Event Architects To Know in 2024 - Sara Frank, Northeast HR Association
Sara Frank, of Northeast HR Association, discusses how she builds and plans meetings and events in the evolving hospitality landscape of 2024.
Luke Whalin
Sep 5, 2024
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: Sara Frank
Company Name: Northeast HR Association
Job Title: Senior Director of Events
Can you briefly tell us about your background in event planning and how you got started in the industry?
I earned my BBA in Hospitality & Tourism Management at James Madison University, where my love for bringing people together through events was born. Throughout my time in school, I pursued various internships where I gained hands-on experience that helped to solidify my path. Following graduation, I began working as a logistics coordinator for a government meeting planning agency in Washington, DC. Since then, I’ve held catering, special event planning, and event management roles at a Country Club. For the past 14 years, I've managed meetings and events for the Northeast HR Association in Massachusetts.
How do you go about selecting the perfect hotel or venue? What factors weigh most heavily in your decision?
Identifying a venue that views the relationship as a true partnership is vital. Those two-way partnerships really matter in the heat of the moment when an issue arises or you have to have a hard conversation. When you work with a venue that wants the event to be a success as much as you do, that partnership can make a world of difference in your experience as a planner and, ultimately, your attendees' experience.
In my current role as an association planner, managing the budget is a top priority. To ensure financial predictability, we look for venues offering meeting packages, particularly for events we hold multiple times throughout the year. This approach helps us streamline AV, F&B, and other ancillary costs, mitigating the risk of last-minute charges. As we all know, these costs can add up quickly, so it is helpful to have a straightforward and reliable set rate from the beginning!
What does the initial planning phase of securing a venue look like for you? Could you walk us through your initial steps?
The first step for us is defining the goal of the event, which affects the type of experience we want to create and, therefore, the type of venue we are looking for. We cycle around to many of the same hotels/conference centers for our ‘repeat’ events, so for me, it’s reaching out to my contacts there, sending over the meeting specs, and seeing if they have availability. Again, in my experience, genuine industry relationships have been crucial.
How do you leverage technology to boost efficiency during the planning, execution, and post-event stages? What does your “event tech stack” look like? (For example, using Survey Monkey for surveying attendees post-event)
We use a combination of different platforms for our events depending on scope and size. For our larger events, we utilize an event management platform for registration and sponsorship purchases as well as reporting, and we use an email marketing system to get the word out about the events. We also use the event management system onsite for our check-in process, badge printing, Mobile App for attendees, live polling, gamification, and post-event surveys.
For our smaller events, we use a Learning Management System for registration, tracking continuing education credits, housing recordings of sessions, and post-event surveys.
Internally, as a team, we use project management software to track specific tasks and to-dos and collaborate with each other. We are always searching for a platform that ‘does it all’, but we have found that the combination of a variety of tools works well for us.
Do you use frameworks, templates, or other tools/documents to help you stay organized and manage the event planning process?
As a team, we utilize a project management platform to track details and communicate related updates. I love an old-fashioned checklist or spreadsheet to stay on top of the to-do’s and ensure we’re keeping within our timeline. For our larger events, I create a comprehensive run of the show and share it with all stakeholders. Typically, it is more information that they probably need (or want!), but I have found it helpful for everyone to understand what all parties are doing and when.
Do you have any specific strategies or insights for enhancing the attendee experience at your events?
Associations often lean towards packing a ton of content into their meetings and events, often at the expense of the attendee experience. Over the past several years, we have worked hard to change this, focusing on giving ample time and space for attendees to make genuine connections, slow down, and just ‘be’ in order to process all they are learning and experiencing.
I’d say the most important first step in created a memorable experience is thoroughly understanding your attendees: who they are, what they need, and what they want – not assuming you already know these things. It is easier to craft a unique experience and anticipate their particular needs and interests once you have that information.
Even with limited resources, it is possible to create engaging and inclusive experiences! By authentically making spaces and places for folks to show up as they are, attendees are able to fully engage, connect with others, and leave with a renewed inspiration for what they do – ultimately that is what people will remember about your event.
Effective communication is crucial in any planning process. How do you ensure you and your event stakeholders are always on the same page?
Being transparent with all stakeholders throughout the planning process is crucial to minimize no miscommunications and misunderstandings. It is easy to delay hard conversations with vendors (decreased counts, last-minute additions, we’re not going to attrition concerns, etc.), but the unknown is always worse than the reality. If you are open and honest throughout and everyone is up to speed, it leaves very little room for surprises – there are already enough of those in event planning!
How do you facilitate networking opportunities among attendees? Are there any specific tactics or strategies that you recommend?
What's your go-to plan for handling emergencies or unexpected situations during an event?
Can you share an example of a significant challenge you faced while planning an event conference and how you overcame it?
This is challenging, as everyone approaches networking differently based on their goals and their comfort level with it. Throughout different events, we’ve experimented with a variety of approaches – structured sessions, speed-networking, open-ended formats, table topic discussions, and even printing networking questions on cocktail napkins for receptions.
We’ve had the most success with sessions that are a combination of facilitated (get the conversations started) and free-range (allow folks to continue at their own pace). I’d also add that setting ground rules at the beginning of any networking event is important. This helps to ensure that everyone feels comfortable sharing and understands expectations around confidentially, discussion boundaries, and equitable time spent sharing amongst the group.
A combination of being proactive and planning for unexpected situations, as well as staying calm, cool, and collected when they arise. One of my favorite aspects of event planning is thinking on my feet, looping in any necessary stakeholders, and collaborating as a team to resolve the issue swiftly. This is a place where the relationships you have with your vendors can make or break a situation. Communicating your contingency plans with all stakeholders ahead of time sets you up for success in the event of an unexpected situation or emergency.
The 2021 Annual Conference that I planned in my current role was both a challenge and one of the most rewarding events I have organized. It was our first in-person event back from the pandemic, and we were genuinely concerned about the health and wellness of our attendees, staff, and vendors and about whether we could safely and successfully pull it off. There was really no blueprint for what we were doing, as many organizations were doing this for the first time.
We had an amazing partner in Newport Harbor Island Resort (Gurney’s Resort at the time), which made an enormous difference for us. We developed a detailed health and safety plan that went through several iterations as things continued to shift. We communicated this plan with all stakeholders several times in advance, ensuring everyone knew the expectations and duty of care.
As attendees began to arrive onsite, there was a sense of uncertainty about being in a large group in-person group. However, once they understood the precautions we took and could see familiar faces (behind masks, of course!), they started to feel more comfortable. By the end of the three-day event, the impact of human connection, for many the first time in over a year, was immeasurable. The effects of isolation were profound, proving that being together is vital for us as humans. For me personally, the experience not only reignited my passion for event planning but also underscored its importance.
What are the typical steps you take in the post-event phase?
We recap as a staff, reviewing things that went well and things we’d look to change for future events. We also review attendee feedback, always taking it with a grain of salt. We try to pull the main themes from the evaluations rather than focus on the outliers. We also share individual feedback for each speaker and recap it with the venue and vendors to understand their perspectives and share ours.
What advice would you offer someone just starting their career in the meetings and events industry?
Bringing people together matters! I think as a new person coming into the event planning world, it can be easy to be drawn into it by the ‘glitz and glamour’ - not that it can’t be that occasionally, but there is much more to it than that. Events have the ability to ignite a passion, start a movement, change someone’s perspective, or simply get someone to laugh or smile for the first time in a while, and that is powerful.
Try to gain experiences in all aspects of planning in the first few years. Understanding the perspective and challenges of both the planner and the supplier is invaluable, and you can draw on that for years to come.