Insider Tips to Help You Ace Your Event Planning Courses

Event planning courses will help you find your way in this emerging industry, which is in constant flux, but it is a good idea to also pay careful attention to the event management trends that are developing around you as you pursue your studies.

1. Relieve guest anxiety. Tell them where to sit.

Assigning seating at formal events can help graduates of event planning courses make event guests feel comfortable quickly.

Learning how to draft seating plans in your event planning courses will serve you well the length of your career. It is an old tradition that is being revived for good reason.

2. Hone your social media skills.

There is a new wedding trend in town, so new that it might not be mentioned yet in the textbooks for your event planning courses: tweddings! Tweddings are weddings that are broadcast on Twitter.

Although you may not learn about the many ways to use Twitter in your event planning courses, you can do your own research and bring that knowledge into the projects you carry out for school.

Ways graduates of event planner courses are currently using Twitter include:

• encouraging guests to take photographs of your events with their cellphones for uploading


• having guests vote on d矇cor, meal plan, music, etc., over Twitter


• some graduates of event planner courses go so far as to have a bride or groom pull out their phone during the ceremony to update their virtual guests on their marital status


• One UK couple lost their wedding deposit when the venue they had arranged closed without warning just weeks before they were due to tie the knot. They sent out an SOS on Twitter and photographers, etc., came forward, willing to offer their services for free. Who knows, maybe there was a graduate of event planner courses in the bunch!

The etiquette regarding tweeting and social events is still in development. There has been debate lately about the practice, for instance, of tweeting during theatrical productions. Some theatre companies have embraced this practice as free promotion; others view it as disruptive. In the future, one can expect that social media etiquette will form a module in most event planning courses.

As anyone enrolled in event management courses knows, this is a young industry that is undergoing rapid change.

3. Keep up with photographic trends.

There is a trend towards more realistic, less seemingly staged wedding photos, as evidence by the new practice of catching on film that first moment when a groom lays eyes on his bride on their special day. Impress your fellow students in your event planning courses by referring with ease to the new "first look" tradition.

4. Make a notebook of all your coolest tips.

As you pursue your event planning courses, you are going to come across a million great ideas. Get into the practice of writing them down in one place, whether:

• a reminder that bird seed is a more environmentally friendly option than confetti


• some resourceful graduates of event planning courses are expanding the ranges of services they offer: there is a new trend, for instance, towards proposal planning services. Wedding planners can be "engaged" (pun intended) to help the besotted stage the proposal of their dreams.

Keep your eyes and ears open. By the time you graduate from your event planning courses, you should have a host of good ideas to share with your clients.