Every sports and entertainment management firm has employees who deal with events. From small press conferences to large industry-wide events, someone needs to make sure that they go off without a hitch. If they don’t it could reflect badly on your clients, which in turn could hurt contract negotiations or cause other problems. Many colleges offering sports management degrees have classes specifically covering event management. Here are some of the classes you could choose to take:

General Event Management Courses

If you plan to work as a sports manager in any capacity, whether you want to be an event planner or not, you should take at least one general sports event management course. This course will give you an overview on the intricacies of planning events in the sporting world, without going too far in depth about the topic. These are 101 courses for many colleges, and some combine event management with marketing classes. These courses lay a foundation for learning more about event management in the world of sports.

Financial Management Courses

Finances are important when you’re in charge of planning events, since you’ll often be involved with both spending and raising money. Every college is different in the courses they offer, but most require sports event management majors to take at least introductory courses in finance, economics, accounting, and other money-related topics.

Management and Leadership Courses

Learning how to lead a team of people is extremely important in a field like sports event management. If you’re the director of event planning, you’ll likely have a staff working under you to help you prepare for events, and you need to communicate with everyone and ensure that the team creates an event that runs smoothly. Even if you’re a smaller company and you’re the sole person in charge of events, you’ll need to lead other workers in other departments, contractors, and volunteers in order to make sure that events go as planned.

Facility Management Courses

Every event has to be held somewhere. While facility management is typically a topic covered by sports management majors who want to work in this field, it is also applicable to event management majors. You’ll typically be offered beginner’s courses in this area, and some programs require these courses. Related, you can also take classes in interior design with some programs.

Law Courses

Yes, there are legal issues when it comes to hospitality and event planning in the sports world. Some of the laws relate to sports themselves, while others are regulations that apply to any kind of event. In either case, your sports event management program will likely include at least one law-related course.

Sales, Promotion, and Marketing Courses

If you can’t get people to your event, what’s the point in holding it? The success of an event hinges on attendance in many cases, so a good sports management event planner will understand how to promote and market their events to sell tickets. In addition, your program could also cover related topics, like communications, writing, and advertising.