1. Attend an Event Management College Program & Enter a Growing Field
Planning an event can be a stressful ordeal. There are many details to consider that will ensure
it is successful. But rather than trying to do everything yourself, there are professionals trained
by Event Management college programs that will take care of every last detail. In 2006, the
event management sector in Canada employed 380,000 people. By 2015, it is projected to
produce 121,000 new jobs. With places like hotels, convention and conference centres,
corporations, tourism and non-profit organizations, sports and recreational organizations,
festival, arts and cultural organizations and event marketing management hiring event planners,
the field continues to grow.
Accredited by UNWTO TedQual, Centennial College’s event management college program,
officially known as Event Management - Festival and Conference, takes just two semesters to
complete. It is designed for mature learners, who have already complete a college diploma
or university degree in hospitality, tourism or related discipline and are looking to enhance their
careers. In addition, the event management college program at Centennial will also consider
applicants with a diploma or degree in an unrelated discipline who have related work experience
as well as applicants with partial post secondary education and relevant work experience in
hospitality. Applicants must attend a mandatory program admission session where they will
complete a questionnaire and submit your resume.
The goal of this event management college program is to prepare students for the various tasks
they will perform as event planners. As such, a large portion of program time is devoted to
hands-on learning. This practical experience is facilitated by way of Centennial College’s
Progress Campus, which houses a conference centre that comprises of meeting rooms, including
two large ballrooms and a variety of mid-sized meeting or breakout rooms, complete with high-
speed Internet access, in-house audio/visual equipment and multimedia capabilities. In these
facilities students dress in uniforms similar to those they may be required to wear upon
graduation from the event management college program while running the centre.
In addition, students partake in 12 event management college courses that include project work,
essay writing, exams and more. Among these courses are Communications and Media Planning,
Greening Your Festival, Event & Conference; Site Logistics and Operations Management, Risk
and Security Management, Event Budgeting, Networking and Industry Relations and more. In
the final semester of the offering, students put their on-campus experience into practice as they
partake in a Festival, Event and Conference Management practicum during which they gain
practical experience in the coordination of a festival, event or conference from preparing the
needs analysis to the execution and evaluation of the final production.
Upon graduation from the Event Management College students are prepared to enter the field
where they organize conferences, festivals, and much more. Among their specific duties are:
developing and implementing financial initiatives based on event objectives through methods
such as sponsorship programs and fundraising initiatives; planning, designing and coordinating
effective site and facility operations, while applying strategies for effective human resource
management; creating, planning and implementing effective programming for events while
applying accounting, financial and business administration skills to the operation of events.