From the Experts, Planning Tips, Your Event Career
4 Things You WON’T Learn in Event Planning School
QC tutor Regina Young is the owner and creative director of Meant2Be events, a top Arizona wedding planning firm that manages 30-40 weddings a year. Regina provides her expertise and advice about what you need to know that no event or wedding planning school can teach.
The best thing about enrolling in a course at QC Event School is the acceleration of knowledge which will create a foundation for your event planning career. From understanding how to communicate with the luxury client to picking out the proper linen sizes for your event, you’ll receive a “crash course” in the logistics of event management.
The next item to consider is all the things you learn only through the “school of hard knocks”. Sometimes, due to big failures or through the experience of others in your market, there is a huge opportunity to learn even after your courses are complete!
If you want to be prepared for these hard-learned lessons, keep reading for some insight on the real event planning world…
Look to the future
First, understand your pipeline. While the sentiment of being present and grateful for the moment is sweet, if you are not keeping your eye on your pipeline in the event planning industry there won’t be much business to be grateful for 9 months from now.
Couples book wedding planners 9 months to 1 year in advance, so if you are not knee deep in creating a calendar that far out, you are going to hurting for cash around that time next year. While you can book a last minute or “month-of client”, this is not going to keep your bank account in the green.
Insure yourself
Next, you need to have business insurance. Event planner insurance to be exact. And yes that is a thing! If you do this long enough you will probably get sued or at least be threatened. There are so many emotions and some of them will not be rational.
General business insurance is great, but consider getting insurance through a company that specializes in events and event vendors. In your career you will be asked to provide additional liability coverage for a venue you are working at. That policy usually needs to be a 1-2 million dollar certificate of additional insurance for the property. Using an event insurance company allows you to process that request quickly, providing you with the proper and official forms you need to work on site.
Challenge yourself
Finally, continue to invest in your learning. You spend all of your time bringing people together to celebrate, make connections or to educate themselves. What are you doing about improving the quality of your events?
Remember that learning happens outside of your comfort zone. Don’t just fall back on what’s worked in the past. Volunteer your time with an industry organization in your area or find a mentor that offers guidance. We mentor 3-4 planners a year, each of them in different areas of the globe!
Power through the negative
Mistakes will happen and cause pain and stress, hence why they call it “the school of hard knocks”. It’s not a bad grade, it’s an angry client or a bad review—both of which will cost you money and time. The bruises will heal, so make the most of the lessons to be learned along the way!
What type of event planning mistakes have you learned from? Let us know in the comments below about the problems you’ve solved as a professional event planner!
Event planning courses teach you a great deal, but you need to know the 5 things that no event planner training can prepare you for!
