Meeting Planner Careers

Freelance meeting planners can make an incredible amount of money if they are self-motivated and have an ample amount of people skills. The problem is that many larger companies have meeting planners on staff, and thus one has to find a way to attract attention if they want to be a successful freelance meeting or event planner. Here are some tips on how to build up a reputations as a freelance meeting planner and perhaps generate business:

• Start by making contacts within the service industry, especially at hotels and other venues where people want to visit and/or hold their events or gatherings. These contacts can be useful when it comes to negotiating lower prices.
• Start a blog and try to guest post on other blogs as well. Some businesses might know that they need help, but do not know where to turn. Be there for them and they will come to you.
• Consider advertising, even in Craigslist or other online arenas that are cost effective. Newspapers might be worth advertising in as well, but print is certainly on its last leg.
• Be willing to knock on doors and network. This will mean having a business card ready, and spending money to attend conferences and meetings in order to network.
• Consider specializing in a certain type of meeting planning such as educational conferences or meetings-at-sea.  Developing a reputation as a niche expert.
• Remember that honesty and fair prices are important, especially at the beginning. Do not look to recoup all initial startup losses on the first few clients are nobody will recommend you.

There are many reasons why becoming a meeting planning might be attractive, but the top four reasons to consider a job as a meeting planner are:

1. The Salary – data gathered from salary.com, Indeed.com, and other sources all indicate one thing: meeting planners can make a great deal of money. The median average varies by site, but all sources seem to agree that salary expectations of $52,000 to $61,000 per year are quite reasonable.
2. The Benefits – On top of a very reasonable salary, meeting planners also tend to receive generous compensation packages. Bonuses based on performances are very common as are medical and even retirement assistance options.
3. The Job Itself – A meeting planner has to be detail oriented, but it is fundamentally a job for social people. It may not be possible to chat the day away every day, but one can plan on spending a good deal of time using both sides of their brain during any given day on the job. How many people can honestly say that about their career choice?
4. The Relationships – It is not uncommon for meeting planners to build strong relationships with clients, vendors, suppliers, and other important people. These connections may prove to be a useful safety net as well as a source for future opportunities.

You may be wondering why you would want the assistance of a cruise advisor when planning your next cruise event. If you are a meeting or event planner you should not need any help planning an event on a cruise ship – right? While you may be an excellent meeting planner well-versed in planning events in a variety of venues, it never hurts to make your job easier by using systems put in place specifically to assist you in planning group cruises.

Using group cruise planning tools and cruise advisors, like those available through Seasite.com, can make your planning process much simpler and more convenient. Employing these useful tools can also assist you in finding the right ship for your event and help you enjoy significant cost savings. For example, one of the handy search options available on Seasite.com allows you to peruse meeting space grids to determine which ship will best meet your needs, and their E-RFP allows you to easily send your RFP to multiple cruise lines, with the added benefit of them following up on the RFPs for you.

When you can receive this kind of personalized attention and assistance without paying any more than you would have when buying direct, there is absolutely no reason to not take advantage of these great services and tools – and plenty of reasons why you should.

An elevator speech, also called an elevator pitch, is a short introduction that succinctly delivers your most important points in 30 seconds or less. About 30 seconds is the time you would have during an elevator ride to deliver your introduction to a captive audience, which in your case would be a potential client.

Elevator speeches are perfect for quick introductions when you meet a potential client by chance at an event, or when you are making your rounds at a networking function. The idea is that you create and memorize your elevator speech so that you will be prepared and come across as professional and well spoken in the short time you have to make a first impression. While elevator speeches do not always have to be as short as 30 seconds, you should definitely keep it to a minimum and avoid going over two minutes before allowing your new acquaintance to speak. Remember, you want to sound professional and articulate – not boring or self-important.

When crafting your elevator speech, make sure you answer these four questions:

1. What services do you provide?
2. What is your niche or specialization?
3. How are you different than others performing the same services?
4. How do your services make your potential client’s life or job easier?

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.

Planning an event is a big job.  No matter what type of event it is, you will find that there is a lot of different things that you have to make sure get done. You need to be focused and ready to take on this type of challenge when it comes to planning an event.  If you are not able to handle it all yourself, you will want to think about hiring an event planner to make it a little bit easier. 

There are a few different key factors that are important when you are trying to find a successful event planner. You need to think about the person that you are hiring and what they can do for you.  You have to learn to pick and choose your event planner wisely so that you are not finding yourself in a bad situation later on.

