25 Event Planner Interview Questions & Answers

"My employer recently renovated and relocated our office in town. To celebrate our move, we wanted to host a ribbon-cutting ceremony followed by an immediate 7-hour open house at our new location. This was my first event where I had to communicate all details and plans to our back office for compliance approval and operate on a budget of less than $1,500. The trickiest part was the 7-hour open house because I had to ensure we had enough food and beverages to last 7 hours and have parking available throughout the day.



I didn't realize the amount of back/fourth communication I would have with compliance and all the moving parts required to plan this event - press notification, social media campaigns, parking, catering, set-up/tear-down, branded decor, and guest invitations. I ended up collaborating with an executive assistant to lay out all details of what was needed and how to coordinate all the details with our back office. I worked with our known vendors to secure enough food and A/V equipment for the event. In the end, the ribbon-cutting and open house had no hiccups. Everyone was pleased and the city's economic development committee praised the event on social media the following day."

"I'm a natural leader who enjoys jumping in head-first into a position and taking ownership of my job role. I have a strong foundation in customer service and I'm passionate about serving and assisting others, especially in a team setting. I find excitement in creating quality events people will remember, much like seeing a child's face light up when you give them a cookie!"

"There was recently an update to one of our webinar tools. The change was said to enhance all audio for VOIP. We experienced issues using ____ in the past, which resulted in us using a third party for audio conferencing. Excited by the news, my manager decided we should update all our webinar rooms to ____ immediately. I was hesitant and disagreed about making such a sudden change without testing. We were able to come to the middle ground and agreed to do a slow roll-out with X amount of rooms before committing to changing all 30 or so rooms.

As a result, we ended up finding that this update was still dropping calls and didn't quite stack up to the third party audio tool we used. I saved my team a lot of time that would have spent re-educating our presenters and re-writing best practices, only to return back to our original practice."

"I was managing a training event, and on the second to last day of the event, our attendees pull an all-nighter so that they can create a presentation and share it with a panel of judges the following day. That being said, it's important the attendees are well-fed and energized. I made the mistake of not ordering a vegetarian and halal option for the last dinner.



Realizing my mistake, I immediately communicated with my project manager that this had happened and it was being fixed; everyone would be fed. I spoke to catering, who noticed this mistake and offered to create a larger salad portion. I also called restaurants within a 5-mile radius to see who might be able to fill my order. We were able to find a sandwich shop nearby that filled our order. When picking up my order, I plated with the meal we ordered from catering so that the experience would be a bit more seamless and our attendees loved the food! It gave some folks an opportunity to try something local, and we still came under our original food budget."

"I hosted a virtual trivia night, and the cost of the trivia host alone was my full event budget. To extend my budget further, I optimized the event by reaching out to organizers from different offices. We ended up collaborating with one other office in _______ and, as a result, had greater attendance and were able to hand out some sweet prizes to our winners!"

"The most difficult event I promoted was a reception for our new Sales New Hire onboarding program. This was difficult to promote because the event itself was created with three days of notice, and attendance was limited to new hires, managers, and directors.

If I were to re-do this, I would have given more notice to participants so that they could prioritize their attendance. I'd also open up attendance to all roles so that new hires could network with employees across the board."

"Depending on the event I like to always have a backup playlist. I'd pump up the background playlist and offer to take requests from any of our attendees while we fill for the missing DJ."

"What brings the most excitement to me is the opportunity to create an impact. No matter how short or long the event, we as event planners introduce value to attendees and create experiences that they take away with them. I love getting to plan an event that not only employees are excited about but that their friends and families wish they could have attended as well."

"The first rule is I wear comfortable shoes. I also like to create three different timelines for my events: pre-production, day of the event(s), and post-production. As the timeline progresses, I identify what can be done immediately and what actions might be pertinent to the success of the task."

"I was managing a week-long event in Utah. I spoke with the Facilities manager shortly before flying out and identified the layout and supplies we would need for our venue. She informed me that everything would be set up the Friday before my flight. I arrived on Sunday, the day before the event, to prep what I could in advance to find that a number of tables were missing. We had no chairs and no power strips. When reaching out to our Facilities Manager, I would get a voicemail and no response. I left a voicemail and set up the supplies I could get in advance. When returning the next morning, we were still missing these items. I called the Facilities Manager one more time and was able to get ahold of her; it turned out she was in the mountains with no cellphone reception that weekend and her support team did not follow through on our request. As she planned on driving to our site, I worked fast and identified security who could open up a closet that would have chairs and sped to make arrangements. As some attendees slowly arrived, I informed them that we were still setting up and invited them to enjoy breakfast at an open table or downstairs. Eventually, we could get the layout and supplies we needed, and I debriefed with the Facilities manager to identify the shortcomings and additional alternative contacts if needed. After this, the event went smoothly, and the Facilities manager and I were better able to collaborate on future events."

"I have always worked with events in some way, but the role that really sparked my passion for events was my experience with ______, where I built career readiness workshops for students from underrepresented communities. This experience allowed me to combine my studies as a PR student with my passion for relationship building. I really enjoy creating highly impactful experiences, and that is why I continue to pursue events roles."

"My company is in the middle of a Sales Conference, and I'm currently committed to multiple events and breakout sessions. I want to give enough notice without leaving my current employer in support so I would be comfortably able to start as soon as late January or early February."

"I created a recording studio in a conference room for an event at my past internship. This event was training, and in the past, we had a camera set in the room to record the instructor. This wasn't a great approach because the audio and visuals were poor, and as a result, not many people would watch these recordings. To improve the quality, I worked with the Director of Video Production and arranged a schedule to have instructors record their presentation hours after presenting live. As a result, we had presentations with crisp audio, and they were easier to consume. I don't remember the exact numbers, but viewership increased, and more people were keen to use these videos as a resource versus previously."

"I consider myself a great active listener. I like to make sure I'm giving my full attention in conversations and asking questions when I might not understand. It's important for me to have a great relationship with my peers so that we feel empowered in the workspace and know that we can comfortably utilize each other as resources when in need."

"I would easily describe myself as a detail-oriented person. I'm always paying attention to pieces that people might not notice that attribute to an event's success, such as the temperature of the room or creating a brochure of local activities for travelling attendees. It's very easy for me to step back and see how an event is successful, but the details are, in my opinion, what makes the experience more impactful."

"I hosted a virtual magic show shortly after office closures. The magician we worked with was super funny and professional, finding ways to engage with the audience and call for volunteers. This event was a big win because it wasn't just another meeting where people were blankly staring at their screen. We received over 700 attendees (500 being the number to describe a great event in San Jose) and supporting comments such as "I wish we could do this every Friday" and "This was the first time I laughed out loud in a really long time. Thank you." I introduced value to my attendees, and I felt their excitement throughout the event."

"I have a template that I like to use to identify my weekly and daily high-priority items. Every Sunday, I write down my focus for that week and identify who my stakeholders and potential lead for support are. This way, I'm never missing a beat, and there is a way to track my progress easily."

"Most recently, I have managed marketing campaigns via email communications and through summary Spark pages. My experience also includes engaging with communities by creating marketing graphics and acting as a community manager via Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups, Twitter, and Instagram."

"I would describe my work style as efficient and collaborative. I celebrate my wins by creating a "done" list and categorize my pending items based on priority. This way, I can always speak to what I'm working on and identify any upcoming roadblocks."

"I find that I frequently communicate via Slack or instant messaging platforms. However, I'm never afraid to pick up the phone or take someone out to coffee if communication isn't coming off clearly. I like to ensure that my managers, peers, and stakeholders feel comfortable when coming to me."