Event Planning Careers;
Who Plans Events?

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It depends. Many companies have their own in-house planners or planning departments to handle their numerous events throughout the year. Other companies outsource a meeting and event planning company, or hire independent planners on a contract basis, just to oversee a certain annual event.

In-House Planner or Other Employee
Larger companies have enough meetings and events throughout the year to maintain a full-time event planner or, sometimes, an entire planning department. More often, the company doesn't have enough events throughout the year to justify having a full-time planner, so a person within the company (such as an administrative assistant, or a marketing person) is handed the responsibility of planning an event. If she is inexperienced in planning events or doesn't have the time to plan an event in addition to her normal workload, she will outsource to an event planning company.

Event Planning Companies
Meeting and event planning companies are businesses whose sole service is to plan events and meetings for their clients. In other words, XYZ Pharmaceutical Company decides to have a large meeting for its employees nationwide. If they don't have an in-house planner or planning department, they outsource to ABC Event Planners, a company that specializes in planning. This company is made up of any number of event planners, and usually one or two planners (or a team, depending on the size of the event) are assigned to handle their client's event.

Independent Event Planners or On-Site Event Managers
In many cases, especially with special events, festivals, or annual fundraisers, a team is usually assembled a few months prior to the event, and this team's sole responsibility is to plan every aspect of that upcoming event. This team is usually made up of people experienced in the events industry, who are freelancers/independent contractors or who have their own small event planning business. To learn more about either becoming a freelance on-site event manager or starting your own event planning business, click on the links above.

As you can see, there are numerous (and very different) opportunities for careers in event planning. You can work in-house for a large company as a planner, for an event planning company, or as a freelancer/independent contractor. With experience, you can easily open your own small event planning business, since there is such a large demand for temporary, contract help in this dynamic field.

There are also many opportunities to work directly with events without being a planner. To learn about other event-related job and career opportunities, click here to go to Event Jobs.

To learn about the responsibilities of an event planner and if event planning is right for you, click here.