Know Your Own Company
Do you know what challenges your company is facing? If not, find out, suggests Debi Scholar, CMP, CMM, CTE, an advisory director for New York City's PricewaterhouseCoopers. "Almost all companies are trying to find ways to reduce travel, meetings and events," says Scholar, who focuses her consulting services on managing travel, meetings and entertainment expenses.
"If we know that's the foundation of what the organization is facing, it behooves a planner to give suggestions on ways to reduce the length of meetings or other ways to reduce costs. It's so important to know what's going on in your industry and at your company, to help you have those conversations with executives."
And don't be surprised if your company decides to outsource some meetings services. "Many companies today are streamlining their operations to include only services that fall in their industry," Scholar says.
She adds that planners should be proactive and flexible: "Ask questions or propose solutions." Scholar suggests, for example, saying, "During this time of reduced meetings, I propose that we work on strengthening our contract templates, adding virtual meetings to our scope of services, tightening our T&E policies and streamlining our processes so that when meetings increase, we'll be able to save even more money."
When times are tight, executives who don't understand what it takes to arrange an effective meeting might well look to the planning department as a place to cut costs -- and personnel. Now is the time to strategize how to maximize your value to your company. In fact, 75 percent of planners polled in a recent M&C survey said they report their worth to higher-ups (see "Meetings on the Line").
In March alone, the number of jobless Americans increased by 694,000 to 13.2 million, and the unemployment rate rose to 8.5 percent. In our industry, it's unclear if the worst is over. Dawn Penfold, president of Meetingjobs.com, has seen hiring by third-party companies pick up since February, but competition for open positions is fierce: "I've been working on a position that pays $55,000-$65,000," she says. "I have about 600 resumes to go through."
As instructive examples, following are the stories of four planners whose creative approaches to their careers have so far built for them a bulwark against the dreaded pink slip. (Due to the sensitive nature of the topic, three of them, at high-profile firms, asked not to be identified; their disguised names bear an asterisk.)
Redefine yourself
Kathleen Zwart's work life at BlueCross BlueShield of Florida is a blueprint of flexibility. Now meetings and events manager for the insurance giant, Zwart, a certified meeting professional, joined BCBS 10 years ago, planning smaller management events. But in the intervening years, many of those meetings were either eliminated, drastically cut back or brought on-site.
"A lot of my expertise was not being used," says Zwart, who works in BCBS's Jacksonville, Fla., headquarters. "Knowing I needed to ensure my worth to the company, I realized I had to look for other areas of responsibility."
So she found a weak spot: Most of the meetings being held throughout the state were being planned by administrative assistants. "I recognized that none of them had been trained on negotiating or understanding the importance of the room setup or the types of A/V equipment or dealing with the staff at a venue. With the blessing of the right people, I set up classes and marketed them internally to our employees."
Eventually, Zwart began to consolidate all of the organization's events through her department of one. "About two years ago, I really kicked it into high gear to bring on board a policy change that would require our meetings to be more centralized," Zwart says.
Zwart wrote the new meetings policy and at the same time rewrote her own job description. Last September, she officially took on her new role, moving from human resources into the corporate services group. This coincided with the opening of a 14,000-square-foot conference center on the company's Jacksonville campus -- opening up even more opportunity for savings.
"We instituted a communications program to let the employees know that all meetings have to be booked in a BCBS facility," says Zwart. Some events, mostly customer-oriented, still are held off-site, but anyone who wants to reserve space at an outside venue has to get a form approved by three vice presidents.
Zwart now is gathering statistics to show how much money the recent changes are saving. "My goal is to present some type of ROI on this," she says, "so my executives can say, 'Oh, yes, we need to keep her.' " She adds, "I think I have created a position that's vital to the company. Every day my badge is swiped and the gate opens is a good day."
Key strategies:
• Explore ways to be more valuable to your organization.
• Evaluate how meetings are being planned to determine if this is the right time to centralize or outsource.
• Rewrite your job description to include new responsibilities.
Jump on the opportunity
Patricia* is a glass-half-full person. As a senior planner for a top energy company, she has used the downturn as the perfect time to shore up plans to centralize the company's meetings and institute a strategic meetings management policy. "I've actually gotten more support from leadership lately," she says.
What catapulted the push to centralize? Patricia and her planner colleagues noticed that company programs were being canceled, contrary to contractual terms, and calls for help were coming in from the far reaches of the firm as properties tried to get the company to uphold its agreements. "We went to leadership to show that people were signing contracts they shouldn't have signed," says Patricia. "We argued that in tough times, administrative assistants should call us more often. We've been able to replace some of those cancellations with new business."
Before the economy crashed, Patricia was having a tough time getting support for the strategic plan -- but that was then. "This has helped us get a seat at the table," she says of the downturn's effect. "We're going to formalize the plan by this summer, and my division already has set out a mandate that all external meetings must go through our planner. But we're a large, worldwide company, so to get a mandate like that U.S.-wide, let alone globally, takes time."
Meanwhile, Patricia feels as secure in her job as ever. "I work for a large company, and we still do a lot of events," she says. "And we have not released any planners. Last year, I would say we were overworked; now we're just busy."
