What Really Helps Event Planners Climb the Career Ladder?

Establishing trust is a first step for every event strategist. Photo: Adobe Stock

Earning a seat at the table rarely happens without you first being a peak performer in your current role. You need to consistently deliver projects on time, on budget and with flawless execution.

Baseline Qualifications

Establishing a track record of collaboration with other departments and volunteer leaders is crucial. It shows that you are a team player who is curious and willing to understand the business more deeply. If you work remotely, look for opportunities to be in the office or around other leaders. Earning trust is much more difficult on Teams or Zoom.

If you encounter a problem, go to your boss with well-thought-out options on how to resolve it. Finally, have your boss’s back. Do everything you can to help them succeed.

Difference Makers

Senior roles are most often filled with individuals who have the ability to see around corners and predict the future. Executives and board members hate surprises. They value predictability above almost everything else. To excel in this area, you’ll need to sharpen your business acumen, financial literacy, and stay on top of what’s happening in your industry and professional events. From my experience, meeting professionals who have a seat at the table usually also have financial responsibility for a meeting’s revenue budget. Expenses matter, but revenue wins the day.

How to Be a Better Forecaster

Most meeting organizers generate weekly pace reporting for number of registrants, rooms picked up, and expo/sponsor sales vs. previous years. These reports are often shared with senior leadership. Many of the examples I’ve seen leave it up to the recipient to interpret and assess what the data means. Here’s a better way.

1. Identify milestone dates (inspection points). These can include cut-off dates for early-bird and standard pricing, room block adjustments, housing, etc.

2. Analyze the past few years of pacing data and develop a thorough forecast in which you predict the pacing for each milestone. Changes in meeting dates or patterns and East Coast vs. West Coast often perform differently. Plot the forecast using the milestone dates first and add interim steps so you can measure weekly.

3. Track both registration and revenue pacing. One-day registrants, exhibitors, and exhibit hall only attendees are the main categories making last minute decisions. Most conferences generate 50% of registration revenue by the early-bird cut-off date.

4. There are likely a couple of important audience segments that should be tracked separately. For a health care conference this might be physicians vs. allied health. For others, concentrate on the major segments that your exhibitors and sponsors would have on their A-lists.

5. Lastly, when you distribute your pacing report or dashboard, include key insights on what the data means and whether mid-course correction is needed.

Scenario Planning

Effective forecasting is not just about picking and hitting a single number. It can be very helpful to create best-case, probable-case, and worst-case scenarios. Demonstrating that you can weigh trade-offs and mitigate risk proves you possess the strategic mindset required to manage a (P&L) Profit & Loss and earn a seat at the table.

Dave Lutz, CMP, is managing director of Velvet Chainsaw Consulting

For more useful tips, read the Forbes article “Ascending to Leadership: Mastering the Art of Earning an Executive Promotion” by Stephen Nalley