The Accidental Meeting Planner: From Unexpected Assignment to Successful Event

How new technology tools and greater access to hotel availability, group rates and meeting space are giving occasional planners a simpler path to meeting success

Your boss needs an off-site meeting for 25 people next month. That means someone needs to find a hotel, secure guest rooms, determine what meeting space is available and figure out what it will all cost. Somehow, that responsibility has landed on your desk, even though planning meetings was never meant to be a significant part of your job.

It is a familiar situation for many administrative professionals, executive assistants, HR team members, office managers and other employees who find themselves serving as “accidental meeting planners.”  With more companies working remotely and having an increasing need to bring employees together for training sessions, leadership retreats, sales meetings and other gatherings, coordination responsibility often falls to someone with minimal or no group travel planning experience and with little available time to learn.

Fortunately, technology has made planning many company meetings more accessible. Greater online visibility into hotel and meeting space availability, group rates and other important details can simplify a process that traditionally required numerous emails, phone calls and follow-ups. Employees who occasionally coordinate meetings can concentrate on a few essential decisions while using technology to make sourcing and booking easier to manage.

Start With What You Know

Before searching for a hotel or meeting venue, establish the basic requirements. Every detail does not need to be finalized, but knowing the meeting’s purpose, approximate attendance, destination, preferred dates and budget will make the search considerably more productive. You should also determine whether attendees will need guest rooms, meeting space or both, along with any important audiovisual, food and beverage, accessibility or other requirements.

These fundamentals provide enough direction to begin identifying realistic options. They also make online sourcing tools more useful because planners can filter out properties that do not meet their needs rather than spending hours reviewing hotels that were never viable choices in the first place.

Some details will inevitably change as plans take shape, particularly when several people are involved in making decisions. The objective at the beginning is to establish enough parameters to conduct a focused search and understand what options are available.

Match the Planning Process to the Meeting

One of the first things an aspiring planner should understand is that meetings vary considerably in complexity. A 15-person leadership retreat, a regional training session and a 500-person annual conference may all fall under the broad category of company meetings, but planning them requires very different levels of time, expertise and coordination.

Someone unfamiliar with group travel may assume that every meeting requires contacting numerous hotels, sending RFPs, waiting for responses and negotiating each detail. For larger or more complex events, that process may still make sense. A smaller gathering with straightforward requirements can often be handled much more efficiently.

Understanding the size and complexity of the meeting can help determine the best sourcing approach. When requirements are relatively simple and dates and budgets are known, planners may be able to move from searching to booking much faster than they expect.

An RFP is not required for every meeting, and planners should leverage instant booking tools to make coordination faster and more straightforward. For smaller meetings and those with fewer requirements, online instant booking services can provide real-time access to a property’s availability, meeting space options and pricing based on group size. Taking this approach can reduce lengthy email exchanges and eliminate some of the uncertainty that comes with waiting for potential locations to respond. Planners can also focus more on evaluating the options that already meet the group’s requirements, instead of spending time trying to determine if a property is still available.

Search for Meeting Space More Like You Search for Travel

Booking a hotel for a personal trip has become second nature for most travelers. Enter the destination and dates, review available hotels, compare rates and amenities, and choose the option that works best. Group travel and meeting space have traditionally been far less transparent.

Online sourcing and booking technology are changing that experience by making more information available earlier in the process. Depending on the property and meeting requirements, planners can gain visibility into available guest rooms, meeting space, group rates, amenities and other costs before spending days exchanging inquiries with hotels.

Having that information in one place can also lead to better comparisons. The hotel with the lowest guest room rate may have higher meeting room costs, while another property may include amenities or services that provide greater overall value. Seeing the broader picture allows planners to evaluate properties based on the total needs of the meeting.

For employees who already handle most other travel arrangements online, a more transparent approach to meeting sourcing can make an unfamiliar responsibility feel considerably more manageable.

Know When to Ask for Help

Technology can simplify many meetings, but some events require more specialized knowledge. International travel, extensive audiovisual production, complicated food and beverage programs, detailed contracts, large room blocks and significant financial commitments can quickly increase the stakes involved in making planning decisions.

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In those situations, bringing in additional expertise can help an organization navigate issues that may be unfamiliar to an occasional planner. Some sourcing and booking platforms also provide access to support when questions arise or when an event requires more assistance than a self-service booking process can provide.

The key is understanding which aspects of a meeting can be handled efficiently through technology and when the complexity of an event warrants additional guidance. Administrative professionals and other occasional planners should be able to manage straightforward meetings without having to develop expertise in every facet of the meetings industry.

Make the Next Meeting Easier

Once someone successfully coordinates a company meeting, there is a reasonable chance that person will be asked to do it again. The experience gained from the first meeting can make the next assignment considerably easier, particularly when information from previous searches and bookings is readily available.

Digital sourcing and booking tools can provide a centralized record of hotel searches, venue comparisons, proposals, approvals and booking information. Keeping those details together reduces the need to hunt through old emails, spreadsheets and folders the next time a similar request arrives.

Previous meeting information can also provide useful benchmarks. A planner may already know which destinations worked well, what attendees needed, which properties were considered and what the organization previously paid. Those insights can provide a valuable starting point and help turn meeting coordination into a more consistent and repeatable process.

Plan With Confidence, Even Without the Title

Having responsibility for a company meeting can be intimidating when planning events has never been part of your professional background. A successful meeting, however, begins with understanding the group’s basic needs and having an efficient way to identify the options that can meet them.

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Start by establishing the essential requirements, then use technology to narrow the search and compare hotel and meeting information more efficiently. When a straightforward meeting can be booked directly, take advantage of that simplicity. When an event becomes more complicated, recognize when additional expertise can help support both the planner and the organization.

Greater access to availability, pricing and meeting information is making it possible for employees with little or no formal planning experience to approach these assignments with greater confidence. The goal is to plan the meeting successfully, make good decisions on behalf of the organization and still have time for the job you were originally hired to do.

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