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Event Planning Jobs-Where to Start?

June 13, 2012 By Comments
event planning jobs

photo by canadianspecialevents.com

This is the time of year when many meetings and conferences are underway. Shortly, there’ll be a lull as the bigger associations and conferences take a bit of a break in the middle of the summer. By break I mean that they won’t necessarily be meeting but the event planners will be very busy coordinating and orchestrating the upcoming fall conferences. No doubt many of you are wondering what jobs will be available in the industry this year. If you follow the 24-hour news cycle, well then let’s just say you must be worried sick. First things first. Turn off those news channels. While I’m slightly joking here, the meetings and events industry is still hiring. You just have to be smart as to where to begin your job search.

Consider Event Planning Internships to Get Your Foot in the Door

Of course networking can play a vital role when seeking employment. By networking, you meet potential contacts in a non-threatening environment. However use networking properly. Don’t jump into discussions about opportunities available etc. Rather, develop a bit of a relationship or rapport and the opportunities will tend to materialize from there. Internships are another great way to get your foot in the door. Typically internships are awarded to students or graduates that are entering the industry. But, don’t rule them out altogether even if you have been in the industry for some time and are just seeking a career change.

Social media plays a vital role today in the meetings and events industry. There are a couple of social media sites that stand out for their role in promoting industry jobs.

LinkedIn. There are many groups that have been created in LinkedIn for the sole purpose of promoting jobs. In fact I was so impressed with LinkedIn’s “jobs you may be interested in” widget that I added it to a related site, Welcome To The City. If you are logged in to your LinkedIn account and you come across their widget, it tailors the jobs it displays to you based on your account’s preferences. Certainly worth checking out. I would also suggest that you spend a little bit of time on LinkedIn searching for groups that deal with employment opportunities and then join those groups.

Twitter. On twitter, there are countless accounts that deal only with job opportunities. If you start following these accounts you’ll get updated opportunities delivered directly to your feed. Click here to see a list of twitter accounts that deal with job opportunities.

Is Now the Right Time to Become Certified?

Employers, when hiring people, look at the person’s skill set and education first and foremost. While the job of an event planner doesn’t necessarily require specific certification, a recent study by PCMA (Professional Convention Management Association) indicated planners with event planning certification were paidhigher than those without. As I have always stated, it is never a bad idea to invest in yourself. Potential employers will typically interview those that have industry certification before those who do not.

There are event planning jobs in the industry today. While they may not necessarily be all that visible, they are still there. You have to become diligent and be smart about where to look for the job you are searching for. And even though you may be using social media to make first contact, it never hurts to be old-fashioned and pick up the telephone to make sure that they have received your information.

 

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Event Planning-Why Can’t We All Just Get along

June 8, 2012 By Comments
event planning with Barack Obama and Mitt Romney

photo by onpointpolitics.com

Have you ever had one of those days where it seems every time you ask a supplier or colleague a question you keep getting pushed back? I’m sure you have those days where you want to run to the top of the mountain and just scream your lungs out. But, that’s what God invented wine for.

I used to have the saying – that I would enjoy working with people if people weren’t involved. Now we all know that in the world of event planning a large part of our job is relying on the competence of other people. That’s why this industry can be a nail biting experience for a lot of people.

The Current Do-Nothing Congress Is an Example of What Not to Do in Event Planning

do-nothing Congress

photo by yubanet.com

Lately, in the US, it seems that nothing is getting done in yet another do-nothing Congress. These people (I just can’t use the word adult and Congress in the same sentence) seem more hell-bent on obstructing legislation just because the other side brought it to the floor. If you look at the way our government works and compare it to the event planning industry you can easily see how our political system is truly dysfunctional. Comparing Congress to event planners, Congress fails miserably. After all, isn’t it their job to make sure that events (and in Congress’s case the events are the day-to-day running of the country) are executed properly? It’s not that I’m saying there shouldn’t be any debating – quite the contrary. Debating any potential legislation is exactly what we need so that, in the end, hopefully the best gets past.

