How to Turn Your Convention Center Into an Excellent Place to Work

Convention centers are among the most important institutions in their communities. Many of their namesakes—The Raleigh Convention Center, Brooklyn Expo Center, Hynes Convention Center and others—are fondly associated with the cities in which they are located, contributing to their global reputation and their status as business epicenters. Even smaller facilities quickly become a combination of premier venues, economic hubs and prominent employers in their local communities.

Employees are the lifeblood of convention centers; many employees are proud to be associated with these landmarks and the positive impact they have on their communities. However, convention centers often struggle with attracting and retaining employees. In addition to challenges in finding workers for unique jobs, convention centers are often slow to modernize employee resources and drive a better experience for both employees and its guests. 

Three Ways to Modernize Your Convention Center Workforce

At the heart of employees’ challenges is job complexity, where each event has different requirements in terms of resources, operations, communications and reporting. Employees often don’t have access to centralized digital tools that would make their work easier across all events—tools that would drive better results and provide stronger reporting and analysis for convention center executives as well.

In this blog, we explore three ways a purpose-built digital platform for large-scale event operations and management can support a more desirable work experience at modern convention centers. We consider its potential capabilities and outcomes, as well as how they drive value for both workers and the convention centers’ business outcomes.

1. Digitize Employee Workflows to Simplify Tasks and Communication

Every conference, performance or event has different requirements, as well as different incidents and outcomes as an event proceeds. For example, employees may need to work with different caterers and vendors from one event to the next; each event may have different security protocols or different risks in terms of the activities and attendees involved.

These elements create some uncertainty among employees and add stress to their day-to-day work due to the unpredictable nature of their roles. But while each event has its own complexity, a centralized digital tool can ensure workers access familiar resources, communication tools and reporting functions for each event. These event-agnostic tools ensure onboarding employees largely happens only once so they acclimate to their responsibilities faster, no matter what the next event requires.

2. Centralize All Data and Resources in a Single Digital Space

Event teams often suffer because critical information—before an event, in real-time, during an event and afterwards—becomes fragmented across teams and technologies. Security teams may rely on paper-based reporting and voice communication, for example, whereas other team members use a messaging tool like WhatsApp and Google Docs for reporting. This fragmentation creates unnecessary barriers, complications and extra work among teams.

A single, purpose-built digital tool can deliver on all these data and information requirements for all team members involved. The right tool allows teams to prepare event information in the platform for role-based access among employees; they can create checklists for specific tasks and incident responses that are visible for all parties and act as a centralized repository for all data aligned with all different functions at an event. Centralizing resources in this way ensures consistent reporting and analysis among event and venue leaders after an event is over as well.

3. Improve Employee Experiences by Automating Key Processes

No matter the event or venue, employees must be ready to act and respond when either a planned or an unexpected incident occurs. Some level of manual work is always necessary at each event as a result. But some employee responsibilities are great candidates for automation, no matter their roles or the nature of an event.

For example, event organizers can automate reminders reporting and communications to simplify employees’ workflows as they carry out their responsibilities during an event. In these cases, automation ensures accuracy consistency and a more desirable work experience; digitization in this way may even differentiate a convention center from other employers who have yet to adopt these sophisticated capabilities.

Prepare Your Convention Center for the Future of Work

Younger workforces tend to have higher expectations in terms of how employers have digitized processes successfully. They are more likely to work with employers who prioritize a positive on-the-job experience as well. A digital platform designed specifically for convention center workforces can not only improve event operations and outcomes—it can help create a more desirable workplace for the team members that convention centers need to support successful events in the future.

Why Leading Convention Centers Choose Momentus

Momentus is the only digital platform purpose-built for event venues and teams. Already, convention centers across the globe are using Momentus to drive better experiences for their employees and guests, as well as business outcomes for their most important events.