4 CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT EVENTS MANAGER


An events manager, or event planner, is a position which requires several different skill sets. Here at MasterTheEvent.com we often reach out to newcomers and students of the event management industry. The one thing that I keep being asked is “what does it take to be good in this industry?” I recently reviewed several event management jobs, basically to see if there were common characteristics. What I did discover is that a successful event manager is one unique individual. And why you ask? Well, it seems the more I read, the more it solidified that an events manager needs to wear many different hats, at various stages of their workday.

1) Organizational Skills of an Events Manager

There is no getting around this required skill. An events manager needs to be organized. Most event management jobs that I reviewed listed organizational skills to be a top asset of an event planner. Quite often, an event manager will have to deal with various suppliers, along with satisfying their delegates, to ensure that their event goes off without any hiccups. This is no easy skill to acquire.

2) Analytical Skills of an Events Manager

If you thought that event management jobs didn’t require analytical skills, then this may not be the career for you. An events manager is required to work budgets, quite often large ones, to ensure that every penny spent is accounted for. This on top of being creative.

3) Communication Skills Required of an Events Manager

The ability to communicate with many people is a requirement in event planning. What many people don’t realize is that behind the scenes there are, at times, an army of people working diligently to make the event successful. And the events manager is the director of all of this. No wonder it can be stressful at times. And rewarding.

4) An Events Manager Needs to Be Great at Customer Service

It’s one thing to be technically able to do the job, but if you don”t like working with people, chances are you may not win a second piece of business. Addressing everyone’s concerns as if they were life-threatening is an asset that an event manager must possess. As Walt Disney himself once said; you can teach people technical, but you can’t teach people personality.

Depending on the stage of a program, an events manager is required to wear many different hats. At one stage they’re busy analyzing figures so that their function comes within budget. And, at other times, they’re like a stage director – making sure that all of the suppliers are on their mark and ready to go. It”s almost as if an events manager needs to be several different people all at the same time. In other words a superstar.

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