You've spent the last year meeting every week with the conference committee, your team; talking to the venue, city managers and transportation companies… and now, it’s here.
Even before you arrive at the venue, you’re working overtime, trying to ensure all the loose ends are tied up before ever leaving the comfort of your own office. You review checklist after checklist, grill all of your staff that will be both going with you to the event or staying back to hold down the fort. What did you forget? Did the printer do a good job? Are the Audio/Visual technicians confirmed and have copies of the agenda? Ok, seems to be in order – so start packing.
Each conference has its own look and feel, but one thing is consistent and please do not be confused here, you are not an attendee – you are the hired help. The most important thing a meeting planner can do on gameday is to keep her/his cool. Once you land in the conference city, you head to the hotel to do inventory of all that was shipped, get ready for pre-con, and check on the set up. When you walk in for the very first time, do not let it overwhelm you – it likely looks in disarray, people scurrying around from the venue, A/V people coming from every space with questions and the one committee member that may want “just a small change.” Remember before I said to keep your cool? Now’s the time to do so. Think about it, you are the conductor, the one that has access to all of the plans, timing, materials and people. You are in control right up until you are not.
While every event is different, even when you do them year over year for the same organization. Attendees are different, venues are different, even the technology and marketing you use is likely different. So when you start to sweat over that one detail the team somehow overlooked – stop, regroup, and reorganize. You’ve got this. This isn’t your first rodeo. Go, get checked into the hotel – and take a breath – also, grab something to eat, time between meals can be harry.
On the day the event opens – you couldn’t sleep the night before, re-running every checklist over, and over again in your mind. Finally, you give in and get up. No sense fighting it right?
Shower, get dressed, something professional yet comfortable for the 10 – 12 hours [yes, that’s an oxymoron] and head over to the meeting space where you find that somehow during the night little elves came in and everything is set up perfectly. All of the signage is in place, your team is starting to arrive. Today the ego gets checked at the door – we operate like a well-oiled machine, in service to our client.
There are plenty of mini hiccups, but because you and your team are all in sync, you’re able to cover them all, and you actually make it look easy to the outside world. Hours tick past, each workshop, program, keynote and networking event move along. You look at your watch and realize it’s nearly 4pm, where has the day gone, you probably forgot to eat (yes, that’s a real thing), and now you’re ushering the attendees to the transportation provided to take them to the reception.
It’s 8pm, you make your last rounds, pull out the well-worn checklist one more time, finally pull your team together and grab something to eat… just so you can get up in the morning and do it all over again.
People don’t become meeting planners because of the glamourous lifestyle, they become meeting planners to serve others.
The next time you attend a conference, workshop or event take a look around and you’ll be able to feel the heart and hard-work of the meeting planner.