No matter who you are or what your job title may be, we’re all constantly striving for the best. We work hard to succeed, build positive relationships and create a fulfilling life that makes us and those around us happy – or at least we try to. Life is busy and it’s easy to get caught up the “get the job done” mantra. With that in mind, I’d like to take a slight departure from my usual event related insights to talk about what it means

When I started in the event business 17 years ago, I had come out of a career in film and television and I was immediately struck with the number of unexpected similarities there were in these two industries. This was particularly apparent with regards to how the whole process of creating a finished product is structured. In film there are production assistants, production coordinators, production managers and film producers. In the

Working as an event planner is my dream job. I get to create amazing experiences and work with some of the best people in the business. But what I’ve come to truly appreciate lately is the diversity of this incredible industry. This career can be perfectly suited to so many different personality types and educational backgrounds. It’s a career built around flexibility and adaptation but it’s important to know how your own skillset fits

When I began my career in event planning, the idea of managing budgets seemed a little overwhelming. It was never covered in any of the event management classes I took and, despite being a vital aspect of every event, it seems to be a bit of an industry secret. So, this week let’s talk about some of the nuances of building an event budget. It’s time to share what no one else seems to talk about! The Framework

I want to start by saying that I truly feel blessed to have found a rewarding career doing something that I love! When I share with new acquaintances what I do for a living one of three things always comes up: I’m asked if I do weddings – I don’t, they assume I only plan parties and get to drink and dance the night away – I don’t just do that either. I’m also frequently asked how someone new might get into such an exciting career –

In 2016, the market in Calgary was terrible.  The recession was affecting many industries and as a result, many people. Given I am a self employed event planner,  I realized that  many events I had worked on in previous years were being cancelled or handled in-house.  There had also been some transition in my life both professionally and personally. Around April 2016, for no real reason other than I knew I wanted to concentrate on the

Event planning and our billing processes can be as unique as the event planner that you choose to engage. Billing and how we build budgets / fees is often a taboo subject and when you’re working with an event planner for the first time it can be an eye opener in terms of  what things cost. Therefore in this week’s blog we will delve into some straight talk about money. There are three popular ways in which Calgary corporate event

In my last blog I talked about “taking the guesswork out of hiring your next event planner” which included determining if your planner belongs to a professional association. So, this week I’d like to expand on that from both a personal and professional standpoint. Early in my career while attending college to obtain my certification in event planning, I was fortunate to have some of the most amazing event planners instruct my

As I prep to teach my next class called An Introduction to Event Management at Mount Royal University, I can see how grateful I am that these courses exist for people looking for event coordinator jobs. I personally went through this program in 2002 and while it has changed quite a bit over the past 14 years, what has remained the same is giving students the