When I was younger, I always appreciated events. However, I never knew what really took place behind the scenes. With that being said, I grew a dedication to seeing the whole experience. My aunt worked for the American Airlines Arena in Miami. With the position of her job, I expressed to her how I felt and then suddenly, she made my dream reality. After this involvement, I knew this is what I wanted to do. If I could have any job within the hospitality industry, I am pleased to say that it would be event planning. Being a small girl, taking on a big job would be the best fitting job for me.
I believe that I have the qualifications to get this ideal job. With this job comes to a lot of responsibility, dedication, and leadership. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, an event manager is someone whose job is to plan and manage large events such as conferences, trade shows, and parties. The title of “event planner” was first introduced at hotels and convention centers.
Event planners are responsible for planning the event, from start to finish. This included setting the date and location, advertising the event, providing refreshments or arranging catering services, speakers or entertainment (Walker, 2016, p.309). To receive this type of position comes with qualifications such as a degree in hospitality, and acquire certain skills such as highly organized, leadership, customer service, negotiation, interpersonal, and problem-solving skills.
Skills and characteristics include: computer skills, willingness to work a flexible schedule, willingness to work long hours, verbal and written communication skills, project management skills, ability to work with high-level executives, ability to work with high-level executives, ability to initiate and close sales, ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously, ability to interact with other departments, willingness to travel, experience in delegating, negotiating skills, enthusiasm, follow-through skills, budgeting skills, patience, being a self-starter (Walker, 2016, p.307). This type of job doesn’t just come with qualifications, it is majority a lot about the experience, with taking up this major comes with 3 internships 256 hours in each internship.
In order to be successful with this career, it greatly depends on the ability of involved individuals to communicate effectively with one another. This career is also very time consuming, for this reason, a good planner should have effective project management skills and be able to balance all the jobs that are needed to be done (Hard, 2019). The job market for event managers is growing, based on statistics, the need for event managers will raise one-third in the next 10 years (National Career Service). The event planning process includes research, design, planning, coordination, and evaluation.
The first stage of event planning is research and to answer simple questions such as: Why should a special event be held? Who should hold it? Where should it be held? What should the focus of the event be? And what outcomes are expected? The second stage is the design-the event planning process can be the most fun but challenging at the same time. Planning is the third stage in the event planning process, often led by the determined budget for the event. Coordination, it may be stressful if encountering a problem, and it also includes apart of human resources. Last but not least, evaluation should take place during each stage of the event planning process; as a final step, it measures the success of the event in meeting goals and objectives (Walker, 2016, p.308-309).
In the special events industry, it is separated by classifications: Corporate events (seminars, workshops, meetings and conferences), Association events (conventions, trade shows, and meetings), Charity balls and fund-raising events, Social functions (weddings, engagement parties, holiday functions), Fairs and festivals, Concerts and sporting events (Walker, 2016, p.312). You may ask yourself where would you find event planners, event planners work at hotels/resorts, private corporations, associations, arenas, caterers, the government, private clubs, convention centers, bridal businesses, event production companies, nonprofit organizations, advertising agencies, self-employed. As an event planner, you will run into financial management: evaluating financial data, management fees, vendor fees, etc. (Walker, 2016, p.308).
Professional event managers face four primary challenges: finance, time, technology and human resources. I am thrilled to attend the Career Fair at Rosen College on March 7th, I am looking forward to meeting with potential employers/opportunities. I plan to enroll in the internship 1 class this summer, with being an intern for the Orlando City Soccer team, I will be doing game day operations.
Stadium management is what I am really looking forward to while I have this internship. I am excited to take the first step in the right direction of my future career. With these hours, I hope to come out as a whole new person with the amount of knowledge I’m going to gain from this experience. In the middle of the summer, I also plan on applying for an internship with the Orlando Magic, to be able to complete another internship class and learn things in an arena, because that is something I strongly want to do when I graduate. I look forward to meeting high employers in this branch of the event management/planning industry, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. In the long run, hopefully meeting these workers and getting to know them will help me in the future with a job.
I know a couple people in the hospitality industry, with one working at Dr. Phillips Center, and one with Orlando City Soccer/Fanatics. I look at them as a mentor and I want to be like them someday and being able to get the ideal job I have always dreamed about. I am going to work hard to get to where I want to be. I am joyous to have the best support team behind my back to keep me going when times are not going as planned.
