On Events and Event Planning

This is an event blog. If you are here, you might already have event knowledge, but I believe that a fitting way to start this blogging foray is with a discussion on event planning and the event industry.

Sometimes when I tell people that what I want to do with my life is plan events, they ask:

“But isn’t that industry really unstable? Isn’t spending money on elaborate events one of the first things companies or individuals stop doing when the market crashes?”

To this I say… maybe.

But the event industry is also something that is never going away. As an event planner, I need to make sure I set myself apart from the competition to ensure survival in this field. As long as people exist, they will want to spend time together, be entertained, and celebrate.

When you think “event planner”, what do you think about? Weddings? That is certainly one type of event. Closely related to that, there are birthday parties, family reunions, high school reunions, anniversary parties, even funerals – the list goes on. Gatherings of friends or family to celebrate, reminisce, or mourn certainly make up a large part of the event industry, but they are not the only thing that can fall into an event professional’s job description.

The meeting industry is booming right now – from small meetings to large conferences, event planning is everywhere. Corporations are finding that using an expert on events is much more efficient than paying a staff member to do something outside of their scope of expertise. Many smaller companies don’t have the need for someone to plan their events full-time. Someone with the right knowledge and connections can put an event together much more quickly than a staff member who is taking care of it on the side of their real job. Paying a professional who knows what they are doing is typically more efficient because they don’t have to spend their time figuring out how to do things – they can just do it.

And there is even more that event planners get involved in today: awards shows, charity fundraisers, sporting events (from games to tournaments to leagues to the Olympics), concerts, hospitality, press conferences, festivals… and the list goes on.

I think that the key to succeeding in the event industry is choosing an area to specialize in, and being one of the very best at it. But hey, what do I know? I’m just learning, and I’m looking forward to figuring it all out along the way. Events are everywhere, and the possibilities in this industry are quite literally endless. I can’t wait to see where it takes me.

Cheers,