By the time he was 18, Dylan Marer had his own event planning
business, which he ran from his frat house. "I'd be on the
phone with clients from AT&T or IBM, and I'd have to tell
my frat brothers to be quiet because I was working," recalls
Marer, now 30.
The Costa Mesa, California, entrepreneur, who started his career
as a caterer's assistant at age 14, earned enough money to put
himself through California State University, Long Beach, where he
earned a marketing degree in 1992. But the days of coordinating
spring break vacations and student ski trips--and frantically
searching for stained corporate client files in stacks of papers at
the frat house--are long behind him.
Today, Marer is president of Innovative Meetings and Events
Inc., a full-service event planning and project management service
with expected sales of $4 million this year. He and a staff of 14
are responsible for corporate executives feasting at a Hawaiian
luau or doing crazy beach Olympics in Cancun.
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He's one of a rapidly growing number of event
planners--professionals from a wide variety of backgrounds who help
corporate and private clients create memorable experiences, whether
it's a sales meeting for 10, a wedding reception for 100 or a
convention for 1,000. Because it's such a new industry (only
about a dozen years old) it's tough to say how many event
planners there are out there, says Sharon Jansen, owner of Special
Event Business Advisors, a consulting firm in San Clemente,
California. But where there's money to be made, you can bet
there are entrepreneurs.
And there is money to be made in event planning. Meeting
Professionals International, a trade organization that represents
meeting planners (one category of event planners), estimates sales
for the meeting planning industry alone top $83 billion annually.
That doesn't include the additional revenues generated by
professionals who plan weddings, events for special interest
groups, children's parties, class reunions or other niche
markets.
Those figures will continue to grow, industry experts say, as
more busy people look to turn over the details of coordinating an
event to someone else. Corporations will always need event planners
because a well-produced event, such as a sales meeting, can promote
staff productivity and, in the long run, boost the bottom line.
It's hard to pin down typical sales for event planners, since
the range is so wide. Jansen says event planners who work at it
part time may gross as little as $20,000 annually; some full-time
event planners enjoy sales of $100,000 or more, on up to the
millions.
In addition to its potential as a growing market, event planning
attracts start-up entrepreneurs because it's a business that
can be started from home with very little capital. After four
months of traveling in Europe in 1996, Jennifer Palmer, formerly an
events coordinator for Starbucks, returned to the States with an
entrepreneurial itch. Using a computer and $40 worth of business
cards printed at Kinko's, Palmer launched Marketing Edge SF
from her apartment in San Francisco. Although she operates solo,
the 29-year-old says her firm, with 1998 sales of $120,000, has no
trouble attracting clients.
"In Silicon Valley, a lot of companies don't have the
in-house resources to plan meetings and events. Huge layoffs in the
Valley mean demand for independent contractors like myself,"
says Palmer, who has a Rolodex of 500 names of customers she worked
with while at Starbucks.
For those like Palmer who serve corporate clients, training
seminars make up the largest number of planned events, followed by
sales meetings, trade shows and conventions, according to
Meetings & Conventions magazine.
While event planning may sound like a lark, it's not
something to rush into. "Just because you once planned a baby
shower doesn't mean you can be a successful event
planner," Jansen cautions.
First, you need experience. Event planners come from a wide
range of backgrounds, but most have some previous experience in the
industry, often having worked in a related field, such as catering
or meeting planning. And as certification programs become available
through schools like George Washington University in Washington,
DC, and the University of San Diego, competition will become
fiercer. "People will flock to get those letters [CMP, for
Certified Meeting Planner] behind their names so they can stand out
from the crowd," Jansen says.
You also need to be detail-oriented, have a good head for
numbers (cost savings are important to clients; many event planners
go out of business quickly if they can't work within a budget),
be able to simultaneously coordinate numerous people and
activities, have technical expertise (since many events require
high-quality audiovisuals), be able to market yourself effectively
through networking and cold-calling, and not wilt under long days
and deadline pressures. It's important to live in or near an
urban area that can supply you with a steady stream of clients. A
little personal charisma doesn't hurt, either, Palmer says,
since event planners need to be able to sell themselves as much as
they're able to execute a successful event.
You'll definitely need a niche, something that sets you
apart from the pack. Marer, for instance, offers clients a Web site
service. His firm will set up a Web site with details about the
upcoming event, an agenda and a way for participants to sign up and
make room reservations online.
Robert Tuchman, 27-year-old president of Tuchman Sports
Enterprises in New York City, got the idea for an event planning
business that focuses on sporting events after reading an article
in Entrepreneur magazine. Tuchman makes arrangements for
clients from Fortune 500 companies (like Pepsi, Frito-Lay and
Hewlett-Packard) to attend events such as the Super Bowl and the
U.S. Open. Although his 2-year-old company racked up sales of $2.5
million last year, he admits running an event planning business
isn't always easy. "My most sleepless nights come when
I'm planning an event," Tuchman says. "It's
absolutely critical that everything be perfect and all the vendors
do their jobs. But worrying ensures I go in prepared."
Pamela Rohland (prohla@aol.com) is a freelance writer
whose work appears regularly in national and regional
publications.
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