My background (and BA degree from Iowa State University) is in therapeutic recreation. I spent 10 years working in the psychiatric field planning special events, group activities and outings with individual mental health facilities (hospitals and prisons). When I decided working with prisoners was not for me, I moved to Kansas City and began working for a large engineering firm and after a couple of years was able to move into the marketing department, where I again planned meetings, events and trade shows. It was at that point I was titled a meeting and event planner, however, looking back, I have really been one since 1989.
I have finally found my “dream job,” planning meetings and events for the animal health division of a large global pharmaceutical company. Growing up on a farm in southeast Iowa, always around animals, this position allowed me to do something I loved with the people that I am most familiar with and relate to the best.
The largest challenge for me is often budget. Meetings can be very costly. Working in the pharmaceutical field (along with being very budget minded), we have to keep our costs contained. It often requires a great deal of flexibility and creativity to be able to pull off a nice meeting within those spend caps with meeting venue pricing.
Working in this field has allowed me the opportunity to work with so many different people from so many different places. I have met so many people in my career that started out as a vendor or an onsite contact who are now lifelong friends all over the world.
I joined MPI at the encouragement of my boss to meet others in the industry and create contacts for meetings/events in the Kansas City area. I quickly became an active volunteer by assuming the role of charitable contributions chairperson. This turned out to be a great fit and I was able to coordinate the chapter donations for an outstanding nonprofit in the community, one that I continue to support personally due to this introduction. After assuming that role, I was asked to sit on the 2017-2018 MPI Kansas City Chapter Board as VP of communications.
When I first began, meetings were larger with more entertainment-type activities. Many times, during certain meetings, spouses were invited to attend and they were able to participate in aspects of the meetings. Twenty years later, meetings are smaller, shorter and have less entertainment-type activities. New laws, compliance policies and budgets all played a part in the changes over the years.
Attendees want to feel that meetings are being specifically designed for individual needs. Meetings often involve a wide range of attendee ages. Planners and suppliers must work together to design meeting spaces that will appease Baby Boomers through Millennials, from going off the standard F&B menu to creating something out of the box to breakout sessions and room sets.
How can we keep our attendees safe? Every venue will have a safety plan as will every planner, however is there a way to combine these plans into a universal plan? If this could be accomplished, planners and suppliers would be speaking the same language when it came to code words, actions and resolutions. This would certainly be a benefit to help avoid confusion, chaos and potential loss of life.
I try to spend as much time as I can with my kids: Zach and his fiancée Jess, and Sam and his girlfriend Mariah. They are first on my passionate list, followed by my cat Chester. Other passions are working with my two favorite charities: First Downs for Down Syndrome and Operation Breakthrough, both in Kansas City!
