Landed with organising a work event and out of your depth — start here

Your boss handed you the brief last Tuesday: organise the annual team gathering, the client dinner, the product launch—pick one. You've nodded, smiled, and now you're staring at a blank spreadsheet wondering where on earth to start. You're not an event person. You don't have a Rolodex of caterers or a mental map of venue logistics. And you don't have months to figure it out.

This is where most people freeze, or worse, start Googling frantically and booking the first thing that looks professional. But the event-services world is larger and more fragmented than you might think, and naming what you actually need is the first step to finding the right help.

The difference between what you're looking for and what exists out there

Event services fall into rough categories, and they overlap in confusing ways. A caterer runs food. A venue coordinator handles the room. A decorator transforms the space. An AV technician runs sound and projection. A florist, photographer, DJ—each has their lane.

But here's the thing: you don't want to hire seven different people and manage seven different conversations, timelines and invoices. You want someone who can either do most of it, or at least talk to all seven people on your behalf so you don't have to.

That person is typically called an event planner or event manager. They sit in the middle. They know the caterers, they've worked with the venues, they have relationships with photographers and AV crews. Their job is to turn your rough idea into a real event—and to handle the chaos when something inevitably goes wrong.

Some planners are generalists; they run corporate lunches, product launches, team away days, client entertainment—anything that walks through the door. Others specialise: conference management, gala dinners, incentive travel, awards ceremonies. Some run their own small team; others are solopreneurs. Some charge a flat fee; others take a percentage of your total spend or charge hourly.

The size of your event matters enormously. A planner comfortable with 50-person gatherings might struggle with 500. Someone used to working with tight budgets may not know how to navigate the high-end hospitality space, or vice versa.

What you actually need to figure out before you call anyone

You don't need to have it all sewn up. But you do need to be clear on a few basics, because every conversation you have will start with these questions.

• How many people? Fifty, 200, 1,000?
• What's the vibe? Internal team morale-builder, client-facing showcase, formal dinner, casual afternoon?
• When? In six weeks, two months, next quarter?
• What's your budget range? You don't need an exact figure, but "we can spend up to R30,000" versus "this needs to be tight" tells a planner a lot.
• What part stresses you most? Finding a venue? Wrangling suppliers? Staying on top of logistics closer to the date? Different planners will shoulder different load.

Once you're clear on those, you're ready to start talking to planners. What you're looking for is someone who has run events like yours before, who communicates clearly, and who won't just nod and vanish until two days before the event.

Your first move

Start by looking at planners and coordinators who've worked in your space or with events your size. Ask your network—colleagues, HR, other business owners—who they've used and what the experience felt like. Then get three or four conversations going. A good planner will ask you questions, not just take your brief and disappear. They'll push back if your budget doesn't match your brief. They'll suggest options you hadn't thought of.

Platforms like Strove let you find and compare verified event managers in your area, see what others have said about working with them, and get a sense of their style before you pick up the phone. It's a way to narrow the field and feel confident you're talking to someone real, not a scam or a flake.

You're not supposed to know this stuff already. That's why these people exist.