 Meeting
Planners can perform and manage just about every and any
task associated with planning a meeting. The meetings,
events, conferences, seminars, symposia, and other gatherings
that they plan range from simple and small to large and
complex. Successfully hiring a professional meeting planner,
whether on a temporary basis, project basis, or as a permanent
staff member, depends on matching the person with the right
skill set, attitude, and personality to the meeting or
meetings that need to be planned and the tasks that need
to be performed.
Hiring
a Meeting Planner
Before
you hire a meeting planner, consider the meetings to be
planned and the types of meeting planning tasks that
the person will be responsible for. Meeting
planning tasks can include:
- Site
Selection & Contract Negotiation
- Meeting
Room Design
- Site
Logistics
- Food
and Beverage Planning
- Sign
Preparation and traffic flow
- Special
Event Planning
- On-Site Management
- Audio-Visual Management
- And More
If you
are unfamiliar with the meeting planning process, at times,
it is beneficial to first start by speaking with
a consultant. A
consultant can help you define who you need and what needs
to be done.
If
the tasks that need to be handled are specific, consider
hiring a service that specializes in what you need performed.
Typically, it better to offload tasks like on-site management,
audio-visual management, or site selection and contract
negotiations to services that do these types of tasks
on regular basis.
The result will cost less and be performed better. Services
like GCG Event
Partners have members who specialize in these
types of meeting tasks and are an excellent resource when
putting together the meeting planning team.
If the
tasks are more general or if you need a person to manage
most or all of the meeting, then you should consider hiring
a meeting planner. Whether this person is permanent, temporary,
or project based, completely depends on your circumstances.
Focus on looking for a person with experience in the type
of meeting that you need planned. While the core skills
in meeting planning are the same, the challenges associated
with planning 1,000 dinner meetings across the country
are somewhat different than planning a corporate sales
retreat. Find a person with the right experience. Again
networks of meeting planners, like GCG
Event Partners,
are great place to start.
If you
are hiring a person to handle a portion of the "core" meeting
planning, like coordinating all the participants and the
registration process, or possibly managing a large speaking
staff, or even overseeing all aspects of attendee and VIP
housing, then look for meeting planner that has more extensive
experience
in the area that you need help with.
Finding
the ideal person can be a difficult task. Finding any meeting
planner that can do the job can be challanging when you
factor in time, budget, and location constaints. Most
of the time, tradeoffs must be made; maybe the person
has experience with your type of meeting, but hasn't done
exactly what you need done, maybe it's the opposite. In
any case, working with an organization that access to extensive
meeting planning resources, like a company like GCG
Event Partners, will typically benefit you.
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