Meeting Planner Careers

Everyone in the office has some levels of responsibility when it comes to ensuring the collective well-being of the office. Part of that well-being is ensuring that there are plenty of incentives for workers to remain loyal and perform at or above expectations.

While the majority of what motivates workers tends to be financial or related to benefits, there are some things that meeting planners can do to influence motivation. Some offices may give meeting planners the freedom to implement these ideas on their own, while others may require running the following ideas by the powers that be. Use your own discretion when deciding how to go about implementing any or all of the following ideas:

• Special coffees – Many coffee vendors offer special flavors at prices that are only marginally more expensive than non-flavored coffee. For a few dollars a month the powers that be could win a lot of hearts and minds. There’s little like vanilla or hazelnut coffee in the morning.
• Seating arrangements – Some people have peculiar desires when it comes to seating, while others have more obvious desires. Some want to be next to the boss so they can have their ideas heard, others might want to be seated next to that attractive new receptionist, and just about everyone wants to be seated as far away from Flatulent Freddy from finance. Find a fair way to determine who gets to sit where when competition arises and see how inspirational meeting planning can be.

The economy has certainly closed many doors of opportunities, but it has opened plenty of windows too for the right people. Meeting planners are one career choice that may actually experience far more new opportunities being open to them than opportunities denied, and this leaves the door open for a little moonlighting. There are a few things to be aware of before moonlighting as a meeting planner:

• Your day job may not be too happy about you moonlighting, even if you do it on your own time. Discretion is the key word here, and learning how to exercise it could be the difference between getting along and putting a few thousand extra dollars in the bank each month.
• Some of the most successful moonlighters have discovered that they can make the time zones work for them. If they live in a region on PST then they try to find work from home meeting planning opportunities for clients as far east as possible and arrange to come in a little late and leave a little late at their day job. The opposite is obviously true of those living clear across the county.
• Leveraging your existing connections and knowledge is ultimately what will make you more attractive. It might be difficult for caterers or concierges to keep things straight when they don’t know that you have two sets of clients, so be sure to let them know that you are semi-freelance and that discretion on their part is rewarded with more business.