Do you really need to go out and buy an all inclusive meeting planning guide? The answer depends upon your situation. Yes, it would be nice to have something to reference that will give you all or most of the answers. But, do you have time to read a three or four hundred page manual before that first meeting?
Most first time or novice planners do not need in depth training. What they need are meeting planning basics. Where do I start? Who do I call? What space do I need? What questions will I be asked from the hotel side? How do I negotiate and how will I know if I got a good deal?
So, what is needed is a quick overview to get a feel of the land. Get a primer, or as in school, get a quick study guide for meeting planning. It will get you going and give you the overview needed to get comfortable with the process.
Primers will answer the questions you have, so you can move quickly through the planning process. They are usually light, easy to read, informative and they speed up the learning curve.
Checklists guide you through the planning process, budget spreadsheets make record keeping simple and you are able to save time, effort, stress and money.
Some meeting planning guides even have cartoons that will help you understand how the communication process works. See how the characters react to questions asked by planners and hotel staff in cartoons portraying real situations. Find out what the hotel sales staff is really thinking when you start the negotiation process.
Now, the original question was about an all inclusive meeting planning guide. Yes, this will be useful at some point because planners can never learn enough. So, get a meeting planning primer to start your learning process and add an all inclusive event planning guide to your list later, when you need to answer more detailed questions or when you want to study for the Certified Meeting Planner (CMP) exam.
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