Case studies : Area event manager: Hannah

Hannah is an area event manager for Cancer Research UK. She graduated with a degree in media and after working in the television industry for a few years, decided that her skills were well suited to a career in event management.

My role involves the logistics and marketing of a number of mass-participation charity fundraising events - a mixture of Race for Life and Run 10K. I am a home-based worker, which means I have an office in my house with all the equipment and a phone line provided by my employers. Everyone in our events team is home-based.

I set the 5K and10K courses and liaise with suppliers, stakeholders, venues and councils to ensure the logistics side of the events are organised to the high standard associated with Cancer Research UK. This also involves a lot of health and safety risk assessments of the venues and courses as well as making sure the medical cover is sufficient for the type of course and terrain.

I am responsible for recruiting participants for the events and must endeavour to reach set targets for each event. This includes staging launch events, attending promotional events, sending out materials, working with case studies (cancer survivors or people who have lost someone to cancer) and the local press to stage photo calls and arrange interviews.

On the event days I manage a team of volunteers and staff to ensure everything runs to plan. I also make a speech to the crowd and tell them about the work of Cancer Research UK and why it is so important that they send back their sponsorship money.

I originally wanted to work in TV production and did a bit of TV work before deciding it was not for me. Many of the skills are transferable - TV is about being organised and able to prioritise and multi-task.

I did some freelance events work for other organisations before getting an event fundraising job at the New Children’s Hospital Appeal in Manchester, where I learnt a lot about charity event logistics.

In order to be successful in this role, you need to be a people person, able to negotiate and work well with different kinds of stakeholders. Working from home, you must be very organised and self-motivated and must be able to prioritise and work well to deadlines. It is important to be creative and come up with new ways to promote your events, as competition is fierce. Finally, you must be able to take control of situations that may go wrong on event day and problem solve quickly. This often involves being very resourceful.

I love seeing all the hard work I have put in over the year come together on event day when thousands of women are standing there ready to set off. Getting to spend my days at beautiful venues such as Tatton Park walking the courses is also lovely.

During event season it can be very tiring giving up lots of weekends (you do get this time back in lieu). Getting the paperwork ready for each event can be quite tedious but is essential.

My advice to anyone interested in events is to get experience volunteering at charity events by registering through their websites. Cancer Research UK also runs an event assistant scheme - paid casual positions, perfect for students. Try and get as much events experience as possible.