Event Planners
Event Planners
Career Overview
Event planners organize conferences, festivals, weddings, trade shows, meetings, and other events. They manage everything from venues and schedules to suppliers, budgets, technology, and guest experiences. Strong organization, communication, creativity, and problem-solving skills are important.
Education
A college diploma or university degree in Event Management, Hospitality, Business, Communications, or a related field can prepare you for this career. Some people also enter the field through event-planning experience and work their way up
Work Environment
Event planners work in offices, hotels, convention centres, event venues, and sometimes outdoors. The work can be fast-paced, with evenings, weekends, travel, and longer hours around major events. Digital planning platforms, virtual events, social media, and event technology are now important parts of the job.
Future Outlook
People and organizations continue to hire professionals to plan and manage events, from business conferences to large public celebrations.
Recommended High School Courses
- Psychology
- Business
- Communication
- Graphic Arts
- Hospitality
- Marketing
- Computer Studies
- Active Learning - Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Complex Problem Solving - Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Coordination - Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
- Instructing - Teaching others how to do something.
- Judgment and Decision Making - Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Management of Financial Resources - Determining how money will be spent to get the work done, and accounting for these expenditures.
- Management of Personnel Resources - Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
- Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Negotiation - Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
- Persuasion - Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
- Service Orientation - Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Systems Analysis - Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
- Systems Evaluation - Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
- Time Management - Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Writing - Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
- Clerical - Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology.
- Communications and Media - Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
- Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
- Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
- English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
- Law and Government - Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
- Public Safety and Security - Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
- Category Flexibility - The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Far Vision - The ability to see details at a distance.
- Fluency of Ideas - The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Mathematical Reasoning - The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Originality - The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
- Selective Attention - The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Time Sharing - The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Visualization - The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Correspond with customers to answer questions or resolve complaints.
- Authorize financial actions.
- Verify accuracy of records.
- Organize special events.
- Confer with personnel to coordinate business operations.
- Inspect facilities or equipment to ensure specifications are met.
- Prepare financial documents.
- Monitor organizational compliance with regulations.
- Conduct eligibility or selection interviews.
- Negotiate contracts with clients or service providers.
- Develop financial or business plans.
- Conduct surveys in organizations.
- Supervise employees.
- Train personnel to enhance job skills.
- Oversee business processes.
- Confer with others about financial matters.
- Create marketing materials.
- Market products, services, or events.
- Update professional knowledge.
- Obtain documentation to authorize activities.
Schools
Arkansas Tech University
Austin Community College...
Bowling Green State Unive...
Cal Poly Pomona
California University- Pe...
Columbus State Community...
Cuyahoga Community Colleg...
Cuyahoga Community Colleg...
Cuyahoga Community Colleg...
Ferris State University
High Point University
Lanier Technical College-...
Lewis And Clark State Col...
Milwaukee Area Technical...
Minnesota State Universit...
Montgomery College- Rockv...
National Park College
Northeast Wisconsin Techn...
Northwood University- Mic...
Notre Dame University Of...
Slippery Rock University...
Stephens College
Suny At Delhi
Suny Broome Community Col...
Suny Erie Community Colle...
Suny Plattsburgh
Suny Sullivan County Comm...
Academy Of Learning- R...
Bow Valley College- Do...
Cdi College- Calgary C...
Cdi College- Mississau...
Cdi College- North Yor...
Cdi College- Scarborou...
College Of The Rockies...
Durham College- Oshawa...
Durham College- Whitby...
Fanshawe College- Lond...
Herzing College- Winni...
Loyalist College
Manitoba Institute Of...
Niagara College- Niaga...
Nova Scotia Community...
Professional Career De...
Seneca College- Markha...
Seneca College- Newnha...
Seneca College- Seneca...
St. Claire College- Ce...
St. Claire College- Wi...
Vancouver Community Co...
Approx Salary Expectation
Low End:
$36,000.00 /yr
Avg/Med:
$59,000.00 /yr
High End:
$101,000.00 /yr
References
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/.
Trend Analysis - Explorer the Market, Labour Market Information, Government of Canada https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/trend-analysis.
O*NET OnLine, National Center for O*NET Development, https://www.onetonline.org/.
Trend Analysis - Explorer the Market, Labour Market Information, Government of Canada https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/trend-analysis.
O*NET OnLine, National Center for O*NET Development, https://www.onetonline.org/.