How to Select Your Event Management Niche

Last Updated on October 7, 2021


In any industry, choosing a niche is a great way to give your business a much-needed boost, establishing your organization as a unique entity. Particularly in the world of event management, it’s important that you differentiate yourself from the competition, and find a demographic to which you can sell yourself directly.  As for how you go about doing so, well…there are a few things to keep in mind.

You Need Expertise

First and foremost:  do you have any idea what you’re doing? In order to run a passable event, you need at least a halfway decent knowledge of the industry you’re running it for. You need to know your demographics, you need figure out who the best guest speakers are; most importantly, you need to keep abreast of the news, as this will allow you to keep your events both current and relevant to attendees.

A Market Needs To Exist

Of course, it’s not enough that you’re experienced in the niche you want to target – there actually needs to be a market for that niche in your region.  Otherwise, you’re just going to end up wasting both time and money.

What I’m saying here is that before you commit to a particular niche with your events, you need to first examine the culture, demographic details, economy, and venue availability in your city or region. If none of those seem favorable, it might be worth considering trying your hand at a different type of event – or changing locations.

Be Passionate

One thing a lot of event management professionals – and professionals in general – seem to forget is that an event is infinitely better if the people running it are passionate about what they do. Just as you need to enjoy your job as an event planner, you also need to make sure that you’re working in an industry that fascinates you. If you’re disinterested in the subject material of the events you’re running, it’s going to shine through, and the quality of your work is going to suffer for it.

Consider Your Competition

Last, but certainly not least, you need to take into account what sort of competition already exists within the niche you’ve chosen. If you’re looking to establish yourself in the games industry, for example, you need to consider that there are already several very formidable, annual conferences to that effect: unless you can offer something they can’t, you should probably consider trying for other fields. You probably won’t be able to compete effectively.

Offer your attendees something already-established events don’t (and make sure it’s something they actually want.)

In Closing

While you don’t necessarily have to select a niche on which to focus your events, it can definitely help a great deal in establishing yourself as an event management professional. Just make sure you choose with caution. Making the wrong choice can cause more harm than good.