Event Design and Production is a concentration course in the BS in Hotel and Tourism Management program. Professor Richard Aaron Rubin, the instructor, tells us more about his background and the course in this post.
What is your background?
I have been truly blessed with an amazing career journey that has ranged from performing on Broadway and off Broadway stages, to producing musical revue shows that toured the world on global world cruise ships and then resort stages across America. I finally found my true destiny in the evolving world of special events, which I helped professionalize as a new industry. I have spent over 18 years conceiving and producing over 1,000 events nationwide for a ‘who’s who’ of corporate America. Each of these career experiences allow me to bring a rich knowledge into my teaching.
I began my teaching career at NYU to share these skills into the then emerging field of special event management. I next went on to form the premier event media company BizBash, which offers event professionals insights via product roll outs, general sessions, national tradeshows, conferences and award shows in over 8 markets. BizBash is dedicated to covering the best events in America and sharing amazing ideas by creating a marketplace for events. I continued my teaching by developing new course offerings here at NYU.
At the Tisch Center, you teach the Event Design and Production course. What are the objectives of the course? Why is this an important and interesting subject area in our fields?
Event Design and Production is one of my favorite courses to teach, and is central to the event management concentration in the Tisch Center’s undergraduate degree. This class offers students exposure to the range technical tools required to implement planning of any production. It is an essential class to fully step into the field, with an exposure to key terminology and an introduction to the event design process.
The course explores the planning strategies for events, the production of actual event designs, and the evolving technology needed. We examine a variety of events, festivals and meetings. Examples of topics we cover include the event mission, vision formulation to achieve the event’s purpose, stakeholder communications, branding implementation and needs assessment for projects. Also covered are the details of the actual creative process, such as event budgeting, planning floorplans and vision boards, examining décor props, floral and tabletop design selection, all the way to the staging, lighting, sound and AV equipment needed at events.
What impact do you hope to have on your students through this course?
All this is offered to assure students become familiar with event terminology, and understand these event processes and tools as they enter the field. This way, they gain confidence in their role as interns or volunteers, which is a real benefit to career development. Many of my former students stated it was truly important to their career direction. Several said that it was one of their favorite courses in the program. I look forward to sharing this learning experience with many more students, to increase their knowledge and confidence, so they can find their place in the exciting world of experiential events.