BA (Hons) Events Management

The world of events and festivals is full of well-organised project managers. However, the most successful event managers are those that can also design experiences. Focusing on that blend of project management and design skill is what makes studying BA (Hons) Events Management at Arts University Bournemouth unique among event management courses. This course will provide you with the skills that you need to become not only the experienced manager that is at the heart of every event, but an experience architect, a designer of time.

The ultimate creative process is to conceive and deliver unique experiences that stand out from the crowd and become a source of inspiration to others. During your studies, you'll work with peers from your course and collaborate across many relevant courses at AUB to design and deliver live events and festivals in every year of your course.

The practical nature of BA (Hons) Events Management means you'll have opportunities to build a portfolio that potential employers will find attractive. Alongside your academic studies you'll also be offered further opportunities to add to that portfolio including a formal work placement. It's the stories that you tell about the many projects you worked on and the contacts that you make with our stakeholders that'll help you to seamlessly transition into the career you want to pursue.

Our course's alumni are among some of the most successful and creative event managers in our industry. When you join us, you'll be taking the first step towards joining them. Our graduates have gone on to use their design and management skills in festival production, experiential marketing, brand activations, fashion shows, wedding planning, managing world-class museums, and fundraising for leading charities.

We'll connect you with our network and a range of industry practitioners via guest lectures and site visits to events and festivals. Many students secure employment via the network of contacts that they develop on the course.

All undergraduate courses at AUB offer an optional placement year, to be taken between your second and third years of study.

If you’re unsure about this optional placement, you don’t need to decide now. Once you’re here and studying with us, the course team will discuss the placement options with you, so when the time comes, you can make a decision that’s right for you.

Students on BA (Hons) Events Management have the chance to broaden their horizons through exciting exchange and international summer programmes. These opportunities allow you to study abroad at one of our brilliant partner institutions, experience different cultures, and enhance your academic journey.

Forming small production teams with support from your tutors and the audio-visual technical team, you'll learn to design and deliver unique experiences that are safe, well organised and that have an audience. You'll deliver your first live event during the first semester of your first year.

With guest lectures from specialist speakers, you’ll be introduced to different sectors of the events industry and the way they operate. We'll also take some time to research and understand the potential impacts of your work on the environment and the communities and stakeholders that engage with your work. Finally, your live event project will be a themed one-day festival that you deliver during the summer term.

In your second year, you’ll progress to more specialist study, building on experience gained in your first year. Your live event project will be an opportunity for you to work with an external client, designing an experience that fulfils their requirements. You'll also develop your research skills by learning how to develop programmes that respond to specific audiences, understand how events and festivals can be vehicles for positive change in society and learn how to pitch for investment for a new creative enterprise.

In the summer term, you'll either undertake a short six-week work placement or prepare for a year-long placement, both of which will allow you to put your skills into practice, working in an industry setting.

In your third year, the focus is on your independent learning, preparing you to transition into the world of work.

You'll either work with an organisation in the event industry, researching their business to operate as a consultant and make recommendations for the strategic plan of your host organisation, or you can choose to research a topic in depth and produce a dissertation that allows you to become an expert in your chosen sector of the event industry.

Finally, you'll design a major event and pitch your idea to your colleagues, stakeholders and alumni. Working as part of a production team with funding from the course, support from your tutors and the audio-visual technical team, the culmination of your studies will be to conceive and deliver a unique experience that stands out from the crowd and becomes a source of inspiration to those that will follow you.

• Top 3 course | Guardian University Guide 2024, Hospitality, Event Management and Tourism League Table
• Top 5 course for graduate employability | Complete University Guide 2024 University League Table
• Top 10 course in Tourism, Transport, Travel and Heritage Studies | Complete University Guide 2024 University League Table
• Best Live Event | Association for Events Management Education Awards (AEME) 2022

Many of our BA (Hons) Events Management graduates have gone to do incredible things, such as running festivals like Boomtown, Camp Bestival, Wilderness, Secret Garden Party, and The End Of The Road, as well as working at venues like London’s Roundhouse and the Science Museum, and working for companies like Spotify and ITV.

Our students can be found in all parts of today’s creative industries. Here are just a few:

• Production Manager at Boomtown Fair and Co-founder of Shangri-la, Glastonbury
• Head of Operations at Designwerk
• Global People and Development Manager at Moving Brands
• Managing Director at Port Eliot Festival
• Head of Event Production at Somerset House
• Marketing Executive at BH Live
• Director at MRC Presents
• Head of Visitor Events at Natural History Museum
• Marketing Manager at Spotify
• Project Manager at ITV Experiences
• Production Manager and Music Booker at Secret Garden Party
• Operations Manager at Royal Horticultural Society
• Programming and Producing Trainee at Sheffield Theatres
• Senior Event Manager The Royal Parks
• Senior Events Officer, Arts and Events at Bristol City Council
• Music Programme Co-ordinator at Boomtown Fair
• Owner, Founder, Director, Jimmy’s Iced Coffee/Entrepreneur
• Events Operations Manager at Tate
• Head of Programme at Coventry City of Culture
• Events Manager at the Bovington Tank Museum
• Production Director for Swans Events

You can read more about what some BA (Hons) Events Management graduates are up in the profiles below.