerary. We've heard from our customers that this is a life-saver feature, and we can understand why!

What is the Cure to Your Team’s Manual Process Fatigue?

We often blame human error when things go wrong, but it's usually manual process fatigue that's causing your event team's miscommunication issues. Every manual process and input your team must undertake is an opportunity for mistakes, and the more manual processes you have, the higher the risk.

Copy-pasting your event information, typing out new production information, manually emailing your crew members - these are all moments where one error can cause a butterfly effect of further errors.

The best way to manage this is to automate your repetitive tasks and processes. It's not about replacing your team, but mitigating risk so your team can work better.

With automated processes, you can ensure that an important change in your event information is automatically sent to external parties, partner channels, your website, and your crew, all in one go. Give your fingers a break, type less!

Your perfect backstage conga-line

Miscommunication is rarely a people problem. It's just a symptom of a much larger issue to do with your system problem. Tool sprawl, information decay and manual process fatigue all contribute to backstage chaos, and when it's showtime for your event, miscommunication is an inevitability.

Focus instead on finding a Single Source of Truth for your event, where your information stays always up-to-date, and your repetitive manual processes are automated.

This means better production flow, better reputation as a music venue, club or festival, better visitor experiences, better bookings, and the opportunity to grow your events.