Meeting Planner Careers

A great meeting planner is an exceptional listener. Developing good listening skills can be hard work, especially when so much of the work takes place over the telephone or through emails. Do you spend a good portion of your time thinking about how you are going to respond to client’s queries as he is talking? If you do, you’re likely to miss something important. Clients are often anxious about their budgets and their public reputations, especially if they are asking for help planning incentive travel.

It’s common to jot down notes when speaking with a client over the phone. It can be helpful to mirror back to the client what you understood him to say. This can help him clarify exactly what he means, which may not be what he said at all.

Listen optimistically. Don’t shoot down his ideas immediately even if you know what he wants can’t be done. It could be possible to amend his ideas or build on them to the satisfaction of both parties.

The ability to stay positive during an economic downturn inspires confidence in your client. That doesn’t mean you promise him the world when you know all you can reasonably deliver is the Jersey shore. It just means committing yourself to the project enthusiastically.

Reader’s Digest brought many light hearted moments to their readers with it’s popular Laughter: The Best Medicine section. How can an event planner use humor to her advantage?

One of the best ways is to find a motivational speaker who has a message and keeps a sense of humor. Why not include some lighthearted stories in a presentation? Everyone enjoys a few jokes, especially ones they can share with friends and family once they have returned home and the conference is over. A relaxed audience is a more attentive one. Life is too short to forget to smile.

Humor raises morale, which is a key element for a motivational speaker. Some psychologists say that people are motivated by the push of pain or the pull of hope. A good speaker will draw his audience in with a strong message that change is possible. Looking on the bright side literally changes someone’s physical make up. Humor relaxes muscle tension, lowers blood pressure, and allows all the body’s functions to proceed at a more healthy rate.

Laughter inspires confidence and makes the imagination shore. Many times one funny story leads to another in a domino effect. A good motivational speaker builds on that and leaves his audience ready to put forth a greater effort and take on the world.

You probably know important a brand can be. It helps mark a product or service with a seal of quality and assurance. It also helps customers feel confidence with consistency, making the item worry-free. And let’s face it, who wants to worry?

You can also brand the places where you want to send your clients. Some places already have some strong branding going on. However, remember that a brand is only an interim step, a visual metaphor for the item on which it resides. To choose visual metaphors that will link your clients to destinations, think about how you would create a logo for the country.

Begin with a mind map. What words remind you of France? Great food, gardens, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, and maybe a few other things pop into your mind. Keep that list handy and collect images that match those words. Then when you have a client who wants a European destination, get that file out and see what images and words match your client’s business or vacation desires. Read more…