Event and Meetings Planning: Current Challenges
Event and meetings planning and management is one of the most lucrative and consequently, most popular fields to get into these days. If you have spent any considerable amount of time in the industry, you can well agree with this. Whether you are a mid level or senior level event planner, the challenges you face in the short and long term of your career seem to be getting more complicated and more varied. What are some of the most common challenges that an event planner may find themselves facing in today"s market and economy?
- Smaller Budgets - Of course, one of the most readily apparent and problematic is the smaller budgets many corporations and businesses are offering for your event planning and management services. As the economy stumbles upon current financial setbacks, every market suffers-and though important, the event planning industry is one of the first to be cut or downsized. This means less room to really show your clients what you can do with ingenuity, creativity, and planning savvy.
- Technology - Another biggie as far as event and meetings planning challenges, is the growing demand for event planning companies and specialists that use only the latest in technology to characterize professional events. This means you need at bare minimum wireless internet and computer upgrades, and of course must offer it as included in your standard fee. There is nothing special about offering these technology incentives, as they are now expected from meetings planners.
- Competition - It is a given that in any industry you will be dealing with intense competition, especially as the market puts the squeeze on your clients. The difference now is that the competition comes not only from your event planning peers, but now others industries-similar in purpose-are vying for your clients. For example, you may notice that hotels and conference centers are now offering bigger incentives and meeting packages for groups looking to host their own events and meetings. This puts even more strain on event and meeting planner specialists such as yourself.
By Michelle Simmons
Get Event Jobs, Contributing Editor
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