Top 5 Worries of a Meeting Planner

Love it or hate it, at some point in your life you were probably tasked to organize and arrange a meeting. From small meetings to large conferences, each event comes with its own unique set of challenges and unpredictability that will cause some to toss and turn and others to pull their hair out. Yet some can’t seem to get enough of it.

Whether you are just starting out in this industry, a seasoned professional or simply an unwilling “volunteer”, here are our Top 5 Worries of any meeting planner. Let our experience be your solace as we delve further into this topic.

Lack of Time

With a thousand and one things to do prior to your event, and D-Day fast approaching, you would probably find yourself scrambling up to the very last minute. If you are fortunate enough, you are given months ahead of time for your planning process. But what if you are the unlucky few who are given a few weeks or mere days to plan?

From venue booking, attendee confirmation, supplier sourcing, event staffing and logistics, things to do attack you from all directions in a never-ending wave as time counts down.

Constant Change

As if a lack of time did not worry you enough, the only thing that is constant about event planning is change. Not for the faint hearted, change comes at such rapid pace that you often struggle to keep up. What if delegates don’t show up, or more surprisingly, what if they do when they’re not supposed to? Murphy’s law is an unsurprising constant in events planning.

There will definitely be things beyond your control. What then do you do? With enough experience, you will be able to spot things during an event, learn to anticipate and even have measures in place to manage change. More importantly, stop worrying and embrace it. Flexibility and adaptability is key. Change can sometimes bring about unexpected results that will leave you delighted.

Managing Stakeholders

Very rarely do you possess all the people or skills needed to run every single technical aspect of the meeting? With different demands, requests and requirements for each event, people with specialised skills often need to be brought in.

From Audio Visual Vendors to External Speakers and Moderators, to even Registration Systems and Simultaneous Interpreters, the complications that can arise from this adds on another dimension to the already multifaceted nature of things.

What happens if your event partners do not deliver what you expect or something goes wrong on their part? Your attendees identify you as a whole to deliver the event. They do not care that you have engaged someone externally and this can be a cause of huge distress as an organiser with little control and knowledge of the technical aspects each partner brings to the table.

Low Participation

Meeting Objectives

After all that’s said and done, did you achieve what you set out to achieve? We hope the end justified your means Everything meeting is organised with certain objectives in mind. Amidst all the craziness and scrambling, the outcome is always something that is crucial as it is the very reason for the meeting. The worst thing that can happen would be to look back and realise you have nothing to show for it. I’m sure at some point you probably thought to yourself, what am I spending all this money for? Stop that thought and do something to make sure your objectives are met.

While reading this, I’m sure there were some of you in such an agreement you nearly cried out with a boisterous “Amen!” and some of you, probably a greater appreciation for the people that go through this on a regular basis. But some of you are probably crying out for help right about now. Is there anything we can do about it?

Of course there is!

While Micepad does not resolve all these worries, it definitely helps with a majority of them. Enhance your event experience as we help you manage last minute changes to meeting agendas and documents. Replace paper and be more environmentally friendly with Micepad and say goodbye to last-minute printing. More importantly, get a bigger bang out of your buck by engaging and harvesting insights from your attendees while you have them with you.

So what are you waiting for? Replace or complement the old with the new. Achieve your objectives with us today!