Member Spotlight Janet Pickover

Name:  Janet R. Pickover, CMP Emeritus
Occupation:  Meeting Manager
Planner or Supplier: Planner
Member Since: 1986
Current Employer:  Retired

How did you get your start in the industry?
Believe it or not, fifteen words got me started in the industry. Not wanting to go back to teaching when my children were older, I knew I wanted to do something else, but did not know what.  Then one fateful evening, my husband and I had met with a financial planner and at the end of his consultation, he asked these 10 words- “Do you know someone who can get me speaking engagements?”  The proverbial light bulb went off in my head and I replied with these five words, “Yes, I can do that.”  As the saying goes, the rest is history.

How many years have you been in the industry?
39 years

What is your favorite thing about our industry?
I have several:

• Create something that didn’t exist before.
• Work with teams of very talented people.
• Travel to places in the world I thought I’d never would.
• Make good friends and alliances.

What is the best career advice you’ve received?
The best career advice came from my mother.

• Know what you want to do.
• Know who your clients are.
• Work hard.

If you were not in this industry, what would you be doing right now?
I would most likely be a research librarian or a curriculum coordinator.

What have you been working on in retirement?
I wrote a screenplay several years back that I want to make into a movie and so I created a new company called 1137 Productions and am currently in the process of making that happen. 

What do you love about MPI New Jersey?
My participation in MPI New Jersey allowed me the opportunity to network with my peers. Without question, the result of those opportunities grew my business.