There are two driving forces behind the push for stay-cations: the current economic crisis and the green movement. As individuals and families are feeling the pressure of financial hardships and increasing numbers of people are committing to lowering the impact their lifestyles have on the environment, the world of vacations and travel is changing. More and more people are opting for cost-effective day excursions or nearby travel destinations that require less transportation and inflict less damage on the environment, while still being filled with fun activities and opportunities to make lasting memories. This new form of vacations is being called stay-cations by some, and companies are beginning to jump on the bandwagon to apply this idea to their incentive travel programs and corporate events.

The benefits for companies that opt for incentive travel destinations and corporate event locations that are nearby include significant cost savings, particularly in regards to transportation costs, and a positive public image that shows a commitment to limiting your company’s carbon footprint. Both of these can be very enticing and are often enough to convince a company to bypass exotic locations and opt for staying close to home. This can certainly help a planner keep things under budget, but it also puts additional pressure on the incentive travel or event planner to come up with an enticing nearby destination and appealing entertainment options that will please participants who may be accustomed to boarding a plane and heading to an exotic locale.

If you work as a meeting and event planner for a corporation, there are very likely hiring policies and procedures in place that make the process of hiring new staff members clear and simple; however, if you are a self-employed planner looking to expand your staff, it may feel like more of a challenge to determine how best to acquire new talent. Fortunately, there are always folks looking for work; therefore, the task is simply to find someone with the skills, experience and personality to be a good fit for you and your meeting or event planning business.

Starting with people you know is usually a good first step. This does not necessarily mean hiring friends or family members, as this is sometimes a good idea and sometimes not. But, it does mean that you should keep an eye out for potential candidates at networking socials and events you attend, as well as letting people you work with know that you are looking to hire.

A great place to start can be the folks that work as event staff, such as servers, bartenders, check-in staff or security guards. Some of these people may have taken these jobs as a way to get into the event planning field and begin to make connections, or to cover expenses while they complete their college degrees.

When professionals attend well-planned meetings or conferences, they often want the contact information of the event planner for possible future use. Meetings that run smoothly, are productive and enjoyable, and include comfortable meeting spaces, good food and fun activities are sure to be remembered. Therefore, when you make sure that each attendee knows that you planned the meeting and that they will return home with your contact information, you are taking an important step in setting yourself up to obtain additional clients and experience future success.

Aside from high-powered professionals that may be in attendance, you should also keep in mind that each staff member at the meeting has the potential to rise in the ranks of the company they are currently with, to broaden their career path and go to work for another company, or to go out on their own. Making sure these folks remember you and have your contact information is an excellent way to increase the likelihood that they will tell their new company about your services, or use you for their own meeting planning needs in the future.

Promotional products that can be used during the meeting or conference, as well as after the attendees return home, such as pens, notepads, folders, rulers, calculators, desk sets or conference bags are affordable, effective marketing tools that will put your name and contact information in the hands of conference and meeting attendees, and will ensure that they have your information when there is a need for your services.

The world of meeting and event planning is changing. As companies cut their budgets and keep a closer eye on expenses and an increasingly environmentally aware market demands that companies take noticeable eco-friendly steps to stay ahead of the curve, event planners must continue to come up with new, innovative ideas to keep their clients happy and the business coming in.

If you can make a name for yourself as an event planner that can assist clients in saving money and giving their image an eco-edge, you will be well ahead of the competition in the years to come.

One example of how you can help your clients cut costs and make their next meeting or event an eco-friendlier affair is to encourage the use of train travel for transportation. If the meeting is in close proximity to company headquarters, or near where most attendees reside, this is a particularly enticing option that will lower the carbon footprint of the event and show that the company is taking environmentally responsible steps.

Train travel is also more affordable and is enjoyable for the commuters, allowing them to relax and enjoy the ride, or brush up on talking points before their presentation. Begin to incorporate train transportation options into your event planning and you may be pleasantly surprised at the attention it will garner.

Although you are a meeting or event planner, that term really does not encompass everything you do. On the other hand, what you do is likely so specialized that you have placed your specialty in front of your general job description, like “Wedding Planner,” or “International Events Planner.” While this is a very common thing to do, understanding the market segment may not be so common–this understand, though, could help you expand your business into other areas of your segment.

For instance, if you are a wedding planner, your general area of influence is wide. The event is really a large celebration, so celebrations is more your all-encompassing job description even though you mostly plan weddings. This can help you in times like the last year, when weddings have taken a back seat to elopements due to the recession.

