Book And Plan An Event Then You Can Call Yourself An Expert

I have noticed a lot of blog posts lately about “How To Sell Your Event Space Better” or “What Makes A Great Sales Manager.” The problem is that the person writing the posts have zero experience selling or even planning an event. Why would anyone ever listen to these “experts?”

I was an event manager for over 10 years at the Boston Park Plaza, Sheraton Hotels, and Westin Hotels. Combined, these hotels had over 200,000 square feet of space and 2,000 sleeping rooms. I booked events for companies like Apple, Microsoft, and the American Bar Association to mention a few. I would like to see these so-called experts book, plan and manage 50 events including lunch, reception, and gala for over 1000 people taking place in one day!

Any experienced event manager will tell you that to book AND plan the event is hard, very hard. You find yourself in a constant tug of war between having to book more business, but having to take care of your upcoming event too. The stress of this balance can cause many sleepless nights. Have you found yourself waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat because you think you forgot to order the special wine or food? I know I have.

The key to my success came down to one thing: Organization. When I was booking events there was no Tripleseat. I relied on a function book that was shared with five other sales managers where we penciled in our events in the book. I also used a notebook to keep all my contacts in and another notebook for all the event details and another notebook where I tracked all my prospects and potential sales. (sidenote: I kept the notebooks and still have them to this day). I was on the phone all day long talking to prospects, calling clients for their details, and checking with the chef and banquet captain.

I created Tripleseat from my experience as an event sales manager. The design of the web application comes from my desire to streamline as much as I could that balance between sales and event management and to provide all my fellow event managers a good night’s sleep. We deserve it.