Don’t be an inconsiderate traveler – It’s Christmas!

Holiday travel season is upon us and so is the stress that comes along with that. Whether you are dragging yourself, your children, and all your bags through Chicago O’Hare airport or piling everyone into the station wagon to head across country to Aunt Berta’s house, there are things you can do to make the trip more enjoyable for those around you.

Everyone has been on an airplane and had the joy of sitting near an inconsiderate traveler. You know the ones:

• Smelly Sandwich – There is the grandma who brought her tuna salad sandwich for lunch on your 3 hour flight to Seattle and she decides to open it up as soon as the seatbelt sign goes off. That means the whole plane has the pleasure of enjoying her smelly sandwich for 2 hrs and 30 minutes.  Please do us all a favor and eat your sandwich before you get on the plane and buy some mints.
• Loud Talker – This is the businessman who stays on the phone until the door closes and as soon as it opens up is on the phone again. He must be getting bad reception because his voice is so loud that 5 rows back they can hear his conversation loud and clear.
• Missed the hint – This person does not seem to catch the hint that you don’t want to talk to them. You put your head phones in and have your book open to page 300 of 325 and it is getting good.  Right then she leans over and begins to ask you about where you are going and then proceeds to go into a supernaturally long story about her Great Uncle Earl and his false teeth falling into the mashed potatoes at the Thanksgiving dinner table.
• No personal space – This person takes over both arm rests and leans into your seat. Their stuff does not fit nicely under their seat, it spills into your area.
• Obnoxious child – Some parents really do not know how to handle their children on an airplane. The kid stands on the seat and gazes back at you for half of the flight. They turn the light off and on continuously giving the entire cabin a light show and periodically calling the flight attendant. They scream because they are hungry, tired, have to go potty, are bored, they want to see out the window, etc.  I am a parent and a frequent traveler. My daughter has traveled all over the world and we made sure she had snacks, new toys to play with, that it was nap time during the flight, and we were aware of how loud she was or if she was disturbing other passengers.

During this holiday season, let’s be mindful of those around us when we travel and try to make a would-be stressful experience a pleasant one for everyone we come in contact with.  This time of year should be the happiest of all and often it is marred by frustration, stress, and difficult people and situations.  This year, let’s take time to care about others besides ourselves and make it a Merry Christmas for all.

Do you have a fun holiday travel story? Share it here.

Winn Events is a full-service event planning & tour booking and management company that offers flat rate pricing.  Check outhttp://www.winnevents.com/for more information.

How can I be an Event Planner and manage my family?

It is an ongoing conversation that I have with myself: How can I do what I feel called to do, be an Event Planner, and be a wife and mother? How can I manage both worlds?

Events often take place in the evenings or on weekends during what would typically be family time.  This can be challenging to leave for your event when your child looks at you and gives you the guilt trip. You know the one: “Mommy, I’m going to miss you.” “Do you have to go to your event?” “I just want to spend time with you.”  I hear this pretty much anytime I walk out the door to an event.  It is challenging to manage your life as an event planner and your family.

I think that it is vital to help your family understand why you do what you do.  It is important to have their support and understanding. The life of an event planner does require time away from home at events, sometimes traveling to events out of state, sometimes going to training conferences, etc.  I try to make a date with my husband or my daughter so that they know there is a time coming up in the near future where it will just be us, our time together.  I make sure they know when to expect me home and if we will have time together then or if it will be too late at night and our time will need to wait for the next day.  I think that communication is key to managing your job as an event planner and your home life.

How do you balance these two areas of life?

Winn Events is a full-service event planning & tour booking and management company that offers flat rate pricing.  Check out http://www.winnevents.com/for more information.

What is your favorite Thanksgiving tradition?

Thanksgiving is a time to reflect and think back on all the things in our lives that we are thankful for. Sometimes in the busyness of life, we forget these things. It is easy to take our loved ones for granted or the time we have to spend with them. We often forget our blessings and focus on the tough times we may be going through.  On Thanksgiving I always take time to reflect back on the past year and remember all the many blessings from God, the lessons learned, and the wonderful people I have shared life with.  Doing this tends to reign in the craziness that I constantly live my life in.  As an event planner my life is always steeped in details and I am always on the go. By stepping away from the details, emails, phone calls, etc for just a few minutes I am able to focus on the big picture and gain perspective on my life and all I have to be thankful for.

What is your favorite Thanksgiving tradition?

Happy Thanksgiving from Jennifer Winn and Winn Events!

Winn Events is a full-service event planning & management company that offers flat rate pricing and customized packages.  Check out http://www.winnevents.com/for more information.

How do you handle difficult people?

If you have been in the event world for any length of time, you have run across them: difficult people.  It is inevitable both in life and in events that you will need to work with people who seemingly have been put on this earth to torment you. Obviously that is not the case so how do you deal with them if they are at your event?  Let me know your thoughts.

