Becoming a successful event planner

Transforming criticism and controversy into lessons learnt
Responding constructively to feedback represents the first step toward growth and becoming a better meeting professional. But taking conflict, controversy and criticism in stride is not natural-it is a learned behaviour. Transform them into constructive lessons learnt.

Change failure into opportunity
Henry Ford – “Failure is an opportunity to begin again more intelligently.” Tackle failure by making it an opportunity and stay positive. Eliminate the idea of failure and be persistence on being a perfectionist to make the next event better.

Creating Relationships
Business success is predicated on beneficial interpersonal communication and relationships. In order to be successful in todayás business world, you must understand how to relate to co-workers and clients.

Creating relationship is an integral piece of the planner/client relationship and, as in all good relationships, this connection must grow and develop. Make sure you fix any problem that may arise early.

An integral part of a meeting plannerás job is creating positive connections with clients and helping to make their events successful. Planners generate business because a client admired their successes or believed their behaviours aligned with the clientás goals. This is also applicable for event planners in companies where you will need to build good relationship between you and the departments that you are working with. Good relationships can help enhance your role and value within the company.

Be Present
It is essential that your clients or co-workers know that they can count on you to make their events a success. Meeting planners must always-and in all ways-be available to them. Be ready to jump in when a need arises.

Being flexible and adaptable are core behaviours of successful meeting planners. The wise and experienced ones know that circumstances can change without warning. In a strong planner/client or co-worker relationship, it is easier to adapt to these changes. Meeting planners often deal with unforeseen circumstances, and the good ones bend when necessary. They help their clients and co-workers by demonstrating creativity, understanding and presence.

Go out and learn
It is impossible to develop necessary skills in a vacuum. The more industry interaction you have, the more successful you will be.

Listen…listen…listen
Listening may be the most important part of a meeting plannerás job-and it may also be the most difficult. By developing the ability to listen for the emotions behind words, you learn to hear what the personás needs really are, and problems occur less often.

Developing good listening behaviours may be one of those areas where we teach best what we most need to learn. The first step here is to make the commitment to become a better listener. Step two is to listen more than you speak. Once you create the intention and take some action, you can then identify other ways to improve your listening skills.

Setting Limits
In order to remain successful-and sane-planners must set limits. Remember that while you always want to produce a successful event, it is virtually impossible to please everyone.

Develop your managerial skills by delegating tasks to your staff. This is an excellent way to train and mentor your subordinates while remaining efficient and effective.

Great meeting professionals monitor their own intentions and those of their clients or co-workers and occasionally asking for feedback.