There are about 700 to 800 consultancies. The largest of them might have seven people, and many are solo operations. They tend not to be as lucrative as other kinds of consultancies because the work is very labor intensive.
Travel agencies, to head up new conventions and meetings divisions, are hiring middle-level corporate meeting planners.
Thus, despite some limitations on mobility, meeting planning is emerging as a career. Some planners even become very involved with the management of major corporations and associations.
Meeting Planners International conducts a number of educational programs, including one-week institutes geared to entry- level, intermediate, and advanced professionals. MPI also publishes various resource books and maintains a resource center, which can provide "career packages" consisting of information gathered on how to get into the field (price is about $30).
MPI works with the Convention Liaison Council, which provides a program toward a Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) title. Several local chapters offer a job bank for members, and MPI is compiling an online employment bulletin board (for members only).
Convention Center Management
If working as a meeting planner is like "show business," then working for one of the hundreds of convention centers throughout the country is like "opening a Broadway show every day" especially if the convention center is just across from New York City's Great White Way.
Of the 1,000 jobs at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center of New York, 700 are part-time or daily (principally workers who move equipment in and out) and 300 are full-time. Of the full-time workers, half are "blue-collar" (mainly union), such as electricians, plumbers, and guards. Only about 125 are actually the core management staff, consisting of marketing, public relations, personnel, administration, finance, and operations people.
Rachel Dahbany, director of administration and personnel, drew a parallel between convention center management and real estate management, the area she worked in before going to the convention center: This is a great big corporation that manages a building but also does marketing and public relations." But there is an important difference: The convention center, unlike most office buildings, never closes. After the day's activities conclude or a trade show closes, teams come in to break down one show and set up for another on one floor, while on another, a grand banquet may still be going on.
Convention center management involves extremely complex logistics. The New York City center is as big as the Empire State Building would be if standing on its side, and, in any one day, some 70,000 people can be going and coming. "There is nothing more exciting," Dahbany said. "Tens of thousands of people scurrying about every day. There is madness at night. This building is alive."
Among the positions that are fairly unique to convention center management are the Director of Transportation, who is responsible for getting the convention goers from their hotels to and from the center, trafficking trucks in and out of the building, working with the city to make sure that streetlights are working and enough police are on hand when necessary, and dealing with the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission to make sure that there are adequate services for the center, a Director of Public Safety, who is in charge of the safety of the people and the equipment, a Director of Fire Safety, and an Events Coordinator, who is some-thing like a meeting planner but is at a much higher level. A center the size of the Javits Center has six or seven Events Coordinators working under a Director of Event Services.
Entry-level jobs for the "white-collar" positions in management might be as a receptionist, a mail room worker, a messenger, or a secretary. New centers tend to hire only experienced people in key positions generally from hotel convention sales, meeting planning, show management, and convention and visitors bureaus because there is not enough time to train them.
In essence, the convention center provides the space and facilities; individual show managers provide their own creative people, interior designers, audiovisual technicians, and the like.
Most convention centers operate much like a private enterprise but are generally owned by state or local government. The New York City center is owned by both state and city government. Political contacts can come into play in getting jobs.
The 1980s was a period of extraordinary growth. It seemed as though every town was building a convention center and every city was building a newer, bigger one. Convention center management offers interesting and unique opportunities for those seeking jobs in the 1990s. Contact local convention and visitors bureaus for further information.
Conference Center Management
Apart from convention centers (generally stand-alone structures that do not provide accommodations on-site), there are hundreds of conference centers. These complexes combine accommodations (up to 300 rooms) and food and beverage facilities with meetings facilities, according to the International Association of Conference Centers.
Conference center management essentially couples hotel and resort management with convention center management, usually with separate categories of professionals.
An executive conference center has a median staff size of 15 in the conference service department. A corporate conference center has a median staff size of 7, while a resort conference center has a median of 6.
Professionals who work in conference centers have "high- impact" positions involving face-to-face contact with attendees. Front-desk personnel and those who pick up the attendees at airports and bus or rail terminals, as well as conference service coordinators (who are involved with anything having to do with the conference itself, from booking the meeting, to servicing it, to following up with a post-meeting evaluation), are all on the front line. The sales department, assistant manager, and general manager are also all highly visible.
In the past, many people entered conference center management from education (former teachers, for example, who became involved in coordinating educational programs), from hotels, and from meeting planning departments at corporations. However, this field, as virtually every other in travel, is becoming more professional.
The International Association of Conference Centers is working with a university to create a curriculum for a conference center management program. It also provides continuing education for those who have already come into the field from other areas. The association holds a "Career Mart" and keeps resumes on file for six months so that its 141 members (centers and suppliers) can call when new staff is in need.