Unless you’re living under a rock you know that this is a presidential election year here in the US. Which got me wondering wouldn’t it be nice, just for once, to see Barack Obama and Mitt Romney plan an event and get along. Well, apparently NBC’s Jay Leno thought the same thing. Albeit in a humorous way.

So take a look at the video below. Here you’ll see Mitt Romney and Barack Obama having a good time doing the remix of “Call Me Maybe”. Okay so maybe it’s not really them together, but one can wish can’t I?

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Event Planning Companies Are Getting Creative for Transportation

May 22, 2012 By Comments
Event Planning Companies Are Getting Creative for Transportation

photo by jaunted.com

First there were the additional fees charged by airlines for; boarding early, watching tv, having a meal on board, and checking luggage. Now event planning companies are learning that airlines are looking at adding extra fees for their preferred seats. Billed as a way to combat the ever increasing fuel costs that airlines are faced with, additional fees are becoming commonplace with most airlines. As an airline spokesperson indicated, we got used to the menu add-ons in the food and beverage industry and now many customers are content with airline add-on fees. The reason, they contend, is that many travelers are happy to decide for themselves what they’re willing to pay for and what they’re not willing to pay for.

Transportation is a Large Component of an Event Planning Company’s Services

Transportation is one of those logistical components to an overall conference or event. You see, getting all of your delegates to the meeting’s location on time is the number one goal to launch a successful conference. And when you’re dealing with many different airlines and many different airports those planning logistics can sometimes become a nightmare. Add in weather and have a whole other can of worms.

The good news for event planning companies is that many of these airlines are setting aside more window and aisle seats for their frequent flyers at no extra cost. After all, it is the frequent flyers that tend to pay a higher per ticket price compared with many other passengers on the same flight.

Tips on How You Can Be Creative When It Comes to Booking Transportation

  • book as far out as possible to ensure that, in addition to availability, you’re able to pick a seat without an additional charge
  • consider your route. If you have to schedule a connection flight as part of your travel plans consider using a less traveled airport for your hub. Flight availability and cost can be drastically affected by flying through less traveled airports.
  • Flying days. Many event planning companies are now starting to look at the days of the week that they could schedule their conferences. It is a delicate balancing act as their goal is also to make sure the delegates don’t miss too much time in the office. However, by adjusting the days of your conference you can have dramatic impact on flight availability and costs.
  • Check with your gate agent regarding seat moves. Even if you have exhausted all their traditional means of selecting your ideal seat with no lock, still check with your gate agent regarding a move. Quite often they are trying to accommodate other passengers with seat changes and your request may assist them.
  • Dress appropriately. Yes a picture is worth a thousand words.  How you look can have an impact on where you can be moved.  An agent is not going to move someone that has pants hanging down to their knees beside a frequent business flyer. But if you dress in business casual you may be pleasantly surprised.

Airlines, like many industries today, are always looking for ways to add additional revenue to their bottom line. Like so, meeting planning companies today need to be creative when providing transportation for their clients. There are ways to keep additional costs to a minimum, you just need to be creative.

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Transportation Costs Can Get out of Hand for Meeting Event Planning (comedy video)

May 20, 2012 By Comments
meeting event planning transportation costs

photo by merrimentdesign.com

Meeting event planning involves many components. There are the hotels, the meeting rooms, speakers and transportation issues that all need to be addressed in order to ensure the meeting is a success. Ask any meeting planner and they can tell you how easy it is for any one component to get out of hand and exceed its budget.

Transportation is often a major part of the meeting event planning. After all many of the delegates and attendees have to travel from other cities just to get to the meeting itself. And once you’re in the city were the meeting is occurring, you still have to worry about transferring your guests around town.

We all know that costs tend to go up from one year over the other. In this expensive taxi prank video below, watch as unsuspecting  riders get a shock as they see the cost of a taxi ride climbing faster than seconds ticking away from a clock.