Winn Events is a full-service event planning & management company that offers flat rate pricing and customized packages.  Check out http://www.winnevents.com/for more information.

How has the economy most affected your events this year?

Check out our latest poll at:

http://polls.linkedin.com/p/66594/vcdww

 

Winn Events is a full-service event planning & management company that offers flat-rate pricing and customized packages.  Check out http://www.winnevents.com/ for more information.

Why do you plan events?

I recently had a conversation with someone that I found to be quite profound and a great reminder of why I do what I do: plan events.  I had the chance to share with her my heart and the passion and purpose with which I approach planning events.  For many years though I thought of event planning as just a job and that I would go to college, get a degree, and start my career.  It wasn’t until I had been planning events for seven years that I discovered my true calling or passion was actually the very thing I had been doing all those years.  I did not discover this while I was running an event or up to my eyeballs in details planning the next conference.  I discovered this by going to a concert as an attendee and taking it in. My purpose in going to the concert was ultimately because I was going to be planning a conference for that band in a few short months and I wanted to know what to expect. When I showed up I realized that God had other plans for me that night.  As I sat in the audience and I looked around at everyone whose life was being impacted, I felt like God said, “This is why you do what you do. This is why I gave you the gifts and abilities that you have so that you can lay the foundation by planning the details of the event so that the speakers and artists can focus on what I want to do through them to impact the audience.”  I approach planning events as an act of service to the speakers, artists, and attendees.

For those of you who are Christians that probably makes a lot of sense to you.  The same is true for all types of events.  As event planners, we lay the foundation with all the details we plan so that the speakers/artists can get up on that stage and share their message that hopefully changes the audience, helps them grow and learn new things, and impacts people.

One thing I shared with this young lady was that it is important that when you are running an event, that you take a couple of minutes to step into a session and see the impact it is having on the attendees.  Everyone will be fine without you for a couple of minutes. Turn off your radio. Silence your cell phone. Take 5-10 minutes and enjoy your hard work and maybe you will get something out of what the person on stage is saying.

Take a moment and let me know why you plan events? What is your heart and passion? What advice do you have?

Winn Events is a full-service event planning & management company that offers flat-rate pricing and customized packages.  Check out http://www.winnevents.com/ for more information.

Winn Events & The Winn Group featured in Front Yard Worship Article

Winn Events and The Winn Group were recently featured in Front Yard Worship.  Click on the link below and turn to page 20/21 to read the article.

November 09 Front Yard Worship

Winn Events is a full-service event planning & management company that offers flat-rate pricing and customized packages.  Check out http://www.winnevents.com/ for more information.

Volunteers are Invaluable!

If you have ever done an event that required the use of volunteers, then you know how valuable they are.  Without volunteers we would not be able to pull off the setup, event logistics, and load out at events.  Today I witnessed a huge team of volunteers setup for the LeadNow/Fusion Conferences at Irving Bible Church.  They flew through the setup process with amazing speed and a servant’s attitude.  What they expected to take 7 hours took 5 hours due to the dedication of the volunteers.

I think that often we take our volunteers for granted.  We need to take time to thank our volunteers for their time and their help.  If you did not have them there, you and your staff would be doing everything on your own.  At your next event, take a moment to meet each volunteer and thank them.

What have you done to show your volunteers that you value them?

Winn Events is a full-service event planning & management company that offers flat-rate pricing and customized packages.  Check out http://www.winnevents.com/ for more information.

It’s About You…Not Me!

Events are ultimately for the attendee.  It is important to keep this in mind whenever you are running an event. It is so easy as Event Managers to get caught up in the details of what needs to happen at the event (i.e. did the catering get dropped at the right time, is the AV correct, is there signage to direct attendees, are the speakers or bands onsite, is the registration system working properly, etc.). The list goes on and on of the many details that we as Event Managers are required to manage during an event. With all this happening, it is easy to forget why we do what we do.

It is imperative that Event Managers take a few moments to step into a session or breakout and hear the speakers. See what the attendees are experiencing.  Watch their faces and see how they are impacted. When you catch an attendee in an elevator, don’t tell them who you are. Instead ask them about their experience at the event. Take a moment to listen and learn what you are doing right and what you can improve on. Perhaps there will be things you can implement into the event right then that will change the experience for that attendee.

We all do events for different reasons. When I got into event planning, it was to see the lives of attendees changed and impacted.  I find that I have to remind myself from time to time. That means that I force myself to find a few moments to experience the event that I worked so hard to put on for the attendees.  Sometime the event may impact you in unexpected ways.

Why did you get into event planning?  What do you do to remind yourself of the reason for why you plan events?

Winn Events is a full-service event planning & management company that offers flat-rate pricing and customized packages.  Check out http://www.winnevents.com/ for more information.

Poll: What is your key determining factor when choosing a hotel?

Winn Events is a full-service event planning & management company that offers flat-rate pricing and customized packages.  Check out http://www.winnevents.com/ for more information.