Event Planner Career: How to Become an Event Coordinator

What does it really mean to be an event planner? If you thrive on organization, are proficient at multi-tasking, and enjoy a creative work environment, perhaps event coordination is the profession for you. In our interview with event planner Jessica Alpert, she discusses the wide range of opportunities in managing events, offers career advice, explains how she broke into the industry through informational interviewing, and stresses the importance of an event planning internship.

Diversity is the Watchword

The world of event planning is an extremely diverse industry. You can represent a piece of real estate such as a hotel ballroom, a convention center, a private room in a restaurant, or independent event space. Alternatively, you can work at an event management company that consults with clients to plan special events, or work in-house at a company that holds many events and needs someone to plan and manage them.

Fortunately, you do not need a degree in event management to start a career in the industry. Jessica, who majored in psychology at UC Davis, explains that a variety of educational backgrounds can prepare you to become an event coordinator. She says, "a major is a major and I feel like I could have focused on anything from communications to fine arts and I would have been fine." While a college degree is not necessarily required she emphasizes that it helps in being taken seriously when job hunting.

Network, Network, Network

Jessica also stresses the importance of the informational interview, noting this type of networking is what led to her first job. She recalls, "in meeting with all these people I learned what I did and did not want in a job...I was interviewing them just as much as they were interviewing me." This networking definitely paid off, because when one person did not have an opening they would say, "'I don't have anything available, but I have a friend who works [here] who might know somebody.'"

Jessica also recommends an event planning internship to help you understand the industry. Even though these may not be the most glamorous jobs, the behind-the-scenes experience is invaluable..."I truly believe that in order to understand how to hire a caterer you need to work for a catering company, and you need to see the behind-the-scenes look of it." Not only will you gain a better understanding of the different aspects of managing events, you are able to make an impression with vendors so they think of you when hearing about job openings.

Top 6 Advantages of Using Secure Online Payment Management Solution for Your Events

Whether you are running a "Fortune 500 Company" or a small business, the online payment management solution lets you collect payments, settle transactions, handle refunds, and manage chargeback in the most effective way. Besides, this online solution offers easy credit card processing for any type of events (conferences, meetings, seminars, business dinners, and more). Thus, the online payment management software makes it easy for you to collect money for your fundraisers or similar other programs.

The top 6 advantages of adhering to a web-based payment management solution are given below:

No Hidden Cost Involved

Managing your monetary transactions with payment management software is an extremely cost-effective procedure. To use this online payment management solution, you don't need to pay any extra money!

Accept Different Forms of Payment

This Cloud-based solution enables you to accept payments via credit cards, such as MasterCard, Visa, Discover, American Express, and so on. You can even allow your attendees to send you cash via different popular payment gateways, such as VeriSign, PayPal Payflow Pro, PayPal Express, CyberSource, and Authorize.net.

Easy Credit Card Processing

Credit card processing can be made easy by using the Cloud-based payment management solution. Your event attendees can send you donations as well as registration fees in real time by simply using their credit cards. Easy credit card processing benefits both the parties - event planners can quickly receive money, while the registrants can easily send you ticket prices, registration fees, and donations.

Offers Easy and Secure Ways to Send and Receive Money

This PCI-compliant solution is highly secure, as it eliminates the chance of any form of financial fraud. Hence, your hard-earned money gets transferred to the organizer quite safely. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is formed to make sure all organizations that "process, store, or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment."

Offers Merchant Accounting Service

Event organizers can utilize "Use Your Own Merchant Account" (UYOMA) service for gathering online credit card payments through their own online merchant account. The UYOMA service lets you effortlessly generate, activate, and uphold your own merchant accounts. When an event organizer uses this service, it means potential participants can deposit the required fees to the user's account at their convenience. The UYOMA service also allows organizers to easily process cancellations and refunds, when needed.

Manages All Back-end Administrative Payment Functions

The payment management software will help you make changes to your different events ticket price, category, and such other features. You can also easily prepare a range of online reports concerning ticket sales, total amount of registration fees collected, payments reconciliation, and so on.

Ten Reasons to Choose Horse Racing for Your Corporate Hospitality Event

Horse Racing is a fabulous sport to take your clients to, and we are pleased to include the top ten reasons why you should take your clients to these events instead of any others. These are as follows;

1. Takes the Pressure of you as the host: Horse Racing is a more relaxed way to entertain your clients. If you go to the football or rugby, you are with your client for three hours solid before kick off and however entertaining they are, conversation can dry up! With races taking place every half hour, clients are constantly up and around, putting bets on and watching the racing from different vantage points, which makes entertaining so much smoother and more enjoyable.


2. Dressing Up: Horse Racing is generally a smart event and allows clients to wear their best clothes, including giving the ladies a chance to buy a new dress and hat! With football and rugby becoming more relaxed these days, in that many corporate areas allow jeans, it is refreshing for clients to see a really smart, formal event.


