“The Meeting Planning Process — A Guide to Planning Successful Meetings” by Certified Meeting Professional, Mary Jo Wiseman, offers a common-sense approach to managing the meeting planning process based on the knowledge and experience she garnered over a 20+ year career as a corporate meeting and event coordinator. The author’s systematic approach to project management helped her to get and stay focused on the task at hand while handling multiple details, projects, and deadlines throughout her career and she wants to share her knowledge with others.
The Guide offers a practical overview of the entire planning process for meeting professionals at all levels and is especially beneficial for the novice planner and/or the administrative or executive assistant who is called upon to plan meetings over and beyond their normal day-to-day responsibilities. It offers keen insights and valuable tips to help CREATE the perfect EXPERIENCE for their audience by staying true to the basic elements of the planning process. It is intended to lead people through the proper steps and the sequence of tasks involved in planning a meeting such as: Establishing a Planning or Design Team; Developing an Overall Meeting Action Plan; Budgeting; Site Selection; Communications; Contract Review and more.
The Guide also includes handy templates developed by the author: a Meeting Timeline; Overall Meeting Action Plan; and Request for Proposal as well as descriptions and diagrams of possible room set-ups.
About the Author
Mary Jo Wiseman was a corporate meeting and event coordinator in the insurance industry for 24 years where she managed the full spectrum of the planning process across all levels of management with an emphasis on high profile, executive-level groups including senior management, Board of Directors and key customers.
She was an active member of the Minnesota chapter of Meeting Professionals International (MPI) throughout her career having served both on the Education Committee and the Board of Directors. She obtained her CMP certification in 1992.
Mary Jo lives in White Bear Lake, MN with her husband James. Together they enjoy sailing their sailboat Unity around the Apostle Islands of Lake Superior.
