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CAREERS IN MEETING AND EVENTS MANAGEMENT HOSPITALITY MARKETING Institute Research Number 378 ISBN 1-58511-378-6 CAREERS IN MEETING AND EVENTS MANAGEMENT HOSPITALITY MARKETING INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT BUSINESS FUNCTION PLANNING EVERYTHING FROM SALES MEETINGS TO MAJOR CONVENTIONS EVERY TIME A LARGE INDUSTRY HOLDS A NATIONAL CONVENTION OR A COMPANY calls its sales force together to discuss sales goals, someone must coordinate the meeting, making the schedule run efficiently, the rooms comfortable and effective, and the food satisfactory. Meeting and events managers oversee these types of arrangements. Think about some of the events you’ve attended or seen on television. Major political conventions and debates require careful and specialized planning, involving a large staff of planners and workers. Business trade takes place at important meetings, conventions and events. For example, the food and publishing industries hold conventions and trade shows to display their new products and offer samples. The reasons that companies and organizations hold meetings: Education Training Information exchange Decision making Research Sales Strategic planning Team building 2 New product introduction Reorganization and problem solving Training and education appear to be the most common reasons for meetings. Virtually every type of business holds meetings of some sort. It is estimated that typical executives spend anywhere from 25% to as much as 75% of their day in meetings. As an industry, more than $8 billion were spent in one year on meetings just within the continental United States. Executives believe that many of their meetings turn out to be a waste of time, and it’s up to meeting planners to ensure that meetings add to a company’s efficiency and profits, rather than just cost money and provide a pleasant diversion for those who attend. In addition to corporate meetings, people need events planners for entertainment and cultural activities too. If your city offers special summer arts events, planners set up the activities, entertainment and food. What’s more, events are held to celebrate special occasions in people’s lives. Weddings, retirement parties and other family events require the help of an events planner to make them successful. You might consider moving to a major city anywhere in the world and working as a meeting planner within a large corporation. Your job might involve travel to various corporate locations or to sites of future meetings for employees to shareholders and boards of directors. When researching meeting and events management careers, no one place offers complete career information. That’s partly because types of meeting and events planner jobs vary so much. Information on positions may be grouped in with hospitality industry jobs. In fact, this career is often placed within that category, since duties almost always involve a hotel, convention center, restaurant or similar facility to host the meeting. And many meeting planners work right in hotels or transfer from the lodging industry into meeting planning. If you have a special interest, you might be able to work it into your events planning career. For example, if you love meetings and concerts, you might be able to work in the entertainment industry or even help set up concerts in your local community. Meeting and events management offers many interesting choices and benefits – like travel, meeting interesting people and seeing your work come together in an actual, often exciting, event. It’s a little known career that crosses many industries. With a little management experience, you can be well on your way to a fast-paced, important, and rewarding career, planning and facilitating great experiences for others! 3 CONSIDER YOUR OPTIONS WHAT’S GREAT ABOUT THESE JOBS IS THAT MANY DIFFERENT TYPES OF COMPANIES have such pos