Lessons In Event Planning

If you search “Event Planning” in Google, you get flooded with links to hundreds of party planners and extravagant wedding photos. For the past year, I was given the opportunity to intern as a Public Relations intern for an office that puts on some of Philadelphia’s largest events, none of which entailed a wedding or your typical club-party. From Marathons to Mayor’s ceremonies to the largest free concert in America, I had the opportunity to work on a variety of events that taught me so much more about event planning than I could ever learn in a Google search. Here are just some of the things I learned:

Stay Calm Under Pressure

As much as you wish they would, the reality of events is that they never go on without at least one unanticipated bump in the road. Whether that means having to come up with an alternative solution, being thrown into a task you did not anticipate having to do or feeling completely lost, I have learned that the best thing to do is to stay calm. Staying calm helps others around you stay calm too, it makes it easier for you to come up with solutions and it shows that you can handle just about anything that gets asked of you.

Stay Organized

More often than not, an event won’t be taking place right next door to your office, meaning that running back to get something you forgot is not always an option. By staying organized, not only can you ensure that you have everything that you need, but it also makes things easier to find when you’re in the heat of the moment while working the event itself.

Be Prepared To Work Long Hours

Working in events for the first time, I never anticipated just how much work and just how many hours go into planning for and working an event. Whether it is pre-event planning in the office or early call-times, be prepared to devote a lot of time to an event. The plus side is, that though you may be working long and strenuous hours, there is no better feeling than watching your event come alive before your eyes and waking up the next morning (after your first full night of sleep in a while) and feeling extremely accomplished.

Keep these tips in mind, and you'll be on your way to event planning success! 

This guest blog post was written by PRowl staff member Rute Barkai.