15 Feb 10 Should You Add Wedding Planning to Your Event Planning Business?
Some meeting and event planners focus solely on working for corporate clients, some have found a niche in planning SMERF events and some focus primarily on more personal occasions, such as weddings, commitment ceremonies, anniversaries and retirement parties. While there are some planners who attempt be a Jack or Jill of all trades and provide every type of event planning service to every type of client, most find that specializing in a particular area is the best way to make a name for themselves and make their jobs easier. This is what is recommended by most professionals and is what works best for most meeting and event planners.
So, when is it a good idea to add wedding planning to your menu of services if you are not specifically a wedding planner? There are some occasions when going against the logic of sticking to a limited selection of events is a good idea. For example, when planners are first starting out in the field of event planning, they may be happy to take on any event that comes their way. In these beginning stages, this also allows for the opportunity to see how you feel about planning weddings and to determine if this might be the right fit for you and your future as a planner.
WEDDINGS AT SEA
Something else to consider is planning weddings at sea. According to the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), cruise lines are reporting a huge jump in cruise weddings – up to 60% during the last decade. It’s no wonder – cruise ship weddings make planning easy and offer an unforgettable wedding destination and honeymoon in one. The ceremony takes place while the ship is in port, either onboard or at a romantic setting ashore – and the celebration continues as family and friends enjoy the fabulous dining and entertainment options onboard their ship.
But, even seasoned planners who have never planned a wedding may suddenly have one of their best corporate clients ask them if they could plan their daughter’s wedding. If you have the time and think that you can do a good job planning the event, this would be one of those times when stepping outside of your normal event range might be in order.
Tags: Anniversaries, Clia, Commitment Ceremonies, Corporate Clients, Cruise Lines International, Cruise Ship Weddings, Cruise Weddings, Entertainment Options, Event Planners, Event Planning, Family And Friends, Jill Of All Trades, Last Decade, Meeting Planners, Niche, Personal Occasions, Planning Service, Retirement Parties, Wedding Destination, Wedding Planner
03 Feb 10 How to Hire the Perfect Keynote Speaker
The success of your meeting or event could hinge on how good your keynote speaker is. Meeting and event planners need to have a good plan for finding great keynote speakers. Here are some tips:
- Establish the date, location and budget of your event. These factors will play an important role in determining the pool of keynote speakers available to you. Your date, for example, will affect which keynote speakers are available, whereas your budget will limit whom you can and can’t afford to hire. In order to save on the cost of the keynote speaker’s travel, you may want to consider the distance between where he or she resides and where your event will take place.
- Determine the type of presentation you want and the time of day when it will take place. Some speakers are skilled at delivering workshops, while others excel at providing keynotes. After-dinner speakers should incorporate humor into their talks, where morning speakers should be energizing. (more…)
Tags: Audience, Budget, Change Effort, Decision Makers, Demographic Group, Demographics, Desire, Dinner Speakers, Event Planners, Humor, Keynote Speaker, Keynote Speakers, Keynotes, Morning Speakers, Pool, Rsquo, Success, Tap, Time Of Day, Travel
27 Jan 10 Basic Feng Shui for Meeting Planners
Over the past several years, feng shui has become all the rage with homeowners, business owners, restaurant managers and event planners all using this ancient Asian art to create harmonious, balanced spaces. Due to the high level of interest in feng shui, this is an excellent service to add to your meeting planning business and to offer to your clients.
To learn the basics of feng shui, you can pick up a book at your local bookstore, attend a seminar or do a simple online search for “feng shui basics” or “feng shui meeting tips.” Alternatively, you could partner with a feng shui consultant to provide these services to your clients, or if you really want to corner this market, you can become a certified feng shui consultant and add it to the menu of billable services you provide.
Much of feng shui for meetings is essentially common sense and focuses on creating a meeting space with good energy flow, harmony and balance. For example, in a square room, a feng shui consultant might recommend placing plants in the corners of the room to compensate for the hard corners, or in a space with harsh lighting, a consultant might recommend softer up-lighting to create a more welcoming environment.
