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By Shawna Suckow, CMP


Meeting planners change lives. I


’ve spent a lot of time up in the air lately with our distant in- dustry cousins, the fl ight attendants. I’ve had plenty of free time to be inside my head (if United offers Wi-Fi on board any of


my fl ights, they’re doing a great job of hiding it from me). On one particularly long haul, I refl ected on a parallel between fl ight atten- dants and meeting planners: lack of credibility. For those of you old enough to remember, fl ight attendants used to be called steward- esses, ‘sexy stews,’ ‘fl ying waitresses’ and probably worse. Today, if you use the word ‘stewardess,’ you may as well pour your beverage in your lap to save yourself time, because it’s headed there anyway. The term stewardess is now off limits, much like waitresses are now ‘servers’ and secretaries are now ‘assistants.’ It’s not just a matter of vernacular; it’s a matter of credibility and respect. Flight attendants fought for their credibility back in the 1970s and 1980s, and today it’s common for the pilot to tell us that the crew is there primarily for our safety and then for our comfort. If the plane is spiraling out of the sky, you don’t need a Coke with no ice, you need a fl ight attendant with serious training. As planners, we’re immersed in a similar battle for credibility right now and it’s not about titles - it’s about a lack of understanding


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of the value we bring to the table. I Don’t Hire Clowns and Balloon Animal


Artists


Back in the 1990s, when I told someone what I did for a living, I often got comments like, “Oh how fun! You get to plan parties all the time!” About 10 years ago, I stopped calling myself an event planner when discussing my job with a non-industry person and started calling myself a convention planner. Although conventions were only about half of what I did, something about that job title earned me more respect. People had an easier time envisioning a convention and its demands - ‘event planner’ was too vague and too open to misinterpretation (unless you do plan parties, and then hey, more power to ya!).


When I speak to audiences of meeting planners, I often ask the question, “How many of you have friends or family who don’t un- derstand exactly what you do?” I always get laughter and a majority of hands going up. What a shame. If we can’t even convey our job and our value to those closest to us, is it any wonder that the HR department and the C-Suite don’t value us to the level we deserve? Within the industry, we all know the value we bring to the table;


MIDWEST MEETINGS SUMMER 2013


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