Why You Don’t Need An Event Planning Certificate

Have you ever wondered whether or not it’s important to have an event planning certificate for people to take you seriously or to get started in the events industry – especially when you have no real experience?

For example, let’s say you’re deeply passionate about event planning and all things related to events, you read everything you can get your hands on and spend countless hours surfing the Internet for that one piece of information that’s going to change everything for you.

You’ve never been paid to plan an event nor have you been hired by another event planner or client to plan their events.

Is it necessary to get an event planning certificate so you start getting paid to plan events and feel like a legitimate event planner?

Alternatives to an Event Planning Certificate:

That’s exactly what we’re talking about today. 

We’re sharing 2 reasons why you don’t need an event planning certificate to be successful, especially when you’re starting in the industry, and how to get started without any experience.

Obtaining an event planning certification is not necessary to get started, nor will it assure you get hired. 

Education is important but without actually planning and managing events and networking, you’re gaining little more than theory-based information.

Alternative: Find an event planning course that teaches you the basics and start planning events to gain experience by planning your own events or by working with an event mentor to gain hands-on experience.

It’s more valuable to get experience in sales, marketing and catering – through courses or with vendor experts – than it is to take a general event certification program.

Alternative: make a list of the areas where you need experience. 

For example, catering. Then, create a list of caterers in your area that you will like to work with and schedule a call or visit them with your  resume,  letting them know why you’d like to work with them, how you will benefit their business, and what you’d like to gain from the experience.

Note: Most professional event certification programs require that you have 3-5 years of experience before you can apply to their program, though not what is practice in Nigeria. Every one are professionals in the country!

Clients (and employers) want you to have event experience (likely not a must for MOST in Nigeria) before they hire you to plan their events, so it’s important to make a list of the areas where you need experience (for example: catering, floral design, décoration, logistics, sales, marketing, etc.), then highlight this experience in your event planning portfolio.

Needing an event planning certificate is a big misunderstanding that many event planners believe is required to break into the industry and get hired.

In the comments below, I’d love to hear from you.

What’s your take on getting an event planning certificate?

If you’re an established event planner, what did you do to learn and get experience in the event industry?

Please share your story in the comments below.

We love hearing from our community, but links to outside posts.

Thank you, as always, for reading and sharing your experience with our industry.

Originally written by Melanie.

Event Consultation and planning

Tokunbo: 08030725241