Optimizing Teamwork and Internal Communication Throughout Your Event Lifecycle

Effective teamwork and internal communication are key during the event lifecycle. But with teams busy with communications to all their speakers, sponsors, partners, and vendors, internal communication with everyone involved in the event can easily fall by the wayside. 

Clear internal communication helps ensure everyone feels heard — and receives the information they need to do their jobs effectively and contribute to event success.

The industry leaders who spoke at RainFocus INSIGHT 2024 shared their top strategies for improving communication with internal teams. Here are their recommendations, which we’ve divided by event stage to help you create your plan of action: 

Pre-Registration

Much of the important internal stakeholder alignment begins in the early planning stage of your event lifecycle, before registration is launched. Many teams use this time to draw up a calendar of key milestones or deadlines and establish goals. In addition, teams often use this time to accomplish the following tasks:

• Establish clear roles and responsibilities across internal and external teams
• Align on which platforms will be used to serve content to attendees, and when the content will be served
• Set up recurring reports and change notifications
• Proactively enable access to data dashboards
• Establish a meeting cadence with stakeholders and senior management
• Enable team members to nominate and vote on speakers and/or sponsors 

Registration and Catalog Launch 

Once you’ve launched your registration workflow and content catalog, you’ll probably receive a high volume of questions from a core internal group: employees who are trying to register or schedule sessions. Consider these approaches for managing these communications: 

• Use a meeting request system such as Calendly to let individuals reserve time for discussion
• Host a town hall meeting to answer several questions all at once
• Create an intake form for questions, and dedicate time each week to answering a batch of questions received

Just Before the Event

As the event approaches, internal communication often center on day-to-day details or changes. Questions may come from employees who want to know about their hotel lodging, on-site staff unsure of their duties upon arrival, or team members newly assigned to contribute to the event. We recommend the following strategies for ensuring everyone has clear, accurate last-minute information: 

• Send out a know-before-you-go email or schedule a webinar 
• Leverage a corporate wiki page to answer FAQs
• Include FAQs in your company’s newsletter
• Highlight the roles and responsibilities of on-site staff, especially those who will answer attendees’ questions
• Set up communication groups on existing company channels for conversations throughout the event, and add team members to each relevant group
• Distribute key contacts’ phone numbers to those who need them

During the Event

This is the time for the full pre-event communication plan to be executed. Many of the procedures, resources, and communication channels you’ve put together for other milestones can be continued throughout the event. Keep internal communication organized during the event:

• Delegate the answering of questions asked on internal messaging platforms to  members of the team who will have the bandwidth to address them
• Create and publicize a help desk on-site for employees
• Use intake forms or internal surveys to gather team real-time feedback for future events

Post-Event

Meetings after their event has concluded assess the effectiveness of the event and its planning. Communication approaches might include the following: 

• Sharing event analysis with different groups 
• Hosting several targeted meetings with individuals to gather feedback on specific aspects of the event
• Creating a presentation outlining success metrics for the executive team  

Want to learn more tips for optimizing teamwork and communication during events? Rachel Cohen, Senior Manager of Event Content for GitHub, recently discussed the challenges she faces as an event content manager and the structure she has formed around internal communication. Watch the video for an in-depth conversation between her and Rodney Hart, VP of events at RainFocus. 

Having a communicative technology partner from the start makes all the difference. RainFocus collaborates with teams and enables greater internal communication throughout the event lifecycle. Learn more about our client success team here.