the third party planner

Jan M. Allen, CMP - Using Her Gifts
Winter 2007

JAN M. ALLEN, CMP is the principal of Jan Allen Enterprises, based in Austin, TX, and has over 29 years of meeting management experience. From 1998-2003 Jan developed and taught meeting planning and hospitality curriculum for Austin Community College and the AISD School-to-Career Pathways program.

:  What attracted you to meeting planning?

Allen:  I’m using my gifts.  I have the gift of walking into a situation and knowing what needs to be done.  I’ve always taught my children “if you use the gifts God has given you, it will never feel like a job.”  My degree is in journalism and I focused on special events.

:  What was your first job?

Allen:  My first job was with the American Cancer Society and meeting planning was part of my responsibility.  I was the first female field representative in the state of Texas.  One of my jobs involved gathering the volunteers within my eleven counties in Northeast Texas to talk about the annual fund drive.  My boss was amazed that I was able to get them all together and set up a hotel luncheon.

Soon after you started you felt you had a gift for putting people together for meetings and events.

I have an eye for detail and I am a masochist for high stress level.  If it comes natural to you, it’s a gift.  When I met Lisa Fall back in the 80’s, I just knew she was going to be a good meeting planner.  With some of my students, you can just see it in them.

:  Third party planners fall into two categories.  Planners that work for a commission or planners, like yourself, who work on a retainer.  How do you see these differences and what has caused the huge growth in this segment of planners?

Allen:  I think everyone wants to be their own boss. Since the movie The Wedding Planner came out, everyone wants to be a planner.  Everyone who can throw a party thinks that they can be a meeting planner.  Party and special event planning is not meeting planning.

I’ve never worked commission - only on a retainer.  If I have six months, six weeks, or six hours to put on a meeting, I still have the do the “25 Functions of Meeting Planning.”  That’s how I price my work and just divide it out.  If they talk to me 18 months out, then we divide it by 18.  If it’s 12 months out we divide it by 12.  I don’t know how meeting planners that work for commissions survive on a daily basis. As a business person you need money to operate and you can’t wait until the end to pay your bills.  Hotels are notorious for paying after 60 or 90 days.

:  Tell me about the “25 Functions of Meeting Planning”?

Allen:  It’s part of getting your MPI CMP certification – you’re tested on those.  If you do it on a daily basis, it comes easy.  If you don’t, that’s when the CMP study group comes in.

:  For people who have been working in a salaried environment, what is the biggest shock when they do make that transition into their own shop?

Allen:  It’s the loss of benefits--when they don’t have insurance, a check coming in on a regular basis, quarterly taxes, or being hit with social security on both sides. You must be financially disciplined and put some of your income aside.

:  What about the interaction with co-workers that you may be used to?

Allen:  I love it because I hated the office politics.  You can bang out so much more work. It’s amazing how much you can get done.  I do not home office and I feel that is a benefit.  If I had a home office, I would be in it all the time - that is were a lot of burn out happens.  My office is on my property but not in my house, so when I leave my office I’m able to close the door and leave the phone behind.

:  Long, over 40-hour work weeks seem common.  Is burnout a problem?

Allen:  Burnout happens when meeting planning is not your thing.  I love the stress.  I work well under it but for people who find it hard to keep it all together, to do the details and they don’t let some of these things roll off their backs.  You’ve got to learn early on that you can’t please everyone.  The room’s always going to be too hot for some and too cold for others.  The meat will always be too rare or too well done.  Take the criticism and let some of it go.

:   Any advice you’d like to pass along to novice meeting planners?

Allen:  The hospitality industry including meeting planning is a wonderful career.  I can not imagine my life without it (I’d probably be a dentist).  It has just given me such an opportunity to be fulfilled - that is why I love teaching it.

It’s like giving birth.  You put it all together and then you stand back and watch it happen.  It is such a rewarding experience when it all clicks.  And even when it doesn’t and a problem arises, you are ready for it.   I love being in the background and solving a problem before the client even knows something is wrong.  Meeting planning is all about solving problems.  If it is your gift, then it is truly a blessing.