Event Planner

Hours: 300 / Access Length: 12 months / Delivery: Online, Self-Paced
Retail Price: $1,623.00

Course Overview:

In this course we will study the principles and practices of event planning.

Curriculum Developer Biography:

Laurie Gilbreath holds a Master of Arts in Education and has 15 years' experience in K-12, higher education, and continuing education. She has also worked for 10 years as a professional development facilitator and designer and an educational trainer. She has developed courses, training manuals, and educational ebooks in topics ranging from healthcare to business to administration and quality management. In addition to her educational experience, she has worked as a freelance writer and editor for 10 years. Her publications include scholarly articles, training and educational materials, web content, and fiction.

Course Outline:

Lesson 1: Initial Planning and Budgeting

In this lesson, we will discuss the importance of primary event objectives, why initial planning is crucial, and how to put together a budget that will cover all of the elements of an event.

Lesson 2: Organization and Timing

In this lesson, we will discuss the critical path - the items, considerations, scheduling, and time planning that must be organized for the particular event.  This will allow you to stay on track with the calendar, contracts, correspondence, vision, budget, and tasks that must be accomplished.

Lesson 3: Location

In this lesson, we will discuss site selection, site requirements, and site planning considerations.  In addition, we will discuss the important tasks for site preparation and site direction.

Lesson 4: Transportation

In this lesson, we will explore various types of transportation that might be involved in an event.  In addition, we will discuss advantages of providing transportation for events as well as challenges. Finally, we will discuss the relationship between transportation and site selection.

Lesson 5: Guest Arrival

From the text: "Guest arrival sets the anticipatory tone for the event ahead. Your event does not start the moment the guests step into the venue but the moment they arrive on its doorstep or in the designated parking drop-off point. You have to plan and prepare for weather they could encounter stepping out of the vehicle, the appearance of the walkway to the venue and what they will see to tell them visually they have “arrived” at the event."

Lesson 6: Venue Requirements

In this lesson, we will discuss requirements and considerations regarding event venues.  Topics will include room requirements, staging, audi-visual, lighting, supplies, and questions that should be asked and answered when preparing a venue.

Lesson 7: Guest Demographics

In this lesson, we will discuss the importance of knowing the demographics of event attendees and how those demographics affect planning.

Lesson 8: Food and Beverage

In this lesson, we will explore various themes that impact food and beverage decisions, considerations that are essential for food and beverage decisions, menu planning, staffing, and donations.

Lesson 9: Additional Considerations for Event Planning

In this lesson, we will discuss aspects of event planning that you can use to stand out from the crowd.

All necessary materials are included.

System Requirements:

Internet Connectivity Requirements:

• Cable, Fiber, DSL, or LEO Satellite (i.e. Starlink) internet with speeds of at least 10mb/sec download and 5mb/sec upload are recommended for the best experience.

NOTE: While cellular hotspots may allow access to our courses, users may experience connectivity issues by trying to access our learning management system.  This is due to the potential high download and upload latency of cellular connections.   Therefore, it is not recommended that students use a cellular hotspot as their primary way of accessing their courses.

Hardware Requirements:

• CPU: 1 GHz or higher
• RAM: 4 GB or higher
• Resolution: 1280 x 720 or higher.  1920x1080 resolution is recommended for the best experience.
• Speakers / Headphones
• Microphone for Webinar or Live Online sessions.

Operating System Requirements:

• Windows 7 or higher.
• Mac OSX 10 or higher.
• Latest Chrome OS
• Latest Linux Distributions
  

NOTE: While we understand that our courses can be viewed on Android and iPhone devices, we do not recommend the use of these devices for our courses. The size of these devices do not provide a good learning environment for students taking online or live online based courses.

Web Browser Requirements:

• Latest Google Chrome is recommended for the best experience.
• Latest Mozilla FireFox
• Latest Microsoft Edge
• Latest Apple Safari

Basic Software Requirements (These are recommendations of software to use):

• Office suite software (Microsoft Office, OpenOffice, or LibreOffice)
• PDF reader program (Adobe Reader, FoxIt)
• Courses may require other software that is described in the above course outline.