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Colourful and smily image of SJ RIceOur Event Educators – Meet S-J Rice

First word that comes to mind when seeing S-J’s bio is ‘wow’. It’s impressive, it’s diverse, it’s interesting and…it’s global!

For the last 15 years S-J’s event career has taken her around the world, working on project after interesting project. With a specialisation in managing high-profile events such as New Year’s Eve at Barangaroo and Edinburgh International Film Festival, her career (so far) has been exciting and varied. It also happily demonstrates what can happen when you have a flexible skill-set. A skill-set that can be applied to a variety of event types such as sport, media, government, the arts, not-for-profit and corporate sectors.

This industry is so diverse with so many options and career paths available to emerging event profs. I like helping students navigate and find a pathway that’s right for them

Read our latest Q & A to see what a global event career looks like through the eyes of CoEM Events Educator S-J Rice…

What kind of skills are a must for a career in global events?

Communication – you’ll need to be able to work with and relate to all different kinds of people in events to get the results you need. Organisational skills – no matter what kind of events you’re working on, you’ll need to be able to meticulously plan, and have the paperwork to prove it. Flexibility – after you’ve done all your planning, something will change, and you’ll need to be able to quickly move to Plan B.

Can you give a brief version of your event career trajectory?

I came from arts administration, and found a lot of those skills were interchangeable into a career in event management. I’ve pretty much been in event management ever since, although I do still deliver some events which are within the arts sector.

What’s the best thing about being an event manager?

For me, it’s the variety of the work; different events, different work environments, and using and developing different skill sets. I’ve also had the variety of working in corporate, government, sporting, arts/cultural and not for profit sectors. They’re completely different sectors, but always in events.

What’s the worst thing about being an event manager?

I work as a freelance event professional, and for me the biggest challenge is lining up my next job!

What’s your particular events speciality?

I love working on major or mega events that have big bang for their buck! Rather than having the entire responsibility for an event, I enjoy working as a member of a high performing team to play a small (but important) role to see these events come together.

What event are you most proud of?

Some years ago I was Events Manager at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in Scotland. It was the first time I’d worked on events overseas, and it was pretty high profile, being the 60th year of the Festival. One of my events was a big gala event, attended by some high profile film industry folk. The morning after the event, I popped into a cafe to get a coffee, I saw that our event was literally on the front page of all three newspapers! That was pretty exciting!

Why have you chosen to teach event management?

Because I think this industry is so diverse, with so many options and career paths available to emerging event profs. And I like helping students navigate this, and find a pathway that’s right for them.

S-J is currently a subject teacher for our Event Manager program and our Event Foundation program.

We hope this blog post has been informative and helpful. If you would like to chat to any of the CoEM Team pls contact us here >> or feel free to call us on +61 2 9280 4912. Or you can always compare our specialist event management courses here >>

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