{"id":2350,"date":"2017-09-02T01:28:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-02T05:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/event-ure.com\/?p=2350"},"modified":"2023-06-28T09:52:37","modified_gmt":"2023-06-28T13:52:37","slug":"event-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/event-ure.com\/event-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Event Education"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
There are now many programs that teach event planning, even towards a Masters degree in Event Management. The U.S. is miles ahead of Canada as far as accreditation and professional integrity of event planning and management. Only recently has Montreal begun offering Event Planning certificate courses. John Abbott Cegep has had a program for many years, as well as Lasalle College. There are courses, and certificate programs at Concordia that touch on Event Management, and then for a short lived time at Trebas. No matter, all of the courses are certificate programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The debate always arises on whether event planning can even be taught effectively, or is it solely experience that will teach. I believe that both are important today. At Eventure<\/a> for many years we have an internship offering that allows students to gain first hand knowledge of event planning. We make sure that all of our interns are given the full opportunity to not only work events, but plan, design, source and work on proposals and meetings to learn all facets of event planning, from the initial sale to completion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am on the fence on the merit of what students can actually learn in the classroom. I have taught a few courses, and also have had the privilege of guest lecturing at a few. The reality is that most students coming out of the programs learn a lot of the concepts of event planning and organization, but little on hands on knowledge of how events flow and actually work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I taught a risk management class, and we learned about the theoretical on what to do and plan for the worst of the worst. I have a feeling though that every student will take their text book from the class and throw it into the fire, before they actually remember what we learned if there was a fire at an event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But, the fact that there are courses that will prepare students to begin the real work of event planning is a step in the right direction. I have written in previous blogs my opinion on the traditional event planner. Women who plan their daughters weddings and then print business cards and work out of their kitchens. This is dangerous, and an insult to my profession. Event planning is a serious business, and we are responsible for the lives of our guests. We need to be insured, have intimate knowledge of fire safety, security, logistics, alcohol consumption laws, crowd control and flow, electrical safety and management, rigging safety, first aid, etc. I know that many people are great at picking what flowers match the table cloth, but that is a very small and insignificant part of event management and planning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At Eventure, most of our interns are graduates of event planning courses. We recently had two graduates that interned for 7 months, and they are from France. We tend to have 3-4 interns in our office and any given time, and we make sure that their experience is complete and that they get a real taste of our business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I tend to also hire from within our interns, rather than someone with years of experience from other companies. Knowing how the interns work for the 2 -7 month period means that they know how we work, they have proven their skill and passion, and that they also can tolerate working with us! Hiring someone with years of experience isn\u2019t an asset in my mind. With experience comes both good and bad habits, it comes with an opinion on how things are done that may differ from our policies, and usually comes with an attitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a long list of great people that are working in the event industry in Montreal that started off as interns for me. Some have continued working for me and then went on to other companies, some completed their internships and moved on to be successful elsewhere, and some realized that event planning wasn\u2019t really for them, and they found a career better suited for themselves. All of them make me proud to have been part of their successes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n