Event Coordinator Job Description: Duties and Template

TL;DR

An event coordinator plans and delivers events, from conferences and product launches to weddings, by turning a client's brief into a plan, booking venues and suppliers, managing the budget and logistics, running the day and reviewing the result.
The job has six duties: take the brief and plan, book the venue and suppliers, manage the budget and contracts, promote and register, run the event on the day, and close down and review. Coordinator, planner and manager are rungs of one ladder, and a wedding coordinator does the same job for one kind of event.
Employers look for organisation, calm under pressure, negotiation, communication and budget skills. No specific degree is required; experience counts most, and in England there is a level 3 events apprenticeship route.

An event looks effortless when it works, which is the whole point. Behind the conference that starts on time, the launch where the screens work and the wedding where the cars arrive in order is someone with a plan, a phone and a list of everyone who owes them a call back. That person is the event coordinator.

This event coordinator job description explains what the job involves, sets out six duties, separates the coordinator from the planner, the manager and the wedding coordinator, lists the skills and qualifications employers ask for, gives a template that you can adapt and suggests how to describe the work on a CV.

Events are run on checklists, deadlines and sign-offs. See how New Dynamics workflows let you shape forms, stages and approvals around the way you work.

What is an event coordinator?

An event coordinator is the person who plans, organises and delivers events on behalf of an employer or a client. The title borrows from the general meaning of coordinator, which the Cambridge Dictionary gives as “someone whose job is to make different groups work together in an organized way to achieve something”. That is a fair description of the work: venues, caterers, speakers, suppliers, marketing, the client and the guests all have to arrive at the same place, at the same time, with the same plan.

Prospects, the UK graduate careers service, describes the job in its event manager job profile: “As an event manager, you'll plan and organise promotional, business and social events. You'll manage the entire process from the planning stage, right through to running the event and carrying out the post-event evaluation.” It lists the types of event: meetings such as conferences and training courses, exhibitions and trade shows, corporate events, cultural and community events, major sporting events, charity fundraising, festivals, music and live performance, and social events, which it says can include private parties, weddings and other special social events.

The coordinator, the planner and the manager do that same work at different levels of responsibility, as the next section explains. Cambridge's related entry for event planning defines it as “the task of planning large events such as conferences, trade shows, and parties”.

Event coordinator duties: six responsibilities

Take the brief and plan. Find out exactly what the client or the organisation wants, then produce the proposal: purpose, audience, date, venue options, programme, suppliers, staffing, timeline and budget.
Book the venue and suppliers. Research and visit venues, get quotes from caterers, AV, transport, accommodation, decor and security, negotiate prices and confirm the bookings in writing.
Manage the budget and the contracts. Track every cost against the budget, make sure contracts are signed and deposits and invoices are paid on time, and check that insurance, licensing and health and safety obligations are met.
Promote and register. Work with marketing to publicise the event, manage invitations and registrations, and prepare delegate materials, badges, signage and the running order.
Run the event on the day. Brief the staff, coordinate the suppliers, handle queries from the client and guests, solve problems as they arise and keep the programme to time and to budget.
Close down and review. Oversee the dismantling and clearing of the venue, reconcile the final costs, gather feedback and write the post-event evaluation that improves the next one.

Event coordinator job description: six duties. Take the brief and plan, book the venue and suppliers, manage the budget and contracts, promote and register, run the event on the day, and close down and review. — The six duties of an event coordinator, in the order they happen.

Coordinator, planner, manager and wedding coordinator

The titles overlap and employers use them loosely. A useful way to separate them:

Title	Usual level
Event assistant	Entry level. Supports planners with research, logistics, admin and on-site tasks such as registering delegates
Event coordinator	Runs the logistics of an event or a strand of a larger one: suppliers, bookings, schedules, registration, the day itself
Event planner	Owns the event from brief to review, including the concept, the budget and the client relationship
Event manager	Leads a programme of events or a team of planners and coordinators, with budgets and business development
Wedding coordinator	A planner or coordinator for one kind of event, working for the couple, a venue or a planning company

Skills England's event assistant apprenticeship standard, a level 3 standard which Skills England lists as retired from December 2025, describes the bottom rung as “an entry level position, typically working within a team of people in an events company or within the events department of a larger organisation”, supporting planners and project managers with tasks such as “searching for the right location and venue for the event; working with the design team on the look and feel of the event; or organising logistics like transportation and catering”. It also gives a useful measure of the industry: around 75% of events are conferences, meetings, trade shows and exhibitions.

What does a wedding coordinator do?

