Did you know that the event management industry has radically changed gears into being one of the most progressive industries?
We know this because the global events market is showing a trajectory of growing from $1,227.3 billion in 2024 to approximately $1,346.92 billion in 2025. This displays a remarkable CAGR of 9.7%. This surge can be attributed to the rise in converts, festivals, corporate events, and the traction of virtual and hybrid event formats.
So, being an event manager seems quite lucrative now, right?
This guide will show you all about how to become an event manager in 2025. You will find yourself coming back to this guide over and over again because it’s not an overnight endeavor.
So, Let’s begin!
Table of Contents
Decoding An Event Manager
Let’s start this guide by first completely decoding what an event manager does. Along with the skill sets that an event manager should have mastery over in 2025:
What Does An Event Manager Do?
Everything related to events, starting from their planning, preparation, marketing, and execution, comes under the domain of an event manager:
- Planning and design: Planning for an event involves narrowing down its:
- Objectives
- Researching the audience
- Budget marking
- Forming a timeline
Along with this, event managers also decide on the theme and design of an event that works best for their clients and brands.
- Budgeting: This goes without saying an event manager has to take care of the entire event budget. This means continuously inspecting what the money is being spent on and if the spending is worth it or not.
- Venue selection and management: The next thing to know is the location where the event will be held. An event manager, in this regard, researches venues that would meet the event requirements perfectly, requirements like:
- Logistics
- Catering
- Security
- Space
- Parking
- Technical favorability
- Supplier and vendor handling: An event manager also handles the negotiation and other aspects with suppliers and vendors. This involves discussing:
- Amount of supply required
- Backup options
- Quality of service or material
- Budget
- Legal terms and conditions
- Risk assessment: Every event has certain possibilities of risks or mishaps occurring. Hence, an event manager assesses and prepares well in advance for such situations. They do this by preparing contingency plans that are kept ready in case of circumstances that occur during the execution.
- Promoting and marketing: Events need to be marketed to gain attendees, and the medium of marketing and promotion is handled by an event manager:
- What strategies to implement?
- Which marketing channels do most of their audience belong to?
- What marketing materials are required?
- When to implement different stages of the marketing plan?
These are some things that need to be taken care of by an event manager. Additionally, they also have to take care of the registration process, which could be done through event tech solutions like:
- Mobile event apps
- Event websites
- Event execution: The most crucial responsibility of an event manager is to make sure that the event starts, runs, and ends as envisioned. This includes taking care of:
- Entry at the event venue
- Logistical assurance
- Attendee satisfaction
- Query solving
- Issue/ discrepancy handling
- Oversight on security
Skills Every Event Manager Needs In 2025
Talking about the current requirements of skills needed to be a reputed and credible event manager in the present year of 2025 are as follows:
- Organizational and time management skills.
- Communication and negotiation skills.
- Creativity and problem-solving abilities.
- Familiarity with event technology and virtual platforms.
How To Become An Event Manager: Step-By-Step
Now that you realize what event managers do and handle, it’s safe to say that it’s not an easy role. However, below, we have laid out the steps and necessary pointers that when done with dedication and awareness, will permit you to call yourself an event manager:
Step 1: Education And Knowledge Learning
First things first, learning and obtaining theoretical knowledge is an important first step to becoming a successful event manager. To do this, there are various avenues:
- Relevant degrees: Now, if you research this, you will stumble across multiple industry specialists mentioning a degree is not necessary for this role. However, the knowledge and insight you will acquire will benefit and be worth it in the long run. These degrees essentially cover:
- Business administration
- Hospitality
- Budgeting
- Marketing strategies (digital and traditional)
- Specific event management courses: If in case your budget does not make it easy to enroll for degrees, you can opt for some special event management courses. These courses will boost your knowledge of best practices and standards and also add credibility to your resume. You can even do these courses after acquiring a degree as well to further enhance your position in the market. Some highly regarded courses are:
- Certified Special Events Professional (CSEP)
- Certified Meeting Professional (CMP)
Step 2: Practical Knowledge And Experience
Of course, the next step is to simply work, work, and work. Your journey into becoming an event manager starts from the first step itself, but the practical knowledge comes from this step:
- Internships: Find and get into internships for a while by joining:
- Event planning firms and companies
- Hotels
- Corporate organizations or businesses
This way you get to work beside experienced professionals and learn plenty of off-book strategies and planning techniques.
