Dear Aspiring Event Management Professionals,

You are right in choosing event management as your profession. This profession is dynamic and exciting.  Event management will allow you to meet interesting people in the Philippines and other parts of the world.

Yes, event management is fun and colorful. Being in this industry makes you feel you are in the center of the universe. Definitely, you are cool and in.

However, event management demands passion, hard work, creativity, patience, emotional intelligence, resourcefulness and professionalism.

Passion.

Passion originated from the Latin word passio, meaning sacrifice. Being an event management professional is not about having fun, but sacrificing your time and giving your energy until you accomplished the task given to you correctly.

There are a lot of things that you need to sacrifice to be in the event management industry and one of them is to accept a salary that is lower compared to other industries. Most especially, if you are just starting.


Hard work.

If you are lazy you do not deserve to be in the event management industry. As a staff of an event, you need to perform your many tasks. Sometimes you are attending to two tasks at a time.

Creativity.

Event Management demands creativity in handling situations, challenges, needs of the clients, the concerns of the suppliers and demands of your bosses. Creativity is not only about concepts and ideas, but also solutions to problems – REAL and TOUGH PROBLEMS.

Patience.

To be a master you need time to learn and mature. In event management, as a beginner, you have to perform jobs that most of the time are not glamorous and requires your physical strength.

You are only as good as your last performance. Keep this in mind.

Patience is a virtue in this industry. Sometimes a client will make you wait for hours before you meet them. So wait and when you meet them display your best smile and disposition.

Stay humble and be ready to learn in every event and tasks you are given.

Emotional Intelligence.

When everything seems to be going wrong, you need to stay composed and calm. You need to think and think harder.

Sometimes event management is a roller coaster ride of emotions and yes, it is sometimes like having a bad hair day.

Fail forward when these things happen to you.

Emotional Intelligence means using your intellect more than your emotions. It means trying to save and repair the bridge than deciding to burn them.

After all, you, your peers, your suppliers, your clients and your bosses live in a very small psychic soup.

Resourcefulness.

We do not have the luxury of a big budget. Our resources are always limited. The time is never at our side. The client will always be demanding. We will always wish for a perfect situation.

Utopia is just a concept and it is very true in event management.

You have to accept this. After accepting this, you need to develop your resourcefulness.

If there is no emcee be the emcee. If there is no scriptwriter and you can write be the scriptwriter. If there is a missing manpower to a particular job and it is critical and you have no options be the one to perform it.

But before doing these jobs, think and be resourceful.

I remember one of the seasoned directors we tapped for an event. During the opening of the conference and the video of the Philippine National Anthem failed to play, in just a nick of time, like a blur,  he ordered the voice over talent to sing the anthem. The actual result is better than the canned video. This is resourcefulness and quick thinking.

Professionalism.

This is the most important concept that you must learn and develop in event management. Professionalism is a broad concept. One way to show this is to develop your communication skills.

If the client asked you to meet them at a specified time, in a particular venue, be there an hour advance. If you are sick but you have a deadline to make, you have to finish the deadline or think of ways how to finish the deadline.  If you cannot deliver the results that you promised because there is a valid reason tell the client in advance.

Professionalism is staying humble and admitting mistakes. Professionalism is delivering the results and not suffering the quality of the event, even if in a particular event, you do not want your workmates or the clients.

There are a lot of eager people wanting to be part of the event management industry in the Philippines. This is a welcome news. But remember, being part of this industry is all about having the heart to serve and adapt to the changing needs of the client and the changing definition of the jobs of being an event management professional.