Want to start a Seminar Production Business,I'm also a full time Business Student

[tallen]

OK, some other ideas -- are there any large corporations, or other organizations / institutions, in your area the you could approach? Ask them what sorts of training/motivation/retreat/event needs they might have, and then see if you could organize seminars that would meet their needs. The idea here is to identify a (captive) audience first, and then try to find presenters to meet that need (as opposed to trying to find people to come to a seminar you've already organized on topic XYZ wth presenters A, B & C). Just an alternative approach to getting your feet wet.

You could also approach the various venues in your area and talk to their event staff to find out what kind of events they have been hosting, and ask about what kind of events they think there might be a market for that is not being met, etc...

[Paul]

Being in school gives you a great “practice canvass”. Put some student focused seminars together. Entrepreneurial and career workshops, get some local business people, create a series of seminars for students to learn about certain professions from people in the business. I know this isn’t new BUT you have almost a captive audience in the student body, essentially free ‘speakers’ and can learn a lot. It can be a good launching pad for expansion into the business.

Just my few thoughts.

[IsabelGmz]

thank you both. Those are great ideas. I appreciate it!!!! hope to talk to you all more and find out more about you guys!

[Blessed]

I'm not trying to be a wet blanket because I think you have a very viable business idea - but I'm going to encourage you to try to get work with another seminar planner/organizer/promoter and to follow Paul's advice and try your hand at organizing some events at school.

The reason seminar and event organization is a lucrative field is because pulling ALL of those logistics together for an event is a HUGE job. It can be very time consuming.

So to set up a scenario:

Joe from company XYZ contacts you and wants to have a two day seminar on the power of social media for realtors - he wants you to put all the details in place
1st - how many people are going to be invited and how many are going to sign up and what is the cut-off and will you have at the door registration available?
2nd - does Joe have speakers in mind and is he locking that aspect down or do you need to. Either way - when are you going to have those firm commitments?
3rd - how much lead time do you have to get everything in place? 3 months? 6 months? a year? How is Joe going to pay you? How are you going to figure out what/how to invoice him and when?
4th - venue - where is the event going to happen? what do you need from the venue? a block of rooms, conference rooms? mingle rooms? wifi - can you depend on what the venue has or do you need to provide your own hot spot for the event?
5th - seminar materials? Is Joe providing these or do you need to? If you need to what are you getting from Joe? Print-ready files you just need to get printing done on or is he giving you raw materials that you need to contract with a graphic designer to have turned into materials that Joe can approve and then you can get printed? Finally who is going to put those packets of materials together?
6th - catering? Do you need to arrange a meet & greet cocktail hour on the pre-seminar day when everyone is checking in? what meals are going to be part of the seminar? any/none? Does the venue have rules about catering?
7th - advertising/promotion of the seminar - is that something Joe wants you to coordinate or is he handling it? If Joe wants you to do it - what is he providing you for a contact list?
8th - if the seminar is happening at a destination - it's not local - do you have a list of surrounding attractions, restaurants, etc...
9th - all those other things I haven't even scratched the surface on yet...

I have quite a bit of experience with event organization - both directly and in-directly. I've primarily organized non-profit, one-day type things, however I am the virtual assistant to someone who organizes a twice annual children's consignment sale event that lasts 7-10 days overall - and I help her quite a bit, my sister's job involves a lot of this type of work too and I have a few other friends in business who organize events/seminars/etc... and I get to hear their experiences too. For example the wifi question I asked you above came because of a discussion I had with one of my colleagues earlier this year - she organized a huge event in NY with 300 or so attendee's and the hotel didn't have sufficient wifi so she was scrambling a week before the event to find a solution. Earlier this year my sister ran into an issue with the printed materials for an event - one piece was trimmed wrong and they had to scramble to get it re-printed three days before they needed it, then had to get it added to each and every folder..., It's always something - there is always some detail that crops up at the last minute that has to be resolved! You have to be sure you have a backup plan for any absolutely vital aspects of your event. Then you have to consider other things - what happens if your event is in San Francisco and there is a huge earthquake in the middle of it? Do you have insurance and an emergency plan in place? The event is in New York in January and there is a blizzard and everyone is stuck in the hotel for 2 extra days...

Anyway - I say go for it! But if you can find someone else to work with for awhile you'll get a better grasp of everything you need to figure out, also if you can start smaller - by organizing some student events or other smaller one-day events, etc... you'll start to get a feel for all the details you need to manage. My sister works in the marketing department of a company that puts together events - I'm not sure if it's just events for their company or if they are doing events for other companies - but I can find out more for you if you're interested.