Welcome to the HopSkip Planner Spotlight Series, where we highlight event professionals making waves across the events industry to share lessons learned and raise awareness of their invaluable contributions.
Name: Anita Maginniss
Company Name: MITRE
Job Title: Sr. Event Strategist
I originally served as an administrative professional, gradually transitioning into planning complex meetings and events. To share my expertise, I developed a training session for other administrators, which caught the attention of our events team. Seizing the opportunity, I transitioned into an event professional role, merging my creative and technical skills to enhance the engagement and impact of our events.
Our primary considerations when selecting venues are location, space options, and the ability to secure per diem rates. The alignment of these top three priorities with the audience and program needs determines the flexibility we can offer during negotiations.
Most of our events happen at our facilities. When we go offsite, initial planning includes understanding the location accessibility for our audience, the space alignment with the objectives, and the budget. When comparing venues, we also want an experience for the attendees. The facts and figures matter, but I also want to know what sets the venue apart from the competition.
As planners, maximizing value is part of our role. Catering is often one of the most significant event expenses. By closely collaborating with our vendor partners, I make strategic menu choices that stay within budget while providing enjoyable and healthy options for attendees. Balancing expected and surprising menu items while managing bites-per-person ratios can yield significant budget control. This budgetary flexibility allows for more impactful overall event design. In previous events, I have elevated typical catering offerings like crudités platters to an edible garden that includes edible “dirt.” Experimenting with display elements that don’t break the bank is a great way to stay on budget and add impact to the experience.
My budget tracking template includes catering and other vendor expenses like entertainment, rentals, and labor. By tracking the estimated costs against the actuals and understanding what budget elements produce the most impact, I decide where to reduce or expand my expenditures.
Registration, collaboration, broadcast, and communication are complex needs rarely met by a single platform. Our organization primarily uses Microsoft tools for pre-event planning. The choice of technology for an event depends on its format - in-person, hybrid, or broadcast - the stakeholders involved and our communication strategy. Our external stakeholders have diverse communication styles and requirements. Since COVID-19, I've focused on understanding our corporation's existing technology and it’s fit for the changing event landscape as well as identifying new technologies to bridge any gaps. I'm deeply engaged with our enterprise-level technology and team-managed platforms, enabling us to deliver a broad range of in-person, hybrid, or broadcast events.
I may use multiple platforms for a single event. While a simple meeting may be managed entirely within a Microsoft environment, more complex events may require tools like Aventri or Brandlive to manage registration, communication, and professional broadcasting.
I advocate for maximizing the potential of available tools. My team utilizes a list I created in Teams to monitor our active, pending, and completed events. Additionally, I maintain event run-of-show documents, tracking spreadsheets, form documents, and customizable templates for websites and registrations, all of which can be easily tailored to meet specific event requirements.
A typical event may begin with a consultation to discuss the event's scope and timeline. These details are entered into the Teams list. The team may share the details in the tracking spreadsheet or budget templates as the planning continues. We may set up a registration page for an event utilizing templates and shared files to track event-related items.
Enhancing the attendee experience is a highlight of event planning for me. We build trust and recognition by paying attention to details from the moment an attendee enters the venue. For example, MITRE boasts incredible professionals who contribute their time and expertise to foster understanding and connection within our diverse community. We recently hosted a series of events aimed at promoting community and connection. We invited official groups and employee clubs, such as the softball and book clubs, to participate. By facilitating interactions among people with shared interests, we made the event series more meaningful for our attendees.
The event's stakeholders influence the choices made to enhance the experience. Understanding the event's objectives helps determine if we need an emphasis on how information is being communicated and responses are shared or how much risk we can take to try out new approaches. There is a balance between creating engagement and creating a distraction that is managed by understanding how the attendees will interact with the venue, the agenda, and other attendees.
Speed and adaptability are examples of universally effective communication principles. Different stakeholders have varying communication preferences, so being adaptive and responsive is crucial to effective communication. Stakeholders have varying levels of confidence in the planning process, and understanding what level of information they need to receive to build and maintain teamwork is a big part of effectiveness in communicating with them. It's also important to communicate accurately with attendees, enabling them to form expectations that align with the program.
