Meeting Planner Careers

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.

During your educational experiences, you may find that you love being involved in meetings but being a planner responsible for the whole enchilada is too much at first. You want to ease into it but don’t know where to start. Here are some ideas to consider.

Culinary Arts

If you enjoyed learning to plan the dinners and receptions the most, you may want to consider more education in the culinary arts. There are lots of culinary institutes around, sometimes several in one city. Community colleges also offer various courses of study, including a pastry chef specialization. Read more…