“What does a professional conference planner actually do?” Hmmm. Think about that question for a few quick seconds. I can’t even get my mind around it right now, and I’m not sure if it’s because of these crazy times, or because our jobs are so complex.
Take the past two weeks. Fourteen days ago, my office was in full swing of our typical crazy February. We were approaching March which meant lots of travel, onsite events, pre-planning for future events, late nights, early mornings, deadlines, and all of the other crazy wonderful aspects of this job we love.
Then it happened. The first scheduled March event was in trouble.
Our client, the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Institution Educators (AHSIE), was concerned because attendees started canceling due to travel bans at their Colleges and Universities, or because of their own personal concerns over COVID-19. Within a span of 2 days, the amazing AHSIE Council went from “We’re absolutely moving forward with our conference” to “This can’t happen. We need to go virtual.” As their trusted event planners…their voice of reason…their fearless leaders when it came to their conference…of course our response was “We’ve got this.” Together with the incredible AHSIE Council, Shindig, an impressive online meetings platform, and Doodle Design, our trusted marketing partners, we transformed AHSIE’s 12th Annual Best Practices Conference from the planned in-person conference to a completely virtual experience. Yep…that’s right. We had 72 hours to confirm 60+ sessions, train presenters, learn the software, revamp sponsorship packages, develop and implement massive communications plans, design the system, build an online program, and so, so much more. The decision was made on Wednesday. The transformation happened Thursday through Saturday. The virtual conference launched on Sunday.
For all of you who can’t comprehend why we make the Top 10 list of most stressful professions every single year… I hope you’re starting to understand. Because we get it! But I digress.
What a ride it was. But every time I personally started to stress, and there were so many reasons to stress, I couldn’t help but think that this is what we, as professional event planners, love. This is what we do. We solve problems. We help our clients build experiences. We lead our clients with confidence so that they don’t second guess their decisions. We always figure it out. I don’t mean we don’t make mistakes, of course we do, but we figure out how to fix them too.
As a shout out to all of you incredible professional planners out there, you are amazing! I think about my team and how they stepped out of their comfort zone with barely time to realize what they were doing. They worked non-stop to ensure that the client was successful, all the while making sure all of our other client events were being managed. There are no words to explain how incredibly proud I am of this team. They absolutely pulled together and made this happen. It was magical to watch, and it’s still happening as COVID-19 continues to turn our world upside down.
As I thought about that question, “What does a professional conference planner actually do?”, I realized that we make magic happen. The individual details are important…things like name badges and food selection and timelines and technology and processes. They all matter. But what really matters…are the people. It’s the team. It’s the dedication. It’s the ability to remain calm. It’s the appreciation of each other’s role in the mix. It’s seeing the big picture and figuring out the best way to put the pieces together. It’s thinking fast on your feet. It’s being ready to learn. It’s being willing to work hard, even when you’re really, really tired. It’s building relationships. It’s non-stop coffee throughout, and it’s a celebratory happy hour when it’s finished. It’s pure magic!
Thank you AHSIE for trusting us enough to take this incredible journey with you. Thank you
Shindig for providing the unique software that actually made me feel like I was with these conference attendees for four days, engaging with them in ways that truly mimicked an in-person experience. Thank you
Doodle Design for being a partner all hours of the days and nights.
And thank you to my Designing Events team. You are absolutely amazing! No matter what your role was this week…you rocked it!
So now we have other clients going through the process of transforming their events from in-person to virtual, and this may go on for a while. While our wonderfully amazing world is struggling with this horrible situation, I can assure you that we’ll be here for our clients. To all of the amazing event planners out there, and you know who you are, you’re capable of more than you think. You have the ability to change and shift and learn at a speed you never thought possible. Just ask my staff. They did it, and I hope they are as proud of themselves as I am of them. I hope the same for you!
Cheers my fellow planners. Our world is different for a while. Accept it and take it as an opportunity for growth - and don’t forget the celebratory happy hours!
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