Event Planner Job Description, Duties, and Responsibilities

This post provides detailed information on the event planner job description, including the key duties, tasks, and responsibilities they commonly perform.

It also highlights the major requirements you may be expected to meet to be hired for the event planner role by most recruiters/employers.

What Does an Event Planner Do?

An event planner is an individual who is in charge of different kinds of meetings and events. He/she plans everything like trade, shows/fairs, conventions, professional meetings, weddings, and expos. The event planner can also be referred to as an event coordinator.

An event planner job description entails organizing an event from its beginning to the ending. It involves meeting and working hand-in-hand with clients to work out and fully understand the necessary details of the event.

The event planner meets with the client before the actual planning of the project starts to find out and understand how exactly they want their event to be, so as to be able to carry out his/ her duties in line with the taste of the client.

His/her role entails planning with the event owner, searching for appropriate and suitable venues for the event, and making necessary arrangements for entertainment and refreshment (food or snacks).

It also involves sourcing required staff and performing general clean-up after the event.

In the course of planning an event, the individual is tasked with the responsibility of soliciting bids from vendors, like video and photography personnel, caterers etc.

In some cases also, the event planner’s work description may entail sorting out accommodation for guests that will be attending the event.

During the event proper, the planner is required to be at the venue to monitor every activity, making sure that each staff carries out his/her assigned duties effectively, and to also make sure that every guest at the event doesn’t lack anything.

Due to the fact that the business of event planning is highly dependent on referrals, event planners may deem it necessary to try as much as they can to carry out a satisfaction-survey exercise after every event.

They do this by conducting post-event interviews with their clients so as to identify areas for further development, and to also solve any outstanding issues they might have had with clients.

Event Planner Job Description Example/Template

Event planners perform various functions to ensure the success of their clients’ events. The follow job description example highlights common tasks, duties, and responsibilities of the role:

• Work closely with clients to understand what they actually want in the event
• Conduct a pre and post-event analysis to be able to plan properly and to also be able to improve in different areas
• Create proposals for each event and also make sure that the proposal is submitted on or before deadline
• Responsible for assigning duties to other members of staff where and when it is necessary
• Maintain good relationship with various vendors involved in the event, as well as with venue owners
• Put in place some contingency plans in case of unforeseen scenarios or mishaps during the course of an event
• Coordinate all forms of entertainment for the event, like music and guest speakers, or performers as the case may be
• Plan events in line with the budget drawn-up for the event
• Suggest suitable venues for an event to the client; in some cases, take clients to different venues for them to make a choice
• Supervise activities going on during events; welcome guests and also serve as the “problem-solver” on the day
• Ensure events are well publicized if the client requires it.

Requirements – Skills, Abilities, and Knowledge – for Event Planner Role

If you are interested in working as an event planner, here are major requirements and qualifications you will need to have to be hired, and to succeed in the career:

• Must have good communication and interpersonal skills so as to be able to clearly pass messages across to
• Must have good leadership ability
• Must have excellent time management skills so as to be able to deliver jobs efficiently
• Must have good analytical and problem-solving abilities
• Orderliness (being able to prioritize if need be), and the ability to keep things tidy
• Must possess good negotiation skills
• Must be a team-player
• Possess at least a Bachelor’s degree in any hospitality-related field
• Possess at least 2 years work experience in the event planning and management field.

Conclusion

If you are hiring for the event planner role, you will need to make and publish a detailed description of the position to improve your chances of attracting the best candidates to your ad.

To produce a good event planner job description for your recruitment process, you can simply adopt the sample copy provided in this post with some modification where necessary.

Individuals interested in the event planning career will also find this post useful as it improves their knowledge of the job.