Want to be an event planner? There are growing career opportunities in the meeting and event industry. Here's how to get in the door.

MONIQUE O. NERO IS OFTEN LABELED a party planner. But as a certified meeting professional and manager of strategic relations and special events for BellSouth, her job is more multidimensional.

Nero, a one-woman department who reports directly to the chief diversity officer, is charged with multiple tasks, the most important of which is ensuring BellSouth's brand presence through company events.

According to the monthly industry publication The Meeting Professional, 42% of U.S. marketing executives surveyed and 56% of executives worldwide acknowledged that as a marketing tool, events have become more important to their organizations' success. The business of meetings and events, a $102.3 billion industry, has become increasingly critical to a company's bottom line. For 2005, the industry expects a 4% growth in employment and a 5% increase in budgets, atop a 3% increase in 2004. This is according to FutureWatch 2005, a comparative annual outlook sponsored by American Express and Meeting Professionals International, an association for industry professionals and suppliers.

"Twenty-plus years ago, this industry wasn't very well-known," says Hattie Hill, CEO of Hattie Hill Enterprises Inc., based in Dallas. A 23-year veteran of the business who plans 50 meetings a year for various corporate clients, Hill says that even with today's demand, the field still isn't as recognized as it should be.

"We're in a relatively invisible industry," says Tommy Leaf, manager of the corporate recruiting department for The Freeman Companies, a full-service events contractor with clients that include the National Black M.B.A. Association and the Republican National Convention. "The trade show convention industry is a niche and does not have much public exposure. So it makes it very difficult for us to locate candidates with industry-specific skills sets."

BREAKING INTO THE FIELD

The good news: There's no set track to enter this field. "Right now as an industry, there's no clearly defined career path," says Kelly Schulz, director of communications for MPI. "A lot of people, particularly students, don't realize they can go into this profession."

MPI is currently developing a program that will define core competencies necessary for meeting professionals to move from one level to the next. It also has a job bank and links to the growing number of academic institutions with educational tracks that support the meeting profession.

For those new to the industry, Freeman (www.freemanco.com), which has offices in 43 cities in North America and more than 3,500 full-time employees, offers year-long corporate sales and operation programs that allow trainees to spend several weeks at a time in almost every division of the company. Upon completion, trainees are relocated based on business needs and become either account executives or operation managers.

Transferable skills include organizing meetings and hotel experience in sales, catering, and convention planning, according to MPI.

Even with transferable skills, there's still a learning curve. "Someone with three to four years' experience is considered entry-level, unless they've worked for one of our direct competitors," says Leaf. "It can take up to five years doing events planning, conventions, and trade shows to really understand the scope of what we do."

CHARTING A PATH

There are many different jobs within the meeting and event profession. These are some of the most popular: Corporate Planner: Corporate planners are responsible for managing sales meetings, product introductions and promotions, stockholder meetings, executive retreats, annual meetings, and participation in industry-related trade shows and exhibits.

Association Planner: Association planners work mostly for nonprofits, planning conferences that may include educational tracks, multiple speakers, exhibits, and off-site programs. These planners often develop content to support the organization's retention and growth objectives.

Trade Show Organizer: Trade show managers oversee revenue-generating events for their sponsors, while trade show coordinators manage their company's participation in trade shows. Coordinators handle details such as exhibit booths, travel arrangements, and customer entertainment.

Independent Meeting Planner: Independent meeting planners, or consultants, are the fastest-growing segment of meeting professionals. They work on specific projects for corporate, association, or individual clients and sometimes specialize in a particular industry.

Regardless of their title, all meeting professionals need to have certain qualities. Freeman looks for project managers or account executives who are resourceful, responsive, tenacious, ambitious, and principled. It helps if a candidate has the ability to read and understand diagrams and floor plans, as well as calculate figures such as proportions, percentages, area, circumference, and volume.

"Corporate planners are empowered to create the ultimate customer experience," says Leaf. "[You must have] great communication and organizational skills." Other winning traits include being personable, energetic, flexible, and easily adaptable. Backgrounds in marketing and accounting are helpful.

WHERE TO FIND WORK

Classifieds: Look under public relations or advertising. But know that corporate planners can be found working in corporate sales/marketing, human resources, marketing communications, or training.

Industry Websites: Check out Meetingjobs.com and The Meeting Connection (www.meetingconnection.com).

INDUSTRY TRENDS:

Engagement: "If you pull together a talking head meeting in this day and time, you're losing the battle," explains Hill. "The experience has to be quick and positive. It needs to be entertaining and high-tech, because people are looking, listening, and learning." Creatively structured gatherings are much more conducive for achieving performance goals.

Cost reduction: Budgets continue to have the greatest effect on the industry, with 53% of planners citing organizational budget changes as the most impactful operational trend. A FutureWatch report found that meeting and event planners are required to do more with less, which means reducing costs and being more efficient while maintaining the integrity of their meetings.

