Why is the events sector a booming industry?
The events industry is a vital one, but one has experienced serious tumult over the past few years – as coronavirus restrictions crippled attendance and venue hire income for businesses and outfits across the board. Even today, with the coronavirus restrictions little more than a memory, the industry has not fully recovered; the cost-of-living crisis has decimated expendable income for many, sustaining the suppression of footfall to all manner of events.
But this is by no means a complete picture of the events industry. Indeed, the events industry remains one of the most promising and rewarding to foster a career in! The light is at the end of the tunnel, and events are coming back. After an exodus of staff during the pandemic, there are more opportunities than ever for you to jump into one of the UK’s most exciting industries. Whether you wish to don hi-vis clothing as event security, or rock an earpiece as a technical director, why should you stop dreaming and take the plunge?
Wide Variety of Career Options
Working in events is unlike working in any other industry, for a few different reasons – but one particular reason is the sheer breadth of opportunity available to interested candidates. There are multiple avenues you can follow, and many points at which transition to new paths altogether are possible. On a broad level, you might start out with an interest in A/V engineering and find yourself taking on responsibilities as a stage director some time down the line.
The same occurs not just with your own job description, but also with the kinds of events you work on. You might specialise in live sound for a local venue, and find yourself touring with a band or musical theatre show; alternatively, you might run branding for business conferences before pivoting to running whole marketing campaigns for national events.
No Two Days the Same
Just as the industry is a broad church with vibrant array of career possibilities, the day-to-day as a professional in events could not be more thrilling. No two days are ever the same in events, as everyone rushes to meet new goals and challenges in service of the event at hand.
For touring engineers, there are aspects of the average day that bear resemblance to one another: the commute, the load-in, and the load-out. But everything in-between is unique, whether getting to grips with a new mixing desk or lighting rig or meeting a new venue owner and building your network.
For organisers running conferences, priorities change day by day. Early days are given to planning and logistics, while the event itself sees them managing schedules and problem-solving, with the days following dedicated to packing down and honouring invoices.
Flexible Working
Work in events and the wider live industry is extremely flexible, and necessarily so. A large majority of people who work in events are freelance, owing to the nature of events business models and the precarious funding of individual projects. Being freelance enables you to take advantages of the opportunities you want to and turn down the ones that don’t interest you. You can create your own schedule and benefit all the more from a career on your terms.
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