Become an Event Planner: The Ultimate Career Guide
Ready to Start Your Event Planning Career?
If you’ve worked your way through The 10 Steps to Becoming an Event Planner on this site, then you’ll have learned that most people trying to break into the events industry go about it in entirely the wrong way.
If you want to become an event planner, you can’t just take a course, graduate, and start applying for entry-level positions.
Unlike most professions, a career in event planning does not require qualifications — and the majority of employers won’t really care if you’ve taken an event planning course or not.
Unfortunately, most other websites about becoming an event planner are just trying to sell you courses —that you might not even need. So how can you rely on them to give honest and impartial career advice?
The truth is, employers in the events industry are looking for people with the right skills, personal qualities, and — above all else — experience.
Getting hired in this industry doesn’t involve blindly sending out resumes enquiring about work experience. It is all about networking, contacts, and relationships.
This site’s companion book, Become an Event Planner: Secrets for Getting Hired from Employers, Recruiters, and Event Professionals is straight-talking, no-nonsense, career guide that aims to show job seekers the right way to go about it — with practical steps and action points to follow.
What You’ll Learn
Unlike other websites, this site does not have a vested interest in trying to sell you event planning courses. The aim of the companion book is to give you accurate, relevant, and unbiased career advice — so that you can make an informed decision about whether taking an event planning course is right for you or not. And if not, how to take your first steps to becoming a professional event planner.
Topics covered in the book include:
Event Planning Courses
Experience
Skills & Qualities
Networking, Resumes, and Interviews
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Secrets for Getting Hired – From the Pros
The career advice and information offered in the book is based on interviews with 19 leading employers, recruiters, and experienced event professionals — representing all the main sectors of the industry.
Become an Event Planner: Secrets for Getting Hired from Employers, Recruiters, and Event Professionals is about giving you the inside track on exactly what employers are looking for; to help you stand out from all the other job-seekers still passively sending out resumes and pleading to be given a chance.
Bonus Content
Have you ever read the biographies of successful event planners and wondered how they got started? They always say something like, “he began his career organizing events for MTV”, or “she started her own events company in 2002.” It always sounds so easy doesn’t it? Like one day, you just become an event planner. Simple.
The reality is that biographies never mention how they got their foot in the door, the junior or support roles they took at the beginning of their career, or, perhaps most significantly, how exactly — with no experience — they got that very first opportunity that set them on the right path.
Throughout the book, I’ve included a number of case studies that chart — in detail — the route that some of the contributors took to get into the events industry. In particular, I’ve focused on the very early stages of their career; highlighting the effort they put in, the sacrifices they made, and what they did right — with takeaway tips for you to learn from.
It’s a common misconception that to get a job in events, you have to keep sending out resumes until you get a break. The case studies in this book show that not only do you rarely go straight into a job planning events, but that you often have to be proactive in creating opportunities for yourself along the way.
Case studies in the book include:
My Route into the Industry
Starting in Charity Events….
From college drop-out, to organizing events for Elton John
Matt James
Owner
leftfield productions
Starting in Catering….
From selling printer cartridges, to working on events for HRH Charles, Prince of Wales
Charlotte Wolseley Brinton
Former Head of Events
Rhubarb Food Design
Starting in Hotel Conference & Banqueting….
From casual banqueting staff, to co-founding an award-winning special events agency
naNathan Homan
Former Assistant Banqueting Manager / Banqueting Operations Manager
The Dorchester / Four Seasons Hotel
Starting as Event Support Staff….
From temping for an event staffing agency, to working as a senior corporate event manager for Goldman Sachs
Lisa Simmons
Project Manager EAME Events
Goldman Sachs
Starting in Venue Management….
From managing event bookings at a castle in Italy, to producing events for IBM, Shell, and Ferrari throughout Europe, Asia, and the Middle East
Grace Nacchia
Event Director
George P. Johnson
Starting in Travel….
From working in a hardware store, to running global meetings and incentive travel programs
Martin Turner
Former Global Head of Events
Credit Suisse
Starting as an Intern….
From an unpaid internship in publicity, to producing The X Factor USA launch
Charlotte Saynor
Former Vice President of Brands and Events / Former European Head of Events
FremantleMedia Enterprises / Apple
Starting in Project Management….
From sales promotions at Christian Dior, to Global Head of Events for an international law firm
Sharyn Scott
Former Global Head of Events
Linklaters
Starting as a Volunteer….
From volunteering at the American Film Institute, to producing the reveal of the largest LEGO model ever built in Times Square
Marie Davidheiser
managing director / former Senior Vice President, Director of Operations
iris new york / Jack Morton Worldwide
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