When working as a meeting planner inside a corporation, association or nonprofit organization, there is a defined audience based on the product or service that your employer provides. Independent meeting planners, on the other hand, select who they want as their audience.
Some independents choose to market themselves based on the type of services they provide, such as planning
meetings and conferences, trade shows and special events. While a long list of services may look good on paper, it is hard to imagine that any one person can execute all of them with the same level of expertise.
Unfortunately, the old adage “You can’t be all things to all people” holds true, which is why a growing number of independent planners find greater success when they define their business based on providing a specific set of services to a targeted, or niche, market of companies and organizations.
Target markets generally fall into four areas:
- Demographics: age, occupation, income bracket
- Geographics: local, state, regional, or by country
- Behavior: knowledge about a product, attitudes, product usage
- Psychographics: values, personality, lifestyle
Finding Your Niche
Of the seven independent planners interviewed for this two-part article, only one has developed his or her business based on geographic criteria, while the others have focused more on behavioral or psychographic criteria.
Eli Goren, CMP, is president of gMeetings, based in Aventura, Fla. The company’s website very aptly describes the company’s niche. It simply states that “While we provide services wherever our client may need them, gMeetings is dedicated to the logistical development and coordination of meetings within the Latin American region.”
Eli’s interest in Latin America is based on both a professional and personal interest in the area. His family is from Colombia, so he has a cultural and personal history connected to this region. He works in the Miami area, the location of many Latin American divisions of U.S. companies. Before Gorin started his business in 2006, he worked in a corporate travel agency, where he planned meetings for some of these companies, so he was already familiar with their meeting specifications and the type of people who attended these programs.
As Peggy Young, director of Santa Cruz, Calif.-based Peggy Young & Associates, says, “Sometimes your niche finds you and sometimes you find your niche.”
Her company’s niche is working with educators who support public education and professional development for teachers and administrators. Young views education as a catch-phrase that can apply to any field, whether it’s in an academic or corporate setting.
“All of them share a goal to improve the education for their students,” Young says, “whether those are clients or employees.”
Her business niche came about from two directions. She also worked in a corporate travel agency before starting her company in 1990. There she had clients who were going to large computer shows such as COMDEX. She also had a small child at the time, and her own interest in education helped her realize that she wanted to be more than just a “fly on the wall” when it comes to her client’s issues.
Existing Skills and Expertise
Another way to determine a niche is to assess your own skills and expertise and those of your staff.
That’s exactly what happened for Carol Galle, founder and consultant of The Anniversary Company, based in Royal Oak, Mich. Galle helped create Special D Events in 1992, which focuses on meeting and event planning, trade show management, destination management services, and corporate anniversary planning.
In 2006, Galle launched a subsidiary of their business named The Anniversary Company, which offers a way for a company to celebrate a major milestone in a strategic nature over a year-long campaign. Two strategic advantages prompted this endeavor.
“We looked at our staff’s capabilities and areas of expertise and realized that we have people with public relations and advertising backgrounds that we could utilize,” Galle says.
They also examined the economic situation in Michigan and realized that they needed to develop a part of their business that wasn’t so dependent on the local economy, and one that could produce revenue year-round.
They do much more than just plan a singular event. The company works with each client to attract positive attention from the media, help them launch new initiatives, reinforce and validate their brand, and affirm the organization’s benefits to the community, their customers and employees.
In addition, her firm helps companies and organizations create legacy projects such as commissioned pieces of artwork and special scholarship funds.
Although a sole proprietor, Shannon Mickelberg did a similar thing when she launched her business, Minneapolis-based Mickelberg Event Group, in 2001. Having spent 12 years planning events for nonprofits and at sports marketing agencies, she realized there wasn’t anyone managing sporting and entertainment events on a freelance basis in the area. She now runs golf tournaments for large corporate clients, professional PGA tournaments with upwards of 20,000 people in attendance, and large in-store and outdoor special events for large corporate retailers such as Target and Macy’s.
While sports marketing agencies might assign a less-seasoned team of people to work on a company’s event, clients know that with Mickelberg’s company they get one senior-level person managing all aspects of their program.
In the end, prospective clients seek her out because they’ve heard about her golf background and her ability to bring in pros (professional golfers) for events.
Next Issue: Creating your own niche, differentiating yourself and how to market to clients.
