By
Cary Grant
Event planning is a career that can be incredibly rewarding. You get to work with all kinds of people, from high-profile celebrities to everyday families. But before you decide on this career path, it’s important to understand what event planning is and how it works. In this post, we’ll explore the ins and outs of becoming an event planner as well as how other people have started their careers in this field.
What is event planning?
Event planning is the process of coordinating the details of a special event. It involves managing time, money and resources to ensure that your clients’ needs are met on time, within budget and according to their specifications. Event planning can be as simple as arranging for food and drink at an office party or as complicated as organizing a multi-million dollar wedding reception with hundreds of guests.
Event Planning Career Path
Event planners oversee all aspects of an event from conception to completion. They help clients plan their events, manage budgets, coordinate logistics, create marketing materials and much more. Event planners may work for themselves or for an agency or company that hires them to plan events on behalf of their clientele. Some companies hire full-time event planners while others use freelance professionals to fill their needs for specific projects.
How to get started with your event planning career
Get a degree in event planning, marketing or business management. A bachelor’s degree is the minimum educational requirement for most entry-level positions in this field.
Learn all you can about the industry.
Take classes on event planning at your local community college or university and read books about it from both academic and trade publishers (the latter are written by people who work in the industry).
Look for entry-level positions at events companies.
Start small by working part-time jobs while completing school; then move up into full-time work once graduation comes around. Seek out internships during summers between semesters; these will give you experience working under real professionals without having any financial obligations after graduation day itself!
From experience:
Over the years I have been asked by many clients on how they can get started with their own events. They know that they need to do them and they want to but they don’t know where to start. Well here are some tips on how you can begin with your own events.
The first thing you will need is a venue, most people think this is the hardest part because it is not always easy finding a venue that fits your budget but it doesn’t have to be that way. You can rent out space at local hotels or other venues that are available in your area, this will be cheaper than renting out an entire facility yourself. If you are just getting started then find someone who has experience doing events like yours and ask them for advice on how they got started and what worked for them.
Consider narrowing your search by venue type and required capacity before reaching out—this saves time and helps avoid unsuitable options. For planners organising events in Sydney, curated listings can be especially useful for comparing availability, layout photos and rough pricing across hotels, rooftop bars and unique event spaces; for an efficient way to browse these choices, you may want to look into function venues Sydney, for example. Also look for filters that surface AV, catering and accessibility features so your shortlist matches the brief. Taking this focused approach early makes site visits and final negotiations far more productive.
Start Early
Many event planners will tell you that the best time to start planning an event is at least six months before the date of the event itself. This gives you plenty of time to get everything organized, including booking venues, food services, entertainment and any other services that are needed for your event. However, if you cannot do it all by yourself, it is best to have a proven event management company help you. If there are multiple components involved in your event, get them booked as soon as possible so there won’t be any last-minute changes or cancellations. If you wait until the last minute to book things like entertainers or caterers, there’s no telling what could happen — someone might call in sick or another service might give their client priority over yours — and this can cause major problems down the line.
Keep it simple and stick to one theme
It can be tempting to try and include everything under the sun in your event, but this can result in over-complication and confusion for both you and your guests. If there are too many elements involved, people are more likely to get bored or frustrated by the lack of clarity. This is particularly important if you’re planning an office party – while it’s important to give your team something to look forward to, you don’t want them getting stressed out by being overwhelmed with choices!
Stay within budget by negotiating with vendors beforehand
Once you have found a few good options for each aspect of your event (food, entertainment and decor), reach out to each vendor individually for quotes. If you find that one vendor is significantly less expensive than another for identical services and products, see if they would be willing to negotiate prices with you.
Don’t forget to take into account travel as well. It would be a good idea to speak with a company such as Uniqueworld dmcs for instance, as they can help with destination management, allowing you to focus on other core parts of event planning.
In addition to coordinating vendors and logistics, it’s worth considering professional AV support to ensure your event runs seamlessly. Opting for services like https://audiovisualnation.com/ and similar others can connect you with skilled crews who handle sound, lighting, video, and staging. With experts managing the technical side, you can focus on creating a memorable experience for your guests without the stress of production challenges.
Don’t forget about the little things; they make all the difference!
The little details can make or break an event; don’t assume that people will automatically know where to go or what they’re supposed to do once they enter your venue. Make sure signs are clearly visible throughout your space so that guests know where they are supposed to be at all times (and if possible, provide maps!).
Make sure your guests feel welcome as soon as they arrive at your event
Have someone at the door greeting people as they come in and directing them to registration or where they should go for their meal or presentation (this is especially important if you have multiple rooms). Also make sure there’s plenty of space between tables so that people can easily move around and mingle with others if they wish to do so.
Event planning can be an exciting and rewarding career. However, it is also a very complex and often stressful field that requires a significant amount of time, energy and attention to detail. There are many different types of events that require different skill sets to plan and execute properly. This guide will help you get started in the right direction by providing you with an overview of the event planning industry.