 

 

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Has Stand Your Ground Had an Impact on Event Planners Decisions

April 13, 2012 By Comments

photo by christinamarie7 .wordpres.com

Unless you’ve been living on another planet, you have heard all the news surrounding the tragic Trayvon Martin shooting. We’re not going to get into the political debate surrounding this controversial law but it did get me wondering if all this attention has had an impact on whether or not event planners will hold meetings in states where this type of law exists.

Event planners walk a fine line. Their main objective is to successfully execute and host meetings and conventions where all the delegates are satisfied. And let’s face it that’s probably a pretty tall order to execute. You know the old saying – you’ll never please 100% of the people 100% of the time. So I’m sure there are always those that will approach meeting planners with some type of an issue that needs to be resolved.

Event Planners Do Not like Controversy

But there’s also another side to event planners. The last thing they want is for their meeting or event to be held in an area where controversial issues are taking place.

With all the negative news coverage that we’ve been seeing around Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, Convention and Visitors Bureau officials are raising alarm bells. After all, tourism plays a very large role in the Florida economy.

In a recent Tampa Bay Times article, it reported that Nikki Grossman, director of the Broward County Convention and Visitors Bureau, would be the first person to present to a state task force on the negative impact that the law has had, or is having, on Florida’s tourism.

Are Politicians Making Life Difficult for Event Planners?

There is no doubt that the Stand Your Ground law is having a political impact. Obviously laws are often legislated as a result of the majority party making good on promises that they have made to their constituents. That, in and of itself, is understandable as an elected official will need those constituents to be on their side for the next election. But are our elected officials implementing the right laws that will help their states economies? Well, judging by the reaction from the state’s tourism officials, I would have to think the answer is no.

If any event planners reading this article are currently planning meetings or events in states where Stand Your Ground type laws exist I would be interested to hear how they plan on proceeding. I guess time will tell as to whether or not there will be a dramatic effect on meetings and events where event planners feel there’s too much controversy to host a successful meeting.

 

 

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How to Tell if Your Event Planning was a Success (hint – are their eyes open?)

April 11, 2012 By Comments

photo by frigginrandom.com

All of the event planning is done. Now you just have to wait and see how the meeting or event unfolds. But how do you tell if your meeting and event planning was successful? Well, one way is to look into the audience. Are they sleeping or are they awake and taking notes. If you see people dozing off, then chances are you didn’t do enough to keep them engaged. Or you invited the wrong attendees to your meeting.

We’re sure you’ll get a little chuckle when watching the video below.  Let’s just say this is an example of what we don’t want happening in any of your meetings or events  as a result of all your event planning efforts.

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Using a Conference Planning Template

April 10, 2012 By Comments

photo by eventmanagementtales .com

It seems to be a hot button issue – whether or not to use conference planning templates. A conference planning template or a conference planning checklist template, as some people refer to them as, are basically a way of organizing planners. And the reason why many people find them to be a valuable asset to their job is that they often have so many minute details of a program that need to be accomplished. Without a project conference planning template to use they would be in an organizational mess.

Should You Look for a Free Conference Planning Template?

Today on the web you can pretty much find whatever it is you’re looking for for free. But does free always mean you’re getting the best? Well of course it depends on what you’ll be using your template for, but there are many good places where you can get templates that will fit your project.

As we have said here often, Microsoft Office is a very good source for finding templates that you can easily adapt for your own projects. What I like about Microsoft Office’s template page is that you can quickly download a template that you like and start making the necessary changes to customize it for your own needs.

Other people like to create their own project conference planning template. I find that these people are ones that have been in the industry for some time and have a great understanding of how to implement and execute programs successfully. What they tend to do is take their experiences with past programs and write out what steps were required for them successfully run programs. From here, they are making a template where they can easily go in and customize towards their future programs.

A conference planning template is, when used correctly, a valuable tool for organizing and implementing successful programs. There are many free conference planning templates to choose from or, as many seasons meeting planners have done, you can easily create a customizable template for your own specific needs. But as a meeting planner often is required to have many things happening at once, it’s probably not a bad idea that they utilize a conference planning template to help them keep organized.

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Planning an Event This Easter Weekend?

