The awkward truth about becoming an event planner is that nothing is stopping you. There is no license, no register and no exam anybody checks. You could describe yourself as one this afternoon.

That is also the problem. If the title is free, it proves nothing, so the only thing a first client can judge you on is evidence. Everything below is about getting some.

Start with the events you have already run

Almost everybody has organized something: a work leaving do, a fortieth, a fundraiser, a wedding for somebody in the family. It was not paid and it did not feel professional, but you made a plan, booked suppliers and dealt with something going wrong on the day. That is the job.

Write those down before you decide you have no experience. You are usually looking for three, and you almost always have two already.

Assist somebody who is already doing it

One day assisting an experienced planner teaches you more than a month of reading, and the thing to watch for is not the setup. It is what they do at four o’clock, when a supplier is late and the client is anxious and the schedule has to bend without anybody noticing.

Ask directly. Most planners in a busy season would take a competent extra pair of hands, and the answer costs you nothing.

Run one event properly, even for free

Pick a cause you care about and offer to coordinate one event end to end. Write the brief, build the budget, book the suppliers, produce a real run sheet, and photograph the room before the guests arrive.

What you want out of it is not the credit. It is the run sheet, the photographs and one person who will say in writing that you were the reason it worked.

What not to do

  • Do not build a website before you have anything to put on it. An empty portfolio is worse than no portfolio.
  • Do not take a first paid booking for nothing to “build the portfolio” and then discover you resent it. Charge something, even if it is small.
  • Do not wait to feel ready. Nobody in this industry started feeling ready, and the second event is always easier than the first.

The gap between someone who wants to be an event planner and someone who is one is usually a single completed event with a written brief behind it. Go and get that one done.