One of the best ways to learn new skills and update your knowledge is to take online courses on event design and related topics. There are many platforms and providers that offer courses on event design, such as Eventbrite Academy, Coursera, Udemy, and Skillshare. You can choose from a variety of topics, such as event design principles, event branding, event storytelling, event marketing, and event technology. Online courses are convenient, flexible, and affordable, and they can help you gain new insights and perspectives from experts and peers.
So many great online courses to help with Event Design. I’m a big fan of The Event Design Certificate Program provided by the Event Design Collective. I’ve found many product development, design thinking and storytelling training highly useful in event and experience design. Organization like MPI and PCMA provide great courses to help you get up to speed fast and decide which approach you want to pursue more deeply. First a foremost, corporate communication courses will help you get your designs approved by executives. Most event design lives and dies by your ability to articulate the strategy and tell a compelling story regarding why leaders should approve your design, the outcomes and KPIs they should expect.
Online forums have become indispensable for event professionals, offering a wealth of advantages in a dynamic industry. These platforms provide invaluable learning opportunities by facilitating the exchange of insights and best practices among experts and enthusiasts. Event experts can seek advice, collaborate on problem-solving, and build a robust professional network, leading to potential partnerships and career advancements. Furthermore, forums serve as real-time sources of industry updates, ensuring professionals stay current with trends and innovations.
Tools I use for graphic design: Canva Photoshop Tools I use for project management: Microsoft Project Asana Smartsheet Tools I use for event planning: Eventbrite Cvent Tools I use for communication and collaboration: Slack Zoom Microsoft Teams Tools I use for spatial planning and room design: Social Tables All Seated Tools I use for online learning and educational resources: Coursera LinkedIn Learning
Pour offrir à vos clients une expérience optimale et continuellement innovante, votre atout principal réside dans la formation. Cherchez constamment à acquérir de nouvelles compétences dans les domaines où vous manquez d'expertise. L'apprentissage continu est essentiel pour progresser et upgrader vos standards.
There are many options out there to develop your design skills! I personally think that Canva is easily accessible and easy to learn. They have their own courses and certifications. Many experts have also created easy to follow youtube videos to learn Canva for exactly your needs.
Another way to keep up with the latest developments and trends in event design is to follow blogs and podcasts that cover this topic. Blogs and podcasts can provide you with valuable tips, tricks, and inspiration for your event design projects. You can learn from the experiences and stories of other event professionals, discover new tools and techniques, and get insights into the current and future challenges and opportunities in the event industry. Some of the blogs and podcasts that you can check out are Event Manager Blog, Event Design Collective, Event Industry News, and Event Brew.
Agreed! I love a good podcast for learning while on the go. Some of my fave event podcasts include: Better Events, The Events Cast, Gather Geeks, Sift & The Marketing Meetup!
If you prefer to read or browse through printed materials, you can also find magazines and books that focus on event design and creativity. Magazines and books can offer you in-depth analysis, case studies, and examples of successful event design projects from around the world. You can also find practical advice, best practices, and frameworks for event design that you can apply to your own events. Some of the magazines and books that you can look for are Event Design Magazine, BizBash, The Event Design Handbook, and Into the Heart of Meetings.
As suggested, check out the Event Design Handbook and Design to Change by the Event Design Collective. The audiobook is pretty awesome (even if I say so myself). Other powerful books that changed my Event Design Skills include Designing Experiences by J Robert Rossman, Mathew D Duerden. The Experience Economy by B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore and A Beautiful Constraint by Adam Morgan, Mark Barden. To name only a few... Look outside of the event industry as much as you look inside it. Experience design is a rapidly growing industry, with many resources being released everyday.
To design and execute your events effectively, you also need to use software and apps that can help you with various aspects of event design, such as ideation, collaboration, visualization, and management. Software and apps can help you streamline your workflow, communicate with your team and stakeholders, create and share your event design concepts, and monitor and measure your event performance. Some of the software and apps that you can use are Canva, Miro, SketchUp, and Eventbrite.
Here's where generative AI can really help. Imagine you want to work on a stage design. Using Midjourney, Dall-E 2 or Stable Diffusion can help you develop new concepts and ways of thinking about stage, backdrop, audience, chairs, etc. You can also use it to change branding for events. Start with some of those dry and boring pictures of ballrooms, meeting rooms and foyers - and then imagine them - through the help of AI - with your colors, branding and more around them. In addition you can create personas in ChatGPT or other Ai chat tool that reflect the audience you want to attend, and then you can use those personas to develop and test track concepts, sessions, timing and other experience design concepts.
The key to successful event design lies in fostering a collaborative environment. Software can empower your team to contribute their best ideas seamlessly. Mind Mapping: Tools like Mural excel at brainstorming sessions. You can visually organize ideas and spark creativity through collaborative mind maps. Design Collaboration: Consider Figma or Canva Pro for real-time collaboration. Use brand assets and libraries within these platforms to design together as a team.
Finally, one of the best resources that you can use to enhance your event design skills is your own network and the events that you attend or organize. Networking and events can help you connect with other event professionals, learn from their experiences and feedback, exchange ideas and insights, and find new opportunities and collaborations. You can also use networking and events as a way to showcase your event design skills, get inspired by other event designs, and discover new trends and innovations in the event industry. You can network and attend events online or offline, such as webinars, conferences, workshops, and meetups.
Attending networking events is a valuable strategy for enhancing event design skills by learning from industry peers and experts. These events provide opportunities to gain insights into the latest trends, technologies, and best practices in event design. By connecting with fellow professionals, exchanging ideas, and attending workshops or presentations, you can broaden your knowledge base and stay informed about innovative techniques and strategies. Networking also facilitates collaboration and mentorship opportunities, allowing you to leverage the expertise of others to refine your own design approach.
Connections are everything when it comes to events. Networking and attending events are essential for building these connections and staying inspired by the latest industry trends.
Don't just limit yourself to events for event planners. Become an event junkie! Attend all sorts of different events and either get inspired - or help yourself realize what you don't want to do. Among other things, I create videos and training on how to moderate and host events. Some of my best ideas - and most cringeworthy "avoid" insight has come from sitting in on panels, fireside chats and keynotes at all sorts of events - from the biggest to the smallest. You never know where inspiration - or revulsion - will strike!
To improve your event design skills, a visual experience is essential. Every month we create animations and event branding for several conferences in parallel. So this visual experience allows us to generate fresh ideas much faster and more efficiently. I can share my experience. A couple of times a month we make a meeting where designers bring examples of animation, stage design or event branding that they have liked recently. We go through them together and save the best cases.
Clients come to an event planner to know what is current on the event trends. Many corporate events are held annually which can bring a lot of returning attendees. How do you keep the attendee interested and engaged? If you bring something new to each of your events, your attendee will be surprised every time. Then with feedback, you can bring back elements each year while also throwing in something new. Event location also plays a big part in your event design so you can really highlight where your event is and theme the event based on the experts to that theme in that area. Destination Management Companies really thrive at helping clients execute these design themes in the best way possible.
Know your role in events. If design isn't your forte but you work with a design team, use tools with templates for quick needs like presentations or posts. Canva's user-friendly interface and customizable templates make it a top choice. Avoid spending too much time on a tool you'll only use occasionally. Efficiency is key in enhancing event design skills.