The events industry is one of the fastest moving industries in the world right now. Despite the challenges of the past couple of years, it’s also an incredibly popular industry to work in.
The reopening of the world naturally means an increased demand for staff.
This coincides nicely with a selection of people looking for a change of career. People looking for the opportunity to escape the office 9-5 and to try something new.
We would strongly recommend a career in the events industry. We would also recommend exploring it fully before committing, as it isn’t your usual career.
That’s what this page is all about.
We’re going to outline some of the pros and cons of working in the events industry. It’s a warts and all post outlining the truth about a career in events.
After all, if you’re planning a change, you want to make the right decision!
To give you a real insight into the events industry, we asked the Event Academy team for some of their career pros and cons.
Here is what they said.
Here are some of the highlights of a career managing events:
While there are days that are similar, no two events are ever exactly the same, so no two days are the same either.
Planning, meetings, client presentations and managing the event itself all use similar principles. But, you’re often in different places, dealing with different people and different challenges.
A career managing events is a career solving problems. If you have a tenacious mindset that can take on a problem and not let it go until it’s solved, the role of event manager is one for you.
Every problem has a solution and it’s usually our job to find it and make it feasible, or at least acceptable to stakeholders.
If you’re a people person, you could also be an event manager. Sure, you’ll be dealing with budgets, technology, talent, suppliers and millions of other details. But, at the end of the day, it’s a job about people.
Events are planned by teams. They are all brought together and executed by teams. It’s not a job you can do alone.
If you’re a good negotiator, you’ll be a good event manager.
If you’re a problem solver, a people person and creative, you’ll go a long way in the events industry!
Creativity is a very useful trait that can help you a lot within your role as an event manager.
You may not use it every day as you’ll probably have a team to help, but you will need it occasionally.
Whether that’s to come up with a concept, putting a storyboard together, presenting to stakeholders or something else!
Nothing is ever 100% positive and a career in events is the same.
Managing events is not a 9-5. There will obviously be office hours during the planning stages of an event, but there’s a lot of hours the week of an event and some seriously long days!
If you’re the clock-watching type, this may not be the career for you. We work until the job is done. Sometimes that’s early, sometimes that late. Very late.
Events often happen in the evening or at the weekend too so you had better be prepared!
It isn’t every evening or weekend. In fact, it isn’t all that often, but it does happen. Events happen when the client or stakeholder wants them to happen.
Weddings happen at weekends, parties happen weekends or evenings, gala dinners are an evening and sometimes an all-night thing, so be prepared.
Even those of us who have been event managers and senior event managers will need to muck in with the work in the lead up to an event.
We have all spent the early hours of the morning helping pipe goo into vol-au-vents, inflating balloons, cutting out paper stars, tying ribbon bows or doing whatever is needed to deliver a successful event.
That requires stamina as well as a willingness to muck in and get your hands dirty with the team.
The role of event manager is frequently voted one of the most stressful jobs there is. Forget brain surgery, event management is incredibly stressful.
Managing budgets, managing talent, managing client expectation, delivering to deadlines, managing staffing, firefighting and solving problems are all part of the daily life of an event manager.
If you can let stress wash away, you’re all good. If you have trouble managing stress, think very carefully!
A career in events is all about teamwork, but being an event manager means you’re ultimately responsible.
That’s a lot of weight to carry and something any manager in any industry experiences. But it’s also a key aspect of our particular industry, which is why we mention it here.
If an event goes wrong, it’s on you. If a client isn’t happy, or worse, disappointed, it’s on you.
We love being event managers and we love our industry. We hope you decide to join us and become part of the family.
If you have read and haven’t been put off being an event manager, perhaps you have what it takes. Are you ready to find out?
