the meeting planner

Christian T. Walker
A positive impact!
Summer 2009

CHRISTIAN T. WALKER is the Scheduling & Meeting Manager, Meeting Services for Plano, Texas-based JCPenney Company, Inc.

MPG: What attracted you to the meetings / hospitality industry?
Christian:  Originally I sought a career in dance education and attended Southwest Texas State University. In 2002 after the birth of my first child, I moved from Austin back to my hometown of Dallas to be closer to my family. Not long after resettling in Dallas, I was offered the opportunity to coordinate a continuing education seminar for North Texas radiologists. SourceOne Healthcare, a national radiographic imaging supply company, hosted bi-annual seminars as an added-value service to their clients - radiologists who needed to keep their certifications current. SourceOne had recently closed their Dallas office and needed someone to plan their future seminars.

My mother had worked for SourceOne during my youth and, in their moment of need, her past colleagues recalled me being a highly organized and creative problem solver who had assisted with many of the clerical responsibilities associated with their past seminars while I was a high school student. I took on the job with great excitement and minimal knowledge of meeting management or radiology. When the first continuing education seminar I coordinated attracted almost twice as many attendees as any previous SourceOne seminar, I knew this was the career for me.

I loved everything about it … the creative development, the detailed logistics, the constant fast-pace, and the person-to-person contact. I started taking courses through Richland College, focusing on meeting management and special events coordination and I secured a wonderful internship at the Garland ISD Special Events Center, where I gained intensive planning experience in an immense variety of genres.

Tell us a little about your position with JCPenney Company, Inc..

I manage the scheduling of 40 conference rooms, 8,000 sq. ft. ballroom, 7,000 sq. ft. rotunda, 50,000 sq. ft. of enclosed atrium and an outdoor fountain patio within the 1.9 million square foot JCPenney Home Office located in Plano, Texas. I am the administrator of the scheduling software used to manage the 50,000 yearly meetings and events hosted within our building.

Along with a team of nine meeting planners, I coordinate company meetings and events at both the Home Office and off-site venues. As well, I support the development of incentive program websites and maintain the attendee registrations for large company programs.

Over the last six months, corporations have cancelled or rescheduled meetings at luxury hotels and resorts.  Some of these cancellations have resulted from the “perception” that the meeting focused more on fun and not enough on business.  Have you seen this within your organization?

I have not seen this cancellation trend at JCPenney. Despite the economic downturn, our Associates are continuing to meet sales goals, earning a well deserved recognition event. JCPenney has been, and remains conservative regarding incentive choices.

I’m interested in how social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIN might impact the face-to-face meetings industry.   From your perspective as a younger member of this industry.  What are your thoughts about this?

Social networking has grown exponentially and I believe that it will have a positive impact on the face-to-face meeting industry. The convenience and accessibility to large numbers of people through online social forums make it a great tool to compliment the synergistic value of face-to-face interaction. In my own professional networking, I have not seen these technologies utilized to their full potential yet; it seems I ‘join’ a social networking group and then rarely receive any communication from the group afterwards. In the future though, I expect that the ease of online networking will greatly enhance the intimacy and personalization of face-to-face meetings.

How can these social networking technologies be used by associations and corporations to expand the attendance or frequency of their face-to-face meetings?

Social networking technologies are an ideal way for corporations and associations to schedule face-to-face meetings, set agendas, and send meeting reminders. I recently read an article in a national publication that attributed the growth in attendance at high school reunions to the use of social networking technologies. Online networking capabilities allow attendees to make new person-to-person connections and can prompt cooperative learning/working experiences. These technologies can also be a tool of measurement and guidance for corporations and associations when utilized to collect audience opinions, responses and assessment.

How is JC Penney Company, Inc. using other meetings’ technology such as gotomeeting.com?

The utilization of new meeting technologies at JCPenney is something I know about first hand. Currently, I am- leading a Meeting Services initiative to deploy a self-service reservation system that will allow the 5,000 Associates within our Home Office to reserve conference rooms, audio visual equipment and furnishings for meetings through their Outlook Calendars. This new technology will relieve manually handling an average of 250 phone calls and emails a day.

Look forward 5 years.  Let’s assume that the economy has recovered to some degree.  What differences in the face-to-face meetings industry do you see in 2015?

I foresee that the face-to-face meeting industry will remain vital to the organizational growth and development of businesses and associations. However, the impact of the economic downturn will still be reverberating throughout many organizations in 2015. The use of cost-saving technologies, such as web and video conferencing, will likely increase.  As a result, there may be fewer face-to-face meetings, but the necessity and the value of face-to-face meetings will not diminish.

One final question.  What advice to you have for your fellow meeting professionals to help them best show the value of their work.

Embrace technological advances to enhance the value of face-to-face meetings - not to replace them. 

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