Greater Lansing CVB Associate Director of Sales Wins 2016 MI-SGMP Supplier of the Year Award

Turn a Chamber of Horrors into an Amazing Event by Facing Your Fears!

Hey event professionals, while

We're lucky in Michigan, and of course in Greater Lansing, to have 4 distinct seasons in the year. Spring, Summer, Winter and Football season. Around here its Spartan football, and its fabulous return means a lot of good times and a rush of warm memories of victories passed.

Who hasn't wanted to be a part of a Guinness World Record? Okay, maybe not the longest fingernails or best beard on a lady...but one of the other awesome records! Like how about being a part of the biggest Cornhole Tournament the world has ever known? That sound like a good one? You know it does!

The next time you attend an event, look around. Those napkins fanned out in a perfect display on the catering table? Someone spent the morning twisting them with a practiced spin of the wrist. The organized map that shows where all of the 400 exhibitors are to set up? Someone has been planning that for a month. That RSVP list that is being scanned for your name? Someone spent months painstakingly updating it so the name tag about to be handed to you could be cross-checked and alphabetized at midnight the night before.

Event planning is not rocket science, but it requires an acute organization and constant attention to detail. If everything goes off without a hitch, it often goes without notice, but if something goes awry, it’s a public display of failure.

Here are ten tips to help you manage planning and execution process of an event – large or small:

Summer in Michigan is a special time for a lot of reasons but if you happen to be a golfer, it’s pretty much paradise. Warm sunny days and cool nights make for premium conditions on the 30 or so courses within the Greater Lansing area and depending on the type of course you like and the amount of money in your pocket, you can be playing a round of golf with your friends in no time flat.

In the world of an event planning professional there are many negotiations to be made. Negotiating with event facilities for the best deal, negotiating with your board on the destination of your next event, negotiating with your boss about your event budget, and on and on and on. Yes, negotiating is part of doing business, but negotiating well is more – it’s an art. Being a good negotiator is critical to your success so here are some winning tips on negotiating like a pro. These tips work for anything, whether you're negotiating with a tough-minded colleague over a big deal or with your husband over getting ice cream after dinner.

There are a lot of different types of Dads. You've got your quiet Dads, your loud and crazy Dad, your "fix-it" Dad, the "pay-someone-else-to-fix-it" Dad, and on and on and on. While there are a bunch of different types of dads they are all one thing - very important.

You just can’t have a successful event without successful speakers. They can bring your agenda to life and engage your audience on a personal level that can’t be replaced by any other meeting element. From the keynote speeches in general session to the breakouts, improving the effectiveness and impact of the speakers at an event leads to real and meaningful results. This leads to an event with increased impact and value as well as one that generates a much greater ROI.

Often times the difference between feeling like a success and feeling like a failure is your frame