Meeting Planner Careers

The Beau Rivage is the MGM Mirage’s answer to where to host meetings on the Gulf Coast. Located in Biloxi, Mississippi and overlooking sandy beaches and the Gulf Coast waters, the Beau Rivage is a newly-renovated, luxurious resort and casino that boasts 1,740 guest rooms, a 50,000 square foot meeting facility, three ballrooms and a variety of meeting spaces to accommodate your event needs.

Boutique shopping, a luxury spa with 21 treatment rooms, eleven on-site cafés and restaurants, headline entertainment and a world-class golf course are just some of the attractions that are sure to delight attendees and ensure great meeting attendance. The Beau Rivage also offers a vibrant nightlife and an 85,000 square foot casino that is decorated with a Mediterranean theme.

The Beau Rivage is located just 20 minutes from the Gulfport/Biloxi International Airport, making transportation a breeze, and is just one hour away from New Orleans, which is an ideal destination for a day excursion. In the resort there is a fully-equipped business center, a well-equipped catering kitchen to meet your event needs, 24-hour room service, concierge services, 24-hour complementary valet parking, same-day dry cleaning and laundry services, 24-hour bell service and an on-site florist. To learn more about hosting your next event at the Beau Rivage, visit their website at www.beaurivage.com.

Just a short drive north of Seattle, the Tulalip Resort and Casino stands proudly just off the freeway in a small commercial area largely surrounded by open land. With the quaint town of Marysville just across the freeway, the Seattle Premium Outlets right next door and all of the attractions and offerings of the city of Seattle around 30 minutes away, Tulalip is an excellent place to stay and play in luxury.

There is over 30,000 square feet of meeting and event space that can be customized to suit your needs, as well as 370 well-appointed guest rooms to house your attendees. The resort is home to five restaurants offering a distinctive variety of cuisines, a coffee bar, a nightclub and a cabaret offering nightly entertainment, as well as a spa offering high-end, luxury spa treatments and a relaxing gallery lounge with Tulalip Tribal art pieces.

When not attending scheduled events, dining in the elegant Tulalip Bay restaurant, filling up on a lunch buffet or finding exceptional deals at the Seattle Premium Outlets, meeting attendees can play golf at one of two nearby courses, hit the slopes at the Stevens Pass Ski Area or try their luck in the casino, where they will find slots and table games. To find out more about the Tulalip Resort and Casino, visit their website at www.tulalipresort.com.

If you are planning a winter meeting or corporate event for clients located in colder climates, opting for a sunny destination will likely increase attendance and enhance attendee satisfaction. Attendees will appreciate the chance to get away from the rain or snow for a short time, and are sure to get excited about visiting a warm, inviting destination that is far from the dreary conditions in their hometown.

Here are four hot destinations that are sure to appeal to meeting attendees and corporate clients who live in areas that experience inclement winter weather:
 

1. San Diego, California – San Diego is well known for its year-round sunshine and warm weather. With plenty of enticing attractions, historical and cultural sites and numerous meeting venues, San Diego is always at the top of the list for meetings any time of the year.
2. Orlando, Florida – Orlando is another southern city that offers sunshine throughout the year, as well as a wide variety of entertainment opportunities that are sure to appeal to meeting attendees.
3. Atlanta, Georgia – Gorgeous winter weather, the world’s largest aquarium and a vast array of resort hotels and meeting venues make Atlanta an easy choice.
4. Los Angeles, California – Los Angeles is always a solid choice as a destination and offers unique attractions, as well as year-round sunshine.

Whether you are just starting out or have been in the meeting planning field for awhile now, it can be tempting to want to bill your services as all-encompassing. While you may indeed be an excellent event or meeting planner who can whip up any type of event and have it go off without a hitch, there are distinct benefits to specializing in a particular niche within the field. Some meeting planners select their niche prior to ever planning an event, some fall into a particular niche naturally over time, and some choose not to specialize at all and to plan a wide variety of events throughout their career.