1. You will want to make sure that you are getting a highly successful event planner to take care of your next event. You need to make sure that you are finding someone that is ready to take on a challenge and do the best job that she can for you.  You want them to be devoted and able to help you though anything that is thrown your way. 
2. You want a professional.  You want to have someone help you with your next event that has the extensive training that is necessary to make the most of the event. You need to have someone that you can count on that has the experience that you need to make this the best ever.  You can make the event highly successful and very professional when you have help that matches your needs.
3. Getting a professional event planner that pays attention to detail is very key. This is one of the most important key factors in making an event a great success. You will want to have the person helping you very interested in making you happy. You need them to be very efficient and willing to do what you need them to. 
4. You will want to interview your event planner to make sure they are the person that you feel comfortable with. You want to have someone help you with your special event that you can trust and get to know.  They will want to be make your event the best that it can be and give you all that you are looking for and maybe even a little bit more.  You will be surprised at the amount of help you can get from your wedding planner when you chose them well. Ask them important questions that you are going to need to know.  You want to make the most of this time and get to know them very well.
5. The person that you are hiring to take care of your event will have to know the financial part of the business.  They will have to be willing to make sure that they take care of all the business transaction s that have to be dealt with so that you can get the event rolling on the right budget. They will have to be aware of the process and that they have to stay within the budget to keep on track.
6. Get the references that you need to make a good decision about the event planner that you need. You want to make sure that you have someone that is going to have former clients that are happy with their work. You want to contact these people and find out what they like and disliked about the event planner. This will help you make a better decision as to who is the right person for the job.
7. You will also need to make sure that the event planner is able to get word of your special event out there. You want them to be able to get the advertising part of the business out there for everyone to know about. You want to get as many people to your event that you can.  This will mean a lot of hard work and effort to go into the great event that you have been planning and waiting for.
8. Price.  This is one of the most important things that you need to consider before you hire an event planner. You want to make sure that you are getting someone that you can afford to do the job. You want to get an event planner that is going to be in your budget and also be very good. You do not want to pay for someone that you do not think will get the job done.  However you also want to make sure that you are getting someone that you can trust and feel good about the price at the same time. 

Become an event planner that organizes corporate events, birthday parties or weddings by volunteering with other event planners and taking classes in marketing, accounting and sales. Network an event planning business by making a Web site and contacting local vendors with the help of this free video on job information from a career service specialist.

If you are considering a career in meeting and event planning, you will need to understand how the profession is divided up. This means your market segment, or broad-spectrum specialty. For instance, if you want to plan events for businesses and other organizations, then your market segment will be corporate.

Why should you be concerned with this? Because it will determine how you market yourself, how you market your company if you go it alone, and how you network. This means that if you work solely for non-profits your networking sphere will likely encompass a good deal of the political world, grant writers, public relations personnel, event facilities, caterers, and hotels and motels. If you go for-profit, your sphere needs to include the properties and caterers, but you may have less interaction with politics and grants.

Make sure when you choose your event planning specialty that you understand the market segment it falls into. Talk to your business professors to see how they can help, and join a professional organization as well. Ask a lot of questions; people who are truly inclined to teach and to help others will be patient with your answers, but also make sure you do a good amount of your own research.

The end result will be a better understanding of your job and target areas. This could translate into a more secure position at a company or a more stable customer base, and less time spent creating it.

Lately it seems that lots of people want to have multiple skills for others to draw upon, especially if they are in business for themselves. However, making yourself an expert in a subject can be a real boost for a meeting planner, especially in the area of educational meetings. Here’s why….

Experts Know the Little Details

If you are an all-around event planner and someone asks you to plan a continuing education meeting for nephrologists, you may have to turn down some big money because you had to look up the word nephrologist to begin with. However, if you specialized in continuing education events for the medical field, you may have been able to do the job.

Additional Education

Many specialists in meetings like the above come from other backgrounds. For instance, the medical event specialist may have a background in nursing or hospital administration. She might know what is required for these sessions in order to provide accredited continuing education credits for doctors. She may also know which technologies are necessary for each meeting–the last thing anyone wants is guesswork on a meeting with that level of importance.

Of course, medicine is not the only field where a specialty is necessary. Look at meetings and conferences scheduled for various job categories–searching the Internet should get you a lot of them–to see if there is one that is right for you.

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…