Entry 95 of 100
By ZK Queijo On February 17, 2009 at 5:36 AM
A few years ago, I had the pleasure of working a trade show Heidi VanDerVoorn had coordinated for the company we both worked for. When the show was over, I stood in line at the hotel to turn in my shipping paperwork. The conference decorator rep looked everything over, commented on how organized I was and asked me if I needed shipping labels. I replied “No, Heidi, our planner, has already taken care of that.” The woman behind me in line said wistfully, “I wish I had a Heidi.”
Now she can. In the summer of 2008, Heidi VanDerVoorn made the bold leap from conference planner for an IT company to entrepreneur/conference planner . With over 500 conferences under her belt, and nine years of experience planning, scheduling, and organizing events and trade shows, she decided it was time to branch out on her own. Rather than start from scratch to create a network and knowledge base of hotels worldwide, she became an independent contractor for ConferenceDirect. Here's what she has to say about her new role:
TFO: What do you do as an independent contractor?
HEIDI: I help organizations with their site selections, contract negotiations, conference management, and housing and registration services.
TFO: What do you like best about about this work and about being an entrepreneur?
HEIDI: Everything. I get to work with a wide range of industries all over the world, help organizations save time and money, all while providing high quality meeting planning services. The people who work in the hospitality industry are terrific! Plus, I like working for myself and setting my own schedule.
Cheers to a terrific event!
TFO: If I had to plan a conference, what are the key decision points I'd have to consider?
HEIDI: First you ask yourself “Where should I have the conference?” Then, “Is the venue and geographic location going to be desirable to my attendees? Is the meeting space large enough to accommodate my conference? How can I save money with the hotel or venue and can I come in under budget?”
TFO: Under budget? Is that even possible?
HEIDI: Yes, it is possible to be under budget. If a company utilizes our site selection and contract negotiation service I can save them approximately 8% with their guest and staff room nights as well as additional comp room nights. If they utilize our conference management services, then we also offer competitive rates compared to what they could get on their own. This ultimately is going to help them be under budget. The reason ConferenceDirect has more buying power and leverage is because of the sheer number of meetings that we booked last year: 5,227 meetings and over 2 million group nights.
TFO: It sounds like it can get complicated pretty quickly, how do you help businesses and organizations plan their conferences?
HEIDI: There's a lot that goes into planning a conference. I can help my clients choose a hotel for their next conference dependent on their specifications. My clients make all the decisions, but I submit the RFP's to the hotels on their behalf. Then, I negotiate their contracts,and work with the hotel sales department in giving them better concessions. ConferenceDirect is one of the few meeting planning companies that offers standardized contracts which allows our clients to receive substantial savings and the most favorable terms with the hotels.
TFO: What do you charge your clients for this service?
HEIDI: Zero. This service is at no cost to my client because I get paid a commission from the hotel. The meeting planners I work with have more time to focus on the content and agenda of their meetings. This saves their company money because they have the ability to work on more projects and they don’t need to hire extra staff to accomplish this.
TFO: Suppose I want to book a conference outside of the US – can you still help me?
HEIDI: You bet. I can coordinate any conference on a local, state, regional, national or international level.
TFO: Are you a world traveler yourself?
HEIDI: You could say that. I've been to Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, France, The Netherlands, Mexico, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and Guatemala.. Those locations were for leisure, but I look forward to going wherever the work takes me. I'm currently learning Arabic and would like to expand my focus to include event planning in Europe and the Middle East.
TFO: How important is technology to your line of work?
HEIDI: It's critical. I use special software to produce a comparative analysis of all hotels along with the meetings that were previously held. This gives me leverage in negotiating hotel contracts because I can compare previous rates offered by the hotel. The comprehensive site selection analysis allows my clients to compare the different hotel specifications based on their request for proposal. This analysis is a concise report of all the different venue options and their responses in an easy to read format. When we're done, I give my clients a cost savings analysis report so that they can see how many hours I worked and how much money I was able to save them. I'm on my laptop almost 8 hours a day and am constantly on my iPhone when away from the office. I need to be in contact with my clients 24 hours a day, so I am always near a phone or a computer.
To reach Heidi, get to your nearest computer or phone:
Heidi VanDerVoorn, National Account Manager, ConferenceDirect®
phone: 503-615-8882; cellular: 503-539-1740
heidi.vandervoorn@conferencedirect.com
www.conferencedirect.com