Meeting and Event Planners

A Day in the Life

Meeting and event planners, as the name suggests, plan events such as conventions, business meetings, professional conferences, sales meetings, weddings and more. As a meeting and event planner you'll organize all aspects of meetings and events you're overseeing. During a typical day you'll be dealing with several clients, making telephone calls, sending faxes and emails and dealing with vendors.

You'll visit prospective locations for the event. You'll spend a lot of your time reviewing proposals and contracts and negotiating with suppliers. You'll need to be flexible because problems may occur with vendors or a client could make last-minute changes.

Whether your self-employed, working for a meeting and events planning business or working for a hotel or a convention center you'll typically work directly with a client to determine his needs and learn his expectations. You'll make suggestions to ensure the meeting or event runs smoothly. You'll also work with the client to create a timeline and a budget and to learn about all the details of the meeting or event.

Whether its a professional conference, a wedding reception or an important sales meeting you'll have to figure out the requirements for space, telecommunications, print and Web-based materials, food and beverages, transportation, lodging and audio-visual requirements. You may need to hire a photographer and book speakers. You'll check to see if any permits or licenses are required to hold the event.

On the day of the conference, convention or meeting you'll oversee everything. During the event you may manage schedules, oversee vendors, monitor activities, take care of inquiries, find out if the client needs anything and oversee all the logistics. For conferences and conventions you may register guests before the event begins.

As a meeting and event planner you'll do you're best to make sure nothing goes wrong, but if there is a problem you'll likely have to take care of it. After the conference, wedding reception, convention or business meeting is completed you'll make sure the client is satisfied, make sure the cleanup is completed and tie up any loose ends. As a meeting and event planner you'll also review vendor invoices and approve them for payment.