3. Ladies Involvement: Horse Racing is a great event for both genders. Football and rugby are very male orientated, where as horse racing is enjoyed by both sexes. This is therefore a great opportunity for clients to entertain their female customers and also customers and their wives. For some clients, they have more chance to attend an event if their wife or girlfriend is invited as well!


4. Locations: There are racecourses located all around the UK from Newton Abbot in Devon, to Folkestone in Kent and up to Perth in Scotland. With 60 racecourses around the UK, there is always going to be one in close proximity to your business or clients.


5. Every Day of the Week: If you need to choose a race meeting for a particular date, perhaps you have a client coming from a far, or you need to combine it with an important business meeting, you will generally find a race meeting happening on most days of the year.


6. All Year Round: Most sports are seasonally based, with football and rugby in the winter and cricket and tennis in the summer. Horse Racing is fantastic for corporate hospitality in that it runs all year round, from January to December.


7. Meetings Beforehand: With most horse racing meetings starting at around 2pm, this is a superb time to allow for a business meeting beforehand. The majority of racecourses have corporate boxes where you can stage a business meeting or seminar in the morning around 10am, before having lunch at 12.30pm, before enjoying a full race meeting in the afternoon.


8. Betting: All courses have licensed betting facilities on site, where your clients can enjoy a flutter on their favourite horse. All corporate facilities generally have betting facilities within them, meaning that you don't have to queue up with the masses to put on a bet.


9. Offerings to Clients on Day: You can choose a corporate package that will best suit your clients on the day. For the high end clients, you can choose a more formal three course meal, where as for middle to lower corporate clients, you can choose a fork or a finger buffet. You can choose the option that will best suit your budget and clients.


10. Add on options: There are a variety of additional options at race meetings that you can choose to enhance your day or impress your client further. These could be as follows;


• Present a trophy to the winning trainer


• Present a trophy for the best kept horse


• View a race from the commentary box


• A racing tipster to come to your box and inform your clients about the racing line up


• A sporting celebrity to join your party for the day

Ideas to Organize Corporate Events

A special day of course needs special arrangement which includes perfect decoration, delicious menu and provision of entertainment. It requires proper planning to make each thing perfect such that the guests in the party can have moments to cherish forever.

If you are planning to throw a corporate party, then you must be thinking about the best possible ways to make a fantastic party. Besides offering fun-filled atmosphere to employees, corporate events are a way to symbolize the position of the company. By organizing events, you can break the monotony of daily working routine and also can strengthen business relationships with business partners.

Are you thinking of various ways to make your event successful? Here's a short list that won't disappoint you for organizing corporate events:

• Party Venue: For organizing a corporate party, you can consider choosing a venue that has separate sitting arrangement, a platform for live performance, a dining area and other areas for entertaining activities. Along with that, you must leave some space to move around as everyone doesn't like to occupy one seat for the whole party.

• Decoration: After making a selection of the venue, the next thing to consider is the decoration. In order to give elegant look to the corporate event, you can consider decorating the venue with flowers, ribbons and candles. Besides these, lighting arrangement is the major thing to concern. For flawless lighting, you can seek assistance from companies which provide high-quality electronic lighting equipment on rent.

• Food: Be sure to have quality catering services that have provision of variety of cuisines including soft and hard drinks. You can try the food before you finalize the caterer for your event.

• Entertainment: To make the corporate party interesting, you can think about entertainment activities such as discotheque, magic shows, orchestra, dance floor etc. The entertaining aura in the party will help your employees to experience a change from the routine life.

Organizing corporate events need lots of planning. In order to have your party arranged in a comfortable manner, you can think about contacting professional event planners of your area as they have experience in organizing parties for business, wedding &special events in the best manner. They can also suggest you variety of ideas to make the event an extra-ordinary one. So, get in touch with reliable and experienced party organizers located near your area and start planning to make the event special for everyone.

Event Planning Software

These packages are designed to help you stay organized throughout the party planning process. You can create checklists so that you do not forget anything you need to do. Many event planning packages allow you to create budgets so that can keep track of expenses. Once your budget is created, you can then enter expenses as you go so that you know where you are cost wise.

You can create your guest lists and keep track of RSVP's. This is a useful tool so that you have a head count ongoing when planning food, beverages, etc. You can also use the list to follow up with guests who have not responded to the RSVP request.

Some party software allows you the convenience of sending invitations online. There are message boards where you can post online information about the party and communicate with your guests.

Some of the fancier packages offer lots of party tips and tricks that can help you with ideas for party themes and menu planning. They offer information on party resources such as decorations and party favors.

The checklist creator feature many of these products have will help you create complete lists so you do not forget anything. You might have an activity on the list to make an initial appointment with the caterer, and another activity to remind you closer to party date to contact him or her to make sure everything is on track as planned.

After you use the planning tools to plan your menu, the party theme, the decorations, and the party details, you can then use that information to create shopping lists to use for buying items for the party. If your event is one that requires seating arrangements, you can use these tools to help you plan and create the ideal seating layout.

