Meeting planning and management for national sales meetings and corporate events can be overwhelming.

There are literally hundreds, possibly thousands, of details that go into creating a world-class meeting plan, and then managing the execution of it down to every jot and tittle. Despite the temptation to not “sweat the details,” a meeting planner cannot take shortcuts for a successful program to occur. Why? Because every LITTLE detail madders matters. 

Attention to detail makes the difference between good and stunning. When creating experiences, the details are not just the details. They make the design. They create the big picture. And it is here, in the messy mass of all the details, the meeting planner is confronted with the great enemy in the war of art. As the saying truthfully goes: “The devil is in the details.”  Details can frighten many people, but it doesn’t have to be scary, nor overwhelming for that matter. Hiring a strategic meeting partner for the purpose of handling all the details for you, frees you up to focus your attention on the vision, purpose, and content of the meeting, without getting caught up in the weeds of contracts and logistics. 

But that raises a whole new range of questions. When hiring a strategic meeting partner, what exactly should they be managing? What tips and pitfalls should you be on the lookout for? What qualities and services should you be evaluating during the selection process? 

I’m glad you asked. Short answer…it all depends on the DETAILS of your meeting. (Did you expect anything else?) After all, when hiring someone to “pay attention to the details,” they should be expert attendants in attending to the little things. When it’s all said and done, it’s the little things that count. So, what are the DETAILS that count and need attending to when looking for a meeting planning and management agency? 

Decision Management

The most important, and often overlooked, management quality in a world-class meeting partner is expertise in Decision Management. The dreaded “indecision spiral” is like the Bermuda Triangle of planning a national sales meeting or incentive trip. An expert navigator is needed to steer the ship clear of disappearing into it forever. 

For example: Recently a client wanted a gift for an upcoming Plan of Action meeting. They directed our Destination Gifting team that they wanted water bottles. They settled on blue water bottles with the program logo. A couple weeks later they came back not wanting water bottles, but electronic chargers with the company logo. After another month of discussion, they ended with green water bottles and the company logo. (Can you hear the meeting devil laughing?)

This is just a small example of the indecision spiral that lies in wait like a snare of wasted time around every possible decision of the meeting planning process. The causes can be numerous, from a lack of commitment and consistency in decision making, to undefined expectations, to a lack of a clear purpose for the meeting and misaligned goals. 

By taking a surgical approach to Decision Management, your meeting manager can help you know your audience and define what a successful event looks like to them specifically, even if there are multiple subgroups within your audience with different definitions of success. Implementing a strong Decision Management process upfront can avoid many of the pitfalls of indecision by setting clear expectations and goals. Once the key goals for your meeting have been set and agreed upon, the agency you hire should be adept at taking your meeting objectives and crafting a learning environment and memorable experience that properly aligns with the stated goals. Great Decision Managers are proficient at guiding and equipping your team with milestones and set discussions throughout the process to ensure all aspects of planning have been discussed. They drive the meeting plan forward, without letting it drift off in the winds of indecision, minimizing last minute surprises, unnecessary back and forth conversations, and steering you to your desired destination in the most efficient way possible (pun intended).

Expertise in a Broad Range of Services

To be competent to attend to every important detail, your meeting planner and manager must have deep expertise across a broad range of services. In fact, the scope of all the areas that need to be included and addressed is so vast, it’s impossible to find all the necessary knowledge in one or two people. You need a team with a deep bench of varying expertise. This is the reason why the process can be so overwhelming when a company assigns a single marketing associate or executive within the organization the role of planning and managing a national sales meeting by themselves. 

Your strategic meeting planner and manager should handle everything related to: hotel sourcing (including contract negotiation with the best rates and concessions), registration management for attendees, compliance and regulation management, onsite assistance, budget management, travel confirmation, all arrival and departure manifests and transportation needs, food and beverage, gifting, team building, off-site dinners and events, directing the hotel staff, AV coordination, shipping and receiving, selecting and using integrated meeting technology, and much more.