But, whether you already know that your dream is to only plan weddings, you have already established a well-deserved reputation as a corporate event planner or you simply have no idea which type of events you might enjoy planning most, you will likely discover that finding a specialization will make your job easier and will actually help you get more business.

When you specialize in a particular type of event, it is much easier to become known as the go-to planner for that type of event. You will also likely provide better events due to becoming increasingly well-versed in your niche. Additionally, your job will be much easier when you work with the same venues and vendors repeatedly and begin to deliver exceptional events that will take less time and effort on your part.

Whether you are just starting out in the field of event and meeting planning, or are a seasoned professional constantly on the lookout for ways to improve and grow your business, there are certain must-have items that you should quickly acquire, if you do not have them already. These items will assist you in increasing awareness of your services, in coming across as professional and reliable, in ensuring that people you meet will remember you, and in bringing in new clients. While each of the three must-have items listed below may seem simple, once you begin to use them you will quickly see their value as part of building a solid foundation on which to expand your client base and grow your list of contacts.
 

1. A professional website – If you do not already have a website, you need one immediately. Even if you only have basic information on a home page, it is absolutely essential to establish an online presence and have a convenient place for potential clients to obtain information about your services.
2. Business cards – Whether they are simple or sophisticated, business cards are an absolute must. Order them now and carry them with you everywhere you go. You never know when you might meet someone who will be important to your business.
3. Thank you cards – You can opt for stylishly imprinted cards with elaborate designs or simple blank cards from your local stationary store, but you should always have thank you cards on hand. Thank everyone for everything. People like to feel appreciated and it will help them remember you.

You already know that attending networking functions and connecting with local businesspeople are an important part of increasing awareness of your meeting or event planning services. You also know that networking events are a great way to meet both potential clients and vendors that you might like to work with in the future. But, there is more to making the most of networking functions than simply showing up and shaking a few hands. To get the most out of social networking events, you need to plan ahead, be prepared and have a plan in place for following up with the folks you meet at the function.

Planning ahead and being prepared includes making sure you have enough business cards and written materials to distribute to everyone you meet, practicing your elevator speech and making sure that your appearance and demeanor will appropriately display your professionalism and personable nature. You want attendees to feel comfortable in your presence, to want to know more about you and your services, and to quickly become confident in your ability to provide professional, reliable meeting or event planning services.

Aside from planning ahead for the event, you should also plan tasks for the days following the event. These tasks should include following up with everyone you spoke to with an email or handwritten card expressing how pleased you were to meet them, scheduling lunches with people who might be particularly helpful to you and visiting the websites of attendees to learn more about them.

Joining local business organizations and attending networking meetings or socials are essential tasks for meeting planners trying to break into the business or expand their current client base. Networking functions are an excellent way to meet potential clients, connect with local vendors, find new staff members as your business grows and get your name out there as a meeting or event planner who is accepting new clients. Networking socials and meetings are also a great way for shy or reserved folks to practice speaking about their business to strangers and to work on their people skills, which are particularly important to meeting planners.

Of course, it is not enough to simply attend networking functions and introduce yourself around. Following up with the folks you meet is just as important as making that initial contact. While you may have handed out your business cards and spoke about your meeting or event planning services, you must keep in mind that each attendee met plenty of other people as well; therefore, you must take extra steps to ensure that they remember you and that you will be in the back of their minds when they are need of planning services or when one of their friends or colleagues asks if they happen to know a good event planner.

Newly launched Seasite.com provides 24/7 access to all cruise brands, and the most content-rich and searchable database for the cruise industry.

Miami, FL (Vocus/PRWEB ) January 21, 2010 — Planning a group cruise requires searching for detailed ship information and not always finding what you need – even on the cruise lines’ own web sites. Now, with Seasite.com, the first cruise portal for meetings and events, group organizers can find all the ship data they need in one place – at no cost.

I’ve bookmarked Seasite.com – it’s invaluable in selecting the right ship for a group and to verify it’s a good fit before I present it to my client. And for operational planning, it has all the info I need – which isn’t on cruise line web sites.

