Independent Planners and Meetings: A Love Story

In this final installment of our series on independent planners, Travel Market Report looks at why independents love what they do, how they network, the challenges, the trends and the outlook.

Puzzle-solving, creative freedom, variety and the opportunity to see projects through to completion – these are the rich rewards of their profession, according to independent meeting planners.

“I really enjoy putting together the pieces of the puzzle,” said Dale Hamakawa, who runs H2 Management – Extraordinary Meetings and Events in San Francisco. “It’s very creative. I liken it to giving birth. You start with a concept and can see it all the way to its fruition.”

For Vicky Betzig, it’s the variety that goes with being an independent planner that she loves – as well as “the challenge of doing new things all the time.”

“With PCMA (Professional Convention Management Association), for instance, they are always trying new things – like co-locating with the Virtual Edge meeting in January to do a hybrid event,” said Betzig, president and owner of Meetings Industry Consulting in Brookfield, Wisc. The PCMA is one of Betzig’s largest clients.

Planning a meeting may be hard work, but there’s a payoff, said Jena Warden, president of JWH Inc. in Alexandria, Va. “It’s very enjoyable to be part of something from beginning to end; there are many jobs where you don’t have that opportunity.

“One of the greatest things about planning,” said Warden, “is that you see an end to your project. You see it come together, hopefully in a successful way.”

Creative & memorable
For Karen Gill, president of MECK International Meeting & Event Services in Vero Beach, Fla., the rewards of her profession are in “the creativity and attention to detail – and seeing that it all comes off well. Seeing all the pieces come together is really satisfying.”

Pat Ahaesy, president of P&V Enterprises in New York, also enjoys the creativity, piecing a puzzle together and “making it happen.”

“We like to make it seamless,” said Aheasy.

The creative elements of a meeting can be memorable. Gill once staged a meeting in Fiji where attendees wrote their dreams on organic gourds that were then tossed out to sea.

“We went out early in the morning and had Fijian warriors with us. We put the dreams in a basket and the warriors took the basket out into the water. I was thrilled to find something that the attendees will always remember.”

Tracking trends – independently
It’s important for independents to stay ahead of the curve in terms of what’s important to their clients, planners said.

For instance, Hamakawa said, “we are seeing more interest in green meetings with a CSR (corporate social responsibility) component. More companies are cognizant of this.

“Because of the emphasis on green, we publish less and less on paper; it’s all electronic. I also try to encourage the use of sustainable foods with ingredients that come from within a close radius of the event.

“As far as CSR, I’ve had companies install playground equipment at schools. Or they have gone to parks to clear out invasive plants and put in native species. We’ve also made teddy bears for hospitalized kids.”

Virtual meetings and hybrid meetings that combine virtual and physical elements are “definitely the way to go,” said Ahaesy.

“That can be expensive if you use the technology correctly, and we have to become more cost-effective. We are all finding that people who attend virtual meetings are more interested in coming to physical meetings.”

Ahaesy said clients have become too budget-conscious. “They remember the wonderful things and still want them, but are not always willing to pay for them.” For example, clients want to be green, “but don’t want to spend the money.”

“When there’s more competition in that area, costs will come down. We even had one client ask for a green bid and a no-green bid for the same event.”
   
Collaborative mindset
Independent planners are natural networkers. That’s fortunate because, unlike in the travel agency profession, there are no organized associations for home-based planners. Some organizations do have separate tracks for independents.

“Independents are inclined to network with one another. We want to collaborate. That allows us the freedom to have our own clients,” Warden said.

At one time, there was an attempt to launch an association of independents, but it did not gain traction, according to Ahaesy. Social media now meets that need, she said, as well as membership in organizations like Meeting Professionals International, where Ahaesy serves on the membership committee.

Industry groups
Warden does a lot of her networking through a broader industry group, the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI). The affiliation “provides excellent networking because many members are hoteliers and destination management companies,” Warden said.

Independent contractor Glenda Stewart also networks through HSMAI. She serves with Warden on the advisory board for an affordable meetings educational and networking event that HSMAI runs three times a year.

Betzig is a longtime speaker at Affordable Meeting, and leads HSMAI’s Meeting Planner Boot Camps.

Gill said she tends to network with and ask advice of other planners that she meets on fam trips and at conferences.

“I’m doing a meeting in Peru this summer,” she said. “I just got through discussing it with somebody who has been there many times. I’ll also send out an email and ask if anybody has had a meeting in a certain location.”