One to many in database event management
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Organizing an event is a lot of work! In this article, we examine the data model behind an event organization app.
If you’ve ever tried to organize an event for more than ten people (and don’t count parties or business meetings here) you know how complicated event management can be! Have we invited everyone? Have they confirmed if they are coming? Is the venue booked and prepared? Who will host the event? Who will participate in the various parts? There are many other questions to answer, and things could easily go wrong.
You can do all your planning with paper and pen, but why not use an app? It’s more convenient! Any app will need a place to store all the necessary event information. This is where our event management data model enters this story. Grab a coffee, settle into your favorite chair, and we’ll look at what it takes to build an event management data model.
Event Management FAQs
Before we explain the model and describe how we’ll store the data, let’s first review some event management basics:
What could be considered an event?
In this context, an event is an occasion where many people, who often don’t know each other, gather to learn about or participate in something. Some popular events are music festivals or concerts, IT conferences, sporting events like football games, health and medical conferences, etc.
What do all events have in common?
The previously-mentioned event examples are very different in terms of content, purpose, and target audience. Still, they share many similarities, especially in their organization.
First, consider the event’s content. Some events (e.g. a concert or a football game) will provide only one type of content and will be held in one place. Other events include many different but related “sub-events”, which may occur in various places.
Take an IT conference as an example of the second type of event. There are lectures, presentations, workshops, and competitions. Attendees will probably go from room to room or may even travel between different buildings as they go to various sub-events. Some of these sub-events will run at the same time, but each sub-event still relates to IT and has one or more hosts.
What does it take to make an event successful?
First of all, there are many event venue personnel who work hard in the background: audio and visual techs, ticket sellers, ushers, cleaning and maintenance workers, and administrative personnel. Many people in many different roles will spend many hours working hard to get the stage ready for the “stars” and other participants, but none of them will get much recognition.
Clearly, all events require some kind of infrastructure. If we hold a conference in a physical location, we’ll be talking about rooms and seats, a sound system, lighting, maybe video, etc. Even an online event, like a webinar, must have a place to produce the content and the IT setup needed to connect with virtual attendees.
Events usually have media sponsors and partners that help in organizing and promoting them. These sponsors are mostly companies and associations related to the event topic; occasionally they are other companies looking for some good publicity; and more rarely a private individual will serve as a sponsor or partner.
What is event management?
Event management is a process used to effectively manage events and everything related to them. It could be considered as a type of project management. We discussed a project management data model in THIS ARTICLE. Using a Gantt chart to show the event’s progress, current status, and future actions is not a bad idea.
We’ll probably want our event management application to fit on one screen, if possible. Most actions – like creating a new show, assigning employees and resources to a task, or estimating costs – should be drag and drop.