Wrapping up a recent corporate event, I noticed that there were 258 emails in the folder I had set aside for this client. I’m sure there will be a few more when you take into account post-event recaps and invoices. Even with the low, conservative estimate of five minutes spent working on each emailed request or action item, that’s almost 21 hours of event planning work based on emails alone. In reality it’s probably far more.
As an event planner, are you accounting for the work you do over email when you are estimating the job for the client and planning out your workflow? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Thanks to Ramberg Media Images for the graphic.
Emails take a -lot- of time to deal with. We don't take that into account when coming up with quotes, but it requires some hard choices about when and how to respond to emails… and which emails don't require any response at all. A great resource is Merlin Mann's Inbox Zero system… look it up!