Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Meeting Planner Checklist


A checklist is a list of items or tasks to be documented, checked and followed closely. The list of tasks in a checklist are to be remembered also but as it's hard to remember a lengthy list of tasks and items, the tasks and items are documented for reference and so that they aren't forgotten.

When planning for a meeting, there are several tasks to be executed and several eventualities to be prepared for. New challenges invariably arise in the meeting planning process at the eleventh hour and you've got to plan ahead for these so that you're not stumped or foxed by problems that may crop up. A meeting planner checklist or a convention planning checklist, therefore, has to be drawn up in advance so that your meeting's a success and so that everyone praises you as an efficient meeting planner. As your requirements as an event planner will be manifold, you have to thrash out a comprehensive meeting planner checklist that will cover all major and minor details.

An ideal meeting planner checklist or event planning guide should comprise the goal and theme of the meeting; the agenda of the meeting; the venue of the meeting; an estimate of costs such as venue, refreshments, electricity, and decoration costs; the program of functions to be held and the cost of hiring a DJ and holding functions after taking auditions and getting quotations; initial cost quotations from different bidders on several items; list of sponsorships and the amounts for such sponsorships; the amount to be charged as admission fees; the tentative date of the meeting; the list of invitees and the list of VIPs to be invited; etc. In the meeting planner checklist or meeting planner form, you should also include items such as how the invitation cards should be designed; the role of public relations; the preparation of press releases; the collating of bio data of VIPs and celebrities who are to be invited; special permissions that may be required to be taken for hosting the meeting at a certain venue that's been selected.

Your meeting planner checklist doesn't end here. As the date of the meeting draws closer and closer, you have to check and reconfirm that everything's as you've decided, that there isn't any controversy about the venue, date and time, before you finally send out the invitation cards. You also have to finalize on the rough estimate of the number of people who'll be attending the meeting, menu and the caterers, the light and sound effects, accommodation for the VIPs and celebrities, who'll go to receive them at the airport, whether you'll allow TV personnel to give a live coverage of the event, etc.

A month before the meeting, meeting planners get hyperactive. They can't be blamed for it because the meeting planner checklist seems to get longer and longer as they come closer to the meeting date. A meeting planner checklist at the initial stage tends to be short and broad outlining only general categories of tasks to be done. As the day of the meeting approaches, the meeting planner checklist becomes more elaborate and detailed as each category gets divided into several tasks which have to be executed with precision if the meeting's to be a success. So, the meeting planner checklist now includes the placing of advertisements in newspapers, on television and in other media declaring the coming of the event with fanfare; making a final check of the guest, delegate and attendee list; the preparation of meeting kits for the VIPs and the other attendees; checking the final seating arrangement in the conference hall, on the dais, etc; the final estimate of guests, which is to be handed over to the caterers so that they may prepare food according to the number of heads; checking whether all planes and trains are running on schedule and making arrangements for airport pickups in limousines for VIPs; checking hotel bookings once again; etc.

As the countdown to the meeting begins, there is no time for you to rest at all as you have to work to a feverish pitch. Your meeting planner checklist or corporate event planning checklist becomes your sole companion as you verify, check and recheck whether you've left out something vital, if some new difficulty has arisen, whether everything is proceeding according to plan, etc. The final build-up period to a meeting is the most crucial and can be nerve-racking for meeting planners. It is better to groom some juniors in advance so that, god forbid, if you fall sick at the last moment, they'll be able to pull the event through. Most meeting planner checklists and conference planning guides, such as the one described here, put too much pressure on the meeting planners. Most of the tasks have to be documented by the planners themselves on such meeting planner checklists. Moreover, you can't afford to lose your meeting planner checklist probably because you've not only documented all critical activities there but also because you've pinned vendors' and contractors' receipts and bills to it. The latter you certainly can't afford to lose. On the day before the meeting, you have to make sure of everything that you've planned for months. It's recommended that you also keep some cash aside in case of emergencies. Finally, on the day of the meeting, make sure that you get to the venue much before everyone else so that you can do some last minute checking. Hopefully, if everything goes well that day and you don't get a heart attack before the event's over, you can keep aside your meeting planner checklist or meeting planner form for the first time in months and breathe easily.

If everything went as planned, remember you were just lucky. Because some terrible emergency could have cropped up that might have jeopardized the entire program. Your meeting planner checklist could have got torn or could have got lost taking with it the vendors' and contractors' receipts and other important documents and papers. Besides, if you were the only expert planning the meeting, a lot would depend on you. If you slipped up or failed, the whole event would collapse like a house of cards. Therefore, your nervousness right through the meeting planning process was only justified but is it right to stay so tense? Doubtless, you're a good meeting planner. But goof-ups are only part of being human. If you've been perfect once, and excellent twice, it's quite likely that you'll goof up the third time. So, why are you taking the tension and risk of the meeting planning process on yourself alone? Why don't you share it with an ace meeting planner checklist such as the online diary planner? The online diary planner is a software that qualifies for an expert meeting planner checklist.

You can relax when you use a reliable online diary planner. A reliable online diary planner is a web-based application that helps you to upload meeting agenda, meeting minutes, and meeting summaries; names and details of meeting venues; meeting schedules; names and details of meeting contacts and invitees; and other meeting-related data into it easily. It helps you to retrieve information from it at the click of a mouse. There's no question of the online diary getting lost. You can access the application from any PC or machine in the world that's connected to the Internet. The online diary planner is a very secure meeting planner checklist and an event planning form. You can only access your data with your Username and Password, which the application keeps confidential along with your data in its fail-safe servers. If you wish to consult meeting schedules and agenda with others, you can always share your meeting and agenda details with others through the platform of the online diary. A reliable online diary planner works across different time zones and allows the importing of contacts from other email applications into it.

But its distinguishing feature is that it is an exceptional meeting planner checklist and serves as an excellent event planning checklist template. With built-in software that classifies the meeting-data management process under different categories, the online diary planner supplies you with the key tasks that are to be executed for any successful meeting, You don't have to tear your hair and burn the midnight oil to thrash out the salient items that'll make up your meeting planner checklist as a reliable online diary planner brings them to you on a platter! Its single user-friendly platform is more than sufficient for you to get the hang of the meeting planning process. You needn't be so tense about meeting planning as you can bank on a reliable online diary planner completely.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_diary_planner informs you of the most reliable and authentic online diary planners that you can use as meeting planner checklists, absolutely free of cost. You can trust Wikipedia to give you authentic and unbiased information.

Unlike an ordinary meeting planner checklist which you have to fill with items and tasks, the online diary planner is a meeting planner checklist that guides you in the process of meeting management, work management and the management of your life. An authentic online diary planner restructures your thoughts and teaches you how to apply your mind to data classification and storing. A reliable online diary planner helps you to have all essential facts at your fingertips! It hones your skills in data management and helps you to be in control of the meeting-data management process. A better meeting planner checklist than a reliable online diary planner is impossible to find!

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