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.
Author: admin Categories: Meeting Planner Business Marketing Tags: Attendee, Break, Business Cards, Business Organizations, Colleagues, Current, Event Planner, Event Planning Services, Friends, Importance Of Networking, Meeting Planners, Met, Networking Functions, Networking Meetings, People, Socials, Staff Members
It’s a hard world out there right now for meeting planners. From government restrictions on meetings to a ruined economy, companies just are not planning what they used to. On top of that, many are no longer going to self-employed planners as contract help for their needs. So how will you survive in this jungle? Look to the properties.
Many of the hotels are using inside people to help companies plan their events. Why? Because companies are asking them to do it. Rather than pay a freelancer, they are asking the hotels for help with planning events, sometimes holding the entire shindig in one place.
Hotels, on the other hand, are having to dedicate an employee’s time to helping each client. Rather than dump the complexity of a conference in the hands of a desk clerk, they are looking to their own in-house planners to serve the clients. Read more…
Author: admin Categories: Meeting Planner Career, Meeting Planning Tags: Business Meeting Planner, Complexity, Current, Desk Clerk, Economy Companies, Freelancer, Government Restrictions, Hotel Managers, Hotels, Jungle, Meeting Planners, Minute Accommodations, No Doubt, Part Time, Party Planner, People, Reputation, Self Employed, Shindig, Third Party