Heather: Blog #3

I think the biggest takeaway I have from this course is the event technology that is available, in particularly Social Tables. During our tour of the Social Tables office, they mentioned that there are still event planners today that cut out circles and place post-it notes on them when making seating arrangements for events. I recently started an internship with the events department of a non-profit and my supervisor is one of those event planners. I was happy that I was able to use knowledge I learned in class to recommend Social Tables to her so she can plan the organization’s future events more efficiently. 

A second takeaway I have from the class is the importance of negotiations. My dad told me that as an aspiring event planner I should pursue going to law school after finishing undergrad and I did not fully understand what he meant until taking this course. Before, I did not realize how much contracting and negotiating contracts were involved in event management, but now realize that they are a central aspect of the industry. It was also interesting to learn how much flexibility there could be when negotiating and how important it is to pay attention to details when going through a contract. 

My third top takeaway I have from the class is the multiple different opportunities there are available for event planners. When I told my parents that I wanted to concentrate in event management, I think the only opportunity that popped into their minds were weddings and bar/ bat mitzvahs, but after taking this course I realize that there is so much more to the industry than those types of events. It was interesting to hear the stories of all of our guest speakers and how they all had such different paths, but yet still all work in the event management industry. I learned that event management can be anywhere from working in a hotel, to working for an association, to working at a software company such as Social Tables, and so much more.