Each one of these critical areas of attention has a world of details within its own area that clamor for attention. For example, Compliance and Regulation Management has grown so much, it now includes entire subsets that need to be addressed within the overall meeting plan such as: Covid-19 compliant meeting designs, health and safety protocols, accessibility standards, sustainability expectations, data security involving attendee information, and more. Hotel Sourcing is another area in today’s experience economy that has become so complex, we wrote an entire 31-page guide to help meeting planners navigate the murky waters.

You can download and read our guide here:

The Ultimate Guide to Hotel Sourcing For Corporate Events, National Sales Meetings, and Incentive Trips

As you can see, just rattling off a list of areas that need to be addressed is just the tip of the iceberg and doesn’t begin to touch on the level of detail that needs to be included. It’s extremely important that the agency you hire for your Meeting Management has a team of talented people with various backgrounds in all aspects of the event industry.

Tracking and Transparency in Budget Management

Of course, the most important “t” to be crossed in your meeting planning and management process is Budget Management. Budget Management discussions can be some of the most difficult conversations to navigate, particularly when the allocated budget doesn’t match the needs or wants for the meeting. Over the past few years, rising hotel operation costs for things like labor, property insurance, COVID-19 compliance, etc. are driving higher prices and applying additional pressure on budget constraints. Your meeting management agency needs to be well-seasoned at masterfully orchestrating the difficult conversations and setting realistic expectations based on the given budget. Full transparency with close tracking of the budget and consistent updates throughout the process should be expected.

With Hotel Sourcing being the largest line-item expense in planning a national sales meeting, making up on average 25% of the allocated budget, now, more than ever, it’s important to work to find a strategic meeting planning and management agency that has dedicated Hotel Sourcing specialists. The best Meeting Management agencies are able to capture real savings on rates and negotiate concessions through contract negotiation during the sourcing process. Obtaining concessions in the form of waivers of common hotel fees such as meeting room space, internet fees, resort fees, discounted food and beverage, AV discounts and others, can provide tangible value as a counter to the rising prices. It is here an agency with strong and deep industry connections and vendor relationships excel. If the agency can’t document and show the step-by-step cost savings and contract negotiations from the beginning of the planning process to the end of the management process, find one that will.

Adaptability, Attitude, Availability, & Awareness

To counterbalance the necessary structure and milestones along the meeting planning process, it’s also important to find an agency to work with that has a “Dream Team” on all the soft skills needed for successful interpersonal relationships. Business is business, but enjoying who you work with closely on such a big project can make all the difference. In planning tailored one-of-a-kind events like national sales meetings or incentive trips, the only constant is change. While much can be planned for in advance, last-minute changes and adjustments are almost inevitable. Adaptability, the skill to adjust to changing circumstances with a positive attitude and solution-oriented mindset is critical in a partner. It is also a sign of intelligence, the power of overcoming resistance, and the antidote to failure. Working with an agency that has this kind of mindset built into their culture is life giving.

The prerequisite for adaptability is availability. It’s been said that “Availability is the best ability.” In order to be adaptable, your meeting management team must be able to be present in the moments when their attention is needed. Striking the right balance of team size and flexibility is an important differentiator. Often bigger is not better, as larger “global organizations” tend to overload their associates with work in the name of corporate profits. However, a one or two-person agency most likely will not have the bench strength and depth of expertise needed either. It’s important to find the “right team” who can be available to attend to the details of your specific needs and deliver that WOW factor.

Right up there with adaptability, attitude, and availability, is another soft skill — awareness. Planning one-of-a-kind national sales meetings or incentive trips that leave attendees with unforgettable memories requires so much knowledge and awareness of many different areas — awareness of current industry trends, deep knowledge of a variety of destinations and hotel options, unique creativity, vendor management, contract negotiations, sourcing, gifting, and much more. The experience economy is ever transforming, as people consistently look for new and novel experiences. Experiential and immersive programs designed to deepen connections with the destination and other attendees is in current high demand. Most larger programs today are app-based as new technology, along with artificial intelligence, is constantly being introduced. Your strategic meeting management agency should be able to demonstrate an awareness in all critical areas that imparts a confidence that all “t’s” are crossed, and all “i’s” dotted.

