# How World Press Photo produces a traveling exhibition in 45 countries #withAsana > World Press Photo proves that small teams can still host big events. Take a peek at how they run events and get event planning tips for small businesses. Source: https://asana.com/resources/event-planning-tips-world-press-photo ## How World Press Photo produces a traveling exhibition in 45 countries #withAsana Picture this: you’re walking through a space, seeing photos of children in war-stricken zones, the Philippines’ most overcrowded jail, a turtle entangled in abandoned fishing gear, or a tennis player diving for a forehand shot. You might be in a local museum, plaza, or at a festival. Let us frame things a little more for you: What you’re looking at is a collection of award-winning photographs, featuring the best work from visual journalists and storytellers across the globe. This exhibition is produced by the [World Press Photo Foundation](https://www.worldpressphoto.org/), and four million people across one hundred cities will see it this year alone. For the World Press Photo Foundation, “Freedom of expression, freedom of speech and freedom of the press are indispensable, and quality visual journalism is essential for the accurate and independent reporting that makes these freedoms possible.” Their mission is to develop and promote the work of visual journalists and storytellers. They run a variety of activities, from an annual photography contest to a festival, and of course, their traveling exhibition—which features the contest’s winners. Asana is a big help for us to ensure that nothing falls through the cracks. Even the smaller steps of our process are in Asana—little details are the key to a successful event.How they do all of this is no small feat. They deliver on their mission with a team of just twenty-six who are headquartered in Amsterdam but travel often. By working with around 80 partner organizations across the globe, they produce the traveling annual exhibition and surrounding events, such as openings and awards ceremonies. But doing so involves many moving pieces—and time zones. As a small team, The World Press Photo Foundation relies on several key practices to produce the best events possible. We spoke to Suzan van den Berg, exhibitions coordinator, to get expert advice on how they pull it off, time and time again. ## Focus on the guest experience With multiple exhibitions across the world and millions of people visiting them, it’s crucial that the World Press Photo Foundation provides a superior guest experience for all visitors. To do so, they work closely with partners to choose compelling venues and rely on regular communication to iron out details like layout and attendee flow. Thinking of your events from your guests’ perspective is a great first step to creating an experience that will leave a lasting impression. Good questions to ask include: - What do we want our guests’ first impressions to be? - How will guests interact with each other or our event? - How can guests share their experience? - What does the layout of the event look like? - What do we want our users to see, experience, and learn during our event? The World Press Photo Foundation focuses on answering these questions in the initial planning stages of their exhibition process. Up to a year ahead of time, they put together a proposal for an event to share with their partners. Then they work with an external logistics company to evaluate risks and optimize the guest experience. This full process—from preparing event layouts and guest invitation lists to booking team travel and checking in with the local embassy—is managed in Asana. This process ensures the Foundation offers an engaging guest experience. After all, their mission is to develop and promote the work of visual journalists—a mission that can’t be achieved without people to see those journalists’ works. ## Have a workback schedule—and stick to it With an ideal guest experience in mind, you can set to planning your workback schedule. This schedule will guide everything you do leading up to, during, and after the event. For the World Press Photo Foundation, this involves a template project in Asana that consists of four chapters, as they like to call them: - Before the exhibition - During exhibition building and opening - When exhibition managers return to the office - After an exhibition is over Each chapter covers a specific period of time in their event planning process. With a standard workback schedule in place, they ensure their entire team—most of whom are traveling—know who’s doing what, by when. “Asana is a big help for us to ensure that nothing falls through the cracks. Even the smaller steps of our process are in Asana—little details are the key to a successful event,” says Suzan. It’s also important that your workback schedule includes time not just for planning and the execution of events, but also to unpack the event and tie up loose ends afterward. Here’s a template event planning project that might be useful: _To manage their events around the globe, World Press Photo creates an Asana project from a template, which is set up similar to this._ ## Plan for setbacks No event is without its setbacks. For the World Press Photo Foundation, setbacks can come from dealing with censorship laws, constant travel, customs