Rebecca Kaploun

1. What does your job entail and what does an average day look like?

A lot of emails back and forth! The average day is a lot of emails either to clients or lab teams I’m working with or outreach to vendors and venues in the city. I plan mostly in-office events, but occasionally, I will do a dinner or happy hour externally. For events, I do a lot of back-end stuff like catering for the day, getting guests registered into the building, coordinating travel plans, theming, and just being on-site for events to make sure everything runs smoothly and communicate any last-minute changes. It involves piecing together a lot of moving parts and being the one person that everyone can turn to during the day.

2. Did you always know that you wanted to go into event planning and if not, how did you come across this career area?

No, I actually started at TCNJ as an education major, but I loved English; it was always like my bread and butter. I dropped the education to do a full blown English major, and picked up a minor in Public Communications, thinking I would go into something like journalism or writing related. I didn’t know that the events world existed outside of wedding planning and that the corporate event world was as large as it is. I got an entry-level job at Deloitte, a few months after I graduated, doing hospitality work and a lot of managing office reservations and smaller spaces. I volunteered on the team that did more events-focused planning, and from there the position I have now opened up.

3. What skills from the English major have helped/transferred into this career?

I spend a lot of my time talking to people which the English major has helped me with. I read a lot of emails that don’t make a lot of sense and are not concise or clear, so having clear communication is very appreciated. I also think that you don’t need a business degree to go into events planning; it really is just how you communicate with people. It’s also a lot more creative than business in terms of taking an idea that clients may bring to you and bringing it to life for them in whatever meeting they are a part of.

4. What personalities or specific general skills make someone well-suited for this career?

Someone creative and who communicates well, as well as someone who has good time-management skills and can prioritize tasks because there are a lot of moving parts on a daily basis and multiple events you are keeping track of. Being slightly more outgoing is also good since you’re constantly communicating and conversing with a lot of different people.

5. What is the most enjoyable and least enjoyable part of the career?

Sometimes people can have outrageous requests, or don’t consider how long something takes, which can be frustrating, and you have to figure out a way around doing something you can’t do. The most enjoyable part is watching everything come to life when you feel like you executed everything well or when someone gives you a vision that they have and you deliver it and watching it come to fruition is very rewarding!