Professionalising Event Practitioners: The Educational Role of Event Management Associations

Abstract

The proliferation of events in recent decades has resulted in a burgeoning of the event management industry. As the event management industry grows and consolidates worldwide, associations play an increasingly significant role in professional support to the industry by ensuring the continued growth and success of event management professionals. This paper reviews the literature on professional associations and specifically explores the educational role of event management associations. It concludes that professional event management associations play a significant role in providing strategic direction to the event management industry. An important component of this is providing educational direction and services that aim at professionalising event management and event management practitioners