Meeting Planner Careers

Meeting planning for meetings at sea and/or events at sea are a lot easier than planning for a comparable meeting schedule or event on land. Why? Because there is a helpful concierge to help make decisions and handle a lot of the work for you. The result is not only saved money, but saved time as well. The question is what to do with that spare time. Some tell their bosses that they are done early, but there may be other ideas worth considering:

• Catching up on other paperwork or office chores – Getting caught up is equally impressive, or possibly more impressive than, finishing early.
• Preparing everything for next week – In the same train of thought, it would probably be a good idea to finish all of next week’s work ahead of time and then be back in this same decision making process next week. If only all choices were so easy!
• Check for new ideas on how to conduct meetings or plan events online. There is plenty of networking to be done, and that networking could result in new associations, deals, or ways of doing things. Call it dedicating time to self improvement.
• Learn some local phrases or culture – Is your meeting going someplace where the locals have a unique culture or language you don’t speak? Start learning online now and consider printing out a basic list of phrases and dos/don’ts for everyone attending.

Whatever you decide to do, do not consider browsing the Internet or otherwise wasting time. Being productive is important to any business and that is especially true of businesses paying meeting a premium for a quality meeting planner.

Social media is the wave of the future, and businesses and organizations should be prepared to include social media in their business travel plans. Many meeting planners believe that social media will be an important aspect of conferences and other types of organizational meetings. There are several types of social media that many employees utilize on a daily basis for things such as networking and planning. Because social media is important, it will be essential for businesses to ensure that their meeting venue has all of the capabilities necessary to employ social media in their meetings and presentations.

Not only will hotels and resorts have the technological capabilities necessary for social media interaction, but a ship charter will also have these capabilities as well. An incentive cruise is just another option that organizations have when planning things such as business travel. Even while on the seas employees will have the ability to remain connected to their social media accounts. As a meeting planner, it will be imperative that organizations are aware of the types of technology available to them regardless of the type of incentive travel they choose. Reassuring them that they will have access to various types of social media will be crucial.

The job of a meeting planner is to determine a meeting venue that will provide the most motivation for employees to be top-performers and provide the organization with the best value for their money. In times past, this has been a difficult feat for meeting planners. With the advent and popularity of meetings at sea, successful meeting planning has become a bit easier. Not only are cruise events ideal ways to motivate employees, but they can save organizations up to 40 percent of the cost of a land venue such as a hotel or resort.

A ship charter, as opposed to a land venue, can save a company quite a bit of money as mentioned previously. There are other ways in which cruise events can be financially beneficial. Because the cost of lodging, meals, entertainment, and recreational activities can be included in the price, there are no additional expenses that will be incurred. There are many dining experiences from which employees may choose, and the entertainment options are numerous. Since a cruise is a self-contained environment, employees will be more readily available for group events and employees will have a better opportunity for relationship building and networking occasions.

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.