For instance, a weekly summary email to planning team members can capture and track tasks, questions, and results.
I collaborate with stakeholders to comprehend the agenda and their objectives, enabling me to provide insights on break timings, room layout, chat tools, and unique experiences like graphic notetakers. I've found it helpful to remind stakeholders that a successful agenda often hinges on impactful networking, and maximizing headcount isn't always the primary measure of success. Understanding the effectiveness of available room layouts also influences communication impact.
Stay calm! Event planners are the go-to individuals when things don't go as planned. I rely on my extensive knowledge of MITRE's policies and procedures, values such as grace and respect, my network, and confidence in my problem-solving abilities to swiftly address unexpected issues. I recall a broadcast event disrupted by an unforeseen change in the system during the live broadcast. I took a deep breath and set about not only getting the event back up and running very quickly but also working closely with the engineers to ensure we never had a repeat of the situation.
For our onsite events, we partner closely with our security team by providing them with the agenda and run of the show and inviting them to brief attendees on emergency exit procedures at the beginning of our meetings.
As an event planner, one must anticipate unique requests and last-minute changes. Successfully navigating these uncertainties requires strong relationships within the team, vendors, and community. Personally, weather has often posed challenges, with events planned around thunderstorms, extreme heat, and freezing temperatures. Recently, a snow-impacted employee engagement event was seamlessly rescheduled through careful planning and collaboration with vendors and internal teams. We also leveraged community relationships, donating perishable food to local fire stations.
Success hinges on our partners - team members, vendors, and the communities we operate in. Cultivating and expanding these networks often marks the difference between success and failure.
We conduct post-event reviews with stakeholders, documenting successes, areas for improvement, and attendee feedback. We finalize budget items, archive samples of marketing materials, and, most importantly, express our gratitude to our vendors and partnering teams for their contributions to the event's success. For more complex events, I utilize a PowerPoint template I created that includes specific information categories such as estimated v. actual budget and registrations for quantifying the event summary.
Feedback from stakeholders and attendees is our team's primary measure of success. We utilize post-event team lessons-learned meetings to gauge satisfaction levels and gather suggestions for improvement. Specific KPIs we look at include attendee numbers, engagement levels (such as participation in Q&A sessions, social media mentions, and engaged networking), and achieving event objectives (like post-event outreach, increased knowledge of MITRE and the program being discussed, or employee engagement).
We also closely monitor our logistics objectives concerning budget, timelines, and message communication. For instance, we track our spending against the budget, adherence to the event schedule, and the reach and impact of our event messaging.
While events encompass tangible and intangible aspects, we try to quantify as much as possible. For example, we might measure the 'novelty' of an event by surveying attendees about their perceptions of the uniqueness or innovativeness of an experience.
Finally, we also pay close attention to the overall attendee experience. This includes observing attendees' verbal and non-verbal cues during the event and collecting feedback on their overall experience, the quality of the content, the venue, and other aspects of the event.
Over the years, I've distilled the lessons of successful event planning into three key elements: the "Who," "Why," and "Wow!". The "Who" shapes the "Why," and together they create the "Wow!". An event must prioritize its audience, the "Who." The “Why" respects the audience's commitment through a well-structured agenda and clear messaging. The "Wow" lies in the thoughtful execution of details. Coach John Wooden said, "It is the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen."
Thanks to technology, countless virtual and in-person networking opportunities with like-minded professionals exist. Research active groups in your area and get involved! Joining online communities provides quick answers to pressing questions from other professionals. Attending conferences and in-person training allows for network building and deeper connections. Local chapter events can be particularly rewarding for expanding my knowledge of local vendors and meeting other planners.
Event planners possess the ability to transform visions into reality. Their success relies on their influence, which stems from their event skills, including current technologies, a people-centric approach to event design, and cultivating a strong network through effective communication and collaboration.