April 8, 2012 By Comments

photo by collectpics.com

When we think of Easter we often associate it with planning an event around children (well apart from the religious aspect of Easter that is). Planning an event can sometimes be a hassle at the best of times. There is one thing that’s certain in life and that’s that if something can go wrong, usually something will go wrong. Otherwise known as “Murphy’s Law”.

So for this Easter weekend we thought we’d share a video compilation of Easter event planning gone wrong. While our laughing maybe at the expense of the the kids in the video, it’s important that we remember we are laughing with them and not at them. Okay, so maybe were laughing at them… But how could we resist.

The moral of the story – maybe don’t put all your eggs in one basket (sorry I just couldn’t refuse the opportunity to use that expression, especially today).

 

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A Funny Way of Being Introduced at a Planning Meeting

April 5, 2012 By Comments

photo by blog.timesunion.com

Our upbringing helps us navigate through different situations that life gives us. Almost instinctively we know how to react when presented with various scenarios in our life. Or do we? Anyone involved with planning a meeting would tell you that upon entering the meeting room the usual protocol is to be introduced to anyone that you don’t know, you approach them shake their hand and engage in small talk.

But what would you do if, upon entering the meeting room, the person you were being introduced to gave you a big kiss instead of shaking your hand? Would you return the gesture? Or, if you’re like me, would you turn bright red and be at a loss for words.

A Unique Way of Communicating in a Planning Meeting

The video below, at first, everything looks like a normal planning meeting about to get underway. But as you’ll see, once the attendees arrive, they have a very unique way of greeting each other. While, at first, you might think this is an organization that you want to apply with, it really is showing us that spreading germs can be done more through a handshake than from an actual kiss. Let’s just say that this video by science world has certainly got their point across. So, the next time someone comes up to you before your meeting starts and kisses you instead of shaking your hand, you’ll know that they may just have the common cold. But before you return the favor, maybe make sure the person on the receiving end has seen this video first.

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What Do You Look for in an Event Planning Guide?

March 22, 2012 By Comments
caricature of a door opening on a book

photo by lcsc.edu

Of course everybody has a preference for what information they want to get from an event planning guide. But that got me wondering – is there an event planning guide that is considered to be the top in the industry? Well, at this stage of the quest, I’d have to say there is not one type guide that stands out from another. That’s not to say that there are better event planning guides out there. It’s just that I’m finding out that meeting and event planners are very unique in their work styles.

An Event Planning Guide Should Be Customizable

If you’ve read a few of our blogs here, then you know that we often talk about event planning guides and checklists. It is our quest, through our research for our blogs, to always be on the lookout for what is considered the top in the industry. But what we are finding out for an event planning guide is that people want different information based on the types of groups that they are working for.

Microsoft has an excellent event planning resource where you can choose and customize templates to match your workload. You can also find valuable resources on Amazon as well that reference event planning guides.

What Information Do Planners Look for in an Event Planning Guide?

For planners, what they are looking for depends on their clients’ needs. The customization usually comes at the event planning checklist side of things. The feedback that I get from a lot of planners regarding an event planning guide is that they like to get as much information as they need to make an informed decision by glancing at the guide. For example, let’s say a planner is trying to book an off-site venue for 100 people. When they look at an event planning guide what they’re looking for are venues that; would be able to accommodate their numbers (so capacity would be important), whether or not they have private facilities, an indication of the price range, whether or not they are allowed to bring in outside caterers, times that the venue can be rented, and the distance from where they are staying (a reference map).

Another important aspect for an event planning guide is that their contact information is as current as possible. For print guides there will be a little more tolerance for outdated information. But only for a period of several months to a year maximum. For an online guide, updated contact information should be relevant. As a matter of fact it would have a negative impact on the venue if their contact information was out of date online.

For a meeting planner, an event planning guide should provide an “at a glance” overview of the venue. It should be enough information that allows the planner to make an informed decision on whether or not the venue is a right fit for their group. The more that a meeting planner has to research, thus taking up valuable time, the more likely it is that the meeting planner might look at other venues.

 

 

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