the meeting planner

Tina Bavemark
A Rising Star
Fall 2007

TINA BAVEMARK is Meetings Coordinator for the Society of Petroleum Engineers, a Richardson-based international association representing 73,000 professionals worldwide. Tina was recently presented the Rising Star Award by the D/FW Chapter Meeting Professionals International. She was born in Almhult, Sweden.

MPG:  In your bio, I read that, in 2001, you changed your career path from teaching to the hospitality industry.  What encouraged you to make that decision?

Tina:  I had been in the United States for one year.  I was an au pair, an exchange student nanny, and was able to attend three college-level classes.  One was a travel-inspired class at Richland College.  I had no idea that you could have a career in this industry. 

I already had a teaching degree and when I got back to Sweden I realized that I really didn’t want to work with children.  I liked socializing and wanted to work with adults instead.  I remembered that class at Richland, and I had traveled from LA to New York in 21 days and seen everything in between.  I got a little taste of traveling which I really liked.  I thought that if I could have a job where I could travel a bit and work with adults at the same time - then I felt my work would be so much easier if I had a passion for it. So, I returned to the United States and studied here because I wanted my hospitality degree in English.

Have you found someone here in the U.S. to serve as your mentor?

I am very fortunate - it’s hard for me to pick just one.  I actually have five mentors - Peg Wolschon, Sally Goldesberry, M.T. Hickman, John Millman and Marti Fox. 

Is there a common lesson that you have learned from your five mentors?

Yes.  If you say you are going to do something, follow through and do it.  Pay attention to everything.  Be detail oriented.

Hotel sales people are called upon to promote their hotels to meeting planners.  I know they are curious to find the best ways to present their products and to develop relationships with planners.  What’s your advice?

I would say that one of the keys is that before they even contact us that they have done some research.  They should know when we have meetings.  For example, we have our annual meeting in November.  You can go to company’s web sites and see when they are having their meetings.

It’s a courtesy and a show of respect because when they call you to set up a meeting and they call the month before our annual meeting, we will be too busy to give them any time.  It’s so easy to get the knowledge and to have looked to see what is going to be coming up.  Please, do not waste my time or their time.

Do you find that third-party planners are helpful with your site selections?

We actually use Experient for housing and registration.  For our organization, because of our large Offshore Technology Conference and our annual meeting, it is helpful because those meetings are really large and we have 25 hotels in our block.  Our annual meeting uses 15-20 hotels so it is really helpful if you have built a trust with that third-party and work very closely and really communicate.

One current hot topic for meeting planners is “green” meetings.  How do you define a “green” meeting? 

It is a fresh and new topic in the U.S. this year.  I would say that as a planner you look into what you can reduce but still get the same quality event or maybe even better.

Now in 2007, everyone uses more technology so simple things like not having papers on the chairs, saves paper. Only one glass on the table instead of two, gives them the option of ice tea or water.  With just having one or the other, you save labor and water.   In this early stage the definition is re-evaluate how you did it and think more cost effective in a green perspective. 

Is there a “green” example that other meeting planners should consider or apply to their own meetings?

For MPI in Dallas I was one of the co-chairs for the September meeting which focused on “green” meetings.  The more people who are thinking about green meetings, the more we will make changes.  A lot of people need to be aware of it and small details are the way to start.  We just need to be brave enough to start talking about the issue. 

Are European hoteliers and planners looking at this issue differently? Are they a little farther down the road than we are? 

Yes, I believe so. 2007 seems to be the year that everyone has become brave enough to bring it up in the U.S.  You can read about it and see it on the news and I think that in Europe they have established things that we need to think about here that they don’t think about anymore.  From the Swedish example, trash is only picked up every two weeks where here it is picked up twice a week.  That means that in Sweden, you need to recycle because you have too much if they don’t come so often.

If you were talking to a group of younger people who were thinking about career options, what would be your advice about the hospitality industry?

If they are looking to a industry where they want a lot of change and not the same thing over and over and they like hard work, this is definitely the place for them.  It takes a lot of time and work to put on a show but there is a lot of gratification that comes along with it if you do it well. 

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