Fifteen years ago this month, Jennifer
Brown, CMP, was M&C’s cover model. As the newly
promoted director of continuing education, West region, for Price
Waterhouse (today’s PricewaterhouseCoopers), Brown was profiled for
making the leap into management ranks. Today, she is a partner at
Irvine, Calif.-based Meeting Sites Resource, a full-service meeting
planning and site-selection company launched by her husband, Tim,
19 years ago.
Brown’s job seems quite different now
than it was then. Technology advances, such as electronic requests
for proposal, have simplified site selection and made it more
efficient, she says. But planners face new challenges, such as
Sarbanes-Oxley. “In the old days, you could pick up the phone and
call your hotel contacts,” Brown recalls. “Today, you have to be
able to show you sought multiple bids, and that adds a lot of
paperwork and stress.”
Despite the changes, some aspects of
the industry remain ingrained. “It’s still difficult for a woman to
get in the boardroom and become a decision-maker,” notes Brown.