the meeting planner

Anne Marshall
The power of a smile
Spring 2007

Anne Marshall is president and founder of the Isis company, a Colorado-based company which specializes in planning high-quality conferences and events for non-profits.

MPG: You grew up in an Air Force family and moved a great deal. How did that help you develop your meeting planning skills?

Anne: I was born at an Air Force base in St. Johns, Newfoundland, lived in Madrid for three years, and went to twelve schools in twelve years. When you part of a military family, you interact with lots of adults. You’ve got the military orphans coming over for Thanksgiving dinner and you learn early how to be comfortable around all different kinds of people.

What led you into meeting planning?
I was actually well into my career. I’d spent ten years doing government contract management negotiations and then took ten years off to spend with my family. Someone I knew from my years in government contracting was opening up an office in Colorado Springs and needed some help. The job involved logistics. I came in and really didn’t know anything about anything. The particular division I supported had quarterly meetings with attendees coming from all over the world - NATO, Europe, the Pacific, and from across the U.S. My talent for organizing and my attention to detail were quickly noted and I went from just sitting in the meetings to planning and running them.

I did that for 3 to 4 years and ultimately had about 500 military and defense contractors coming in to our meetings which included highly detailed programs. We were spending taxpayer money so there wasn’t a lot of entertainment and absolutely no staging. During one of these meetings, I met one of the volunteers for one of these associations that I now actually work for and he asked me if I would like to volunteer to handle the “local arrangements.” It sounded like great fun to me so I volunteered and learned that I might have a knack for this type of work.

At that point, my husband, who owns his own business, said “why are you doing this for someone else, you have a talent for this, why don’t you go out on your own?” With his support, I jumped from the cushy job with benefits and a paycheck and ventured out with no contracts and lots of hope.

That was two years ago… any regrets?
No, none at all.

What factors are important to creating a successful meeting?
Because I work with non-profits, a primary concern for me is the cost. It took me quite a few conferences and years of doing this to realize that I didn’t have to accept banquet menus as “this is the way it is and this is what it costs.” You can actually go to hotels and say “this is how much money I have, and this is the kind of meal I want - let’s talk.”

At one of my associations the money generated from the event goes to scholarships to pursue math and science degrees. It’s not like a for-profit company that is doing an event as an incentive award. We have a totally different focus. Every dime I can save goes into that scholarship fund.

Cost is my first concern and the venue is second. I am so fortunate to work with The Broadmoor.

The third ingredient for me is my volunteers. Working in the not-for-profit world, I simply could not have a successful meeting without the support of volunteers. I hand-pick people that have passion for the cause and are willing to roll their sleeves up and take time out of their own work day to help.

Talk about the importance of the relationship between the planner and the hotel staff.
The relationships are key. To be successful in this business, you have to enjoy working with people and I do. It has never been my nature to be a “demander.” I think that kind of personality alienates you from the staff. I’m also a big believer in smiles; they just come naturally to me.

Let’s look to the future. What should we be preparing for?
Our support comes from the corporate world - even the military is a corporation.

They must make a decision that in their budget they are going to allow their three officers and sergeants or the three folks over at IBM to come to our event, or to provide booths or to buy a sponsorship. Of course, they get a lot for that. What we have seen is a lot of belt tightening. Because of the war, we’re impacted by the national budget and so we must make our event really relevant.

At one event we finished in January, in which we sold out a 60,000 square foot exhibit hall, we surveyed the exhibitors and asked “If this event ceased to exist, would it matter to you?” We asked them to compare our event to others that have similar subject matter. From the responses, we got the validation that indeed our event has to go on because the subject matter and the content of our event is critical.

What is your advice to other planners?
The content of our meetings must be relevant for the attendees. When potential attendees are sitting at their desks reviewing your promotional material, they must see a compelling reason why they should take the time and spend the money to attend. You have to stay on top of your game.