Event Architects To Know in 2024 - Whitney Butler, PlatinumXP

When I first graduated from college, I worked at an advertising agency in the HR department, and part of my role was to help plan internal events. I wasn't aware that you could actually have a career in event planning, and discovering this skillset of mine unleashed my curiosity about the events industry.

 

My first 'real' event planning job started a couple of years after that when I moved to Nashville and started working for the Nashville Business Journal as an Events Coordinator. That was over ten years ago, and since then, I have had a very diverse background in events.

 

I've worked in nonprofit, association, and corporate planning roles, which eventually led me to my true calling of working at a third-party planning agency. I am passionate about the third-party world because I get to work on so many different types of events with clients across various industries. Every event we do is so different and unique. It really allows my creative side to mesh with my logistical side to create exceptional experiences for attendees!

 

 

To select the perfect hotel or venue, we put together a very detailed RFP so we can provide as much information to the venues as possible. The more details we are able to provide, the less back and forth we will have to do to get answers. We typically send the RFP directly to whatever CVB is in the city we are looking in, or sometimes we will send it through software. The factors that weigh most heavily truly vary with every client and what their goals are with the event. Things like availability, location, pricing, size/layouts, amenities, concessions, etc., all come into play.

After we send the RFP, we evaluate all of our options and put together a presentation for our client with our top choices. We like to weed out the ones that don't match our criteria and typically keep it to 3-5 top choices to present. We will then usually do a site visit to our top choices. Seeing the options in person helps us evaluate which space is best suited for our event.

 

Financial challenges often include vendor pricing — especially audio-visual services, food and beverage prices and increases year over year, additional things that might be needed at the event that weren't originally budgeted for, such as rider needs for an entertainer, and so many more.

 

Communication is always the best way to mitigate and avoid these challenges. I have discovered that the more open you are with your partners about the budget you are working with, the more they will normally try to help you meet your goals and work with you to be as flexible as possible. Things are always going to pop up throughout the planning process, and as long as you remain open and honest with both clients and partners, you can usually find ways to come to conclusions and satisfy all parties.

 

How do you leverage technology to boost efficiency during the planning, execution, and post-event process? 

We started using Monday.com this year, and it has been a game changer as a project management tool for our team. Not only is it a great way to track all project tasks and deadlines, but you can communicate directly with your team and clients in the platform, share documents, keep track of notes, and assign tasks and deadlines to team members and clients, which cuts down on the number of emails and other communication being sent.

Here are a few other tech tools we use to be successful:

 

We have templates for pretty much everything — meeting agendas, run of shows, budgets, food and beverage plans, RFPs, etc. All of our templates and docs are created in Google Docs which makes collaborating with our teams and clients very simple.

 

As mentioned above, we started using Monday.com as an overall project management tool, and it has been amazing. You can link your working Google Docs to different tasks for easy access for all parties.

Communication x 1000: make sure people have everything they could possibly need before they even arrive at the event, and keep communicating with them at the event and even when it's over. It's always great to have a help desk all attendees are familiar with so they know where to go when they have questions and can always find an event staff member.

 

Events are all about inclusivity now, so make sure you consider everything you can think of to ensure they have the best experience possible. Be sure to ask in advance (registration) if there are any accommodations you can consider to help provide them with a great experience. You never know what they might recommend that you hadn't thought of, and that could make the event more comfortable for them.

We have set recurring calls with our clients/stakeholders to ensure we stay in frequent communication with them and that everyone is always on the same page. As the question states, communication is crucial, and as long as you are always communicating, you will be successful.

 

Providing some sort of icebreaker or game to help spark a conversation always helps! It can be as easy as an answer to a question on your name badge or as detailed as an advanced team-assigned ice breaker game.

If it is possible, having options for people to choose from so they can be comfortable in the environment is always a great way to provide networking opportunities. And if it's not totally different opportunities, it could be one event with different activities or choices within that event.

For breakouts and workshops, we often assign people based on company size or other commonalities that will provide them with a more tailored experience.

We create emergency plans before the event, and everyone has access to those and critical contacts, so we know what the plan is and who to contact if there is an emergency. It's always hard in the moment, but the most important thing (easier said than done) is not to panic. Find out what the options are or what needs to be done first, communicate with your team and partners, and work together to come up with the best solution possible.

 

Some emergencies have more lead time than others, so making sure you're on the same page as your team and clients ahead of time is the most important thing.

 

Weather has created the most significant challenges we've had at events, and it's important to remember that it's always out of our control. From hurricanes to blizzards, it's all about how you handle the situation and communicate with your stakeholders, partners, and attendees. We try to get ahead of anything we know that is coming our way and get a plan in place as if it is the worst-case scenario. Every time this happens, we always approach the client after we have our plan in place to make sure they are on board with our recommendations and options we have. Once we are on the same page as our clients, we communicate with our attendees so they are comfortable early on and know that there is a plan and action being taken.

What are the typical steps you take in the post-event phase?
We always keep a running list of notes of things that we recognize could be done differently during the event and then put everything into a post-event document. We go through this internally as a team and with our clients, and we always revisit these notes throughout the planning process the next year to make sure we are accounting for and remembering the things that need to be done differently from past years.

 

Of course, we survey our attendees and look at those results, but being a third party, our main indicator of a great event is shown by our clients and their reactions to the event. If the client is happy and wants to discuss plans to partner again next year, then we know we have done a great job and met their expectations!

 

This career is difficult, stressful, and exhausting, but it is also the most self-fulfilling and rewarding career you could have!

 

You are going to create experiences for people that they will remember for the rest of their lives. There is truly no feeling like planning an event, being onsite to execute it, and witnessing people enjoying all of your hard work.

 

When the days get long and the stress gets high, just remember the 'why' and that there is almost always a solution to any problem you might encounter. Be resourceful, think outside the box, and always strive to provide the best experience for your clients and attendees, and you will be successful!