An important executive skill is the ability to arrange and coordinate meetings in hotel rooms or other meeting facilities away from the office.
When you start off in management, it seldom occurs to you that one of the most important events in your career can be organizing a major meeting. This responsibility is often dumped on you unexpectedly. Your boss decides that you need to have a large company meeting, seminar, convention, workshop, or some other function that brings together a large number of people. He then asks if you will just “take care of it.”
When I was a manager, I attended hundreds of meetings of all sizes, at all levels of quality, all over the country and all over the world. I had an excellent opportunity to get a sense of what constituted a good meeting and what constituted a bad or poorly planned meeting.
When I began giving seminars of my own (by now more than 1,000 worldwide), I got a brand-new education in the complexities of setting up large and small meetings in rented or borrowed facilities.
Eventually, we developed a 104-page workbook/checklist to ensure that every single detail necessary to the proper functioning of a large meeting was thought through, checked, and double-checked. Because these meetings involved my livelihood, and a loss on a publicly promoted seminar could be disastrous for a small business, I read everything I could find on the proper conduct of such meetings.
Remember, the people you are talking to at the hotel or seminar center are not your friends. They have taken courses to learn how to be smiling and charming throughout the discussion. But everything they do is aimed at getting you to sign a contract that obligates you to pay the maximum amount humanly possible for use of their meeting facilities, and even more than that, if possible.
Begin with the contract. This is the bible of the banquet or meeting industry. This is the ironclad agreement by which hotels operate, and they want you to sign it, preferably as soon as possible, and back it up with a hefty, nonrefundable deposit.
Either you or someone else should read every clause and sub-clause. The contract is almost always a minefield of paragraphs where there are additional charges. Remember, they only have one opportunity to soak you as much as possible, so they are going to use every artifice and trick possible to extract as much money out of you that they can at this time.
The most common way of extracting money from innocent businesspeople organizing hotel functions is getting them to commit to a minimum number of room nights. You must resist this ploy at all costs. If necessary, book the minimum number of nights and demand the right to reduce the room commitment as you get closer to the meeting or conference.
The next way that hotels overcharge you is by selling you endless numbers of refreshments. Commit to a minimum number of refreshments in advance, and then maintain the option to increase the quantities as you get closer to the date of the function.
Never book a facility over the phone and simply assume that it is going to be fine. Leave nothing to chance. Be sure to go to the meeting facility or hotel personally and walk through every part of the venue. Go and inspect the room, walking all around to get a sense of how it is laid out and what obstacles to sight there might be, like posts and columns. Find out what will be happening next door. Find out what functions are booked in the adjoining rooms at the same time as your meeting. How many people will be there? What level of sound can you expect from the adjoining rooms?
On one occasion, we rented a large banquet room with sufficient seminar space for 400 people, with tables, chairs, a stage, a sound system, and podium. What they didn’t tell us was that they had rented the adjoining room for a large wedding that evening; the reception started at 5:00 p.m., but the band was scheduled to set up and practice from 2:00 p.m. onward, which they did.
I still remember trying to conduct a business seminar with a rock band practicing full blast in the adjoining room, literally knocking us out of our chairs. When we complained to the hotel, the facility’s event planners smiled innocently and told us that there was nothing they could do. It seemed they had no idea that we needed a quiet environment for a business seminar so that the speaker at our meeting could be heard.
In another case, we organized an evening meeting for about 100 people in a downtown hotel. What the hotel staff didn’t tell us was that a nightclub with a paper-thin wall was next to our meeting room, and the nightclub started up with a rock band at 7:00 p.m. We had to shout to make ourselves heard over the din.
There are three things that can go wrong at a meeting or function of any kind. In order, they are sound, light, and air-conditioning. To guard against problems in these three areas, check out the sound system thoroughly, and be sure that people can hear clearly from every place in the room.
Second, check the lighting. Make sure there’s enough light for people to take notes and generally be comfortable in a business seminar where presentations are being given. Most especially, be sure that there is a lot of light on the stage and on the face of the speaker.
Third, check out the room temperature. Lack of air-conditioning can ruin a big meeting. Some friends of mine who gave seminars all over the country would write into the contract that the rooms must be kept at 68 degrees Fahrenheit or the rent would be free—no charge.
There are few accomplishments that will get you more accolades and respect from your superiors than your putting together an excellent business meeting for your company or department. Many people I have worked with have reported being promoted, paid more, and moved onto the fast track in their companies after having organized an excellent meeting.