Special Events Planning student Shehnaz Motara says the program is “exactly like real life.”
Photo: Tina Todaro/The Dialog
George Brown College’s (GBC) School of Hospitality and Tourism Management offers a special event planning (SEP) program, a two year diploma, where students are introduced to the world of social and corporate events.
Students are educated on how to organize events ranging from birthdays and bar mitzvahs to corporate events and golf tournaments. Students are taught how to find their own resources in order to plan successful events.
“It is our responsibility to go out and find our own sponsors,” said Shehnaz Motara, 19, a current SEP student.
Throughout the third semester of the program, students organize and conduct “seed events” which are one-day events that happen approximately 20 times, according to Motara. These events prepare students for their fourth semester “capstone” event.
Broken down, each seed event runs for about one to three hours. These events take place on-campus, and are hosted by groups of 10 students. Money raised by each event is then split, 50 per cent going to a charity of the students group’s choice and the other 50 per cent going toward future scholarships.
Fourth semester students conduct their own events in February and April, leading up to the final capstone event.
“Last year we put on events such as a fashion show, comedy night, Toronto Goes Country, Seven Deadly Sins and Skate Night in Canada at the Ricoh Coliseum,” said SEP program co-ordinator Ijaz Jamal. “We raised close to $40,000 for future scholarships and charities last year.”
The capstone event is organized by groups of 17 students, and hosted off-campus. Students are educated not only on how to find their own sponsors, but how to go about finding their own venues and doing the planning on their own while following an assigned budget.
When SEP students reach their fourth semester, the execution of the capstone event takes place. Students must undergo a planning process and future selection by their professor before the event takes place.
“The prof has to see potential in your event,” said Motara.
The capstone event is considered the final project for SEP students.
Motara describes the program as being a good insight into real life event planning, “It’s exactly like real life.”
With an internship behind her, and with a diploma not too far ahead, Motara plans to continue on into the corporate world.
“I see myself ending up doing corporate events,” said Motara.
