Optimising Your Time While Travelling for Work

Recently, I was lucky enough to go on my first work trip to Brisbane as a part of a videography and photography project for a client. Having never worked on a project that required interstate coordination of this scale before, it presented numerous new challenges and learning opportunities. From this experience, I have listed my top 3 tips for someone new to project management. 

1. Don’t make assumptions, ask questions. 

The most crucial part of any project is ascertaining what the client wants, the scope of the project and clarifying the deliverables. The BEST way to do this is to ask questions and know what type of questions to ask. Often a client doesn’t know the exact details of the project which is why they have engaged you to complete this work. In this case, open-ended questions won’t help nail down the specifics of the headshots including editing style. Rather than saying, ‘what do you want’ - give them options. An example of this is asking ‘do you want a plain white or a cityscape as the background for your team’s headshots?’.

Rather than assuming you know what your client wants, ask them directly with examples. The less left to chance, the more likely the final product will meet expectations. Having the answers to these questions will allow you to prepare the necessary equipment and make accurate estimations of how long each task will take. This step leads me to my next piece of advice. 

2. Plan and prepare in advance 

Sufficient and adequate preparation can set you up for success, especially when there are multiple moving parts. As a person who finds joy in creating spreadsheets, planning and preparation is something I find highly rewarding and enjoyable, however, not everyone feels the same and that’s fine. However, preparing documents including briefs, agendas and run sheets is a vital part of project management so that your client knows what to expect and what they need to prepare or be responsible for.

Planning and nailing down the details will not only help your client, but also your own team. The person responsible for executing the work will need to know certain variables which could include lighting, room setup and noise levels at the filming location which impact the quality of the final product. Knowing this information will help you ascertain what equipment to bring and other details. 

3. Think on your feet 

This next piece of advice may make it sound like I’m going against everything I’ve previously stated about the value of planning and preparing; however, personally, I think they go hand in hand. The third tip I have is to be aware that things won’t go 100% to plan and be ready to think on your feet. You can’t control everything and there will be things that are out of your control. Your flight could be delayed or the weather could ruin the use of a potential location. Don’t dwell on the negatives of the situation but rather be creative and leverage the collective knowledge of the people around you. There is always a solution; you just have to be open and prepared for change. 

Overall, this was a great learning (and travelling) experience that I am very grateful for. Thank you to Dynamic Supplies, DSTECH and Social Star Pty Ltd Star for this opportunity.