Everything from the way the furniture is arranged to the colors used in the room can affect the room’s energy and the productivity of attendees; therefore, once your clients experience the benefits of feng shui, they are sure to recommend you to their friends and colleagues.
Tags: All The Rage, Ancient Asian Art, Attendees, Billable Services, Bookstore, Business Owners, Colleagues, Common Sense, Energy Flow, Event Planners, Excellent Service, Feng Shui Basics, Feng Shui Consultant, Harmony, Harsh Lighting, Meeting Planners, Meeting Planning, Plants, Productivity, Restaurant Managers
06 Nov 09 Webinars – Engage and Solicit Clients
Webinars are the latest marketing and communication tool. They are a way of engaging clients, and attracting new clients. If you are considering hosting a webinar (online seminar) here are some things about webinar production you should consider:
- Planning – A webinar should be well thought-out to suit both your company's needs and those of your client. You can be creative, but keep in mind your goal – is it a strong marketing push for new clients or an educational and training piece for existing clients or internal employees?
- Promotion: It is essential to market your webinar event well in advance of the broadcast. This can be done with e-mails, posting a notice on your website, or through social media networking such as Twitter and Facebook. Once again, be creative – if your customers call in for customer service, add a message to the loop that plays while callers are on hold.
- Production: You will probably want to outsource the actual production of the webinar for the best quality results. The webinar may be broadcast in two ways; live and on-demand. Many live broadcasts are often setup for on-demand broadcasts after the initial live broadcast.
Webinars are a popular and effective marketing tool for meeting and event planners if prepared and promoted properly.
Tags: Best Quality, Communication Tool, Customer Service, Effective Marketing, Employees Promotion, Event Planners, Facebook, Live Broadcast, Live Broadcasts, Marketing And Communication, Marketing Communication, Marketing Tool, Meeting Planners, Quality Results, Twitter, Two Ways, Webinar
05 Oct 09 Meetings at Sea
It’s no secret that business meetings are often a combination of business and pleasure. People are working harder than ever to keep companies solvent. Rewarding employees is a bit more complicated; they deserve a nice trip to an exotic location yet it’s important to keep up appearances to the public. Try combining events, the reward trip with a conference. A corporate cruise can fill both those needs.
Sea travel is a great way to build team spirit while traveling to an exotic location. A cruise makes an ideal place for a business meeting – after all, how far can your people wander off? Food is available almost 24/7 and there are numerous activities to break up the intensity of the conference. It’s also private and while there is much to do, there is great opportunity to focus solely on the matter at hand.
In addition, when you come into your port of destination, that’s when the fun begins. Everyone feels a sense of accomplishment by completing the demands of the conference and they are ready to cut loose and have a bit of fun. The company saves money because the mode of travel has absorbed part of the conference costs, including food and lodging.
Seasite.com, the first online cruise portal dedicated solely to serving the cruise meetings market. And the timing couldn’t be better because cruising slashes 25-40% off the cost of a land-based meeting or incentive trip, helping event planners adapt to today’s shrinking budgets. The single, most comprehensive source for savvy, do-it-yourself planners and novices alike, Seasite delivers all the tools, ideas and resources needed to launch a successful incentive cruise event or meeting-at-sea.
Tags: Accomplishment, Bit Of Fun, Budgets, Business And Pleasure, Business Meeting, Business Meetings, Corporate Cruise, Cruise Portal, Event Planners, Incentive Cruise, Incentive Trip, Intensity, Meeting At Sea, Mode Of Travel, Nice Trip, Rewarding Employees, Sea Travel, Seasite, Slashes, Team Spirit
26 Sep 09 New Seating Planning Software For Event Professionals
High Wycombe, UK – Oryx Digital today announce new Professional and Advanced Editions of their PerfectTablePlan seating planning software. First launched in 2005, PerfectTablePlan has helped thousands of event planners in more than 80 countries to save time and avoid embarrassing mistakes creating seating arrangements for gala dinners, fundraisers, award ceremonies, weddings receptions, bar mitzvahs and other events.