Return on Investment: "Airlines, hotels, transportation, speakers, all the logistics--that's a huge financial investment. So I want the best return on my investment," says Hill.

A planner is required to demonstrate exactly how meetings are driving value into the organization. "It's not enough to say the attendees had a good time. You have to ask 'Did we increase productivity in some way?' You can have a brilliantly planned meeting, but when you can evolve past logistics and focus on strategies, that's when you have a win-win," Schulz explains. An MPI Foundation/George P. Johnson survey revealed that 51% of companies perceiving past ROI success expect to increase their event marketing budgets.

Security and risk management: "Prior to 9-11, security was one of the check-offs, but it wasn't such a big deal. Now when we do meetings, we have to have a risk-management strategy prepared to discuss with our attendees before they travel. Everything from how long it would take you to get in and out of the airport is now a huge part of planning a meeting," says Hill.

Multicultural meetings: There's an anticipated 20% growth in the number of multicultural meetings held worldwide. MPI Foundation created the MPI Multicultural Initiative to increase multicultural business-to-business opportunities in the event industry. Hill, who is the founding chairperson, hopes to provide more leadership opportunities and professional development for African American, Hispanic, and Asian constituents (www.multicultural.mpiweb.org).

INDUSTRY ORGANIZATIONS:

* Convention Industry Council (www.conventionindustry.org) represents more than 98,000 individuals and 15,000 firms involved in the meeting, convention, and exhibition industry. It offers a certified meeting professional designation for full-time professionals with a minimum of three years of meeting management experience. A written exam is administered to those who qualify. A CMP must recertify every five years.

* MPI (www.mpiweb.org) provides professional development, resources, networking opportunities, and strategic partnerships.

* MPI Foundation, the research and development arm of MPI, offers scholarships for related undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education studies (www.mpiweb.org/resources/wli).

* The National Coalition of Black Meeting Planners (www.ncbmp.com) provides training and educational programs as well as networking opportunities and resources, including consultants and vendors. The organization holds two meetings annually.

MONIQUE NERO'S POWER MOVES:

* National Urban League. With a master's degree in educational communication and technology, Nero left teaching in the New York City school system and accepted the national program director position with the league, managing a $1.5 million budget.

* United Parcel Service. Nero was the public relations administrative manager, planning internal meetings and coordinating professional development seminars. She planned United Way campaign corporate and interdepartmental events, increasing donations by 22%.

* MCI Worldcom Telecommunications Inc. As senior business programs staff specialist in event marketing services, Nero's duties included managing annual conference workshops. She also directed regional events, including kick-off events for new product seminar series. She received the Marketing Services Circle of Champions Recognition for outstanding performance.

* BellSouth Telecommunications Inc. Nero was hired as the events manager for Small Business Services to develop and manage the customer event program's strategic and communications plans to strengthen the unit's market position. Within one year, she was able to increase the average seminar attendance from 95 to 250. Working with a $3.5 million budget, Nero saved the company $300,000 in 2001.

In 2004, Nero was recruited to her current position as manager of strategic relations and special events in the Office of Diversity. By combining several separate internal company conferences, she says her efforts to date have saved the company more than $100,000.

SALARY RANGES

The average planner earned $60,714 in 2002, which was more than a 10% increase from two years prior. The mean annual wage for a meeting and convention planner is $42,570, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (May 2003).

Compensation by experience:

Less than 3 years             $39,003-$45,434
3 to 5 years                  $50,117-$58,861
6 to 9 years                  $51,724-$63,420
10 to 14 years                $58,787-$71,115
15 to 19 years                $62,134-$71,344
More than 19 years            $63,818-$118,881

Average compensation by title:

Meeting Coordinator, Specialist    $41,500-$47,113
Meeting Planner                    $50,952-$55,981
Conference Manager,
Meeting Manager                    $54,589-$65,951
Independent Planner, Consultant    $55,000-$64,231

SOURCE: THE MEETING PROFESSIONAL'S 2002 SALARY SURVEY WITH
A  3% CONFIDENCE
LEVEL

EMPLOYMENT STATISTICS

* 81% of planners surveyed don't fear losing their job

* A combined 95% have moderate or high job satisfaction

* Almost half say they recently saw an increase in their rate of pay

* On average, planners in the Northeast make more money than those in other parts of the country

* 30% have earned Certified Meeting Professional designations

INDUSTRIES OFFERING THE BEST
PAY FOR MEETING PROFESSIONALS

                                          Annual Mean Wage
Power generation and supply                        $66,550
Communications equipment mfg.                      $61,570
Computer and peripheral equipment mfg.             $58,730
Pharmaceutical and medicine mfg.                   $56,620
Electronic markets and agents and brokers          $56,420

NOVEMBER 2003 BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS