Community, collaboration and coordination are at the crux of most events. For an event to be a grand success there must be an efficient community working on effective collaboration and coordination. However, the three are not synonymous. They are related and may even be used in the same context but there are technical and functional differences. Let us highlight the difference between community, collaboration and coordination.

• Community is a group of people that form a team. That could be any kind of team. It could be a neighborhood coming together and working on a project collectively. It could be a team of employees working on an event or project. It could be volunteers with the same goal. It could also be a special community with specific objectives. Community usually implies that people get together and have a shared objective. It is not necessary for all of them to have the same socioeconomic profile or professional experience. There can be diverse people from all walks of life forming a community with a preset agenda or goal.

• Collaboration is not always about community. While a community will collaborate, collaboration is a process of bringing one’s forte and contributing to a larger cause. When a vendor supplies furniture for an event or when a caterer manages the food and beverages, they are collaborating with the event organizer. The goal of the caterer or furniture supplier or any vendor for that matter may not be related at all to what the objective of the event organizer is. Likewise, the event manager may have very different goals and they are absolutely unrelated to what the vendors want. However, they all collaborate for the larger event and principally to run their own enterprises.

• Coordination is important in community and collaboration but can exist without either or both. Coordination can be within a community or team of volunteers. Staff of an event management company must coordinate with one another. The vendors must also coordinate but their obligations are different from that of the employees or stakeholders of the event management company. Coordination can also be among unrelated professionals, such as the security at the venue and the electrician working at an event. They don’t necessarily need to coordinate as part of their job profiles but they do for the fructification of the project, of which both are part but not a part of the purpose of the event.

Community, collaboration and coordination, all three components are vital for a successful event.