“PerfectTablePlan has grown in depth considerably over with each new version and we decided now was an ideal time to create separate PerfectTablePlan products aimed at professional event planners and frequent users.” said Oryx Digital Director Andy Brice. “This allows us to add much more powerful features without overwhelming casual users.”
The new features include: (more…)
Tags: Award Ceremonies, Bar Mitzvahs, Brice, Casual Users, Early Adopter, Event Planner, Event Planners, Event Professionals, Frequent Users, Gala Dinners, High Wycombe Uk, Meal Selection, Oryx, Planning Software, Professional Edition, Professional Event, Scaled Plan, Seat Arrangement, Weddings Receptions, Werner Schwab
21 Sep 09 Time Management
To quote the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland:
“I’m late, I’m late. For a very important date.
No time to say Hello. Goodbye.
I’m late, I’m late, I’m late.”
Event planners not only have to manage their time making events happen but they also create a timetable in place during the event. Without good time management skills, both activities are going to be much more difficult than need be.
Most of us start planning events by making a list. This can be quite useful if the list doesn’t extend into the next millennium. You can always add to the list. Arrange the items in order of importance and tackle the ones that are rated most critical. Delegate as many of the items as possible.
Use whatever technology you have available to remind you that flowers must be ordered by a certain date, details need to be confirmed with the caterer, etc. Create a time line and check off items as they occur.
Focus on the big picture. It can be too easy to get lost in the small details of a project. Attention to the fine details is a wonderful thing, but not at the expense of the main goals of the event. Which is going to be more important – napkin rings that match exactly or the wedding cake? Just ask Alice and she’ll tell you – cake!
Tags: Alice In Wonderland, Big Picture, Caterer, Delegate, Event Planners, Fine Details, Flowers, Good Time Management, Hello, Important Date, Main Goals, Millennium, Napkin Rings, Rabbit, Time Line, Time Management Skills, Timetable, Wedding Cake, White Rabbit, Wonderful Thing
21 Jul 09 What is “Business as Usual?” No, really!
Many meeting and event planners are self employed. While this is always appealing to people who love independence and “setting their own hours,” there is much more to it than meets the eye. Here are three things you may not have thought about, even if you have a business degree.
Advertising
This can be one of the hardest-hitting realities you will face. You can’t simply hang up a sign, sit in front of your phone all day, then complain later when you have no business. You have to take matters into your own hands. These are the places you will need to turn to for getting the word out: (more…)
Tags: Business Advertising, Business Degree, Business Law, Business Meeting, Business School, Citizen, Decent Number, Event Planners, Friends Family, Human Behavior, Journalism, New Car, Own Website, Press Release Distribution, Realities, Snack, Social Networking
19 Jul 09 Site Inspection Checklist
Meetingsnet.com offers an excellent site inspection checklist that should be a part of every meeting and event planners toolkit.
A properly conducted site inspection is one of the biggest factors to insure a successful meeting or event. The checklist walks you step by step through the process, seeing the venue as an attendee will later experience it.
Don’t neglect this all important aspect of your meeting. It offers planners the opportunity to identify potential problems or bottlenecks and resolve them well ahead of the event.
Tags: Attendee, Bottlenecks, Event Planners, Inspection Checklist, Neglect, Venue
17 Jul 09 Event Planner Certification
Meeting and Event Planning is a multi-billion dollar industry, and corporations are recognizing the need for meeting planners to hone their skills and to become more proficient at what they do. Too much money is at stake! Associations raise much of their yearly operating funds from their annual meeting, and many non-profit organizations raise a high percentage of their funds from special events.
There are several associations of Meeting Professionals that are dedicated to the education of meeting and event planners. More and more colleges and universities are offering certificate programs as well as degree programs in Meeting and Event Planning.
Having the right certification and education will help meeting and planners not only get the projects they want, but also offers the skills and knowledge to succeed.
Tags: Annual Meeting, Certificate Programs, Colleges And Universities, Corporations, Degree Programs, Dollar Industry, Education, Event Planner Certification, Event Planners, Event Planning, Meeting Planners, Meeting Planning, Much Money, Profit Organizations, Stake
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