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Academy

Module 1: Foundations

What planners do, types of events and roles, the event lifecycle, key terms, tools of the trade.

Module masterclass

Module 1: Foundations

10-minute video with captions

Foundations is part of the free Event Planner Academy. It has 8 lessons, about 2 hours of study in total, and every lesson comes with a narrated video, a printable worksheet and a short quiz.

How to work through it

Watch the narrated video at the top of each lesson, then read the lesson itself. The video covers the key points; the page has the tables, examples and checklists.
Complete the worksheet for your own event, or for the running Harbour Gala example.
Take the quiz and mark the lesson complete. Your progress is saved in this browser.
Finish all twelve core modules and pass the final exam to print your free certificate.

Planner with radio and clipboard surveying a ballroom before guests arrive

What an event planner actually does

Module 1: Foundations · 15 min

The job is risk management disguised as hospitality. A planner turns a goal into a date, a room, a budget, a vendor…

Summer street festival with food tents, small stage and crowds at sunset

Types of events and who plans them

Module 1: Foundations · 15 min

Social, wedding, cultural, corporate and public events share one process but differ in who decides, who pays and what success means. Knowing…

Hand arranging six blank index cards in a row on a wooden desk

The event lifecycle: six phases

Module 1: Foundations · 15 min

Discovery, concept, planning, production, execution, wrap-up. Every lesson in this course sits in one of these phases, and most failures come from…

Crew rolling a road case off a loading dock while a planner checks in

Twenty terms you need on day one

Module 1: Foundations · 15 min

BEO, run of show, F&B minimum, attrition, COI, SOP, load-in, strike, rider, gobo. Planners speak a dialect; this lesson teaches the twenty…

Flat lay of laptop, tape measure, radio, blank sheets and phone on a desk

Tools of the trade

Module 1: Foundations · 15 min

A planner needs a budget spreadsheet, a timeline, a run of show, a vendor contact sheet, a floor plan tool and a…

A planner from behind walking an empty Toronto banquet hall with a measuring wheel

Reading a floor plan and a BEO

Module 1: Foundations · 15 min

Two documents decide whether a room works. Learn to read scale, capacities, egress and the BEO line items that hide costs.

Hand declining a plain envelope slid across a café table

Ethics, kickbacks and disclosure

Module 1: Foundations · 15 min

Vendors offer commissions; venues offer favours. Decide now how you handle them, and how you disclose relationships to clients, the way this…

Hand sketching on blank paper beside a calculator and cake stand

Module 1 workshop: plan a 40-person birthday on paper

Module 1: Foundations · 15 min

Apply the lifecycle, the terms and the tools to a small real event. You will produce a one-page brief, a budget envelope…