(EXCLUSIVE)

Important Information:

• Planners often work long hours in the period prior to and during a meeting or convention, and extensive travel may be required.
• Opportunities will be best for individuals with a bachelor’s degree and some meeting planning experience.
• Employment is expected to grow faster than average.

Description:
Someone who organizes an event; meetings, conventions; special occasions: weddings, festivals, parties, reunions

Businesses often hire event planners to help coordinate and plan special meetings, like hosting a national conference. People hire event planners to help coordinate and plan special celebrations such as birthday parties, Bar Mitzvahs, weddings, festivals and reunions. For these types of even planning, creativity, organizational skills and originality are all helpful toward breaking into this career. Otherwise, no special education or experience is necessary to break in and build a successful business.

Good skills in crisis management are necessary especially when planning events for very special personal occasions like weddings and Bar Mitzvahs. Cool, calm decision-making can make or break the occasion. You must be willing to put forth special effort to find reliable service providers and high-quality goods and work hard to negotiate reasonable prices.

Many people who choose to become meeting or convention planners have most likely migrated from other occupations when they were given meeting planning duties in addition to their regular tasks.

Most employers, when looking for a convention or meeting planner, prefer persons with a bachelor's degree, but it's not always required. Having this degree will greatly increase your chances of being hired because the work and responsibilities are becoming more complex and employers are looking to persons with a more formal education. Useful undergraduate majors are business, public relations, marketing, and hotel or hospitality management. Some schools are now offering courses or degree programs in meeting and event planning.

Flexibility:
Ideally, you will build your business to the point where you can choose the events that work around your own personal life schedule. But once you've committed to planning an event you will be expected to give your client 100% of your attention, guaranteeing their event is an unqualified success. Which means you will be on call 24/7 as the date for the event draws near. Also remember, most events are planned for weekends and evenings.

Resources for Further Information:
  Association of Bridal Consultants
  Meeting Professionals International
  National Association of Wedding Planners
  Special Event Site