By Richard Brody
There are many event planners, with a variety of different philosophies, approaches, and degrees of expertise. Organizations should carefully interview and come to a meeting of the minds with an individual before employing him to manage an important event. In my over three decades of being an event professional, having managed and overseen many hundreds of events, conferences, conventions, meetings, etc., I have come to the conclusion that the most important consideration an organization should have in deciding on the correct event professional for them is to carefully review the individual’s philosophy and approach. Does the event professional come in claiming to have all the answers, and seem to put everything into a one- size- fits- all type of approach, or does he want to customize the event to the needs and desires of the group?
1. Great event professionals must be superior effective listeners. A true event pro should be able to easily adapt to the needs of the group, and should spend far more time listening to the group and its volunteer and staff organizers than telling them what to do. What is the heritage of this organization? What is the purpose of this event? Has this event completely succeeded (probably not, or they would not be seeking an event pro), partially succeeded, or been going through a period of diminishing and disappointing results? What has been most effective in the past for the group, and what has been least well received? What is the single most important thing to this group? How important/ relevant of a factor is pricing? Does this group bring along non- member family members, etc., and is their programing for these people? How does the group handle the details, such as registrations, payments (lump sum, installments, form of payment, etc.), welcoming, package inclusions, etc.?
2. A true event professional begins by doing quite a bit of homework. He gets to know the intricate and relevant details of the organization, and tries to get a feeling and understanding for the heritage and the membership. He gets to understand the group’s vision and its goals. He studies past events they have held, and what the trending has been. He gets to understand historic attendance trending, and tries to understand the nuances and specifics as it relates to this group. He does some interviewing of present leaders, past leaders, future leaders, past attendees, and potential attendees. In other words, he is prepared.
Great event pros do not try to impose their will or their way on the group. Rather, they combine their expertise with the groups needs and desires, and provides value to the group, in terms of organization, marketing, negotiations, planning, and implementation, as well as on- site oversight and supervision. When organizations select the event professional best suited for them, it invariably saves them hassles, time, money, energy and other resources.
Richard Brody,with over 30 years consultative sales,marketing,training,managerial, and operations experience,has trained sales and marketing people in numerous industries, given hundreds of seminars, appeared as a company spokesperson on over 200 radio and television programs, and regularly blogs on real estate, politics, economics, management, leadership, negotiations, conferences and conventions, etc. He has negotiated, arranged and/ or organized hundreds of conferences and conventions. He’s a Senior Consultant with RGB Consultation Services, an Ecobroker, a Licensed Buyers Agent (LBA) and Licensed Salesperson in NYS, in real estate.