A career in the event industry may seem pretty straightforward, you start off as an assistant or coordinator and move your way up to be Events Planner at a manager or director level.
But as always I ask the question, Is that it? What else is there?
Today, I am going to uncover career opportunities in the Events sector of the hospitality industry. And in the end, I am going to reveal career options and jobs you definitely have not thought about before! I promise :)
If you prefer to consume this in video format, here it is :)
Hello, my name is Maria and I am your Savvy Hotelier - helping hospitality students and graduates succeed in their careers.
This is part of a series on hospitality industry careers, where I reveal “secret” careers and jobs that you didn’t know about in 11 hospitality industry sectors. Helping you create a career path in the hospitality industry!
A big shout out to Lucy from Lucy’s Events Blog for helping me to put together this video! Go follow her as well if you’re building a career in the events sector!
There is more to events than you think
If you’re a hospitality management student, you’re probably not thinking about events as your career option (which you should!) and if you are, you’re thinking of events at hotels.
And if you’re an event management student you might have a speciality in mind such as weddings, sports, conventions, parties, private events, festivals, etc. that you’re interested in already. It all depends on personal preference here.
But hold up, is being an event planner all there is??
No it’s not!
And I am here to tell you all about the career options in event management you probably never considered before!
Make sure you read til the end because I will show you event jobs in the most unlikely places!
First up, theatres. Yes, theatres.
What do theatres have to do with events, you ask? Well, a lot actually.
Apart from running the actual shows, theatres also run F&B outlets, tours, private events and functions. That’s hospitality.
Lucy, the lovely lady that helped with put together this video, worked in a theatre as a Front Office Assistant, as Customer Service Agent in other words and organised many private functions and events at the theatre.
These may be linked to a premiere with all kind of celebrities and important people, or it may be a private event held for someone’s anniversary.
Looking after several F&B outlets, putting on private events and entertaining guests is kind of like running a hotel, just without the accommodation side of it.
Next up, let’s look at the sports industry.
It’s a big one and boy is there a lot of money and interest involved in that!
Yes, there are lots and lots of sports events everywhere and they do not organise themselves. From small local football matches to huge events like the Euro Cup or the Olympics.
It’s event management on steroids practically speaking.
Aside from the operations of putting together and running the event, there is a ton of work going on behind the scenes with marketing, people management, safety and security and so much more.
Take for example the Olympics in Tokyo that we were supposed to have this year. It has been moved to next year because of the pandemic, but due to the amount of work that has already been done, they will still be officially called Tokyo Olympic 2020.
Now I know this is a BIG example and can be hard to grasp the scale of. So think of it this way: every working stadium has a team of people that work on a series of things:
Planning and putting on actual sports events
Organising and managing other activities such as: private tours, private events,
And working with partners and sponsors.
That’s marketing, event management, partnerships, loyalty, communication, sales, and relationship management just to name a few.
Now, let’s talk about my favourite: Virtual events.
This is something that is becoming increasingly popular these days and is only growing in popularity, as we cannot yet meet people in large groups.
All the big conventions, exhibitions, concerts, festivals and other large gatherings have been cancelled so far and their reopening future varies in each country.
The desire from companies to still run such events virtually is huge! That’s because there are a lot of benefits to doing that.
With lost revenue from cancelled events, virtual ones allow for some of that revenue to return
A larger pool of potential attendees, as the event, can be joined from anywhere, allowing, therefore, new revenue opportunities
(Money basically, yes)
I personally have joined many webinars in the past few months that I wouldn’t have been able to otherwise because they either didn’t exist or were physically in another country.
Virtual event managers
And now there are lots of virtual event management roles coming up that didn’t exist just a few months ago! Check out this one I found on LinkedIn as an example. As you can see on the right, there are many more similar examples popping up.
What is virtual event management? Well, it depends on the company. (As always)
It could be organising purely virtual events using online programmes, or it could be creating semi-virtual events for the near future, where there is part of the event online and the other part in person.
How do you find companies that may be hiring that run such virtual events?
I’m here to tell you how.
Do you know a company called Eventbrite, where anyone can post events for attendees to register? It’s a big one.
Well, you can use it in three ways:
Find events you can attend, either free or paid for.
Find companies that are hosting virtual events and see if they are hiring.
Seek to work FOR Eventbrite, they are tech company specialising in events - they need specialists to help them develop the platform
That’s just a place to start. Make sure you follow Eventbrite on LinkedIn so you can find similar companies too!
And for my favourite example! This is a good one, so pay attention here.
My favourite secret event management jobs
A year or so ago, I discovered an app called Fever.
Fever is a platform that allows people to book unique events that otherwise you could only book directly with the provider. They didn’t originally create the events themselves and were predominantly a booking engine.
But with popularity launched a series of “Fever Talks” - a series of events to fill the gap in the market for those short, affordable, cool, and interesting events for the general public.
Which means, they have event planners working there! and that can be you!
So think about this, Do you want to organise boring corporate events at a hotel or do you want to create cool murder mystery talks? That’s up to you!
I would rather be organising murder mystery talks :)
Ofc now, Just like any other company, they’ve had to adapt and are now running virtual events instead.
This bigger about your career in the events industry
We covered a lot today, the events industry is huge and there are SO SO many career options and opportunities out there.
Even now, yes the industry is a bit on a pause but it will certainly recover and it will be different, with new and exciting career opportunities!
To summarise, we discussed event management careers and jobs in:
Theatres, and how that’s it’s not just the show but also a hospitality facility
The sports industry, and how much it takes to run sport events
And we looked at virtual events, a shift toward which was quick just in the last few months!
So with that, I urge you, whether you are a hospitality management student or an events management student, to think bigger. Think bigger than what is typical and expected.
Event management is everywhere, even in the most typical corporate offices, they need someone to put on the annual Christmas party and other not so exciting company events.
Where do you want to pursue your event management career?
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