Courses and Curriculum
The Bachelor of Science in Event and Entertainment Management is a new and innovative program aimed at providing students with career-relevant skills and hands-on experience.
Students in the School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management (STHM) graduate with a solid foundation in business combined with a comprehensive understanding of the industry—ready to apply innovative thinking to their career on day one.
The curriculum goes beyond event planning basics, allowing students to become knowledgeable in revenue planning, event operations, risk management and sustainability. While classroom instruction plays an essential role in students’ education, our students don’t only learn from textbooks and lectures. At STHM, we emphasize the importance of working in the real world—before graduation.
Students graduate with certifications from leading event technologies and a digital portfolio, helping set them apart from the competition.
The Center for Student Services, STHM’s in-house advising unit, provides individualized support for course sequences, elective options, registration, financial aid assistance, scheduling, and academic resources. As a result, students are well-equipped to make knowledgeable decisions regarding their education and future.
Required Courses | 89 Credits
Students pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Event and Entertainment Management are required to complete 25 STHM foundation course credits, 6 Writing Intensive credits, 33 Major Requirement course credits, 13 Fox School of Business course credits, and 12 credits from approved courses and electives within STHM.
This course is an introduction to the nature, scope, and significance of leisure. The course will address the history, conceptual foundations, and socio-cultural dimensions of play, recreation, sport, tourism, hospitality, and leisure; the significance of play, recreation, sport, tourism, hospitality, and leisure in contemporary society and throughout the life span; the interrelationship between leisure behavior and the natural environment; the motivational basis for play, recreation, sport, tourism, hospitality, and leisure behavior; concepts of time, work, and leisure; leisure around the world; patterns of leisure involvement; and the issues, trends, challenges, and the future of leisure.
This course emphasizes leisure, sport, recreation, tourism, and hospitality services for a multi-cultural, multi-racial, multi-ethnic society, as well as for persons with disabilities. As the course explores the significance of play, recreation, and leisure throughout the life span, it will focus on the impact of leisure delivery systems on diverse populations within our society. Implications of personal biases will be a thread throughout the course.
The Career Exploration and Development course will prepare students to search and apply for their Internship I course, develop skills and readiness for the professional workplace, and explore career possibilities in the fields related to sport, recreation, tourism, and hospitality management.
Students will be assigned to an industry agency to complete 180 hours of professional experience. The agency will be selected through cooperation between the student, the School Internship Coordinator and an agency supervisor.
After having completed the student’s last semester of classes, the student must complete an internship with an industry agency. The number of credit hours will depend on the number of internship hours.
Students that pursue 6 credits for Internship II are required to take 2 of the following courses: Introduction to Public Speaking, Introduction to Public Relations, Personal Branding, and Entrepreneurial and Innovative Thinking.
Students will prepare, present, and evaluate speeches on significant topics of public concern. The course focuses on the three skills necessary for successful professional public speaking: selecting the appropriate content, organization, and using an effective style of delivery. Students also study more advanced principles of public speaking including critical thinking, the discovery and evaluation of arguments and evidence, audience analysis and adaptation, peer evaluation, speech composition, and persuasion. The course prepares students for making professional presentations in our increasingly diverse workplace.
Overview of public relations careers, skills and responsibilities. Intended for both those who are considering a PR career and those planning to enter any field that deals with the public and persuasion. The course prepares students for making professional presentations in our increasingly diverse workplace.
This course will look at the new channels of communication that make up the social media and Web 2.0 space. The Internet is making personal branding accessible to everyone. Personal branding means promoting your own skills and strengths. Blogging and social networks are ways of reaching your target audience. Through the use of case studies and real-life media examples, you will learn how to embrace social networks, user generated content, and blogs, to name just a few channels. These channels will enable you to manage your online reputations and create your own “personal buzz.”
Thinking like an entrepreneur is about seeing opportunities and passionately pursuing them. Anyone can be entrepreneurial — whether you start the next Facebook, take control of your work-life balance with a lifestyle business, have an impact on the world with a social venture, or drive change and innovation in an existing company. The goal of this course is not to teach students to start a venture nor to manage a business (this is covered in later courses) but to help you understand the hidden value of your ideas. By highlighting the impact of various types of innovation in driving the development of industries and technological fields, we demonstrate the importance of strategy, competitive advantage, core competencies, and value chains to organizations and industries. By training students to identify opportunities and creatively solve problems, we help develop invaluable skills and perspectives that will make anyone more successful in their professional life. Finally, by showing students all the options that entrepreneurship offers as a potential career path, we begin the process of training you to become a successful entrepreneur.
