Face to Face
Fall 2009

It's all about 'being there'

Karen Peña is a national account manager for ConferenceDirect, a past president of the MPI Houston Chapter, an author, a speaker and a former wingwalker.

ONE OF THE SCARIEST things anyone can do is walk away from a good paying job for one that is commission only.  Four years ago I did just that. 

I’d always wanted to switch sides from hotelier to planner, but most good paying planner positions require prior experience.  I decided that the “3rd party” option would give me an opportunity to test my abilities and build my résumé – kind of “on the job training.”  My original idea was to eventually use my planner experience to get a real job.  The irony is that it turned out to be the best “real job” I’ve ever had.

The funny thing is that the meetings industry was responsible for me being able to remain in the meetings industry.  Allow me to explain.

I had a lot of contacts when I joined ConferenceDirect, but no clients, so I needed to find something quickly.  I gave myself three months to land an account or go back and find a job with a regular paycheck.  I decided that a good place to drum up business would be at my old stomping ground, the MPI Professional Education Conference.  My company exhibited and I was the first one on the floor.  After about 30 minutes, Mary walked up and introduced herself as the VP of a pharmaceutical organization and said they were considering contracting an outside resource to assist them in securing meetings across the US.  Mary was completely noncommittal but very curious about our services.

I did enough research on her company to believe that they would indeed have business for me – I just needed to convince them of that and called her to set up a face-to-face appointment.  They were a little shocked that I would go the expense of traveling from Houston to Indianapolis to see them with no promise of a return on my investment, but I felt that if I could spend a little time with them, it would be well worth my effort.  I received my first event from them two weeks after our meeting, they’ve become a valued client and Mary has become one of my dearest friends.  Our face-to-face encounter changed the course of my life and allowed me to continue to work productively out of my home and be where I want to be – closer to my family.  

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