- Volunteer work: Another way to acquire experience and field knowledge is by volunteering for events around your locality and community. This type of work helps build a credible and favorable resume. Plus, you get to experience different roles and responsibilities that when combined can make you a very successful event manager.
- Working under experienced event managers: Shadow learning or practice is a relatively new style of learning wherein you shadow or tag along an expert event manager. Such mentorship is perfect for knowing the latest approaches modern-day managers make use of. Additionally, this experience will truly train your mind to solve problems in scenarios of reality.
Step 3: Forming Connection With Professionals
In every industry and almost every role you will find individuals like yourself working within the same niches. Connecting with professionals, freshers, businesses, communities gets your name on board and not to mention all the tips and tricks to obtain as well. So how to build your network you ask? We got you covered:
- Joining industry associations: Becoming a member of organizations like Meeting Professionals International (MPI) or the International Live Events Association (ILEA) gives a certified boost to your trustworthiness. Additionally, you also gain resources to further master your skills as an event manager.
- Actively use social media platforms: One of the best platforms to use for professional networking is LinkedIn. Individuals and organizations use LinkedIn to get leads, hire, learn current trends, and boast their expertise as well. Being aware of the newest strategies and styles of your role cannot harm but set you apart as highly knowledgeable in the field.
- Attending industry events: Take time and be a part of other events and experience first-hand from an attendees’ point of view on how events are truly made successful. This puts your skills in perspective and also allows you to spread your network with the best within the industry.
Step 4: Making Yourself Into A Brand
What this means is you need to form your online presence and work your way through to build an offline reputation. So how can you achieve this? Through the below pointers:
- Get an online presence: The first thing to do in this respect is to make an online presence on the net. Almost all successful event managers have a professional website or full-fledged social media presence. They share their experiences, display their work and style of approach, and share tips and guidelines for better practices. The reason they do this is that people are more inclined to hire or approach those whose work can be witnessed. Showcasing your work and skills also provides an opportunity to build trust.
- Creating a portfolio of successful events: Document your work by gathering and organizing case studies of events you’ve planned and participated in. Give out details about the objectives, challenges faced, and outcomes achieved to boast your capabilities unapologetically.
Learning And Implementing Technology In Event Management
This section is about making you realize how modern and top-notch event managers make use of technology to better their event management:
Softwares That Every Event Manager Should Have In 2025
Here we mention some categories of softwares that smoothen the process of event management for event managers. They also help in getting feedback that is full of praise and appreciation for what planners work hard for:
- Event management platforms: Platforms like Dreamcast are an all-in-one event tech provider that helps ease multiple aspects related to the management of events. This type of platform helps better logistics by offering solutions like:
- Mobile event apps
- Check-in badges
- Registration and ticketing
- Cashless systems
- Customer relationship management (CRM) tools: Modern CRMs have revolutionized to support event management for event managers by:
- Fusing attendee data.
- Automating communication; and
- Providing insights into attendee behavior
- Track attendee interactions
- Manage registration data
All of this information and metrics also help an event manager to further improve and understand their audience’s psyche and plan better future events.
Last Thoughts
Remember, becoming a successful event manager is not just about executing perfect or near-perfect events, it’s about forming experiences that stick and stay with the attendee’s brains even after the event reaches an end.
So for that keep yourself open to continuous learning, be updated on best and fresh trends, and don’t hesitate to experiment.
