Business Travel Consulting

THE MEETING PLANNERS AND THEIR CHALLENGES

el 2020-01-15 16:36:42

The challenges facing Meeting Planners today are many and increasingly large, so to survive in this industry you must have a peripheral vision where the least thing to do is to be constantly informed, trained, attentive to the changes that are are coming and above all resist.

The organizers have come a long way, from those times when they made hotel reservations or sent the plane tickets by traditional mail, until today that they face large generational gaps, changes in market behavior, technological innovations and even tax regulations, aspects that directly and indirectly influence the success of the work of an event organizer.

Today, the challenge to face is that customers are informed, that is, that they know the difference between a professional and certified event organizer, of those who only claim to be. Here the main problem is that the industry has not been able to fully penetrate the knowledge of the customers, make them see the difference and guide them in what they should receive from a professional organizer so that they not only focus on looking for certain services, but the strategy integral of the event.

Challenges vs. Opportunities

Unfortunately, our industry does not have regulations that can guarantee 100% of the skills, tools and results of a meeting planner, so posing as a professional organizer is simple, daring to offer all services for all events (congresses, conventions , incentive trips, exhibitions, weddings, mass events, graduations, etc.) I dare to say that only a handful of companies in Mexico have the capacity to do so.

The most worrisome of all, is that there is also no entity that monitors this kind of companies, and we have already learned of important frauds that unfortunately have been carried out. The bad thing for the organizers is that once they went through a bad experience, customers do not trust companies that are professionals. In addition, everything becomes a vicious circle, since these "organizers" give very low prices and also offer to do EVERYTHING. But when a professional company arrives, with real costs, they don't trust them and consider them "very expensive."

Blunt strategies

The most important solution is the training of clients, to make a strategy within the meetings industry so that true professionals are sought. Instruct them to know how to detect the pseudo organizer that can make them a bad move. It is a challenge, but it is vital that the industry can organize and make a series of rules that are made public with other industries. But of course, organization and joint work of the same Meeting Planners and PCOs are needed.

It would also be very important that the certifications that exist and that endorse the Meeting Planner, such as the Certified Meeting Professional (CMP), Certified Exhibition Management (CEM), Certified Meeting Manager (CMM), Certified Association, be made known outside the industry Sales Executive (CASE) and clearly stated the purpose of each of them. Thus, who knows that there is an industry established in our country, with chapters of international and national associations, will be of great help so that clients have confidence in professional people who not only operate an event, but also propose a strategy for win - win tato from the client as from the organizer.

Source: https://skift.com/2017/08/09/meeting-planners-sound-off-on-their-biggest-challenges/