Traits of great meeting planners

March 4th, 2019 @ Michael Pinchera

skills

After 950 presentations at conference and conventions, I have a fairly good idea of what type of meeting planner is best to work with. Here is the unvarnished truth, (solely on my experience), based on 12 criteria. It’s not all-encompassing, but if you focus on the accomplishing the elements on the left, you’re off to a great start.

Best clients	Less-than-best clients
Complete my pre-speech survey	Do not complete my pre-speech survey
Have accurately gauged audience needs	Have inaccurately gauged audience needs
Are skilled planners	Are first-time or unskilled planners
Have one person serve as prompt liaison	Manage by committee with no one in charge
Do not over-schedule their attendees	Over-schedule their attendees
Allow me free reign beforehand	Hog my time beforehand
Allow me free reign with handouts	Micro-manage the handouts
Offer a good flyer and good write-up	Offer a poor flyer and/or poor write-up
Provide a hands-free lavalier microphone	Do not provide a lavalier microphone
Arrange the room as I requested	Ignore the room arrangement request
Have adequate food, restroom breaks	Have inadequate food, restroom breaks
Are prompt payers	Are slow payers