A wedding coordinator does the six duties above for one event with two clients who care about it more than any conference delegate ever will. The Cambridge Dictionary defines a wedding planner as “a person or company whose job is to organize weddings for other people”. In practice there are three kinds of wedding coordinator:

The venue's coordinator, employed by the hotel or venue to manage the couple's booking, the timings, the catering and the venue staff on the day.
The independent planner, hired by the couple to plan the whole wedding, from budget and venue to suppliers and the timeline.
The on-the-day coordinator, hired only to run the day the couple have planned themselves, so that nobody in the wedding party has to.

Say which one the job is. The venue's coordinator may run two weddings a weekend; the independent planner may work with one couple for a year.

Five event job titles: event assistant at entry level, event coordinator running logistics, event planner owning the event from brief to review, event manager leading a programme or team, and wedding coordinator doing the same job for one kind of event. — How the event titles differ in level and scope.

Skills employers ask for

Prospects lists the skills an event manager needs, and they apply at every level: organisational skills and attention to detail, communication and interpersonal skills, teamworking, negotiation skills when looking for the best price from venues and suppliers, customer service, time management and the ability to work under pressure, project management, problem-solving and diplomacy, sales and marketing skills, the ability to manage budgets, a flexible and adaptable attitude, administrative and IT skills, and commercial awareness. It adds that a full driving licence is usually needed.

Skills England's description of the ideal entry-level candidate is shorter and just as true at senior level: flexible, calm and proactive people with energy, enthusiasm, good communication skills, patience and an ability to empathise.

Qualifications

Prospects says you do not need a specific degree to become an event manager, although degrees in events management, business, hospitality, marketing or sport management are useful, and that employers are more interested in skills, personal qualities and experience. Entry without a degree is possible by working up from an assistant role, and it notes the level 3 event assistant apprenticeship as a route that combines paid work with part-time study. Relevant experience, paid or voluntary, is essential in what Prospects calls a competitive field.

Event coordinator job description template

Adapt the types of event, the hours and the level to your organisation.

Job title: Event coordinator

Reports to: Events manager or head of events

Hours: Full time, with evening and weekend work around events and time off in lieu

Purpose of the role: To plan and deliver [conferences, client events, exhibitions] from brief to review, on time, on budget and to the standard our clients and guests expect.

Main duties:

Take briefs from clients and internal teams and produce event plans, timelines and budgets

Research, negotiate with and book venues, caterers, AV, transport and other suppliers

Track costs against budget, manage contracts and invoices, and ensure insurance, licensing and health and safety obligations are met

Manage invitations, registrations, delegate materials and event marketing with the marketing team

Run events on the day: brief staff, coordinate suppliers, handle queries and solve problems

Close down the venue, reconcile costs, gather feedback and write the post-event evaluation

Skills and experience:

Experience of delivering events, paid or voluntary, and of managing suppliers and budgets

Organised, calm under pressure and good with detail

Clear, courteous communication with clients, guests and suppliers

Confident negotiator and problem-solver

Competent with spreadsheets, registration tools and event software

Full driving licence [if required]

We provide: Training on our systems and health and safety, time off in lieu for event days, and a route to senior coordinator, planner and event manager roles.

For the layout of the whole document, use our job description template. For the supplier the coordinator will call most often, see our guide to what a caterer is.

How to describe event work on a CV

Employers want the events, the numbers and the results. The lines below are invented examples, to show the form.

Name the events and the scale. “Coordinated 12 client conferences a year for 80 to 400 delegates.”
Show the budget. “Managed event budgets of up to £60,000 and delivered every event within 3% of budget.”
Show the suppliers. “Negotiated venue and catering contracts, saving 8% on the previous year's costs.”
Show the day. “Ran registration, AV and speaker liaison on the day for a 300-delegate conference.”
Show the review. “Introduced post-event surveys and raised the average satisfaction score.”

Common mistakes in event coordinator adverts

Hiding the hours. Events happen in the evening and at the weekend. Say so, and say how time off in lieu works.

No types of event. A wedding coordinator and a trade show coordinator do the same six duties for very different clients. Name the events.

Coordinator title, manager duties. If the job includes winning clients and managing a team, it is a manager's job and should be paid as one.

A personality wish list. “Bubbly and passionate” tells candidates nothing. Ask for organisation, calm under pressure and negotiation.

Four common mistakes in event coordinator adverts: hiding the evening and weekend hours, not naming the types of event, a coordinator title with manager duties, and a personality wish list instead of skills. — The four mistakes that put good coordinators off.

Frequently asked questions

What does an event coordinator do?

An event coordinator plans and delivers events. They take the brief and produce the plan, book the venue and suppliers, manage the budget and contracts, handle promotion and registration, run the event on the day and close down and review it afterwards.

What does an event planner do?

An event planner owns an event from brief to review, including the concept, the budget and the client relationship, and often directs coordinators and assistants. Prospects describes the role as managing the entire process from the planning stage through running the event to the post-event evaluation.