Savannah has over eight years of hotel management experience and holds a master's degree in leadership.
Event planning has become a popular profession in the past decade. An event planner is typically in charge of coordinating and managing a meeting, party, convention, or large event. For example, most hotels have an event planner that is in charge of every aspect of a convention or wedding that is being held at the hotel. The event planner will work with the company or group holding the event to make sure it runs smoothly.
The nature of event planning is very fast paced and requires flexibility and organization skills. We will take a look at specific organization skills needed to be successful in event planning including preparing and planning for the event, arranging and coordinating people, and time management.
When in charge of an event, there has to be preparation and planning that takes place prior. For example, Debbie is the event planner at a local hotel, and she is in charge of all on-site weddings. She has to have the skills in order to prepare and plan for weddings with her team and the couple to be married. Debbie has to be organized in order to receive the details from the bride and groom and be able to execute those details on the day of the wedding. This requires being highly organized. Debbie will need to know the right questions to ask in order to make sure she has all of the information to prepare and plan for the event.
Can you imagine if your event planner did not ask you the time of your ceremony or the time you wanted dinner served for your event? If Debbie was not organized when she collected this information it would make preparing and planning for the event impossible.
Once the initial plans and preparations are made for an event such as a wedding, it is then vital to arrange and coordinate people in event planning. No matter what the event is whether it is a wedding or large convention there will be multiple vendors and people that the event planner will be in charge of.
For example, Debbie will need to coordinate a caterer, florist, DJ, baker, bartender, and other people to make the wedding run smoothly. In order to coordinate these areas, Debbie has to be organized. She will need to make sure she sets up meetings with each individual vendor to go over details and then continue to communicate with them up until the event.
On the day of the wedding it will be essential that Debbie is coordinating all of the different vendors to ensure they know what is expected. Most event planners will hold a meeting with all of the vendors the day before an event or the morning of an event to go over the timeline and details to make sure everyone is on the same page. You can imagine what could happen if the vendors were not coordinated properly. The DJ might show up late, or the cake might not be at the event on time.
One of the most crucial organizational skills for event planning is time management. Time management is the ability to have control over the amount of time it takes to complete tasks. As we mentioned, there are a lot of tasks and items for which an event planner is responsible.
Debbie has to make sure she is able to meet specific deadlines and time requirements. A bride will not settle for an excuse that the DJ or caterer is not ready because the event planner did not confirm the correct time. Debbie must be able to set a schedule or timeline and then make sure that everything is done within those time frames. For example, Debbie needs to set meetings before the event with the vendors. She will need to use her time management skills to determine when these meetings need to happen.
Event planning is being in charge of all of the details of a large event. It is necessary to have high organization skills in event planning to ensure the event runs smoothly. Event planners need to be organized when it comes to preparation and planning of the event. Next, arranging and coordinating people is an important part of event planning that also requires organization. Lastly, an event planner needs to have time management skills in order to accomplish preparing and planning the event as well as arranging and coordinating people. Overall, event planning requires a high level of organizational skills.
To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member.
Create your account
Already a member? Log In
Back