Before I was a Wedding Planner, I was an Event Planner; initially with one of the ‘big’ banks in a remote area and then with a not-for-profit, community organisation. I loved both environments and I learnt so much in those roles; mainly because I had to. When I took on the first role, in the bank, I had absolutely no experience of events, apart from attending them. I was young and in the right place at the right time. I also had a hard-work attitude and was willing to do whatever I had to do, to do a good job. As much as I knew that this is what I wanted to do, pretty much from the first event I planned, it was a stressful experience, much of the time. I had no systems or processes in place for what I was doing and no one to refer to for advice. I had very little help either. I was equally responsible for things like branding and marketing of the events, as for making sure the PA system was where it should be, even if that meant lugging it up flights of stairs on my own (which I did often and in heels). It wasn’t that there wasn’t anyone else who could do those things for me, I was just so determined to do it all on my own because I had a fear of being found out for my lack of experience or knowledge.
With experience, I know now how hard I made the job for myself and how little things like timelines and checklists, plus proper liaison with vendors about their role, would have helped. Sitting down with my managers to get a clear understanding of what they wanted to achieve from the event would have saved a huge amount of guessing and back-tracking too. I could go on. Thankfully my events pretty much always came together and I like to think I was like the swan, appearing to glide across the water. To everyone else it was as it should be, but making it that way took a lot of paddling on my behalf. It was hard work and I was probably always sailing very close to a disaster in those early days.
Ok. The purpose of this post is not to scare you away from Event Planning as a career. In fact if you think a career in events could be for you, but you are not drawn to weddings, I am here to tell you there is a thrilling world of events out there that need professionals to plan them and we can teach you how to do it in a way that will mean you avoid the stress I experienced when doing it without training. What sort of events am I a talking about? Here are just a few; conferences, meetings, product launches, fashion shows, team building get-aways, charity events, business networking events, festivals, sporting events.
The course I wish I could have taken when I first started in Events is the Certificate in Event Planning. It teaches you the essentials of what you need to know to successfully plan and manage events and also helps you to understand things like branding, marketing and social media and how all of these things play a role in an Event and its success.
If you would like to find out more about this course, I recommend you start with this short video introduction to the course and then if you are intrigued to know more, you might enjoy this series of videos, which take you behind the scenes of our virtual campus.
Talk to us
To speak to a Course Specialist about whether this is the course for you, contact Zoe, for the UK and Europe, Nicole for the US and Caribbean, Bonita for the United Arab Emirates and Christine for New Zealand, Australia and all other regions, or visit the ‘Courses’ page via the campus closest to you and select, Certificate in Event Planning.