Being an event planner is a highly diverse role with plenty of responsibilities. An event planner can organise different types of events, such as weddings, birthday parties, corporate events, anniversaries, and more. Event planning is a field characterised by ingenuity, creativity and constant reinvention. Even with a background in event planning, you can become a successful and renowned event planner, especially if you possess excellent organisational and planning skills. Keep reading to learn more about how to become a successful event planner.
First, you must thoroughly research the job and get relevant practical experience if possible. As an event planner needs to possess a whole set of valuable skills, and you should always work on improving them. This is so even if you have the knack for organisation and planning, which are the two base skills every event planner should possess. Moreover, making connections and networking is also essential for every event planner. Additionally, learning about helpful technology in the domain of event planning can make you more professional and efficient.
1. Do your research about the job
Before you embark on a journey to becoming an event planner, you should learn about what this career entitles. You should conduct thorough research to determine whether you are really fond of this career. An event planner organises, plans, and oversees an event for an individual or a company. Event planners are responsible for finding the best venue, booking it, and ensuring that everything happens at the right time and in the right way. There are various possible job variations: you can work for an event planning company, you can work in-house for a business or venue, or you can work independently with a range of clients.
2. Get relevant practical experience
Theoretical and practical knowledge do differ, and it’s always better to see in practice what you know in theory. So, when you have a clear understanding of the event planning career, you can move to gain some practical experience. There are multiple ways you can do that. You can start as an assistant to an event planner, shadow them or do some easier tasks. For example, if you are working closely with an event planner in Sydney, Australia, you can do a small part of their job and help with a photo booth hire in Sydney. Your job would be to find a suitable photo booth for hiring and arrange all the details.
3. Enhance your skillset
We already mentioned that even if you do already excel in organisation and planning, you should still be working on improving the other skills necessary for this role. To become a successful event planner, certain skills are simply a must-have. They can help you move forward and satisfy diverse clients with your event planning skills. These skills include working well under pressure, creativity, attention to detail, budgeting, negotiation, and management skills, to name a few essential ones. Additionally, you also need to be punctual, have excellent communication skills and be technologically educated. You can only stand out from the crowd and succeed with a solid skillset.
4. Make connections
Event planners must work with the other relevant roles crucial for event planning. They include the venue managers, caterers, decorators, musicians, florists and others. That’s why networking and making connections are very important for event planners. By working with different people and service providers, you can create a list of those offering a top-notch service and those who are barely satisfying with the services they’re selling. It’s important for your job that everyone included in the process is the best in their field. This directly affects your status, so you should be careful when choosing.
5. Learn about useful tech
Every industry in the world has seen some advancement in using tech to be more efficient. The same is true for the event planning industry. So, another skill you should perfect is using tech to do your job more optimally and smoothly. You should find out online what tools and apps make the job of an event planner simpler and more organised. Then, you should find which of these works for you and implement them in your daily working routine.
These are just the basic steps that will help you become a successful event planner. Of course, there are more, but these are a good way to start.
