Live Event Planners Easily Transition Into Virtual Assistant Careers

by Kathy Goughenour

Some are saying that the return of live, in-person events won’t happen until 2022. (Did your mind just blow and your heart break? Because mine did when I heard that.)

I LOVE live events. As someone who works virtually all the time, I relish the in-person time. But I also relish physical health and safety. So when COVID hit I had to take my humongous and typically-live event to the online space, because I desperately wanted to still see my community while also keeping them safe.

To make that event successful (especially since it was my first ever virtual event of that magnitude), I required the expertise and support of event planners. I needed them when I was planning the live event, and I needed them, even more, to transition the whole thing to a virtual event.

You know what this means for you, right? If you’re an experienced live event planner, there’s tons of opportunity for you to transfer all of your skills and experience to the online space.

You can become a Virtual Assistant who specializes in virtual events immediately, and you can add on live events as a specialization when COVID retreats.

Live Event Planners transition easily into profitable Virtual Assistants, and here’s why:

Live event planners make concerts, conferences, seminars, training, summits, product launches, book signings, speaking gigs, and personal milestone celebrations successful.

They have a plan with all the details and then a backup plan and a backup plan, to the backup plan. If something occurs that couldn’t have been prevented or wasn’t considered during the planning stage, they are resourceful and quick to resolve the issue. They’re putting on an event which means there are a lot of people to consider so they know how to communicate to a variety of stakeholders while not losing sight of the planning and the goal of the event.

How this translates to VA services is simple.

We needed a lot of event planners before COVID, and guess what ... now we need even more. We need them to plan virtual gatherings instead of live gatherings. And virtual events require the same organization, attention to detail, communication, resourcefulness, and planning as a live event does.

Here are five services that a live event planner can offer virtually, as a VA:

1. Event planning, support, development
2. Moderator/emcee/facilitation
3. Virtual event swag box coordinator (to make virtual events feel more LIVE, many are mailing out swag boxes)
4. Event marketing and PR
5. Communications liaison

Live events aren’t really happening right now, but virtual ones are! It’s time to consider a career that specifically leverages your event planning skills and transfers them to the online space. Become a VA.

Visit my YouTube channel where you’ll find the videos that will help smooth your new career transformation. (Like, comment and subscribe while you’re there.)