Event planning vs event management: what’s the difference?

The Events Academy

Search for an events course in Kenya and you’ll see both phrases everywhere: event planning courses, event management courses, events planning and management. Job adverts mix them up too. So are they the same thing?

Not quite. They’re two halves of the same job, and on most Kenyan events the same person does both.

Event planning is the thinking

Event planning is everything that happens before the event becomes real. It starts with the client’s objective: why is this event happening, and what has to be true afterwards for it to have worked? From there the planner shapes the concept and the look and feel, writes the proposal, builds the budget, chooses the venue and suppliers, and maps out the timeline.

A good plan can answer a few simple questions before anyone books anything: when the event is, why it’s happening, how many people are coming and who they are, where it will be held, and how much there is to spend.

Event management is the doing

Event management is making the plan happen. It means coordinating suppliers and their set-up times, running rehearsals, leading the team on site, keeping the programme on time, handling whatever goes wrong, and closing everything out afterwards with the accounts and a report for the client.

Management also covers the money while the event is live: keeping spending inside the budget, agreeing any changes with the client, and making sure every supplier delivers what was agreed.

Planning is the thinking. Management is the doing. Clients pay for someone who can do both.

Why the words get mixed up

At a wedding or a company end-of-year party, one planner usually does both the planning and the managing, so clients use whichever word comes to mind. On larger events the work splits. A conference might have a planner or project manager leading, coordinators running sessions and logistics, and ushers looking after registration and guests on the day.

You’ll also hear the term MICE, which stands for meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions. It’s the formal name for the business events side of the industry, and planners who specialise in conferences are often called professional conference organisers, or PCOs.

Which one should you learn?

Both. Planners who never learn to manage end up with beautiful proposals that struggle on the day, and coordinators who never learn to plan stay dependent on someone else’s thinking. Clients pay for someone who can take an event from the first conversation to the final report.

That’s why our Become an Event Planner course teaches planning and management together, from the first brief through budgets, suppliers and risk to running the day. If you’re just starting out, read How to become an event planner in Kenya next, and find all our courses on our courses page.