If you've worked at a hotel or restaurant in the past, and have a degree in business, marketing, or hospitality, you may want to consider a career in event management. Event planning can be an exciting field to get into. There's a lot of activity going on at different events at any given time. You'll get to meet many types of people. But what is a career in event management like? What education is available? What are the benefits of a career in event planning? This article will answer those questions.

What Education is Available for Event Management?

Event managers should have a bachelor's degree in a field such as marketing or business administration, or a degree in hospitality. Whatever degree they choose, their coursework should focus on accounting, meeting management, computer skills for business, hospitality management, event promotion and event design. Their previous jobs should give them experience in event planning or conference management. Many event planners also have experience in the hospitality industry or in fundraising. Membership in organizations such as the professional convention management association (PCMA) may also make it easier for prospective event managers to find jobs.

What Is a Career In Event Management Like?

In a typical day, event planners might perform several different tasks. These include:

• Organizing and scheduling off-site and corporate events, such as executive retreats, award programs, anniversary reward programs, intern outings, and special events.
• Creating new business and generating new sales for events.
• Spend time researching and visiting sites. Also looking for resources to enable staff to make their own decisions and choices during the event.
• Coordinating menus for functions where meals will be served.
• Identifying, inviting and confirming speakers for conferences.
• Developing, managing, and administering all aspects of event software systems for registration, reporting, and other needs related to meetings and events.
• Directing and solving different challenges where solutions are crucial to improving the outcome or accomplishing the goals of each program or event.
• Negotiate and manage all aspects of contractual commitments.

Benefits of Event Management as a Career Path

Advantages of working in an event management agency

Working for an event management agency is a great way for those who are just starting out in event management to gain experience. They'll get to work in a creative atmosphere with people who are passionate about event management and they'll learn straight from the experts and gain valuable experience they need to advance their career.

Advantages of working as an in-house event manager

In-house event managers become experts on their clients. They know their client's ins and outs. In addition, in-house events and teams are often smaller. This means event managers will have more variety in their duties.

Advantages of working as a freelance event manager

Event managers should not start working as freelancers right away - they need experience and contacts first. Once they've gotten that experience, they can choose to be a freelance event manager if they want more freedom. Benefits of working as a freelance event manager include:

• Flexible working days and hours
• Being able to choose your own clients
• Lower overhead
• More creative freedom
• More diversity in work
• Freedom to choose the services you offer
• Ability to work remotely
• High demand for freelance event planners

Event planning can be a fun and challenging career to get into. Event planners work on many different types of events, have many different duties, and the event planning industry offers many different benefits. If you're considering getting into event planning as a career, consider talking to event planners you may already know, or do some research on the industry to figure out if it would be right for you.