Do you have what it takes to make it in the event industry?

If you answered “yes” based solely on your event planning skills, you might be surprised to know that our international group of experts didn’t rank that quality as number one in terms of importance.
As event planning professionals, we all know that it takes incredible chops to be in this game. It tests your patience, your ingenuity, your stamina, your stress tolerance, and every tool in your toolbelt.
So what do you need to succeed?
We spoke with dozens of eventprofs worldwide, with years of collective experience across global markets, associations and big name brands. From CEOs and owners to event marketers, managers and chief strategists (plus everything in between). Our research indicated the top event management skills and qualities event planners really need to succeed.
The Top 5 Most Important Event Planning Skills
- keyboard_arrow_right People skills
- keyboard_arrow_right Organization
- keyboard_arrow_right Time management
- keyboard_arrow_right Flexibility
- keyboard_arrow_right Passion
81% of the respondents agreed that ‘people skills’ and ‘organization’ are two essential skills every event professional needs. Around three quarters also cited time management, flexibility and passion. That's pretty much in line with what we would expect, but let’s see what the experts had to say specifically.
LEADERSHIP AND PEOPLE SKILLS
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“You have to be able to carry out your vision and sometimes crack the whip to get it done. Resolve problems and issues quickly. You must be able to stand calm at zero hour when something doesn’t go your way. Your team should look to you for everything; the last thing they need is a shaky leader that makes rash decisions because they crack under pressure.”
Kevin Jurczyk
National Marketing Director at Branstrator Sunrooms and Basement Systems of America
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“Possess strong interpersonal skills. You need to be comfortable reacting to and dealing with high-level executives, government officials, vendors, co-workers, sponsor representatives, customers, supervisors, suppliers, full-time staff, part-time staff, volunteers and more.”
James Minella
Event Operations Director
ORGANIZATION
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“Knowledge and Business Sense: They must understand the business as well as the covert and the overt professional reasons for the event to be happening. And hence, must be in a capacity to provide the right input and direction to the client.”
Sanjeev Kotnala
AVP and National Head of Brand Communications, Bhaskar Group
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“Your clients come to you because they trust you have knowledge in an area they need guidance. You do your customers and the industry a disservice if you call yourself an event professional and you don’t have the skills/experience to back it up.”
Nicole Bennett
Owner, Perry Consulting
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“Know each and every vendor of every little thing.”
Paula Entwistle-Mille
Account Manager, Ketchum
TIME MANAGEMENT
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“Maintain a big picture philosophy at all times, meaning you work on every detail while keeping in perspective the larger impact and goals.”
James Minella
Event Operations Director
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“You should know how to multitask, but you should be able to plan your day in a way that gives you blocks of time where you can focus solely on the project at hand. Your end product will be much more thorough. You should also be organized so you don’t waste time looking for things and reinventing forms/files etc.”
Nicole Bennett
Owner, Perry Consulting
FLEXIBILITY & RESOURCEFULNESS
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“I’ve known many event managers who can organize their way out of a wet paper bag with the lights off, but the qualities that make someone succeed, and not just survive, start with problem solving. Know how to be a problem solver; events are vehicles for strategic solutions and not just a list of logistics to organize.”
Jill McClure
CSEP, CMP, Senior Vice President
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“Be a Swiss Army Knife: be multi-dimensional, good at multitasking, with no issues in rolling your sleeves up at times to overcome a shortage of resources or to avert the last minute crisis.”
Sanjeev Kotnala
AVP and National Head of Brand Communications, Bhaskar Group
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“A planner must double as a janitor or fireman. Often, dealing with cleaning up messes and putting out fires is part of the job. Quickly, quietly and efficiently. Get it done, then get back to the task at hand.”
Kevin R. Johnston
CMP – CEO, Advantage Event Group
PASSION & WORK ETHIC
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“Be passionate. If it is just a job or a paycheck any event planner will be viewed as average. The passion to make it more productive, more exciting, more, more, more, is what drives this business. Otherwise, we’d all be eating on white tablecloths with votive candles and parquet dance floors.”
Kevin R. Johnston
CMP – CEO, Advantage Event Group
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“Passion: Being an event manager can be a thankless job. The person must have internal passion and zeal to overcome simple failures, and learn fast to be able to work on the next assignment.”
Sanjeev Kotnala
AVP and National Head of Brand Communications, Bhaskar Group
Interested to know what our take on this was before the research? Here is EventMB’s top 6 skills list!
Having taken the pulse on the top 5 skills event planners need to stay in the game, let's shift focus on how to up your game and really take it to the next level.
What is Event Management at the Peak of Your Career?
Having looked at the essentials for success, let’s look at the difference between what being an event planner entails at the start of an event planning career, and how it evolves once you climb the ladder.
What does an event planning job look like when you get to the top?
When you get to a certain stage in your event planning career, your skillset has to expand beyond simply planning events and being a list executioner. Your job will encompass a range of higher-level duties characteristic of more leadership-oriented event planning jobs.
Ready to really differentiate yourself? Start winning more coveted contracts with our awesome resume template.