and immigration, and working with a large number of partners. Their method for staying ahead of setbacks—and handling them quickly and efficiently when they arise—is to evaluate risks in detail with partners when kicking off work and communicating often during the process so issues can be dealt with. Setbacks are common for events, but they don’t have to be. Planning for potential problems is easy when your team involves all stakeholders early on, evaluates risks upfront, and has a process for handling issues when they arise. _World Press Photo in Budapest_ ## Communicate clearly and often With a small and distributed team, communication is one of the most important parts of the World Press Photo Foundation’s [success in producing events](http://blog.asana.com/2017/03/event-management-tips-tools/). “Our team is committed to communicating clearly with everyone, always,” says Suzan. To do this, they rely on several tools depending on stakeholders—email, Slack, phone conferences, and of course Asana. Asana tasks include detailed notes that may otherwise get lost in the shuffle. Whether you’re communicating with your immediate team or with an outside vendor or partner, it’s crucial to keep key stakeholders in the loop. Finding a cadence for communication (that’s not related to an immediate need) is important, whether that’s a weekly call or quarterly update. For more immediate communication, set up guidelines for the best medium for the team to communicate with each other so everyone’s on the same wavelength. When the World Press Photo Foundation team is in the office, they can just turn around and chat with each other, but they know when someone’s traveling, they need to set up phone calls for regular check-ins. Find a way that works for your team to communicate, and the steps to producing a successful event will feel like a walk in the park! ## Always debrief after the event Finally, Suzan and her team rely on debriefing as a key way to keep their events successful. Her team discusses with partners how the exhibition and events went for them, and what her team could do better. They also debrief with their own internal team, looking at how many visitors attended, the press the exhibitions received, and how they can keep evolving their events. When you don’t have to sweat the small stuff, you can focus on creating events that provide the best possible experience for your attendees.Sometimes, debriefs raise previously unknown issues or needed actions that can be proactively addressed for future events—such as the need to complete specific customs documents. The team may add a new task to their Asana template to make sure it’s noted for future events. Debriefing after an event is crucial to helping your team produce high quality, engaging events. By reviewing what went well, what could go better, and new ideas that may have arisen, your team will have the chance to keep evolving your events so guests are delighted over and over again. ## Create great events When you don’t have to sweat the small stuff, you can focus on creating events that provide the best possible experience for your attendees. With a streamlined process, the World Press Photo Foundation has been able to focus on evolving their events. For example, they now have an annual digital storytelling contest in addition to their annual photography competition, providing more compelling content for the traveling exhibition. They’ve also been able to keep up with the evolution of visual journalism: one of their 2015 winners snapped their photo with their smartphone. _Want to learn more about planning events and managing other marketing programs successfully? Get our_[free guide](https://asana.com/how-to/marketing)_on how to create effective processes that turn your marketing strategy into results._ _**Photo credits:**__Evert Elzinga and Werry Crone_ - [프로젝트 계획](/resources/project-planning-archived) - [비즈니스 리스크를 예방하는 비상 대책을 수립하는 8가지 단계](/ko/resources/contingency-plan) 비즈니스 전략 프로젝트 계획 #### 글쓴이 원래의 계획이 실패하길 바라는 사람은 아무도 없습니다. 하지만 확실한 차선책을 마련해 두면 어떤 상황에도 잘 대처할 수 있습니다. 탄탄한 예비 계획을 세우면 예상치 못한 상황에서도 효과적으로 대응하고 최대한 신속하게 원래 계획으로 돌아올 수 있습니다.비상 대책은 부정적인 결과를 초래할 수 있는 상황에서 용이하게 대처하고 ... - [효과적인 프로젝트 킥오프 미팅을 진행하기 위한 10단계](/ko/resources/project-kickoff-meeting) 프로젝트 계획 #### 글쓴이 프로젝트를 성공적으로 시작하려면 많은 노력을 쏟아부어야 합니다. 하지만 프로젝트가 시작되기도 전에 계획에서 벗어난 것처럼 느껴질 때가 많습니다. 프로젝트에 참여하는 팀원과 이해관계자가 저마다 다른 지식을 가지고 있으며, 기대치와 우선순위가 다양하기 때문입니다. 프로젝트를 시작하기 전에 모든 구성원과 보조를 맞출 기회를 ... - [이해관계자 분석과 그 중요성](/ko/resources/project-stakeholder) 프로젝트 관리 프로젝트 계획 #### 글쓴이 여러분의 프로젝트가 오스카상 후보작에 올랐다고 생각해 보세요. 상을 받은 뒤 무대에 올라가서 소감을 말해야 합니다. 누구에게 감사를 표하시겠습니까?프로젝트 관리에서는 프로젝트 이해관계자에게 감사를 표할 것입니다. 이해관계자는 프로젝트에 이해관계가 있고 어떤 형태로든 목표 달성에 기여한 사람들입니다. 업무를 수행하는 사람 ... - [아이젠하워 매트릭스: 할 일 목록의 우선순위를 지정하는 방법](/ko/resources/eisenhower-matrix) 리더십 프로젝트 계획 생산성 #### 작가 할 일 목록을 만드는 것은 업무를 완료하기 위한 첫 번째 단계입니다. 그런데 하루 안에 모든 일을 처리할 시간이 부족할 때, 어떤 업무부터 착수해야 할까요? 효과적으로 업무 우선순위를 지정하면 생산성을 높이고 가장 중요한 업무에 먼저 집중할 수 있습니다.아이젠하워 매트릭스는 긴급한 업무와 중요한 업무를 구분하여 효율적인 ... - [How World Press Photo produces a traveling exhibition in 45 countries #withAsana](/ko/resources/event-planning-tips-world-press-photo) 프로젝트 계획 프로젝트 계획 Picture this: you’re walking through a space, seeing photos of children in war-stricken zones, the Philippines’ most overcrowded jail, a turtle entangled in abandoned fishing gear ...