Meeting Planner Careers

“Managing Travel in the New Normal” is a new report put out by American Express Business Travel (AEBT). The study focuses on changes in corporate travel plans during the economic downturn. Most participants believe travel demand will expand in 2010, but not at pre-recession levels of business.

Meeting policies are not a priority in the corporate world. Analysts found that less than 30% of their respondents formalize and enforce a meeting policy. An additional 11% create but do not enforce a meeting policy and 25% have no meetings policy at all. Meetings policy is often subsumed by corporate travel policy, which may or may not be enforced.

Company officials often mistakenly believe their employees comply with travel rules. In most cases, a first time offender is given a verbal or written warning. Subsequent failures to comply result in a fiscal slap on the knuckles; that is, offenders are not reimbursed for off policy expenditures.

As a counterpoint to the new normal report, American Express launched a new travel scorecard that analyzes many factors of travel practices. Site visitors answer a series of questions regarding travel management, company compliance for attendance, and technology requirements. The results are compiled and compared to the answers of similar companies.

If you would enjoy a meeting planner career but are also good at getting people together for everyone’s benefit, you may be just the kind of person that could thrive in an economic downturn.  Everyone knows that Business-to-Business contacts are important, so why not focus on helping businesses get through the end of the recession intact? Consider a career helping business groups survive.

Let’s face it–a meeting planner has to be comfortable around people. She has to be ready to talk to a lot of strangers at any time, keep things running, and create maximum benefit for all. So if you are going to start your own event business, why not create a niche that will benefit you as well? Here are some ideas on creating a place for yourself in the business world.

B-2-B Contacts. Many business are wondering about new ways to build business in a bad economy–help them by designing their networking events.

Non-Profits. You could spend a lifetime specializing in events for nonprofits. Remember, “nonprofit” does not mean “no money.” Many of these organizations would benefit greatly from the services of an event planner.

Sales Rep. Yes, you could take your education in event planning and get a lucrative position as a sales rep. Companies that sell beverages, catering services, travel and accommodations, and other services love people who understand the industry–they already know what they’re doing!

As you can see, there are lots of opportunities for you to help businesses with the right education and personality traits.

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.