All Temple students must take a minimum of two writing-intensive courses. The specific writing-intensive courses required for this major are as follows:
The main objective of the course is to give a general overview of sales management discipline and its leadership role in the tourism and hospitality industry. The student will be exposed to the overall nature and dimensions of sales and sales management as it is relevant to and practiced by the tourism and hospitality industry. The student will be going through readings, assignments, interaction in group discussions and role-play, and a practical hands-on project that provides them with an opportunity to practice what they learn during the course.
The nature, scope and significance of this capstone course is to review, discuss and analyze current issues in tourism, hospitality and event management. Students will utilize their knowledge and understanding from previous courses to address present-day topics that have various impact within the industry. Students will work in a variety of platforms to identify, address and potentially resolve these issues. Daily and weekly news sources serve as primary references for the content of this course.
This course provides an in-depth and comprehensive analysis of the global events and entertainment industries. Topics will include the feasibility, viability and sustainability of the event and entertainment process, the strategic planning process, business development, human resource management, finance and budgeting, event creation and event orchestration, communications, and career development aspects of event and entertainment leaders.
The execution of events follows a very complex model with many moving parts. This course analyzes the process for executing an event from concept and pre-production to implementation and onsite logistics management and measurability. The course content builds on a planning and project management framework and considers elements of logistics, risk management and sustainability.
The financial sustainability of an event requires the adoption of a complex revenue model that extends beyond traditional sources of income (e.g., ticket sales). Consideration of alternate revenue sources such as sponsorship, fundraising and ancillary incomes are a requirement for successful event execution. This course will educate and apply principles of alternate revenue development. Revenue sources including sponsorship, fundraising and ancillary income will be presented and discussed. Throughout this course, students will learn through practical scenarios from real-life case studies, readings, lectures, discussions and industry professionals as guest speakers.
The main objective of the course is to give a general overview of sales management discipline and its leadership role in the tourism and hospitality industry. The student will be exposed to the overall nature and dimensions of sales and sales management as it is relevant to and practiced by the tourism and hospitality industry. The student will be going through readings, assignments, interaction in group discussions and role-play, and a practical hands-on project that provides them with an opportunity to practice what they learn during the course.
This course is designed to provide students with knowledge of the fundamental concepts and tools that represent the core of financial management. The course will particularly emphasize the financial function and issues in a hospitality organization and will provide the student with applications of financial concepts in the context of hospitality financial management.
This course provides the knowledge required to formulate and manage effectively the resources in a tourism or hospitality operation. Human resource administration will be the main focus; managerial history, organizational needs, job designs, recruitment process, hiring/firing process, discipline and grievance procedures, motivation and performance appraisals are examples of topics. Team learning approach and environment are highly emphasized.
A comprehensive overview of laws and regulatory agencies governing the tourism and hospitality industry. Legal implications of civil laws, areas of tort and contract will be discussed, along with the law and legal relationships that exist in the business context. Hospitality law, especially when dealing with customers and business contracts, will be the main focus. Issues will be discussed from the points of view of innkeepers, restaurateurs, travel agents, and event planners. Attention will be given to labor relations laws, the Americans with Disabilities Act, risk management, zoning, and unions.
A survey course in basic commercial food service. Forecasting, selection, ordering, receiving, storing, preparation, portioning, costs analysis, menu and customer expectations will be discussed. Beverage manufacturing, quality criteria and sensory standards for distilled spirits and domestic and foreign wines are included.
For many events, live performances (e.g, orchestra, band, dance, theater, etc.) are a core or key element of the event program. Event planners need to understand aspects of live performance production and the skills needed for success. The primary focus of this course, therefore, will be agency negotiations, contract and rider management, staff management as well as audiovisual management.
Student will create an online digital portfolio. A portfolio showcases both student achievement and student learning over their time at STHM. The Digital Portfolios will provide a window into student learning of both theory and experiential projects.
Please note: The Digital Portfolio Creation will be included within the 12 credit internship course work.
This experience-based course will implement the principles of event and entertainment management. This course will provide students comprehensive insight into the facilitation of hands on event management. The experience course provides an experiential learning opportunity as students will develop, plan and execute an official STHM school event.
