mastertheevent.com

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Conferences
  • Events
  • Parties
  • Promotions
  • Resources
    • Event Planning Checklist
    • Event Planning Emergency Toolkit
    • Wedding Day Emergency Toolkit
    • Party Checklist
    • Drink Calculator
    • Room Capacity Calculator
    • Venue & Vendor Directory
    • Podcast
    • Write for us!

The Best Planners Possess These 5 Characteristics

November 5, 2015 By Andrew Maxwell 2 Comments

Share on Facebook Share
Share on Twitter Tweet
Share on Google Plus Share
Share on Pinterest Share
Share on Linkedin Share
Share on Stumbleupon Share
Send email Mail

caricatures of people in a crowd with the words: the best planners have these 5 characteristicsThere are good meeting and event planners and there are bad ones. Like most industries it’s just the way it is. If you’ve been in the event planning industry for a while then no doubt you’ve worked with some of the good ones and, unfortunately, some bad ones too. From my own experiences the best planners are the ones that you don’t mind going the extra mile for. And at the same time whenever I’ve had the unfortunate opportunity of working with bad planners, I would always keep telling myself that I’m doing this for the delegates. That would help make it worthwhile.

Related: 3 Telltale Signs You’re Working with a Bad Meeting Planner

The Best Planners Are the Ones That You Don’t Mind Going the Extra Mile for

Looking back at all of the meeting and event planners that I worked with, I’ve determined that all of the good ones seem to possess some common personality traits, characteristics as it were. Good meeting planners, or team leaders, aren’t intimidated by someone else’s strengths. Quite the contrary. A good planner knows how to bring out the best qualities in his or her teams.

Five characteristics that great meeting and event planners possess:

Integrity. Someone whose words you can trust. You know that if they say something then they will deliver. They are true to their words. I can’t tell you how many times my company has put together proposals only to find out that the meeting planners in question then took those ideas and contacted the venues directly. Luckily for us, we had excellent relationships with our suppliers and they would, most often, give us a referral fee for the piece of business.

Listening skills. Believe it or not there are people out there that will actually listen to what’s being said and take it under consideration to make a decision. A great meeting planner isn’t afraid that someone else’s ideas are better than his or her own.

Negotiation skills. Negotiating is a fine art. This is a characteristic that will tell you how much of a leader the person is. If a planner is negotiating by intimidation, my advice would be to run away as fast as you can. To me intimidation shows lack of confidence and ability.

Problem-solving. As anyone who’s been in the industry long enough knows, Murphy’s law plays a huge role in meeting and event planning. But it’s how planners handles the situation that tells you what kind of leaders they are. Are they running around screaming at everybody trying to make things right or do they remain calm (during the storm) while putting corrective measures into action?

Passion. If people get into meeting and event planning because they think the travel is exotic, they’re in for a rude awakening. Now don’t get me wrong, it is nice to get out there and see some of the great destinations in the world. But, as I’ve mentioned many times here before, there are many meeting planners that don’t even know what city they’re in. They are simply that busy. But if the industry is a passion, a planner will rise to the occasion and actually be motivated by the challenges of his or her job.

Meeting and event planning can be a very rewarding career. The best planners out there know how to develop and grow a team to ensure that they have all of their bases covered. If you’re fortunate enough to be working for one of the good ones take advantage of the situation. You’re going to learn information about the job that event planning courses simply can’t teach you. I guess they call that experience.

Share on Facebook Share
Share on Twitter Tweet
Share on Google Plus Share
Share on Pinterest Share
Share on Linkedin Share
Share on Stumbleupon Share
Send email Mail

Related posts:

  1. How Event Planners Can Break Bad News to Their Clients
  2. How to Be Unpopular with Meeting Planners
  3. When to Schedule Events
  4. 3 Telltale Signs You’re Working with a Bad Meeting Planner (You Really Only Need 1)

Filed Under: Planning A Conference, Planning An Event, Tools & Resources Tagged With: event planner, event planners, leadership, leadership characteristics, meeting and event planning, meeting planner, meeting planners, planning events

About Andrew Maxwell

Andrew is an entrepreneur who focuses on customer service and is respected for his attention to detail. His hospitality career began in hotels, working his way through various food and beverage positions. From there he excelled in hotel operations, holding several managerial positions including Senior Operations Manager with Canada's largest hotel.

Andrew's financial acumen and his ability to develop and enhance his companies business strategies helped propel his full service destination management company (DMC) into one of the largest databases of online resources for the meetings and events industry in North America.

He has a well established online presence. By networking on the top social media platforms Andrew has developed a large, organic, following.

Trackbacks

  1. 3 Reasons Not to Get into Event Management says:
    November 17, 2015 at 3:27 pm

    […] THE BEST PLANNERS POSSESS THESE 5 CHARACTERISTICS […]

    Reply
  2. The 5 Skills of Great Event Planners MPN054 - Podcasting for Events says:
    August 2, 2016 at 4:05 am

    […] Andrew Maxwell writes on The Best Planners possesses theses five characteristics […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Directory

Find Event Services in Your Area

Category
Location

RESOURCES

Plan The Perfect Event

Loading

Recent Comments

  • Joy Butler on Why you Need to Spend More Time when Hiring Event Staff
  • Dr. Ronald G. Shapiro on Prepare for Your Awesome & Adventuresome Friend’s Birthday
  • Andy on Prepare for Your Awesome & Adventuresome Friend’s Birthday

Copyright © 2021 MasterTheEvent.com

About Us | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Media Kit | Site Map | Contact Us
X
Share this
Subject:
Message:
This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Learn more.