Monica Compton, CMP

Monica Compton, CMP Event Marketing Consultant Pinnacle Productions Member since 2001

After 10 years working for event marketing agencies, Monica started her own company as an independent planner. Fast forward 18 years, Pinnacle Productions has grown into more than just a meeting logistics company. She expanded her core services to include strategic event marketing consultation in the areas of sponsorship development and customized analytics to determine sales results. These services include the all-important ROI analysis, which gives meeting planners the opportunity to show their worth to senior management. Over the last five years, Pinnacle Production’s professional writing services have grown and been more in demand for meeting industry professionals – from corporate planners to hotel marketing executives. 

One of Monica’s best practices: Always be honest. She firmly believes you should admit when you make a mistake and act with ethics at all times. Adding to a high standard of client service and satisfaction, Monica quips, “continue to smile, no matter how difficult the situation may be at the time.”

Monica credits her success in business to relationships with mentors. A piece of advice she will never forget is to never turn your back on a drawer of money, as it may be taken from you. And yet another talent, Monica moonlights as a travel writer. In November, she was a journalist at the Institute of Business Travel Management’s (IBTM World) event in Barcelona.

How would your co-workers best describe you? Funny. Not strange, but humorous, I guess. 

What is your biggest pet peeve? When there are empty tray stands and empty easels without trays or signs placed upon them. How is one good without the other?

When I’m not in the office: I exercise, read, and work on writing my novels. I take time to stop and be grateful for the life I have lived and to appreciate the life that is still to come. 

If I wasn’t in the hospitality industry: I am already doing it – I am a travel writer. 

Dream Vacation: I’ve already worked the most incredible event that cannot top any vacation memory. I was 28 years old and coordinated an amazing event: Nice, France (the meeting session and accommodations venue); San Remo, Italy (the evening dinner gala); and Monaco (for the Grand Prix Formula One race). 

Most memorable MPI Georgia event: When the Phoenix Awards wasn’t the Phoenix Awards… just a down-to-earth event to network with colleagues and to appreciate our industry from the ground up.

Chapter volunteer roles? Board of Directors – Communications, Publication Editor and Writer – BreakOut Magazine, Government Affairs Committee, Community Action Committee

Rookie Career Mistake: I started my career as an intern for a concert promoter in Pittsburgh, Pa. This was the spring of 1992 and the Internet was a budding concept. My jobs were to write and fax press releases to area newspapers and television and radio stations. I canvased the city hanging up posters and fliers that advertised our concerts and festivals. An important job, I thought, was sitting at the reception desk and answering phone calls for the three company owners – the entertainer’s agent, the media liaison, and the business manager. One day, a regional band manager called and said the band would be late driving through the snowy Pennsylvania mountains. I wrote down the message on the pink memo pad and resumed answering calls, gathering faxes, and organizing mailing labels for promotional postcards. The entertainer’s agent is the contact to address the band’s delay. He was on a phone call for 30 minutes and when he was off, he walked out to my reception area and asked for his messages. The band manager’s message was on top. When he read it, he looked at me as only this gentleman could – not a display of anger, not a demeaning tone, just straightforward: “You should have knocked on my door as soon as the band called,” he began. I opened my mouth to explain that I didn’t want to interrupt him while he was on the phone. He shook his head slightly as if to say, “Please let me finish.”  Then, “It’s OK to interrupt me when there is an urgent issue such as a band being late for a show that is happening in a few hours.” I must have looked as if I was going to cry. He smiled and said, “It’s OK. You’re green. You will learn.” And after that, I never made this mistake again.