Event Planning Courses To Bolster Your Existing Career

If you work for an organization of any kind, then chances are that you have attended an event hosted by your employer. You may have even been called upon to organize such events. This can be a daunting prospect even for those of us to whom party planning comes easily. This is not your child's first birthday. There are a number of legal and budgetary issues to consider when organizing an event for your work. Should you serve alcohol? Can you? How will you handle food allergies? How much food should you order? Should you phone guests in person, robo call them, email them? There are a number of questions to answer, and returning to community college to take some event planner courses may make you more effective at your workplace. Whether you work in Administration or Information Technology, if your job sometimes requires you to host events, then some additional training at the college level could serve you very well.

Your employer will certainly support you in your decision to take event organisation courses!

What kind of event planning courses should you take?

Start with the introductory event planner courses at your community college. This will give you a sense of what you would like to get out of the program. Unlike many of the other students, you won't be there to pursue a career in event planning, but to better equip yourself to organize events at your existing workplace.

Examples of event planner courses that may interest you:

• venue management


• designing banners, invitations


• how to budget for your event


• risk management (safe crowd control, allergies, alcohol, etc.)

Unlike for the other students in your event planning courses, it won't likely matter very much to you whether the school you are choosing offers a work placement or co-op program, because you - unlike many of them - already have a job in another industry.

Once you complete your basic event planning courses, you may want to specialize further. For example, if your workplace has a sustainable development policy, then it may be in its best interest to have you pursue a sustainable events accreditation. This gives added value to your workplace events, by showcasing your values as an organization, and making your guests feel good about their involvement in the activity.

But, if you don't feel that you have time for event planner courses, you may simply want to read up on event planning.

Perhaps you could find out which textbooks are on the reading list in the event planning courses at your local colleges, and invest in one or two. Who knows, your supplier may even pick up the tab for you.

Reading on your own may tide you over until you have more time to register for event planning courses.