When you start thinking about a career in events, with subsequent studies for this type of role it is quite difficult to see all the skills you need to really take on the role. Until you are actually planning events you can’t experience the work or pressures of the role.

Here is an overview of the types of skills you would need for this role and how they relate to the events, we want you to be prepared for this type of role and have a bit more of an understanding of what to expect if you are thinking of events as a career.

The first and most obvious one.

• Organisational skills, you need to be able to fully keep track of the event, this means making sure there is accurate details and records of all the elements of the events, this can be venues, suppliers, sponsors, partners, audience, and who is working  on which task. This also means that you need to be aware of when you need to book and confirm all aspects of the event, when everything is due and what you need to supply/arrange to make the event happen
• Project Management is usually not a formal qualification for taking on an events role but using project management techniques when planning an event can be really beneficial for communication and planning the event.

A good understanding of profit and loss budgets, event budgets are essential for keeping track of costs and in some cases revenue, if you are working on an event that requires a revenue you will need have financial understanding of costs, profit and loss and how this is implemented in an events environment.

As you will be working with a range of customers and stakeholders from a variety of backgrounds you need to provide good customer service, and this includes dealing with complaints

Supplier/Sponsor liaison also comes under the customer services bracket as it involves communication with sponsors, exhibitors and events partners, asking all number of questions and wanting to ensure their brand is correctly displayed at the event.

Good and clear communications with all stakeholders and the event team, this means you need to ensure all parties in involved in the organising of the event are aware of any changes or updates that are happening with the event, this is an essential skill as you will be working with a variety of different individuals and companies.

Research skills, some event roles require you to research new suppliers and venues, potentially there can also be researching content depending on the organisation, so you need to be able to adequately scope out new changes and costs accordingly.

Building good time management skills is essential, without correctly managing your time you could be spending extra hours working on an event when you don’t need to, it’s important to understand what can be done in advance and planning your time correctly will mean you have the time to deal with any last minute changes and there always some last minute changes.

You will also need to work towards deadlines and have confidence in enforcing deadlines, you need to be able to ensure that not just you but the team can meet all types of deadlines.