Introduction to the role of marketing in the U.S. economy and within the firm. The interaction of marketing with other business functions and with society. The course focuses on the components of marketing strategy including analyzing what markets and needs the firm will serve; deciding when, where, and how the firm will meet these needs; and understanding why (i.e., a compelling business reason) the firm should implement a strategy. Includes the study of marketing mix development issues, including product development and management; pricing; integrated communications and promotion; distribution, logistics, and supply-chain management; as well as other decisions involved in this process.
This course prepares students to address the challenges of leading high performing organizations. Students will examine the enablers of principled organizational leadership and performance. Course topics include leadership, change management, decision-making, culture, team building, organizational structure and control, communication, social responsibility and sustainability, motivation, human resource management, and globalization.
This is an introductory course that will introduce students to the fundamental concepts of financial accounting and managerial accounting. Financial accounting information is produced, in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). It reports the results of operations to external users (suppliers, customers, investors, regulatory agencies, etc.). Managerial accounting information is produced, in response to specific management needs. It does not follow GAAP. Managerial accounting reports the results of operations of an entity consistent with the needs of internal users (managers, supervisors, etc.). The first half of this course focuses on the accounting cycle, the structure of the financial statements, and profitability analysis. The second half of the course focuses on decision making based on accounting data. Tools for analysis and the ability to apply those tools to various data sets will be developed. NOTE: There is no expectation that students should possess prior accounting knowledge.
An introductory course in macroeconomics. Topics include business cycles, inflation, unemployment, banking, monetary and fiscal policy, international economics, and economic growth.
The purpose of this online course is to prepare you to use Excel as a tool for solving business problems. You may be familiar with Excel but this course focuses on tools and Excel features that will specifically prepare you for your business courses, job interviews and for your professional life. You will learn how to use Excel efficiently, how to create formulas, use functions, produce and format charts, create reports and Pivot Tables, and use what-if-analysis for managerial decision making.
MAJOR ELECTIVES | 12 CREDITS
Students are required to complete 12 credits of major electives.
To offer students the ability to specialize these electives in a particular segment of the industry, students have the option of declaring a concentration in one of two areas: Live Entertainment or Tourism and Hospitality Management. To earn the concentration, students choose to complete four elective courses within the particular concentration area.
Consists of electives based in tourism and hospitality and is designed for students that are interested in planning meetings, conferences, weddings and/or social events.
In the Global Event Industry over 7 million social events and weddings take place every year. While event operations remain consistent, the success of these events relies heavily on the creative and design process. This course, through a creative and designer lens, will focus on the planning and cultural significance of social life-cycle events (graduations, engagement parties, etc.), social events (galas, golf outings) and weddings.
This course is designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of the role, the scope and the business of destination marketing organizations. The course will also provide an overview on the history, development and future of destination marketing organizations in the United States and around the world. Trends, issues and challenges are discussed. Current and past managers of destination marketing organizations will be invited to provide firsthand examples and deeper insights into destination marketing organizations, such as politics that govern relationships, funding, and marketing strategies.
This course presents an overview of the process of designing effective tourism hardware (attractions, etc.) and software (programs, special events, etc.). Students will learn how to define effective tourism experiences that add value to the visitor experience and how to measure and evaluate these experiences using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Furthermore, students will learn customer experience marketing and management principles to promote affinity and loyalty among tourism consumer groups.
This course is an overview of the role gambling plays in today’s society. The course’s goal is to provide students with the background necessary to understand the gaming industry and its relationship to tourism, hospitality, recreation, and sports. Topics include the evolution of legal gaming, its management and regulation, the structure of the various gaming industries, and key terminology. Analysis of participation patterns and impacts of gambling, both positive and negative, on society will be addressed. An introduction to game rules and basic concepts from probability and statistics necessary to understand gambling operations will be discussed.
Hospitality Operations will focus on an integration and application of planning, implementation, operation, and maintenance of accommodations, including hotels, motels, and resorts. The physical aspects, capital investments, layout, and design will be included with the operational component. The course will also provide students with guided learning and hands-on experience in using a property management system.
In this course students will learn to identify and exploit opportunities for revenue optimization in different business contexts. Students will review the main methodologies that are used in each of these areas, discuss issues associated with different pricing strategies, and survey current practices in the industry. Within the broader area of pricing theory, the course places particular emphasis on tactical optimization of pricing and capacity allocation decisions, tackled using quantitative models of consumer behavior, demand forecasts and market segmentation.
