Meeting Planning is Fun!
Cece Peabody‚ MAT and CMP; founder of The Peabody Group

Meeting Planning is fun! At least that ’s what I share with my students at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft. Teaching a course called “Meeting and Event Planning and Management” has more rewards than I ever imagined. I set the tone the first hour of class – meeting planning is fun and it’s filled with details‚ details‚ and more details.

While organization and project management often comes naturally‚ these skills are absolutely essential to a successful meeting professional. Establishing overall goals and objectives‚ completing a working budget‚ determining what the meeting components will contain‚ and then overseeing that all the necessary functions are completed – pure and simple‚ being well organized and knowing how to manage the project (meeting or event) make some planners easier to work with than others‚ and some meetings better than others.

Organization is much like a domino game…when the first domino goes down on a well prepared meeting‚ a chain reaction occurs and the rest of the dominos fall softly and consecutively. If the planning and organization don’t come off as well as they could have‚ then the dominos start and stutter and sometimes don’t fall at all. And attendees leave a meeting or event feeling like there was something missing or not quite complete.

There are multiple functions and areas in meeting planning…some happen in the beginning of the process and others at the end of the process. But all of the functions work when the proper planning and organization has taken place.


Test Your Meeting Knowledge

Reprinted from OnSite‚ MPI-NJ’s Newsletter (Meeting Professionals International‚ New Jersey Chapter)

Select the BEST answer to each question. Answers at end of list.

1. Meeting Objectives are:
   1. Verbal requests from the organization regarding an upcoming event
   2. Long-range targets that may be projected years into the future
   3. Achieved when the attendees are charged up and ready to go when they leave an event
   4. Measurable‚ short-range targets specific to an event
2. Hidden or indirect costs include:
   1. staff time
   2. telephone equipment and calls
   3. labor and set up charges
   4. insurance
   5. all of the above
3. An RFP is typically generated to
   1. record pertinent meeting data
   2. track meeting expenditures
   3. solicit bids from potential suppliers
   4. marketing the meeting to participants
4. Convention and Visitors Bureaus (CVBs) assist the meeting professional in ALL but:
   1. recommending the best facility to use
   2. sending the RFP to member facilities
   3. going on site inspections with the meeting professional
   4. providing promotional materials about the city to the meeting professional
5. To gather information about an upcoming program‚ the meeting professional can contact a small number of the entire attendance. This type of research is called:
   1. Focus group
   2. Sampling
   3. Survey
   4. Kiosk
6. Audio-Visual that is most often needed for a presentation is an LCD projector. When the image on the screen is distorted‚ this is called:
   1. Clustering
   2. Corner placement
   3. Keystoning
   4. Feedback
7. If you are using music during a trade show‚ it is considered being ‘performed’‚ and a license is needed from which of these organizations:
   1. ASCAP
   2. BMI
   3. ISES
   4. All of the above
8. To help you in planning an international meeting‚ it is in the best interest of your organization to hire a:
   1. Professional Convention Organizer (PCO)
   2. Destination Management Company (DMC)
   3. Consulate or Embassy of the nation
   4. Travel Agent
9. Some things that differ if holding a meeting outside of the United States are:
   1. Paper sizes
   2. Currency conversion rates
   3. Definitions of rooms – Single‚ Twin‚ Double
   4. All of the above
10. Something that would identify your meeting as a green meeting would be:
    1. Donating extra food to a local food bank
    2. Using water stations
    3. Using a customs broker
    4. Using paper plates