Industry Connections

Speaking of dotting the “i’s,” no matter how attentive a meeting management agency is at crossing all the “t’s” of all the details, without deep and wide industry connections, your meeting plan and execution will fall short of dotting all the “i’s.” From sourcing hotel destinations, to production, to gifting, critical to success here is finding a meeting management agency that fosters and maintains a large and flavorful network of deep, authentic professional relationships with world-class vendors across all specialties. 

Might I make a suggestion? Try Dunaj Agency. Our strong relationships go deep and wide with the top hotel brands, DMC’s, and other vendor partners, delivering significant financial savings and compelling experiences for every one of our clients.

Logistical Brilliance

All great fanatics about the little details that will set your program apart have an innate logistical brilliance in their skillset. It’s impossible to catch them unprepared. They always have a Plan A, B, and C in every scenario. Extreme attention to detail, coupled with clear and frequent communication, remove bottlenecks and move mountains in carrying out the logistics of execution. They know that excellence is in the details, and excellence is not a detail. World-class meeting planners and managers have a track record of logistical brilliance, executing every little detail at the highest level of excellence with effortless style, joy, and grace.

Stakeholder Management

The last detail that should be attended to in strategic meeting management is Stakeholder Management. When left unaddressed, this can lead to the biggest and messiest of problems. Stakeholder conflicts and disagreements, indecisiveness among committee members or decision makers, undefined expectations amongst various stakeholder groups, or just having “too many hands in the pot” can lead to all sorts of self-inflicted wounds throughout the meeting planning process. Driving stakeholder alignment through timely approvals and feedback, transparent and effective communication, and setting clear goals can avoid the delay in decisions, unnecessary back and forth, and the confusion of indecision spirals that so commonly derail the meeting planning process.

A Sample General Meeting Planning Process

As every event is unique and different from the last, so too does every event planning process start at various stages. Some start with an initial exploratory conversation, which leads to a hotel sourcing process, and then into developing a full-blown meeting plan. Others may have already secured a hotel destination and just need help with the planning and execution piece. Still others are looking for a more specialized or à la carte menu of services. 

For purposes of providing a general outline of a sample planning process, a strong planning process should include:

• • • Establishing clear goals and objectives of the program.
    • Sourcing the correct hotel or resort for the program, including site visits and space mapping.
    • Specs created to be shared with the hotel and vendors.
    • Sharing of the initial agenda by the client, updated throughout the process.
    • Creation and approval of the Initial Statement of Work Budget.
    • Work with various industry partners to plan each detail of the program.
    • Create a registration website, launch and manage registration.
    • Provide continuous updates on the working budget.
    • Key discussions to select the program logos, badges, signage, gifts, décor, entertainment, speakers, etc.
    • A planning visit closer to the program date.
    • Selecting food and beverage menus for all events.
    • Selecting room layouts and creating CAD diagrams of meeting rooms.
    • Program app created and shared with attendees.
    • Execute program.
    • Post program survey sent out to attendees with results shared to client.
    • Program debrief with client.
    • Post program photos sent to the client to be approved and sent to all attendees.
    • Final billing review and finalization.

Of course, even in all this, there are details, details, and even more details to be addressed. Thus, we come back to where we started. Planning and managing a program the size and scope of a national sales meeting or incentive trip can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. 

The best way to make sure all the details are included, without you having to be included in all the details, is to hire a world-class Meeting Planning and Management agency like Dunaj Agency who can “check all the boxes” of the seven critical DETAILS necessary in carrying out an event to remember (not one you wan’t to forget!)

1. Decision Management
2. Expertise in a Broad Range of Services
3. Tracking and Transparency in Budget Management
4. Adaptability, Attitude, Availability & Awareness
5. Industry Connections
6. Logistical Brilliance
7. Stakeholder Management

The biggest things in life often have small beginnings. Simplifying your next big event can begin today with just a small exploratory conversation. Let’s connect!

Rick Dunaj