Inspiration Hub

Mistakes happen — even to the most organized event planners. It’s hard to be perfect when you’re juggling endless details and deadlines, corresponding with dozens of caterers, and trying to woo sponsors.

Event planning is a mix of fast-paced excitement and mind-boggling stress. You know it’s worth it when you see the smiles on your attendees’ faces — but sometimes it’s hard to remember that feeling during a last-minute crisis. Whether you need to get pumped up to power through an event-day marathon or a tricky sponsorship negotiation, mantras can help you feel centered so you can take action.

It’s easy to get into an afternoon/end-of-day slump. But how you end your day can have a great impact on how you begin your tomorrow. Obviously, you want your work days to be as productive as possible, so to make that more of a daily reality, try ending each day by completing the following six tasks:

While the featured speaker at your conference may only be on stage for 40, 60 or 90 minutes, as a meeting professional, you are most likely “on stage” throughout the entire conference. From corporate clients to team members, venue partners to service providers and conference chairs to attendees—the variety and number of people you are in contact with seems to be endless. Making a stellar first impression on them should always be at the forefront of your mind. This is because once one an opinion has been formed, it can be hard to change and will dominate someone’s view of you regardless of how often it is contradicted by new experiences. Therefore, your “stage performance” prior, during and after a conference should be a top priority for you and its success will depend on four basic elements.

Many in our industry have heard me speak about strategic meetings management, General Data Protection Regulation, business travel, and other industry-related topics. Most recently, I have been asked to speak about personal career branding, and how as an industry we need to have a greater awareness of our personal brand, and how having a brand can help or hurt your career trajectory. 

Event professional’s New Year’s resolutions are often predictable variations of the same goals: selling more tickets, achieving a better work-life balance,  or learning how to relax. It’s human nature to want to grow and improve — but resolutions are doomed to fail if you keep making the same ones year after year without a game plan. Keep reading to see which of these New Year’s resolutions you’ve likely broken in the past — and how just a little tweak might make this the year that you finally follow through.

It’s only been a day and I’ve already had to harness my willpower (big time) at times to stick to some of my goals. Why is resisting those carbs so hard? They say it’s not the destination but the journey. Yet, even though our intended destinations are clearly visible, the road can remain unclear. So what do you do when your goals are made, and it’s time to hit the road? What steps to you make to get to your destination? Do you go left or right in this journey of completion?

It’s hard to believe 2018 is almost over. As the year winds down, it’s natural (and good!) to reflect on the past 12 months. In fact, doing so can help set you up for a more successful new year. Now, 12 months is a lot to reflect on. To help narrow the scope, here are 12 questions - some about you, some about your organization’s membership - to ask yourself for an even better (and more successful) 2019.

If there’s a special event professional in your life, you know they already had your holiday present picked out months ago. (Their penchant for preparedness extends far beyond events.) You, on the other hand, are a little more last-minute in your gift selection.

December 31 seems to creep up faster and faster every year. While resolutions aren’t for everyone, I think we can all agree that a new year is the perfect time to start fresh with something, whether that’s a new initiative at the office or working on something a little more personal.

It’s important to have social media pages for your business. A $20 ad can bring in hundreds of likes and sharing photos—and hash-tagging correctly—can guide Instagram users to your photo to see what you’re all about. But an under-utilized, yet very necessary, social media network is LinkedIn. It’s the “professional” version of who you are and what you do, yet it’s often neglected and left un-updated.

Gifts for event professionals can be hard to choose. What should you get the event prof in your life that has it all? When picking gifts for event professionals keep in mind these individuals are busy, stressed, and usually have a finer taste.  We are taking the stress out of gift giving by providing you the must-have gifts for the year! We’ve hand-selected our favorite gifts for event professionals so that you can be certain your gift to them something they will love to have!

Thanksgiving is a time to be grateful for friends and family and all the good in our lives. For meetings and events professionals, MeetingsNet would like to add a few other things to the list, such as the people who work to keep travel safe and comfortable for our attendees, and the tech geniuses who help us do our jobs better. We also appreciate that our industry is often the driving force behind progressive ideas and technologies.

It can be difficult to maintain a healthy work-life balance when so much is at stake. But — surprisingly — your phone can be a source of relief (instead of endless notifications). Here are apps that will help you find your happy place, take a moment to breathe, and (finally) get a good night’s sleep.

You love meeting new people, are calm under pressure and brilliant at prioritising tasks. But is the event planning business right for you? Whether you’re a student looking for advice on how to break into the event planning business or an experienced professional wanting to change tracks, this guide can help guide your way.

Discover the skills, tools, and tactics you need to know before becoming an event planner.

Before you can perform meeting magic, you first have to find your next gig. That requires a killer resume. When you have a lot to brag about, it can be easy to overlook important skills that you bring to an organization and emphasize irrelevant information. Let’s take your CV one section at a time to make sure your event cred is obvious even at a glance.

Event planners know that work and life are all about the little details. Small luxuries like a coffee bar with the type of milk you take or a swag bag that you won’t immediately throw away are what make an event great. Here are thirteen things in life that thrill event planners — to the bewilderment of most of your friends.

Distractions—a constant in the workplace, a thorn in a boss’ side, the enemy of the common employee. While a few workers may be able to power through for eight hours, with only a short lunch break and a phone in their bag all day, distractions are inevitable.

Attention to detail is one of the more important qualities of a great event manager. After all, perfectionism is a natural side effect of making a living providing people with flawless live experiences. Once your perfectionism starts creeping into your social life, though, you know you’ve really been in the biz for a while. Especially when you’re at a friend’s wedding and you find yourself paying more attention to the coordinator’s choices than the reception. (Oops.)

You love meeting new people, are calm under pressure, and are a whiz at prioritizing tasks. But is the event planning business right for you? Whether you’re a student looking for advice on how to break into the event planning business or an experienced professional wanting to change tracks, this roadmap can help guide your way. Discover the skills, tools, and tactics you need to know before becoming an event planner.

People in the events industry are witnesses to a wide range of human behavior. From sponsors with unreasonable demands to attendees who are more high-maintenance than your star performers, every day is a new experience. After all, working in events is a like a crash course in keeping calm and carrying on!

Have you ever noticed that when you’re working against a tough deadline, planning a big event, or tackling a challenging assignment, your brain sometimes shuts down out of sheer overwhelm? It’s not your imagination—it’s fear rearing its risk-averse head. Here’s what you need to know to turn off the fear and get back to work.

We need to rethink the idea of failure. It is time to stop viewing it as something negative. Successful failure is when we use it as fuel to improve ourselves, our businesses and our events. Failure helps us take that (at times) much needed step back to rethink, regroup and refocus. After which, we start up again and discipline ourselves to take one step at a time moving forward from the experience.

We’ve all had that one disastrous event where hardly anyone turned up. It’s an excruciating experience, especially if you have stakeholders to answer to. But there’s no reason you should give up.

You’ve looked at your schedule, and see that you’re slammed. Then, you receive an email from a client requesting a change to an event proposal. Also, an attendee is wondering if they can call with questions about the program you’re putting on. Soon, your me-time has dissipated and you’re attempting to make the impossible happen.