This is a guest post from Chris Carney, the Producer and Co-Founder of Threshold Festival of Music & Arts in Liverpool and Festival Manager for Curated Place & John Grant’s ‘North Atlantic Flux’ in Hull 2017 as part of their City of Culture programme. You can connect with Chris on Twitter and LinkedIn.

I’ve never been the ‘University of Life’, ‘School of Hard Knocks’ type.

I am an advocate of education, in fact so much so that I’ve put my money where my mouth is and I now teach aspects of the music business, including Events Management at the Academy of Contemporary Music (ACM) in Guildford, as well as visiting lectures at Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA), University of Chester and Hugh Baird College (where they have a festival management degree).

However, no matter how much formal education you can get in events management, it’s an incredibly fluid and dynamic industry, so there are just so many things that will still need to be learnt on the job. It’s an old adage, but it’s so relevant to this industry.

My first foray into the world of events and promotion was working on the box office (for ‘box office’ read ‘table’) at a warehouse party of somewhat questionable legality.

It all started off quite quiet really, but then by peak time, the techno was shaking the walls, the only light I had to work with was a strobe and the punters kept coming and coming until my head was spinning, my mouth was dry and I’d completely lost track of the door tally. It was awesome and I was hooked.

Since then I’ve worked every single job there is to work on an event including stewarding, mailing list sign ups, stage and production management, sound, lighting, street team, marketing, booking, programming and finally directing and producing (I’ve definitely missed about 10 other jobs there).

It’s fair to say I’ve worked my way up, but the most important part of this is that there is not one job listed there that I would not be willing to pick up again if it means ensuring that the event goes well.

Related: 15 Top Tips on How to Be a Successful Event Manager

As I’ve learnt from almost 20 years as a professional stage actor: ‘The Show is Everything’, so there should be nobody on your team who doesn’t want it to be the greatest show it can possibly be, and who isn’t willing to pick up any job on the endless to do list.

When we first started out in 2011 with the inaugural Threshold Festival, the biggest role I’d taken on previously was running a band night or two.

The first Threshold was an almost vertical learning curve, even the simplest organisational terminology was alien to me.

I remember one promoter writing in an email that they would have three PA’s for their particular part of the festival. I was initially hesitant, but thought it must be some sort of ‘3 stage battle’, which sounded great, so I proceeded. I was very close to ordering all three of the requested sound systems when in the following emails I was told that the PA in this instance meant Performing Artists!

My wife and co-founder, Kaya and our friend Ingi Thor who produced that first year recalled watching me go about my business of piecing together my first festival and described it as frantic, but a marvel as I very quickly realised I was in my element.

I made lots of mistakes, though. Lots.

Related: Learning From Your Event Mistakes to Come Back Stronger

Maybe if I’d taken the educational route I would have been clued up on all this, but then there would definitely be more things that the classroom can’t teach.

I was talking to a fellow event producer recently called Liam Rich. A new friend working on the Hull City of Culture Programme for 2017. A truly mammoth task. I told him about this blog and he encapsulated it brilliantly.

What he said essentially was that until you’ve experienced the stress, the risk, the heartfelt dedication and the elation that comes with it, you just can’t know what it means to be in event management. The pressure that falls upon you, when the buck stops with you, is the best learning tool there is.

This is not in any way a chorus of anti-education, in fact it’s a celebration. The festival managers of tomorrow will be far more clued up than I ever was, and in fact, they already are. There are people on the Threshold team who exceed my knowledge, and will soon do so likewise in their abilities. Which brings me to my best tip…

Surround yourself with people who are better at things than you are. I stole this from Richard Branson, but I’ve elected to use my powers for good! One day you’ll be doing almost everything to make the show, then someday you may be at the top of a team. Make sure that team can do it better than you ever could.

The next best tip is: Delegate. Delegate to your team because if you continue to be a control freak (and if you’re in this profession, you definitely will be), you will get stressed beyond your imagination, and the job won’t get done. Someone wants that job, and they will do it well.

Related: How to Delegate Your Way to Success

So if you’re interested in making a life from making great events, then get educated in more ways than one. Sit in class, learn the terminology and get qualified. Get out there, volunteer, make your own events, go to events and analyse them (this can spoil nights out a bit, admittedly), learn from the people who’ve made almost every mistake there is to make.

Last but by no means least. They are called ‘leads’ or ‘cables’, not ‘wires’. Trust me, this is a useful tip…

…And learn the various definitions of PA!