TEACHING | Daniel Noake

MTA 45th Anniversary classroom shot 950x

TEACHING

I serve as adjunct faculty at the George Washington University in Washington DC, teaching event management as part of the Masters in Tourism Administration program, at the GW School of Business.

To ape a guy I look up to, Ashwath Damodaran, I don't teach because I can't do. I teach because I can do. I bring a working practical knowledge of event management and current best practices to Masters students on the MTA program, and regularly invite friends and colleagues to share their experiences with students; often providing highly specialized knowledge on topics from contract law to PR.

Currently, I teach Risk Management for Events in the fall semester at GW. This is (hopefully) a fun and practical class where students are encouraged to get out into the world and apply the tools and techniques they have learnt for managing risk in three primary areas: legal, ethical and financial.

The course culminates in a white paper project where, working in groups, students apply their knowledge to assess a crisis at an event in the recent or distant past. Past papers have included risk management assessments of Fyre Festival, the Hillsborough disaster, and the tragic Station Nightclub fire.

Students walk away better prepared and better armed to manage risk in the meetings and events industry, with practical techniques that can quickly be embedded in their day-to-day professional lives. Many large-scale events have failed over the years owing to poor management and the failure to understand, assess and manage risks; in a business that is notoriously risky on all levels. Equipping students, most of them practising event professionals, with the tools to mitigate that I believe helps build a stronger industry.

You can see the course syllabus and find out more about the George Washington University MTA program by clicking here.