Menu planning is made much easier using event software. Once your menu is created, you can create a checklist so you can organize which foods can be prepared ahead of time and which foods cannot.

Planning a party is stressful enough as it is. Utilizing resourceful tools like event planning software can make your job so much easier. You're less likely to forget things by planning with these tools, and that will make for a well planned, fun party for everyone.

Be the Appreciating Host of the Luxurious Corporate Events

Nowadays, event management is highly essential for successful planning efforts for the contemporary professionals meetings and conferences. Online event management software and event planning tools have very smartly presented and organized multiple business conferences, projects and corporate meeting venues. Your corporate events are easily handled and managed by the event management company so you can totally rely on their bespoke services.

If you are really interested in a new kind of luxury event, hiring the event management company would prove to be the best option for you because this is the only platform where you will find everything beyond your expectation and recognition. The corporate events are the most sensitive and of course the impressive part of any company since it directly effects the growth and functionality of the company and its employees. Therefore a great amount of care and attention is demanding in this respect.

An event management company being professional will take every single care of every requirements and will turn your corporate event into a mind-blowing affair, the impact it will have on your invitees and co-workers will amaze you. Whether you are hosting your get together locally want to have your luxury event on any part of the world, you will find them placidly waiting to offer you bespoke services as only the best service provider offer global event management.

Now you must be thinking of their outstanding services, right? We must tell you that these companies have many dedicated and hard working members which together bring great results from, performing at optimum levels to deliver only the best. Right from reserving to managing they are the experts and the time frame they use are miraculously impressive which will surely lessen the burdens on you.

For any kind of event, a venue plays a platform which can be arranged perfectly according to the theme of the events. We know that a corporate event can come in any size depending upon the related market, theme and purpose of the company, which they thoroughly understand and make arrangements accordingly. The event management company can also prepare invitations and welcome the guests with great hospitality. Since they maintain contacts with the necessitated agencies therefore you can surely rely on them for the arrangements, decorations, lighting, stage setting, catering and beverages; and much more.

If you want to surprise your guest with some stunning entertainment, an event manager can provide you with various options. Since, it is the same event planner that will make arrangements for you. If by any matter of chance your event will face any kind of interruption, these planners can easily handle it without bothering you and you can enjoy your event without even knowing about it.

Consequently, you can totally trust on them and the only function you will have to perform is to enjoy your corporate events without any anxiety and worries. Now the only work remained from your side is to search the superfine event management company that you will find at major search engines. Pick the best out of the choices available that will typically match your requirements and approach them. We are very sure they will not let you down and you will find a great memorable luxury event.

A Beginners Guide to Event Planning Certification

Up until recently, event planning, although a very promising career stream, was not considered as a very concrete or profitable career path. Volunteers and committees used to organise special events and paid only a few people involved. Such events were mostly taken care of by the marketing department or the administrative wings.

So, there was never a formal training for events. Most people learnt it on the job, by getting into the grind and gained practical knowledge. Slowly more and more companies have learnt the value of a professional and well-organised event and appreciated the quality of it. The industry is still sprouting but these days almost all good and well-known companies have their event planning teams in place. The work of organising events is mostly outsourced to a firm, an agency or an individual with the appropriate skills and qualifications. Such agencies and individuals hold an expertise in organising professional events and corporate shows.

Event Planning Certification

Appropriate certifications leverage the growth and path of an event planner and can provide greater opportunities for those looking for more desirable and higher paying job opportunities. Gaining qualifications and experience can help potential event planners to learn the basics of event planning extremely well. The main advantage of gaining admission in event planning certification programs is that one gets the opportunity to interact with those that are experienced in the industry, as well as allowing you to interact with fellow students, where ideas can be shared and tricks of the trade can be learnt.

As an event planner, one gets handsome remuneration along with a sense of job satisfaction. Being an event planner can involve lots of fun and entertainment, but it also demands shouldering many responsibilities and dealing with problems that may arise. An event planner starts gaining respect in the industry when they have successfully completed a variety of different events to their clients satisfaction, and word of mouth will play a great role in drumming up future business.

A lot of event planning certification programs are currently present in the market and students pursue them after their graduations. These certifications can surely be useful for those who are looking for a long-term career in this field and wish to get to the top position fast.

What Does an Event Planner Do?

There is a wide genre of events that an event planner has to organise. There are corporate conferences, exhibitions, large scale events, shows, Weddings, seminars and so on. Each time an event is planned, people look for some new additions in terms of elements and creative ideas. Right from arranging drinking water for the invitees to the final good bye, an event planner has to think of all the small elements involved. They also need to be ready for the worst and most unexpected situations that can arise at the venue on the day of the event. Crisis management is also one branch where it is imperative to gain additional expertise. Besides this, one needs to have presence of mind, effective communication and great interpersonal skills, to make the event a big success. They should be of an outgoing personality and have respect for the deadlines set.

Many event planners start their career by taking up any job in order to gain experience and set up their own firm later on. The self-employed event managers earn better than the employed ones.