Project Managing a Live Event is an undergraduate Level 9 module delivered through Queen Margaret University Business School and its global franchise partnerships, including City of Glasgow College, ITM Group of Institutions in India and Silver Mountain School of Hotel Management in Nepal. Students work in teams to plan, manage and evaluate a live event, developing entrepreneurial skills through practical event delivery. The module emphasises innovation, problem-solving and creative thinking while encouraging students to create positive social impact through community-focused events.
Context and Rationale
The events management industry is inherently entrepreneurial, requiring professionals who can think creatively, respond to uncertainty and coordinate complex projects involving multiple stakeholders. As a result, entrepreneurial thinking is embedded throughout the design and assessment of this module to ensure learning reflects the realities of professional practice.
The module also responds to opportunities for social impact through event management. A notable example is the Pack for Purpose initiative delivered by students at Silver Mountain School of Hotel Management in Nepal. Through this project, students used live event management to raise funds supporting local schoolchildren, demonstrating how entrepreneurial event practice can contribute directly to communities.
By combining enterprise learning with socially driven objectives, the module helps students understand how events can create both commercial and social value while strengthening employability and professional readiness.
The Learning Activity
The entrepreneurial challenge within the module requires students to work collaboratively to design, plan, deliver and evaluate a live event from concept through to completion.
Embedded as a core assessed module, students take responsibility for all aspects of event management, including developing event concepts, sourcing funding, engaging stakeholders and coordinating logistics. As the module is delivered across multiple countries and varying cohort sizes, the learning design is intentionally scalable and flexible while remaining closely aligned to current industry practice.
Teaching combines lectures, seminars, formative workshops and guided discussions supported by academic and industry reading. Students apply event and project management principles in real-time through the development of their live event.
Assessment is structured around one formative and three summative components.
As a formative activity, each group pitches its event proposal to academic staff, seeking approval before progressing to delivery. This develops students’ communication and presentation skills while encouraging them to refine and justify their ideas.
The first summative assessment is a detailed Event Management Plan completed as a group. This includes SMART objectives, budgeting, contingency planning, marketing strategies, supplier coordination and stakeholder management.
The second assessment evaluates student performance during the live event itself, considering both group and individual contributions, including teamwork, professionalism and stakeholder engagement.
The final assessment is an individual reflective essay in which students critically evaluate their planning, delivery and team-working experiences while reflecting on their personal development throughout the project.
At Silver Mountain School of Hotel Management, students applied this framework through the Pack for Purpose initiative, delivering a school-wide fundraising event that raised significant funds to support local schools and communities.
Skills and Capabilities Developed
The module develops a broad range of entrepreneurial and transferable skills through experiential learning.
Students strengthen critical thinking and problem-solving abilities as they manage the challenges involved in delivering a live event. Activities such as budgeting, securing resources and stakeholder engagement build commercial awareness and organisational capability.
Students also develop creativity and opportunity recognition by designing events that respond to audience and community needs. Marketing planning, customer targeting and promotional activities help learners understand how value is created and communicated.
Communication, pitching and teamwork are central to the learning experience. The formative pitch develops students’ confidence in presenting ideas, while collaborative event delivery strengthens leadership, negotiation and interpersonal skills.
Because live events involve uncertainty and changing circumstances, students also build adaptability, resilience and contingency-planning skills, learning how to respond effectively to real-time challenges.
Impact and Outcomes
The module has a significant impact on students’ confidence, employability and professional development. Planning and delivering a live event provides students with practical experience across areas such as sales, marketing, human resources, finance, logistics and stakeholder management.
Students frequently demonstrate increased confidence in communication, teamwork and leadership as a result of participating in live event delivery. The experiential nature of the module also helps learners understand how entrepreneurial skills can be applied in both commercial and community-focused contexts.
The wider social impact of the projects has also been substantial. Through initiatives such as Pack for Purpose, students have used event management to generate meaningful community outcomes. In 2024, the Silver Mountain cohort raised approximately $9,200 to support schools within their local community, demonstrating the powerful role entrepreneurial learning can play in creating social value.
Academic Perspective
“I truly believe that special events change lives. By using QMU’s Live Events module not only to develop understanding of the discipline and transferable skills, but also as a delivery method for creating social change, the entrepreneurial mindset demonstrated by students at Silver Mountain — and the impact on their local community — is indeed life-changing.”
— Module Co-ordinator, Project Managing a Live Event