Event Planning - Considering It As a Career Choice

Event planning as a career is relatively new. This trend of paying professionals to plan, organize and execute all kinds of events ranging from a simple birthday party to an election campaign has been a recent phenomenon. More people are realizing the value in investing in an events planner to relieve them of unnecessary pressure and stress normally associated with planning an event so they can attend their own events and actually enjoy them.

For someone considering events planning as a career, it would be important for the person to be highly efficient, creative, well-organized, and detail-oriented and have a lot of people skills. Physical stamina would also be a major consideration as they will be working long hours and doing quite a lot of physical activities like carrying and moving things around. They also need to be able to handle pressure and also be able to react quickly to all kinds of emergencies.

Some activities that an event planner would be involved in would be looking for venues, talking to caterers, florists, entertainers, printers, and other suppliers, designing invitations, fliers, programs, menus and other printed materials, developing themes and motifs, identifying possible speakers, lecturers, hosts for events, scheduling and coordinating deliveries, making travel arrangements and booking accommodations when needed, creating guest lists and seating arrangements, and even arranging marketing and advertising for certain kinds of events.

There are several ways to get into this field of work. One can apprentice with a professional planner and learn the ropes and work your way up the ladder or one can also volunteer to organize parties and fundraisers to get experience and develop a network of suppliers and contacts in the business. A degree in hotel and restaurant administration, public relations or hospitality management would be an enormous advantage as well.

There is still no formal training program for event planning but a person determined to make a career of it and has the all the required skills, character and stamina for the job could make a successful living in this field. A passion for organizing, a skill for handling all kinds of people, and an almost obsessive attention to detail would be all you need to start you off in this potentially rewarding and fulfilling career.