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During a 12-hour education marathon hosted by Meeting Professionals International on April 11 (Global Meetings Industry Day), one meeting host touched on a delicate question that was sure to have all the business event planners in attendance nodding in agreement:
Yes, change is necessary and inevitable. But in the process of planning a large meeting, there must be boundaries for variation, and it’s the planner’s responsibility to enforce those boundaries.those people Doing so will only lead to failure.
This is the message from Huong Nguyen, CEO and founder of Shiloh Events. She told the GMID audience that hosting a business event “means there will be constant change. Every meeting element—budget, agenda, food and beverage, production, etc.—goes through multiple iterations as planning progresses. So, you Change must be viewed as your partner rather than your enemy.
To that end, Nguyen advises planners to “have a backup plan for the event space, meeting hosts, technology and any other elements” that will impact the attendee experience. In addition, “rehearsal is very important” Let planners know what types of failures may occur and how to address or resolve them if they occur. There should be a plan B for everything.
Fight harmful changes
In his 12 years running Shiloh Events, Nguyen has encountered executive decision-makers who stepped in at a later stage of the event planning process and wanted to make sweeping changes. However, whether it’s budget or attendee experience, this is a recipe for disaster, and Nguyen says the responsibility will fall on planners, not the decision-makers who force change.
To protect yourself from situations like this, Nguyen puts the facts on the table, “Let others understand the impact of change, whether it’s good or bad. Once you’ve done this, you can say, ‘This can be done. , but you can see that spending all the time and money necessary to make the change doesn’t do enough good. “
Ruan (in photo) provides a real-life example: Just 30 days after a 3,000-person customer meeting at a technology company, an executive came to Nguyen and said he wanted to change locations for an evening reception. Nguyen remained calm and asked the senior executive about his vision for the event—its goals and the style and atmosphere he thought would achieve those goals.
Based on his answer, Nguyen reiterated the reasons for choosing the original location versus the rest of the destination and how it actually aligned with the senior executive’s goals. Then, “I told him the downsides of making such a big change at the time,” which included the loss of contract deposits; the higher cost of contracting a new venue in a short period of time; changing event apps and other marketing materials to announce the new venue; Changes to specifications and costs for the production company to set up at the new venue; changes to travel times and additional travel costs for groups to the new venue.
She also explained that “the new plan of action that his internal team would have to take would prevent them from doing what else they had to do to make the meeting successful.” After hearing all of this, the executive gave up on his demands, which This special event served its purpose for the host company.
Nguyen’s final lesson: “Change Management is a key A big part of a planner’s skill means letting others understand the full implications.
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