A wedding planner who did not take advantage of other kinds of needs over the last year has suffered greatly. Those who added cultural coming-of-age celebrations, graduation parties, and even political events fared well. Every segment of the meeting planning business can overlap into others; you can expand your knowledge and experience as well as your customer base in very short time.

So take a look at your market segment. An event planner can always expand her influence, and should in case of a downturn like we just had (and are still suffering through). Be out there, shake hands, open up your opportunities, and be prepared.

Functioning as a event planner in today’s economy and governmental interference into business can convey that you could seem raring to go to put up your photon shields instead of answer this. In as much as photon shields do not exist yet, you may perhaps have to determine a innovative fashion of replying to this question so that you do not get the evil eye for answering you are a convention planner. Here are a few tips to clarify to persons what you accomplish without getting their hackles up and yourself down.

The Summation Spiel

You can show people what you do in one sentence, and advise them simultaneously that you are not the enemy. Certain people seem to believe that meeting planners are nowadays an added expense that corporations must not be paying for. Practice some of these responses by saying them to yourself in a mirror, and amend whatever you need to so that they work remarkably well for you and does not sound rehearsed.

‘I help businesses stay within government meeting regulations by planning their events.’

‘I help the government and businesses work together to save money on meetings so they don’t have to sacrifice value and their bottom lines.’

‘I motivate a company’s employees by providing training, technology sharing sessions, and programs.’

‘I help companies improve their bottom lines by providing motivational and training sessions that are well within government guidelines.’

Contingent on the type of planning you perform, you can modify these sentences and adjust them particularly for your requirements. Although you may well feel as if you should not have to do this, it is in fact excellent practice in support of your elevator promo speeches and sales pitch. In actuality, the stress the federal government has placed on your chosen work is like a nugget in the tide–it is a bit rough at times, but you will come out sparkling.

As a business meeting and event planner, you are continually seeking for ideas to add value to your services. Recently the federal government set forth guidelines to the corporations receiving bailout cash. These guidelines can essentially assist you to be a more valuable planner.

The boards of directors of firms acquiring unusual aid from the government have got to adopt a company-wide policy on any disbursements connected to air transportation services, entertainment and holiday parties, and conferences and events. This policy is not designed to include conservative expenses for sales conferences, team development, acceptable performance incentives and other standards attached to a corporation’s usual business operations. What does this mean? Here are some of the provisions and ways you can utilize them to cause your client’s corporations appear golden even if they are planning incentive travel. Read the rest of this entry »

Multi-national companies have something to look forward to when it comes to looking for venues for conferences. There are many places around the world that are offering world class conference centers, and the choices are many- from Asian countries such as Japan to the Netherlands- up-to-date, swanky conference centers are mushrooming all over the world.

Companies in the US no longer need to stay restricted to local venues, and can now go out and explore beautiful locations around the world for convenient and impressive conference centers.

What is even better is the fact that countries such as China, Latin America, and South Africa are also looking at enhancing their event management avenues and coming up with well-equipped conference centers. Read the rest of this entry »

Reduce, reuse, and recycle should be your mantra as a meeting planner, but there are other ways to make a difference in the community where you are holding your event. Many times you can relate your activities directly to a community concern, or even a local crisis.   

Let’s return to your event with 100 participants. You are booking a weekend conference for luthiers, makers of stringed instruments (including guitars). Some will involve demonstrations, and instruments will be used for these. When they are done putting the finishing touches on a violin, it may be substandard for professionals simply because it was used in a rough demo.

Nearby the public schools in this town are suffering for funding, and have had to cut back on arts programs. You could make arrangements for these demo instruments to be donated to local arts programs, and even have the schools bring instruments from their stock for repairs to help the attendees get some hands on experience with maintenance. Read the rest of this entry »

Planning an event is not all that easy as it would seem. True, there is always a great amount of fun involved in the process of organizing an event that brings together a lot of people. However an event that is not organized well will call for unwanted criticism and disappointment. When people get together, they expect it to be worthwhile. And this is even more so in case of corporate executives attending an event- they expect it to be faultless.

Faultless is the word that describes a successful event planner. Be it a seminar, an exhibition or a conference, a corporate event requires thorough preparation and perfection in every detail.

Generally speaking the typical hours for an event planner are more compared to other regular, sedentary jobs. An event planner is constantly looking around the event venue, making sure that everything is at the right place. Managing and supervising the staff for the event is another crucial task. Read the rest of this entry »