An analysis of the socioeconomic planning process involved in developing tourism destinations in global, community, metropolitan, urban, and rural settings. Emphasis will be on policy and product development, regeneration and enhancement of facilities and services to meet the needs of tourists. Includes the adjustment process involved in integrating tourism into a developing economy, and the project management skills inherent in steering a development from inception to fruition. Extensive use is made of concepts from sociology, economics, political science, and business disciplines. Special readings from the current literature, case studies, guest speakers, and video cases will form an integral part of this course.
Consists of electives within the School of Theater, Film and Media Arts and is designed for students interested in live entertainment planning such as theater, concerts and shows.
This course will be a thorough analysis of the technical and organizational aspects as well as the typical responsibilities of stage management. The focus of the course is the stage manager’s and/or assistant stage manager’s process. Topics include but are not limited to preparing for and running rehearsals, communication and paperwork skills, and leadership and team building methods. Production participation is required, serving as a SM or ASM on a TU Mainstage or Second Stage production. Nights and weekends of production work required.
This introductory course provides the opportunity to examine the key role of management and manager in theater, and the skills, knowledge, and relationships necessary to successfully manage. Students will explore, discuss, and practice areas of theater management including Company, Stage and House Management; Marketing and Communications; Audience Development and Education; Finance; Resource Development; and Leadership.
This course continues the development begun in Basic Design and Technical Theater classes. It is project oriented with the class time devoted to discussion and presentation. The focus is on interpretation of script, basic research, development of visual metaphor with an emphasis on the power and manipulation of space. The course begins with design of sculpture and moves through increasingly complex solutions to the creation of stage environments. Drafting, rendering and model building skills are developed.
The basics of Lighting Design for the theater are introduced and explored. Students will work with theatrical lighting equipment in the light lab. Projects range from recreating paintings with light, to lighting staged scenes from three different scripts.
The class will acquaint students with a broad range of techniques, processes, and technologies as they relate to lighting, audio and video for live events. Through lectures, class discussions, projects, and hands on applications of this information, students will be introduced to lighting, audio, and video control technology, signal flow, system networking, and troubleshooting.
This class will cover the workplace safety and health for the theater industry and federal and state OSHA guidelines. Students will receive their 30-hour General Industry Safety and Health Training Card from OSHA at the successful completion of the course. All students will investigate safety issues in and around the theater and present their findings for industry-specific hazards. They will also develop an industry-specific accident prevention program. The knowledge learned can be used in present and future employment and will provide technical directors and managers with a safe workplace for their staff, actors, and crews.
By learning the mechanical and conceptual methods of drafting, students develop the skills needed to produce graphic representation of scenic and lighting design for the theater. Students learn to draft precise, attractive, and thorough drawings based upon industry standards. Utilizing skills acquired through written texts, lecture, and class discussion, students complete, inside and outside of class, drafting projects (ground plans, elevations, sections, isometrics, etc.) based on samples given by the instructor. Students present projects in class for critique and discussion, and the course culminates in final project presentations.
SCHOOL OF SPORT, TOURISM & HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT NON-CREDIT REQUIREMENTS
Industry-Related Experience: students are required to accrue a minimum 250 hours of industry-related hours prior to taking The Event Experience course (STHM 4415).
Students must join one student professional organization (SPO) and one Professional Organization. Students are expected to be actively involved with their SPO and Professional Organization.
FREE ELECTIVES | 6 CREDITS
Students must take 6 credits of Free Electives. In some cases, this number may vary to meet the 125 credits required for graduation. Students can use these Free Elective credits to take any courses at Temple University. Contact the STHM Center for Student Services for additional information.
General Education Requirements | 36 credits
In addition to the required courses and major electives, first-year students must complete the General Education curriculum, consisting of 11 courses in 9 different areas.
FOUNDATION COURSES
- Analytical Reading & Writing | 1 course, 4 credits
- Mosaic Humanities Seminar I & II | 2 courses, 3 credits each
- Quantitative Literacy | 1 course, 4 credits
BREADTH COURSES
- Arts | 1 course, 3 or 4 credits
- Human Behavior | 1 course, 3 credits
- Race & Diversity | 1 course, 3 credits
- Science & Technology | 2 courses, 3 credits each
- U.S. Society | 1 course, 3 credits