Oh boy event coordination. I suppose since it's the day after Thanksgiving, I should be talking about what I'm thankful for. If there's one skill I have, that I'm most thankful for, it's the ability to coordinate and lead groups and events. It probably sounds self-centered, but trust me when I say organizing people is not easy. Having the ability to organize and coordinate things like parties, tournaments, game nights, and road trips is just as much of an art as it is a skill, and many aspects of it are things that can't be learned, only experienced and practiced.
I've been creating, running, and organizing events for over a decade at this point, and while it's tiring work, a lot of it is second nature to me now. My first major events that I hosted we're Gamestop Pokemon tournaments, back when I worked there. It was only a yearly event, to coincide with the release of new games, and our attendance varied wildly. The first year we only had fifteen or so people, most of which were friends of mine. The second year we had 120, which I ran as a single elimination bracket, with nothing but a pen and paper. After that I made sure to use computerized bracket making software for tournaments, but I also moved on to hosting school events, charity events, and holiday parties.
You're probably not here for my history though, you're here for my secret. Pretty much everyone tries to host an event at some point, whether it be an online meetup for games or in person events like parties. If you've tried to host an event at any point in your life you probably got struck by just how hard it is. Sure, having some friends over to hang out isn't the hardest event to plan, but you also get to take a lot for granted in that scenario. You and your friends know each other, and are already comfortable communicating. You all probably have a similar idea of what a successful and unsuccessful event look like, and you aren't super invested in anything beyond hanging out with your friends, but hosting an event with public attendance, or that is welcoming to newcomers is totally different.
There are a lot of things necessary to run events smoothly; backup plans, well tested equipment, proper setup time, marketing and outreach, etc. The number one thing you need though, as an event host, is confidence.
It sounds cheesy, sure, but when running or hosting an event where you need people to follow directions or achieve a common goal, the best way to get them to treat you like a leader is to act like one. There's lots of evolutionary reasons why people are more inclined to follow someone who speaks and acts with confidence, I won't go into them here, but the basic idea is that who the leader is doesn't really matter, what matters is what they're doing and if people agree with it. In some social circumstances, independent thought and creativity are key when it comes to getting successful results, but for events a more organized and coordinated, even military-like discipline is more effective. The way you have to think about it is this; even for a competitive event, like a tournament or a sports game, all of the participating parties have the same overall goal, to have the event run smoothly in a way they can all agree on. Just because players are competitive with each other doesn't mean they are also trying to fight the event itself, it's usually just the opposite.
This turned out to be a bit more of a ramble than I had initially planned. A lot of what goes into making a successful community leader is patience and experience. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't explain everything there is to know about running successful events. So much of it is just trial by fire, and learning to adapt and recover under pressure. It isn't easy, but somebody's got to do it, and I'm thankful for the opportunity to do so.
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