26 May 10 Two Critical Skills of a Cruise Meeting Planner
Two critical skills of a cruise meeting or event planner, and how to build them at your current job
Planning cruise meetings and cruise events can be a rewarding carrier, but it takes a certain kind of personality to be successful. Luckily, most of the skills involved in planning cruise meetings and events can be cultivated. Here are the two most basic skills required, and ways to cultivate them at your current job:
Planning backwards – events are often scheduled at specific dates and times, regardless of the planning necessary. This means that time management skills and thinking in a reverse-linear fashion are required. Starting with the event itself, what would have to be prepared? Booking of rooms, suites, conference centers, equipment, and travel arrangements. Starting with the most critical things first, a smart travel planner will plan his or her way back to today. For example, one could start by booking the rooms and conference center on a cruise liner before booking speakers and their flights and communicating dietary needs. Try project planning whenever possible to build this skill.
Planning around complaints – It is not possible to make everyone happy, but a successful cruise planner will ensure that they have prepared plenty of alternatives and options to overcome objections of participants. Speakers and performers are notoriously difficult to deal with, so be prepared to offer cabin upgrades and alternative meals before calling their representatives. To build this particular skill, try practicing dealing with difficult customers if possible.
Tags: Booking Speakers, Critical Skills, Cruise Events, Cruise Liner, Cruise Planner, Current, Dealing With Difficult Customers, Event Planner, Flights, Linear Fashion, Meeting Planner, Meetings And Events, Objections, Participants, Personality, Project Planning, Smart Travel, Time Management Skills, Travel Arrangements, Travel Planner
12 Feb 10 Expanding Your Meeting Planning Business
If you are a self-employed meeting planner, you may be dreaming of the day when you will have so many clients that you will have to expand, or you might be dreading it. Either way, there will likely come a time when you no longer want to work seven days a week, 16 hours a day, or when you simply cannot finish all of your work, regardless of the hours that you put in. Of course, you may also start thinking about expanding before this, but it can be difficult to determine the right time for adding an employee to your meeting planning business.
Part of the problem is that you first need to have enough clients and enough money coming in to justify – and to cover – the additional expenses associated with having an employee. However, in true catch-22 fashion, in order to take on more clients or plan more events for your existing clients, you need more help.
Here are three steps you can take towards comfortably taking on a full-time employee:
1. Start by outsourcing – Yes, outsourcing is going to cost you a bit more than if you simply did everything yourself, but it will also allow you to free up some of your time, which can then be dedicated to increasing your client base.
2. Hire a part-time employee – Once your outsourcing has allowed you to begin to bring in more money and take on a few new clients, it may be time to hire a part-time employee.
3. Move her up to full-time, or hire a second part-timer – Once step 2 begins to pay off, it is time to re-evaluate and consider making your current part-time employee a full-time staff member, or taking on more part-time help.
Tags: Catch 22, Current, Dreaming Of The Day, Employee Outsourcing, Enough Money, Fashion, Full Time, Meeting Planner, Meeting Planning, Part Time, Part Timer, Right Time, Self Employed, Seven Days, Staff Member, Step 2, Three Steps, Time Employee, Time Staff
29 Jan 10 Selling Yourself as an Expert in Your Field
At least a little bit of self-promotional and selling yourself as an expert in your field is necessary, regardless of whether you are employed by a corporation, work under a self-employed meeting planner or provide meeting planning services on your own. In any of these situations, it is important that others in the industry begin to know who you are, that your current and potential clients perceive you as topnotch and that you view yourself as a well-versed, professional expert in your field. All of this is part of building your brand, which is important even if you do not own your own company – or at least not yet.
There are plenty of reasons to sell yourself as an expert and build you brand, with the most obvious being that someday you will be going out on your own, seeking a promotion or exploring your options for furthering your career at another firm. If you are already well known in the industry and have already participated in expert-like activities, such as making yourself available for speaking engagements or writing articles for trade publications, each of these transitions will be much smoother, and you will likely find that potential employers or clients will be seeking you out, rather than the other way around.
Tags: Career, Current, Little Bit, Meeting Planner, Meeting Planning Services, Options, Professional Expert, Speaking Engagements, Trade Publications, Transitions
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