Patricia's advice to her peers: "Everything that you do that saves the company risk, dollars and reputation should be compiled on a weekly or monthly basis and sent back to your boss. I consider that among the top things I do here."
Key strategies:
• Use the downturn to define why your skills are more necessary than ever.
• Compile statistics on ways you save the company risk and dollars, and how you preserve its reputation.
M&C Web Exclusive: What Your Association Can Do for You
If you have managed to hold on to your membership to Meeting Professionals International or the Professional Convention Management Association, now is the time to get some extra benefit from your dues. Aside from hosting numerous face-to-face networking and educational opportunities, both are reaching out on the Internet to support their members.
PCMA has created the Career Stimulus Package at pcma.org. Three webcasts were available as of mid-April: "Creating Your Personal Brand," "Making Yourself Indispensable" and, for those who are searching for a new position, "How to Stand Out From the Crowd: Résumé Design for Senior Meeting Professionals."
Looking to come up with more content, PCMA held a think tank in March to address many of the problems both corporate and association planners are facing, such as maximizing attendance numbers at events and how to reduce budgets while delivering the same experience. "From the information we gleaned, we will be creating education so we can continue to delve into these issues and come up with more solutions," says association president and CEO Deborah Sexton.
MPI (mpiweb.org) has just launched two programs to shore up planners' efforts to keep their positions. "No Turning Back: A Revolution in the Meetings Industry" is a three-part series that aims to explain four key elements of strategic value for meetings and events: portfolio management, meeting design, measurement and advanced logistics. It began with an April 21 webcast based on "The Case for Meetings," a briefing paper by Mary Boone of Mary Boone Associates. A half-day workshop will be held at the World Education Congress in Salt Lake in July, and the series ends with a webcast on August 26. The "Meetings Matter" series lasts eight weeks, starting at the end of April and running through June. Each webcast will offer real-life solutions to issues that industry professionals currently are facing.
Available anytime at MPI's site is a webcast called "Prove Your Worth as a Meeting Planner." And on May 21, the organization will host one on industry challenges and solutions. MPI also offers statistics from its Future Watch study and its bimonthly Business Barometer to help planners argue the benefit of the events they handle and, by extension, their own position in their companies.
In addition, Sexton suggests looking to the CMP study programs online for help. "Even if you're not interested in getting the certification," she says, "it truly is the most up-to-date best practices in the industry." -- S.B.
Have answers ready
Emily* is a senior planner for a major banking corporation that was involved in one of the many mergers that took place in 2008. Anticipating that the two planning departments will become one, she is lining up her arguments for why she should be retained.
Meanwhile, she's very busy. "We're doing a ton of external client events and seminars to let them know what we can still do for them," says Emily, who has a CMP as well as a master's degree in hospitality administration.
If pressed to defend her job, Emily says she would first point out that she has worked for the company for more than a decade and brings solid value with that history. "I'm very experienced and very good at what I do. I'd show negotiations I've done; the history is in the contracts."
Emily also is prepared to talk up her relationships in the industry and discuss how she can play hardball in negotiations only because she knows her sales representatives so well. Those relationships are helping her keep the centralization of the bank's meetings on track, as all events are supposed to go through the bank's 40 or so planners. "We get a lot of administrative assistants who go out and try to negotiate with hotels," she says. "I often find out from vendors who know me and know our policy."
If she needs to, Emily can describe other ways she saves the company money, such as asking for commissionable rates to bring those dollars back to the firm, and negotiating for waived shipping fees. "It sounds small, but it all adds up," she says.
For the hard-core budget numbers, Emily's department compiles monthly reports that are reviewed on the executive level. "We come up with an estimated budget for each event and then update it with actual numbers," she explains.
Still, at least for the time being, Emily isn't stressing to higher-ups her own role in the success of her department. "I do not toot my own horn," she says. "I'll save that for when it's job-decision time."
But she is confident about her value to her department and her company: "There is such a return on investment with meeting planners. Our experience means so much. You don't know how many hotels are happy to work with a real planner rather than an administrative assistant. I'll send them my specs, and all they have to do is write them down. They don't have to come back to me with a thousand questions. I know what they're looking for, and I give it to them up front."
Key strategies:
• Have backup arguments and statistics ready, noting how and when you've saved the company money.
• Quantify the value of the relationships you've formed.
Show them the money
Karen* works for a major manufacturing company, where the number of meetings has decreased somewhat, and she and her colleagues recently had to produce about 10 years' worth of data to defend their positions. "We were getting questions of the viability of the meetings department, being asked if this was something you really need a professional to do," says Karen, a CMP.
She and her colleagues argued that their skills bring value to the company in the best of times and the worst of times. "I don't know if it saved my position or not, but the fact that we had years of data definitely was impressive," says Karen. "We could account for savings and spend, and were able to show who all our internal clients were -- not just executives or assistants, but at all levels."
Her department also is exploring new ways to help internal clients, such as setting up online registration for meetings that wouldn't have used the technology in the past. "We're spending more time educating and helping," she says.
To others in the industry, Karen advises, "Don't be shy about what you've done, because you really don't have anything to lose."
Key strategies:
• Keep at least five years of data.
• Be able to define your internal clients and find new ways to help them.