Opportunity:
Established publisher in Spicewood, Texas, conducts annual meeting and requires services of an experienced meeting planner to work in collaboration with existing management team to produce the sixteenth annual edition of a meeting that will take place in late April 2010.
Meeting template and activities are well-established. Our organization is “high-touch” with our customers, speakers, and participants—many of whom have attended this event regularly over the past 15 years. Thus, the right candidate will have great people skills, be endearing to all meeting participants, our internal staff, and the hotel staff hosting the event.
Most importantly, our execution is consistently near-flawless. We meet our deadlines, we perform to budget, and our conference runs on schedule and without hiccups. We provide exceptional service to our conference attendees and speakers. We are ideal customers for the hotel that hosts our event. Only a meeting planner with a demonstrated track record of performing to these standards need apply.
Scope of Project:
Hotel contract is finished and managing the hotel relationship is not part of this project. We are returning to the same hotel where we conducted the event in 2009. Thus, there is continuity between our in-house team and the hotel staff. Meeting lasts three days. It attracted 470 participants in 2009. It features about 50 speakers during the three-day event. There is no exhibit hall. Some sponsor activities on-site require attention and coordination.
Services needed:
1) Registration is usually opened by December 1. Marketing intensifies in Jan/Feb and registration activity is mostly in March and April. We maintain a separate web site for the meeting and have used an on-line registration service.
2) Coordinate registration to keep information up to date, supervise confirmation of individual registrations; manage ongoing interaction with participants as they register and as the event approaches. Oversee collection of overdue or delinquent registration payments.
3) Supervise production of conference handbook. This has a biography page for each speaker, along with CEU learning objectives and outline of session. We have a writer that prepares these pages. There is other content in the conference handbook. Meeting planner will coordinate gathering of the raw data and production of the pages with our writer and graphic designer.
4) Supervise printing of conference handbook and all on-site printing, signage, and other graphics needs. Our graphic designer has done this for 10 years, so she is accomplished at the routine. Bid printers and supervise production of these materials and timely delivery to the hotel.
4) Web site: participate in keeping web site as an active, up-to-date source of information and effective marketing tool to encourage paid registrations.
5) Speakers are booked by our CEO and he prepares the marketing materials, including writing copy for promotion via the web, emails, and direct mail. Coordinate these activities to sustain timely delivery of materials according to the printing deadlines and business timetable of the meeting.
6) Speaker management involves confirming participation after the CEO extends a speaking invitation, then updating their address records and contact information. Work with speakers to gather photos, biographical data, abstracts of their presentations, learning objectives, and the additional information needed to feed to the writer and graphic designer.
7) Track speaker travel arrangements, special needs, and on-site confirmation of their arrival at the hotel and their readiness to speak at the appointed time.
8) Guide pre-event interaction with the hotel, ranging from watching the hotel room block pick-up versus our registration flow, managing staff and speaker registrations, and preparing the hotel in advance for our needs.
9) Food and Beverage format is well established. Develop menu to meet budget with CEO, coordinate all the food activities with the hotel before and during the event.
10) Bid audio visual contract and determine most cost-effective vendor. Supervise activities and performance of the audio visual company pre-event, during the event, and post-event. We have a multi-year relationship with one audio visual company that knows this event and our operating needs.
11) Coordinate sponsor activities pre-event and on site. Typically there are about 20 sponsors. One need is for sponsors to sign and return agreements along with their sponsor check prior to the conference. These companies sponsor meals and selected events or activities. So insuring that their signage is prominently placed and public recognition occurs are prime goals.
12) Ideally, this meeting planner will quarterback the event, using the established templates, checklists, and guidelines. This requires coordinating the team before the event takes place, then traveling with our crew and managing the event on site. Upon conclusion of the event, meeting planner will handle all the post-event tasks, including tally of evaluations, mailing of CEU certificates, checking invoices and the hotel’s master bill, and working with speakers to get their expense accounts submitted.
13) Upon conclusion of the event, there will be a final wrap-up session with the entire team to assess the preparation for the conference; the successes and problems during the event; and recommendations for improving next year’s conference.
14) This list probably leaves out several necessary action items required to produce the conference and which would be necessary and part of the scope of the project.
15) Optional activities for individuals with the right experience: skills in marketing and sales, both to generate paid registrations and to increase the number of sponsors who support this conference. One dimension is direct marketing through use of direct mail, e-mail, and web site. Another dimension is promotional collaborations with industry publications, industry vendors, and industry consultants that will promote the conference to their clients, in exchange of different forms of consideration. A third dimension is direct selling through telemarketing and following up leads generated by the entire range of promotional activity.
Time Required:
We view this to be part-time from November 1 through February. We want the meeting planner to operate full-time from our offices in Spicewood, Texas, during March, April, and most of May (during the event wrap-up). This is when the pace becomes intense and there are tight deadlines that must be met.
Skills:
• Must have demonstrated experience as a meeting planner and a “can do” organizer.
• Essential that this individual be a self starter, quick learner, and willing to execute our established meeting template and protocols.
• Skilled at leading a team, with a knack for motivating top performance and exceeding goals.
• Also must be a team player, capable of taking direction for the CEO and accepting the established system that has worked for 15 years.
• Gifted in dealing with different people and different personalities, particularly when they are under the stress caused by travel.
• Enthusiastic and focused on achieving measurable goals.
• Capable of reacting in effective and timely ways to the inevitable glitches, problems, and delays that are a natural part of the conference business.
• Always up for a challenge and possess the creativity to respond to that challenge with the perfect solution.
References:
We require ten professional references and they will be rigorously checked. Any meeting planner with the experience and capabilities required to operate in a leadership role for this conference will have no problem providing ten professional references for clients, former employers, and hotel/conference venues where they have conducted meetings, conferences, and similar events. Don’t bother to apply if you cannot provide ten professional references.
Measurement of Performance:
There will be milestone evaluations and established performance criteria. This conference has a reputation for excellence, both in the content provided by speakers and the execution of the event. It is essential that the meeting planner perform to these criteria.
- Location: Spicewood, Texas
- Compensation: Meeting planner budget is established at a starting base of $15,000, with additional milestone incentive compensation payments based on agreed criteria. Interested candidates should provide details of compensation requirements, since there will be part-time services between now and March 1, with full-time services for March, April, and May.
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