If the nature of corporate event positions is changing, how do you stay competitive? Here's how:
Sell Your Results
Allison Saget, an event marketing consultant and author of The Event Marketing Handbook: Beyond Logistics and Planning, is routinely asked to review and critique résumés for individuals, recruiters, and clients looking to hire. She has seen résumés from vice presidents of special events that lead with “negotiating hotel contracts” in their work-experience summaries. “Big mistake,” she says. “If you’re in sales, the first thing you write on your résumé is, ‘Increased sales by X percent, resulting in X million dollars a year.’ People in our business don’t think this way.”Bring Case Studies
Becky Teagno impressed Matt Pollock, director of multibrand conferences at Nielsen Business Media, in her job interview by bringing along case studies of companies who had given significant dollars to be a title sponsor on various events. What’s more, those case studies showcased her work as a key player in the relationship. “It was almost like she was their client-services manager, making sure they got the exposure they needed,” Pollock says.
Request a Bigger Role
The employers we spoke to wanted people willing to step out of the traditional event planner role. Joyce Parente, associate publisher of Men’s Health, asked all of the candidates she interviewed recently for the magazine’s director of special events position what they wanted out of this job that was lacking in their former one. The person she ultimately hired expressed a desire to do more than event execution. “She was the only one who wanted to know more about the business and be a part of the actual sales process.”
Sell Your Results
Allison Saget, an event marketing consultant and author of The Event Marketing Handbook: Beyond Logistics and Planning, is routinely asked to review and critique résumés for individuals, recruiters, and clients looking to hire. She has seen résumés from vice presidents of special events that lead with “negotiating hotel contracts” in their work-experience summaries. “Big mistake,” she says. “If you’re in sales, the first thing you write on your résumé is, ‘Increased sales by X percent, resulting in X million dollars a year.’ People in our business don’t think this way.”Bring Case Studies
Becky Teagno impressed Matt Pollock, director of multibrand conferences at Nielsen Business Media, in her job interview by bringing along case studies of companies who had given significant dollars to be a title sponsor on various events. What’s more, those case studies showcased her work as a key player in the relationship. “It was almost like she was their client-services manager, making sure they got the exposure they needed,” Pollock says.
Request a Bigger Role
The employers we spoke to wanted people willing to step out of the traditional event planner role. Joyce Parente, associate publisher of Men’s Health, asked all of the candidates she interviewed recently for the magazine’s director of special events position what they wanted out of this job that was lacking in their former one. The person she ultimately hired expressed a desire to do more than event execution. “She was the only one who wanted to know more about the business and be a part of the actual sales process.”
![For the after-party, Event Eleven built three 30-foot pagodas and hung 300 lanterns from the ceiling. They also brought in a 20-foot-tall bonsai tree and a variety of 30-foot red maples, along with other greenery and foliage. '[It all] helped create the organic atmosphere and helped transport guests into a gardenlike room,' said Schubert.](https://img.bizbash.com/files/base/bizbash/bzb/image/2024/02/Shogun.41_f.65dba8f23433b.png?auto=format%2Ccompress&dpr=2&fit=crop&h=167&q=70&w=250)
