Our Ode to Meeting Planners

Whenever we go onsite to an event we are always in awe of how hard our meeting planners work and how much detail and time they put into their events.  We know booking a speaker is a small part of the job and seeing an event come together with so many little details is always a reminder of how hard our meeting planners work, so it inspired us to write an Ode to them and all that they do….

Our Ode to Meeting Planners….

Meeting planners have such fun jobs, they travel the world, plan parties and drink champagne with celebrities named Rob. They visit exotic locations and are always tan because they sit on the beach as they make their event plan. It’s easy, it’s fun I want to be one! ….ahem…please… stop…let’s be real and back this ode up. Meeting planners have one of the HARDEST jobs, so sit back as we tell you wassupp….

Meeting Planners spend each event running around,
You will never EVER see them actually sit down.
They schedule each meeting minute by minute,
It’s insane to think about how much detail they put in it.

There’s the hotel, the room blocks, the million dollars in catering
The food is now ready and now no one is waitering.
The AV just called and the speaker is missing,
The mic batteries died and the CEO is now pissy.

The ground company called and flights are delayed,
Oh and one of your vendors has not gotten paid.
The thousands of dollars in programs have finally arrived
And leave it to your co-worker to find the one tiny typo inside.

400 attendees have now told you that they are cold
The minute you change the temp 500 more scold.
No one likes their chicken and the vegetarians got meat
You do your best to care but all you can think about is your aching feet.

As you zig and you zag through the large event maze
It occurs to you that you have not eaten not one thing in 3 days.
You have been stuck in the hotel for over a week,
Have not seen the sun or the moon, and to your family- you barely speak.

For all the amazing things that actually went right
The 5 that fell apart were the only ones in peoples’ sight.
You worked 80 hours a week for the past year,
The event is finally over and all you want to do is have a beer.
You finally relax and take a seat,
But then your phone rings about the next meeting and you are back on your feet.

Meeting Planners we see you and all that you do.
We are in awe of all that you juggle and all that you are put through.
When we book a speaker to you we know it’s only one tiny piece of a large pie
so we hope we make it easy, we really do try.
As our ode to you comes to an end
We hope you know that the Speaker Exchange is one of your biggest supporters and friend.

Attention Meeting Attendees: we have one request that you do -go ask for the Meeting Planner at your next meeting and simply say….THANK YOU.