Example Career: Meeting, Convention and Event Planners

Career Description

Coordinate activities of staff, convention personnel, or clients to make arrangements for group meetings, events, or conventions.

What Job Titles Meeting, Convention and Event Planners Might Have

• Conference Planning Manager
• Conference Services Manager
• Convention Services Manager (CSM)
• Events Manager

What Meeting, Convention and Event Planners Do

• Consult with customers to determine objectives and requirements for events such as meetings, conferences, and conventions.
• Review event bills for accuracy, and approve payment.
• Coordinate services for events, such as accommodation and transportation for participants, facilities, catering, signage, displays, special needs requirements, printing and event security.
• Arrange the availability of audio-visual equipment, transportation, displays, and other event needs.
• Confer with staff at a chosen event site to coordinate details.
• Inspect event facilities to ensure that they conform to customer requirements.
• Maintain records of event aspects, including financial details.
• Monitor event activities to ensure compliance with applicable regulations and laws, satisfaction of participants, and resolution of any problems that arise.
• Negotiate contracts with such service providers and suppliers as hotels, convention centers, and speakers.
• Evaluate and select providers of services according to customer requirements.
• Plan and develop programs, agendas, budgets, and services according to customer requirements.
• Hire, train, and supervise volunteers and support staff required for events.
• Conduct post-event evaluations to determine how future events could be improved.
• Direct administrative details such as financial operations, dissemination of promotional materials, and responses to inquiries.
• Meet with sponsors and organizing committees to plan scope and format of events, to establish and monitor budgets, or to review administrative procedures and event progress.
• Read trade publications, attend seminars, and consult with other meeting professionals to keep abreast of meeting management standards and trends.
• Organize registration of event participants.
• Develop event topics and choose featured speakers.
• Promote conference, convention and trades show services by performing tasks such as meeting with professional and trade associations, and producing brochures and other publications.
• Design and implement efforts to publicize events and promote sponsorships.
• Obtain permits from fire and health departments to erect displays and exhibits and serve food at events.

What Meeting, Convention and Event Planners Should Be Good At

• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
• Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Fluency of Ideas - The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
• Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
• Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
• Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).

What Meeting, Convention and Event Planners Need to Learn

• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Communications and Media - Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
• Clerical - Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
• Public Safety and Security - Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.