Jane Canepa realized her calling as an event planner at the ripe old age of 12, when neighborhood mothers in Baraboo, Wis., hired her to plan their children’s birthday parties.
Her knack for organizing creative events down to the last detail made for an obvious career choice: Soon after graduating from college, Canepa advanced from retail sales to manager of special events and public relations for Carson Pirie Scott’s Chicago stores.
Today, at 49, Canepa is president of The Eventors Inc., a three-person firm in Chicago that plans mostly sporting events for corporations and not-for-profits.
Among her regular events is the Chase Corporate Challenge, an annual running race with 18,000 participants, for client Chase Manhattan Bank.
“What I like about it is the independence, the people you meet and the satisfaction you get when the event turns out well,” Canepa said. “It’s more fun than sitting behind a desk, which I couldn’t do.”
People in public relations and other fields have long planned social functions as part of their jobs, but only within the past 15 years has event planning been recognized as a full-time profession.
“Originally, people were thought of as party planners, which has a pretty negative connotation for professional event planners, because they do everything for the entire event or a portion of it,” says Nancy Rainey, executive director of the International Special Events Society, a professional group of 3,000 members.
Event planners come up with the ideas for functions and organize the logistical details, which can include the location, invitations, linens, place cards, floral arrangements, caterer, menu and entertainment. Event planners work for small independent firms, museums, not-for-profits, hotels and banks. Some specialize in planning strictly social events such as weddings and private parties. Others are employed by large corporations to organize their off-site meetings and events.
“When you’re a special events planner, you wear so many hats,” said Victoria Frank, a principal with Carlson Frank, a corporate event and meeting planning firm in Northfield. “You’re a secretary one minute, you’re a writer another minute. I use my calligraphy skills (for) my clients. I wrap packages, because gift-giving is so much a part of the business.”
On a recent day, Frank was in the midst of planning a fishing camp in the Florida Keys for a corporate client. She organized everything from a deep-sea fishing excursion to a fly-fishing seminar to a dolphin encounter for non-anglers. She also picked the restaurants for the evening meals and planned the floral arrangements for the tables.
“There are a million ways to use your creativity, and I adore that,” Frank said. “And this is going to sound very corny, but the corker is that special events planners are involved in a business that really is the positive part of life. It’s a happy business.”
“The last few years have been a big boom for event planners because the economy has been so good,” observed Linda Whitlock, president of the Chicago chapter of the International Special Events Society.
Typically, event planners start each project by meeting with the client to find out the purpose of the function and the age group and interests of the people who will attend.
“Something that works for IBM isn’t going to be the right thing for Leo Burnett,” Frank noted.
A good event planner listens carefully to what a client needs and customizes the function accordingly, Frank stressed.
The biggest challenge of the job is grueling hours. People often mistakenly assume that event planning means just “throwing a party, and it’s all fun and games,” Whitlock said.
“There’s certainly a lot more to it,” she said. “It’s a lot of hard work. It’s a lot of details to think about. You have to make sure everything is in order, and you have to have an understanding of how the production will run.”
Because event planners attend the functions they organize, working weekends and evenings are part of the job, in addition to regular office hours. It’s not unusual for event planners to work six or seven days a week.
Considering the profession’s long hours, event planning is not a high-paying field. A recent survey of members by the International Special Events Society found that 37 percent earn between $25,000 to $50,000 a year. Another 24 percent reported salaries between $50,000 and $75,000.
Event planners say the job comes with enormous pressure, whether dealing with last-minute glitches or working with difficult, demanding people.
“The whole responsibility for the success of the event is on your shoulders,” Frank said.
To that end, event planners must be organized and able to handle multiple tasks at once. At any given time they may juggle 10 events, each at different stages of the planning process.
“I would not recommend this career for people who don’t handle stress real well,” said Donna Johnson, an independent meeting and event planning consultant in Chicago, whose clients include Deloitte & Touche.
“You have to be very diplomatic and flexible,” Johnson explained. “You have to be able to deal with change–and I mean last-minute change. You have to be able to think on your feet.”
Event planners can’t be introverts, either, because they spend most days and evenings talking with clients, vendors, corporate employees and partygoers.
To pursue a career in event planning, first volunteer to help a charity with an upcoming function, suggests Canepa, who also teaches a course on event planning at Columbia College.
“To participate is the best education,” she said.
A degree in marketing, business, hotel administration or communications are good backgrounds for the profession but isn’t a requirement.
Museums, not-for-profits and hotels are most likely to hire entry-level event planners. Corporations tend to require more experience.
Professional associations, which also hire meeting and event planners, tend to have long planning periods because functions are scheduled three to five years in advance, Johnson said. Corporate meetings and events may have as little as four weeks’ notice.
The International Special Events Society offers a program for members to become a certified special events professional (CSEP). Although by no means mandatory, the certification shows a dedication to the profession, Whitlock says.
For more information about event planning, contact the International Special Events Society at 317-571-5601, or visit the group’s Web site at www.ises.com.
