18 Key Attributes Meeting And Convention Planners Need To Succeed In Their Career

by Alex Garcia

Sunday, January 3, 2016

Meeting and convention planners coordinate activities of staff, convention personnel, or clients to make arrangements for group meetings, events, or conventions.

The core tasks that meeting and convention planners are likely to carry out include:

Monitor event activities to ensure compliance with applicable regulations and laws, satisfaction of participants, and resolution of any problems that arise.
Confer with staff at a chosen event site to coordinate details.
Inspect event facilities to ensure that they conform to customer requirements.
Coordinate services for events, such as accommodation and transportation for participants, facilities, catering, signage, displays, special needs requirements, printing and event security.
Consult with customers to determine objectives and requirements for events such as meetings, conferences, and conventions.
Meet with sponsors and organizing committees to plan scope and format of events, to establish and monitor budgets, or to review administrative procedures and event progress.

In order to successfully forge ahead with their careers, analysts in a survey carried out by U.S. Department of Labor (via O*NET) have marked out the following as important attributes that meeting and convention planners would need. These attributes have been selected from characteristics and requirements strongly associated with the occupation. They are

Abilities: Enduring attributes of the individual that influence performance
Interests: Preferences for work environments. Occupational Interest Profiles (OIPs) are compatible with Holland's (1985, 1997) model of personality types and work environments. Six interest categories are used to describe the work environment of occupations: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. An OIP consists of six numerical scores indicating how descriptive and characteristic each work environment (or interest area) is for an occupation
Knowledge: Organized sets of principles and facts applying in general domains
Skills: These include basic skills, which are developed capacities that facilitate learning or the more rapid acquisition of knowledge. Plus cross-functional skills, which are developed capacities that facilitate performance of activities that occur across jobs
Style: Personal characteristics that can affect how well someone performs a job

We have listed out attributes which were scored 80% or more in terms of importance by the analysts.

Having a strong preference for enterprising work environments. Enterprising occupations frequently involve starting up and carrying out projects. These occupations can involve leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business.
Attribute Type: Interests Score: 100%

Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
Attribute Type: Knowledge Score: 95.6%

Being careful about detail and thorough in completing work tasks.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 94%

Being pleasant with others on the job and displaying a good-natured, cooperative attitude.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 92.6%

Being reliable, responsible, and dependable, and fulfilling obligations.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 88.2%

A willingness to take on responsibilities and challenges.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 87.4%

Establishing and maintaining personally challenging achievement goals and exerting effort toward mastering tasks.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 85.6%

The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
Attribute Type: Abilities Score: 85%

The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
Attribute Type: Abilities Score: 85%

Accepting criticism and dealing calmly and effectively with high stress situations.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 83.8%

Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
Attribute Type: Knowledge Score: 83.4%

Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
Attribute Type: Skills Score: 82.4%

The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
Attribute Type: Abilities Score: 82.4%

Being honest and ethical.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 81.2%

Persistence in the face of obstacles.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 80.8%

Maintaining composure, keeping emotions in check, controlling anger, and avoiding aggressive behavior, even in very difficult situations.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 80.8%

The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
Attribute Type: Abilities Score: 80%

Talking to others to convey information effectively.
Attribute Type: Skills Score: 80%