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Academy

Professional

Working or aspiring planners.

Professional: guides, ideas and tools from EventPlans.ca for planning events in Toronto and the GTA.

Planner shaking a caterer's hand beside a rolling hot box

Managing vendors on the day

Module 10: Event Day · 15 min

Arrival checks, the pre-event briefing, problem escalation, and paying balances on site.

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.

Staff scanning a guest's phone at a check-in table with badge boxes

Registration, check-in and seating

Module 7: Logistics & Operations · 15 min

RSVP tools, cut-offs, name tags, QR check-in, seating charts with dietary codes, and the 10% who show up unannounced.

Guests boarding coach shuttles at a hotel curb on a snowy evening

Transportation, parking and shuttles

Module 7: Logistics & Operations · 15 min

Downtown parking math, shuttle sizing, rideshare codes, accessibility vehicles, and the Toronto transit reality.

Crew pushing road cases into a truck at a loading dock at night

Load-in, strike and dock logistics

Module 7: Logistics & Operations · 15 min

Dock times, elevator sizes, union rules, sequencing (AV before décor), and strike by curfew.

Stage manager's desk with binder, stopwatch and headset under a blue clip light

Writing the run of show

Module 7: Logistics & Operations · 15 min

Minute by minute, one owner per cue, printed. Build one from the template with AV, MC, catering and entertainment columns.

Hand moving a blank card along a brown-paper timeline on a wall

The master timeline

Module 7: Logistics & Operations · 15 min

Backward-planned milestones from the date, by scale. Use the timeline generator and learn how to re-plan when dates move.

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.

Sound tech's hands patching cables into a stage box

Technical riders

Module 5: Vendors & Entertainment · 15 min

Every performer and band sends a rider: stage size, power, sound, lighting, dressing room, timing. Forward it to the venue the day…

Chef plating tasting portions at a kitchen pass

Catering: styles, tastings and dietary planning

Module 5: Vendors & Entertainment · 15 min

Plated, family, buffet, stations, cocktail. Tasting etiquette, dietary codes on the seating chart, and the quantity calculator.

Bartender measuring a pour with a jigger at a portable event bar

Bar: packages, permits and Smart Serve

Module 5: Vendors & Entertainment · 15 min

Open, consumption and toonie bars; AGCO Special Occasion Permits; Smart Serve; last call and safe rides. The bar calculator in practice.

Tech's hands on a mixer at the back-of-room AV table

AV basics for planners

Module 5: Vendors & Entertainment · 15 min

Mics, mixers, speakers, projectors, LED walls, lighting washes, gobos, DMX. Enough to brief an AV company and check their quote.