Capacity and staffing
How to hand over when an event coordinator is replaced
The person who held the event together is leaving or moving on, and the event is still weeks away.
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The short answer
A coordinator handover passes on four things: the live status of every workstream, the decisions made and still open, the commitments already given to suppliers and members, and the access and contacts needed to carry on.
Plan it as a short working period, not a file transfer. The outgoing and incoming person walk through the event together, and the incoming person confirms back what they have understood.
What the new coordinator needs on day one
Not the full archive. They need the current plan, the list of open decisions with owners and dates, and the people they will be speaking to this week.
The most expensive gaps are the informal ones: a verbal agreement with a venue manager, a speaker told a topic is confirmed, a supplier waiting for a signature.
The decision sequence
- Agree the handover window and the last working day of the outgoing coordinator, and who covers if that date moves.
- Ask the outgoing coordinator to list every workstream with its status, next action and next date.
- Pull out the open decisions and commitments. Check against the decision log and the supplier emails.
- List all contacts with their role, what they are waiting for and how they prefer to be reached.
- Transfer access: shared folders, registration system, supplier portals, mailbox forwarding. Ask IT or the account owner for anything that needs formal approval.
- Run a walk-through together, one workstream at a time, with the incoming coordinator taking notes and reading them back.
- Introduce the incoming coordinator to each supplier and decision owner, in writing or in a short call.
- Set a check-in after one week to collect questions the handover missed.
What must be in the pack
| Area | What to hand over | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Status | One page per workstream: done, in progress, blocked, next action. | The new person can see the shape in an hour. |
| Decisions | Made, open, who decides, deadline. | Stops decisions being remade or dropped. |
| Commitments | Signed and verbal agreements with suppliers, venues, speakers and sponsors. | Hidden promises are expensive to discover late. |
| Money | Approved budget, committed spend, paid amounts and pending invoices, as held by finance. | Stops double commitment. |
| People | Contacts, roles, preferences and open requests. | Suppliers keep a single point of contact. |
| Access | Systems, folders, accounts and who administers them. | Avoids a stalled first week. |
If the outgoing person is already gone
Rebuild from sources: the mailbox, the shared folder, the supplier contracts and a conversation with each supplier and decision owner. Start with the workload estimate to see what the role actually carried.
Treat every unconfirmed item as open until the other party confirms in writing. If the gap is large, consider the capacity gap estimator and temporary cover, as set out in the temporary cover scope.
Common pitfalls
- Handover is a single email with a folder link and no conversation.
- Verbal commitments are left out because they were never recorded.
- Suppliers learn of the change from a bounced email.
- The incoming person is added to every list at once and cannot tell what matters this week.
- Access is requested on the last day and takes longer than the notice period.
Worked example · Fictional example
A coordinator leaves six weeks before a forum
Fictional organisation and figures, for illustration only.
The coordinator of a fictional industry forum gives notice with six weeks to go. The secretariat head sets a two-week handover window and asks for a one-page status per workstream: venue, programme, registration, suppliers and communications.
Two items surface that were not in the plan: a caterer holding the menu choice pending a deposit instruction, and a speaker who was told the session slot is firm before the committee had approved it. Both go onto the decision log with owners. The incoming coordinator is introduced to the venue and the caterer by a short joint email, takes the first week to read back the status pages and, at the one-week check-in, raises three questions the handover had not covered.
Use this yourself
Coordinator handover pack checklist
Copy this and tick each item with a date. The outgoing and incoming coordinator both sign off the walk-through.
- Handover window and last working day agreed, with cover named if it moves
- One-page status for each workstream: done, in progress, blocked, next action and date
- Open decisions list with decider, consulted people and deadline
- Commitments list including verbal agreements, each marked confirmed in writing or not
- Budget position as held by finance: approved, committed, paid, pending invoices
- Supplier and venue contacts with role, last contact and what they are waiting for
- Speaker and guest list with the state of each invitation
- Access list: systems, folders, accounts, who administers each and request date
- Walk-through held for every workstream and notes read back by incoming coordinator
- Suppliers and decision owners told in writing who the new contact is
- One-week check-in booked to collect gaps
Handle it in-house, or bring in help?
Your team can usually handle this when
- Handover window is two weeks or more and the outgoing coordinator is cooperative.
- The event is simple and the plan is already well documented.
- The secretariat head can sit in on the walk-through.
Outside planning help earns its fee when
- The coordinator has already left and the record is scattered.
- The event is close and the incoming person is new to events.
- Several suppliers hold verbal commitments that need checking one by one.
Need someone to hold the event steady during the change?
A conference project lead can run the handover with you: collect the status of each workstream, rebuild the decision log, check supplier commitments in writing and brief the incoming coordinator. The organiser keeps the decisions and the appointment; the project lead covers the coordination and documentation for the agreed scope.
Questions organisers ask
How long should a handover take?
Two weeks of overlap is comfortable for a multi-month project, but even a few days works if the status pages and decision log are ready. Shorter handovers need more preparation from the outgoing coordinator.
Should the outgoing coordinator remain reachable afterwards?
Agree this before they leave, including how long and through which channel. Check what your organisation or their new employer allows.
What about confidential information?
Share only what the role needs, through approved systems. Ask the person who administers your data about access and about any personal data in the files.
Do we tell suppliers about the change?
Yes, and early. A short joint message naming the new contact and confirming nothing else has changed prevents duplicated or lost requests.
Related resources
Content record: Draft. Written from the cited sources and checked by automated rules; not yet independently reviewed.