Planning The Main Event

Does this sound familiar? Once upon a time you were the life of the party. Then you became famous for throwing the best parties and events among all your friends and families. In school, you loved volunteering on committees, and this continued right into your professional life. You are a people-person with fantastic organizational skills. You have an eye for detail and an open mind to the suggestions and whims of others. You love to network and bringing people together to create new networks. You want to channel all these skills into a fulfilling career, but how?

Convention and event planning is an integral part of the hospitality and tourism industry. Becoming an event planner is the best way to combine a passion for organization with a flair for hospitality. One of the many fascinating aspects of this career is that it allows you to work with people from many different industries while learning all about them. From international trade shows, to business conventions and industry conferences, planning these events lets you delve into new territories to meet each specific clients' needs.

Working in this field is not only limited to business conventions and trade shows, there are many opportunities outside the corporate world, such as festivals, ceremonies and even smaller functions such as weddings and other personal celebrations. These opportunities could lead to interesting interactions with the arts communities, as well as give you a more intimate connection with customers.

Whether for business seminars, cultural exhibitions, or personalized celebrations, the first step to working as a planner is to dig into some event planning courses at a tourism college. There are many skills that are taught in these schools which are key to your success. Some are obvious, like planning the scope and format of an event, establishing and monitoring budgets, and negotiation contracts. Less obvious but equally important duties could include hiring and training staff and volunteers, preparing promotional material and ensuring compliance with by-laws and any other local or social considerations. The convention and event planner oversees a huge diversity of organizational areas.

An important factor in selecting a school to study event planning is how much the school focuses on readying their students for an international career. Because so much of this business is centred around bring people and industries together from around the world, a program should emphasize its standard for international compliance. There are many global certification institutions which grant certificates, like the American Hotel Lodging Association (AHLA). Find out if your program is recognized by such an institution. This will guarantee that your education will make you among the top competitors when breaking into career market as an event planner.

For an exciting and profitable career that lets you travel around the world, meet new people and learn about new industries, it doesn't get more into the heart of the action than being a conference and event planner.