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By Tracey B. Smith, CMP, CMM







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I am a contract meeting manager. I work from home. It can be a bit lonely sometimes, so I have to make myself get out of the house and connect with other people. I prefer other meeting planners, when possible.
SPiN has been that source for me. It’s not just that we’re meeting planners. It’s the levels of experience we all have. I can come to SPiN members for answers, for directions, for opinions, and more importantly, for friendship.
Seriously, where else can you reach out to another person half-way across the country to partner with you on a site inspection? Or, a lip-sync contest? Or, new contract work? True stories! And, I know I can reach out when necessary if I need help in a different city, or just need a recommendation for an offsite venue.
This is a community that goes beyond a career.  It’s a community that cares about each other and seeks to help each other. It’s emotional. I don’t get that in other industry organizations.
I have yet to pay for my membership in SPiN, because I signed on as a volunteer in the early days and I kept accruing enough credits to cover those costs. While I am delighted to have a free year, I truly would pay the price to be a member year after year. SPiN is worth it, and I am worth it!

Tracey B Smith, CMP, CMM discovered the meetings industry in 1989 and never looked back. In those years, she has planned corporate meetings and conferences, association meetings and public events.
In 2010, Smith joined the SPIN, developing programs for the organization’s members and the first three SPINCon conferences. Currently, Smith is a contract meeting manager for American Express Meetings & Events. She lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband and various dogs.

Have something to say? Say it on The Chatter, SPIN members are invited to submit Blogs for publication in The Chatter. If you are interested send an email to [email protected]. Let us know what you want to blog about and we will contact you.

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by Shawna Suckow, CMP

​As senior-level planners, dare I say that we’re the most respected segment of planners in the industry? Some of us logging more than 30 years in our jobs – long before our jobs were really even defined by the federal government, or anyone else for that matter. Long before there were college courses or mentor programs.
We’ve been trailblazers along the way, forging paths for others to follow. Whether we realize it or not, younger planners are watching us and molding the future of the industry based on what they learn from us. What we do, and how we behave, matters.
With that in mind, I challenge all of my fellow veteran planners to pledge along with me to improve the industry in the following three ways:

1. RFPs. We’ve seen a lot of changes since the advent of electronic Request For Proposal tools like Cvent. Many of those changes have resulted in horrible consequences for the industry – and we planners must take much of the responsibility for fixing what’s broken. Please go to www.rfpsmart.org and take the pledge to help reform the RFP system by agreeing to a code of standard behavior. We need to bring back civility to the RFP process, which means a) sending a reasonable amount of RFPs to carefully selected venues; b) giving a reasonable amount of time for suppliers to respond (which is NOT 24 or 48 hours!), and c) not ignoring suppliers who took the time to send proposals – being considerate enough to let everyone know who actually won your business.
   
   
2. Supplier Events. Set a New Year’s resolution that if you RSVP for a supplier’s event, you show up. Period. I’m embarrassed by the 50% planner no-show rate that is the AVERAGE for supplier-hosted events. I used to no-show myself from time to time, coming up with the usual excuse we’ve all used before, but no more. If I commit, I show up. There’s no excuse for doing to others what we hate at our own events.
   
   
3. Show Up for Yourself and Others. Too often, veteran planners stop attending industry events, stop engaging, stop learning and growing. When you’re at this stage of the game, showing up benefits not only you, but others who can learn from you. I’m also a firm believer that we should never stop learning. When we do, we become stagnant in our careers, and our meetings reflect that. When you lose your involvement in the industry, you lose your connection to it, and that can lead to feeling alone in your job. So whether it’s with SPIN or another industry association, show up. Share your knowledge with peers and younger planners alike, and see what they all have to teach you as well.

​Shawna Suckow, CMP, is the Founder & Chairwoman of SPIN, the 2,500-member Senior Planners Industry Network.  Honors include being named Top 100 Women Business & Tech Speakers Globally, Top 25 Women in the Industry, Top 25 Most Influential in the Meetings Industry, and Planners' Favorite Speakers of 2014 and 2015.

Have something to say? Say it on The Chatter, SPiN members are invited to submit Blogs for publication in The Chatter. If you are interested send an email to [email protected]. Let us know what you want to blog about and we will contact you.