Let me set the scene: I’m having a meeting with a client and we are ticking through a list of agenda items when all of a sudden, the mood changes and I find myself on the receiving end of an irate tirade. I immediately move to my go-to de-escalation techniques, which include checking my rate and tone of speech to ensure neutrality and ensuring I am making factual, unemotional statements.

I say something to the effect of “we communicated multiple times about this deadline and it has passed now, but here are the options we still have available.”

One of the most common questions I am asked is “when can we open registration?” It’s often asked from a place of excitement because the team is pumped about the plans we are making and wants to spread that enthusiasm.

My answer to the question must always be a balance of not discouraging the excitement and referring to the timeline and all the smaller decisions that still need to be made.

Staffing an event is one of the most important pieces of the planning puzzle. Planners spend months (sometimes years) planning the most perfect event possible, and your on-site team has to be able to successfully carry out your vision for the event to actually be perfect.

There are many variables to consider when planning your staff, including:

Spring is in full-swing now in the Philadelphia area, which means that that outdoor events are in-season!

Outdoor events are wildly popular, but they are more challenging to plan because you must consider a key factor that you cannot control: weather.

Whether you are a young professional starting out in the meetings/events industry or an experienced professional making a career shift into it, here are my top tips for setting yourself up for success.

1. Know That It’s Not All Fun

We know that everyone around us who does NOT work in the meetings industry thinks our job is super-cool and always fun. For me, the conversation goes like this:

Them: “What do you do?”

Me: “I own an event production agency.”

Them: “oh, that sounds like so much fun!”

The temptation to jump right into making tactical decisions to start checking things off of the event planning to-do list is strong. And not resisting that temptation almost certainly guarantees chaos later in the planning process.

When I kick off the planning for a new event, it’s not uncommon for my client to ask why we spend so much time on strategy and why we haven’t started making decisions yet.

Event planners have access to a lot of different types of data, including:

• Attendee data
• Banking and credit card details
• Sensitive company/organization data
• Proprietary information
• Research data
• Speaker data

And this list is just the tip of the iceberg. Data security is a hot topic – for good reason – and planners can play a key role in protecting the sensitive information that we are entrusted with every day.

Way back in 2020, we seemed to rewrite all of the rules of event budgeting overnight. Transportation? Nope, don’t need that. Food and beverage? Another no. Lodging? Definitely not. Technology expenses for virtual attendees? Yes, lots of that.

After being grounded for most of 2020 and 2021, I was hopeful that 2022 would include some new adventures.

My new-found platinum status with my airline of choice is proof that my hopes were exceeded!

I spent a lot of time on the road in 2022 and had the opportunity to see some of my favorite US cities again, including Chicago and Las Vegas, as well as experience the hospitality of places like South Carolina and Marco Island.

With a tight labor market and extreme competition for talent acquisition, many organizations are re-thinking position descriptions and trying to do more with less. We are seeing a trend within some of our clients where people who previously held administrative or other marketing roles are now responsible for event planning, often with minimal training.

If you have been thrust into an event planning role, here are the top 3 things to know (and embrace!) as you settle into your new responsibilities: