Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI) is putting on its own March Madness Tournament this month with a survey asking what gets meeting planners worked up the most.
So what makes you mad? Low budgets? Poor RFP Responses? Too many emails? To participate in the survey, click here.
Running through April 6, the March Madness event highlights the top 16 gripes that planners often share with each other, but DMAI wants you to share them with the whole industry. So which one is the #1 champion meeting planning hassle? Starting this week, planners are voting in the first round to bring the list of 16 down to eight.
“Being a meeting professional is one of the greatest professions, according to US News & World Report, who ranked ‘Meeting, Convention & Event Planner’ 57th on their list of 100 best jobs of 2015,” says Christine “Shimo” Shimasaki, managing director of DMAI’s empowerMINT initiative “But, we know the job has moments of sheer, indescribable madness as well.”
Here are the Sweet 16 meeting challenges that you can vote into the next round:
- Being Called a Party Planner
- Stakeholders Who Thing They’re “Planners”
- Extensive Travel Demands
- Not Getting Paid Enough
- Emails and More Emails
- Uninformed Salespeople
- Cold Calls
- Seller’s Market
- Hotel Walking My VIPs
- Now Who’s My Contact?
- Meeting Room Changes
- Surprises, Surprises, Surprises
- Inadequate Response to My RFP
- Champagne Taste on a Beer Budget
- Enough Space For My Ugly Baby Meeting
- Waiting For Others to Make Decisions
Strong contenders for this year’s champion planner pain-in-the-backside problem are #4, #13 and #14. The dark horse favorites with an outside chance include #6, #11 and #16.
A group of meeting planners helped DMAI narrow down the list to the “Not-So-Sweet-16” things that drive meeting planners mad, divided into four categories: On the Job, Sales People, Who to Trust, and The Find.
So now it’s time the world understands the one thing that absolutely drives you mad, and now you have a chance to tell the industry. Here’s the 2015 voting schedule:
- Round 1: March 16-22
- Round 2: March 23-26
- Round 3: March 27-31
- Round 4: April 1-3
- Champion Announced: April 6
Voters only need an active email address to participate and be invited back to vote in subsequent rounds. Go to blog.empowerMINT.com/votemeetingmadness for more information and to vote today.
