Skip to content

The encyclopedia of event planning · Toronto & the GTA · Free and independentMy Planner Submit a listing Newsletter

Get quotes

Academy

Module 6: Design & Guest Experience

Décor, lighting, guest journey mapping, menu planning, accessibility, sustainability.

Design & Guest Experience is part of the free Event Planner Academy. It has 7 lessons, about 1.8 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.

Head table with floral garland and draped backdrop under amber uplights

Décor that photographs: where money shows

Module 6: Design & Guest Experience · 15 min

Lighting, the backdrop, the head table, tablescapes. Where décor dollars appear in photos and where they vanish.

Technician focusing a light that projects a leaf pattern on a dance floor

Lighting design for non-designers

Module 6: Design & Guest Experience · 15 min

Uplighting, pin spots, washes, gobos, dance looks, blackout. How to plan lighting cues for a program.

Guest walking along a candle-lined corridor toward a glowing ballroom

Guest journey mapping

Module 6: Design & Guest Experience · 15 min

Eight beats from invitation to the ride home. Find the moments guests remember, fix the ones they complain about.

Ontario squash, apples and kale on a kitchen counter with a chef's knife

Menu planning with the caterer

Module 6: Design & Guest Experience · 15 min

Seasonal, local, dietary-complete, timed to the program. Build a menu that serves 200 in 60 minutes.

Guest with a cane walking a wide clear aisle beside a lowered bar counter

Accessibility by design (AODA)

Module 6: Design & Guest Experience · 15 min

Step-free routes, accessible washrooms, seating, captions, quiet space, dietary and sensory needs. The AODA checklist for events in Ontario.

Gloved hands scraping a plate into a compost bin at a sorting station

Sustainability without greenwashing

Module 6: Design & Guest Experience · 15 min

Reduce the big three (food waste, single-use, travel), measure it, and say only what you did.

Guests climbing a carpeted staircase toward a foyer with a harpist

Module 6 workshop: design the guest experience

Module 6: Design & Guest Experience · 15 min

For the gala, design arrival, cocktail hour, dinner, program and departure with lighting cues, décor priorities and accessibility built in.