"I’ve bookmarked Seasite.com – it’s invaluable in selecting the right ship for a group and to verify it’s a good fit before I present it to my client,” said Millie Evans, President/CEO Alliance Incentives and Meetings. "And for operational planning, it has all the info I need – which isn’t on cruise line web sites.”

Seasite.com provides 24/7 access to all cruise brands, and the most content-rich and searchable database for the cruise industry, so that planners can:

1.   Find ship data never before offered online or in print, such as:
   - Meeting/function room capacities
   - Dining room seating, and details for private group dining
   - Outdoor group function areas
   - A/V equipment lists
   
2-   Search, compare, and save favorite cruises; then create one RFP and submit it to multiple cruise lines. (Group pricing is the same as booking direct.)

3-   See the cruise lines most committed to groups, and search their mini-sites (all laid out the same — when you’re familiar with one, you’re familiar with all!)

4-   Search by ship name for a chronological list of future Itineraries and Basic Ship Information, and find it faster than a brochure.

5-   Search for a cruise anywhere in the world by any date range (as short as several days or as long as several months). Sort your results by meetings-specific criteria.

6-   Refer to the Knowledge Center to answer all your questions, including these:

7-   Discover a list of "Cruise Gems” – those rare, hard to find, short cruises.

"Everyone who plans group travel should take a good look, and bookmark Seasite.com if they want to simplify cruise sourcing and planning” said Jo Kling, CEO Seasite.com.

For more information on Seasite.com, A Landry & Kling Company, visit www.seasite.com or call 888-713-1371.

About Seasite.com/Landry & Kling
Seasite.com is designed for meeting and event planners who want more control in the cruise sourcing and planning process. It’s the fastest and easiest way for group organizers to master the world of cruising, building on all that’s been learned by Landry & Kling, who are credited with being the first distribution channel between the cruise industry and corporate America. Now, 28 years since their startup, they have responded to changing times by creating Seasite.com, with innovative cruise sourcing tools that enable meeting planners and other travel intermediaries to be more pro-active and confident in booking cruises. Seasite group pricing is the same as booking direct, with the advantage of impartial Cruise Advisors to assist as needed.

Having the best event that can be enjoyed by all is not always something easy to do.  You have to do a lot of hard work and research to try and make your event one that will be talked about by all your peers.  You want the meeting that you plan to have an all the things that you want and so much more.  This will be the equation that will end up getting you the most spectacular party that you can be proud of.

When you are looking to have your event stand out from all the rest, you want to do a few things first. You want to think of ways that you can bring some fun and excitement to your special occasion. You want to add some flair to the event so that you can take your guests by surprise. You want them to be thrilled by coming.  By adding some of the flair that you want, you will be bringing life to it for everyone. 

The most that you can do for your event to be special is to plan.  You will do more planning than you have ever done before because you want this time to be special. You want your event to be the most talked about time of the year. You want to put a lot of your heart and soul into this so that you are giving it your all and ending up with the best-finished product that you can have.  You will have something that you can be proud of and feel good about. Read more…

You probably have a Facebook or MySpace account, your company may have a blog and Web site, and there’s a good chance that you’ve probably “tweeted”. However, if you’re behind the curve on technology and haven’t begun to use the different social media outlets to help build your event planning business, you’re probably missing out. Following are some reasons why you should be taking advantage of the power of social media.

Facebook – Facebook is the Grand Central Station of the Internet for contacting, finding and grouping people. This amazing social tool also allows you to measure different metrics within groups that you establish. Consider setting up a Facebook fan page for people interested in the events that you’re planning for your area. Post information about the events that is relevant and current and watch your group grow. If you want to measure the different metrics of your group, Facebook provides an online application called “Insights”, which allows you to measure interactions, likes, comments, wall posts and gender among other things.

Twitter – Why “tweet”? Why not? Twitter is the perfect texting platform. When you consider that you have 140 characters to produce a micro-blog post, you realize that millions of people on their Blackberries and iPhones will really appreciate the updates.

These two social media venues are just a taste of what is available (for free!) on the Internet. Dedicate some time each day to utilizing these tools and you’ll see the benefits firsthand.