Smart Meetings

In The Steps Of A Meeting Professional

Author: By Carla Breer Howard
September 2006

Brand News

A pharmaceutical company’s out-of-town meeting generates a surprise or two, but the planning team doesn’t miss a step

Surprises don’t upend Jan Marino, of Universal Conferences and Incentive Travel. Earlier this year, I was invited to spend a day following Marino, ably assisted by her colleague Kathleen Custis, to see how a professional planner works during an actual meeting.

The attendees were coming together in La Jolla, Calif. to exchange new information and to receive updates.
Pharmaceutical industry gatherings have strict security and confidentiality requirements. Connecticut-based Universal CIT was chosen for its expertise in holding meetings for this industry.

The gathering took place at AAA Four-Diamond-honored Estancia La Jolla Hotel & Spa, located about 15 minutes’ drive north of downtown San Diego. Estancia offers an appealing blend of state-of-the-art business capabilities and impeccable service in a luxurious setting reminiscent of an early California rancho.
Estancia La Jolla’s physical layout, its 25,000-square-foot, IACC-certified conference center and its Ultimate Meeting Package attracted the business.

Marino’s and Custis’ preparation for this meeting, coupled with flawless service from Estancia’s team, suggested layers of professionalism, hard-won expertise and a culture of discretion and service. I wanted to see how it worked.

PREPARATION
The Universal CIT team—which also included the account representative and an A/V crew that Universal brought in from Los Angeles to work with Estancia’s A/V people—arrived on Thursday afternoon. Marino had previously come on a site inspection. “The site inspection enabled us to see that the layout was right and the place was lovely, but that we would definitely need to have good signage,” she says, referring to the potential to get a little lost on meandering garden pathways between the various buildings that all look like charming haciendas. Accordingly, pre-made signs had been shipped out from Connecticut.

Additionally, I learned that among the various specification sheets—called BEOs for Banquet Event Orders—was one for a command center for the Universal team. That BEO included the size of the room and nature of its furnishings, the number of doors, the business equipment required, and the refreshment service for the crew. The Cypress Room fit the bill, and this would be home base from Friday through Sunday after the last attendee had left for home.

While preparing for this meeting, Jan Marino had written BEOs for the six meeting set-ups, breaks, meals and events during the weekend. She had provided them to Terry Bucholz, Estancia’s director of conference services. These documents served to communicate the gathering’s complete needs during their three-day, two-night stay. “Jan’s BEOs are so organized,” commented Bucholz when I interviewed him later. “In general, the amount of work that goes into one day is five days of preplanning.”