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.
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This is part of a series on hospitality industry careers, where I reveal âsecretâ careers and jobs that you didnât know about in 11 hospitality industry sectors. Helping you create a career path in the hospitality industry!
Learn more about Hotel Careers here, Restaurant Careers here, and Travel Careers here!
A big shout out to Lucy from Lucyâs Events Blog for helping me to put together this video! Go follow her as well if youâre building a career in the events sector!
There is more to events than you think
If youâre a hospitality management student, youâre probably not thinking about events as your career option (which you should!) and if you are, youâre thinking of events at hotels.
And if youâre an event management student you might have a speciality in mind such as weddings, sports, conventions, parties, private events, festivals, etc. that youâre interested in already. It all depends on personal preference here.
But hold up, is being an event planner all there is??
No itâs 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. Thatâs 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 someoneâs 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, letâs look at the sports industry.
Itâs 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.
Itâs 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.
Thatâs marketing, event management, partnerships, loyalty, communication, sales, and relationship management just to name a few.
Now, letâs 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 eve