Event Planning Ethics and Etiquette

A Principled Approach to the Business of Special Event Management

Judy Allen

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN:
  9780470676448
  9780470832608
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780470963760
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

The world of event planning can be alluring and dangerous at once-exotic locales, wining and dining, and people traveling without their spouses. In such situations the line between business and pleasure blurs and the nature of relationships gets cloudy. With a thoughtless act or a less-than-tactful word, long-lasting business relationships can be ruined forever.

Beyond that, budgets are on the chopping block and competition for business is tight. In that environment, people often cut not just financial corners, but the ethical ones, too. There's a fine line between innocent perks and inappropriate gifts or kickbacks. Event planners today must navigate a minefield of potentially sticky situations that can easily blow up in their face. Without a professional code, lines of acceptable behavior are easily crossed. And what you do personally can hurt you professionally.

Event Planning Ethics and Etiquette provides event planners with the companion they need to stay out of trouble, keep professional relationships healthy and profitable, avoid the riskier temptations of the lifestyle, and win business in a highly competitive market using ethical business practices.

• Explains how to establish policies and codes of behavior, in the office and onsite at events.
• Offers guidelines on when it is acceptable to accept a gift, what is acceptable, and what is inappropriate.
• Shows how to prepare yourself, as well as your staff, for what to expect, and how to handle the unexpected with business finesse.
• Covers business etiquette in event planning crisis management situations.
• Helps you to avoid putting yourself and your company at personal and professional risk.
• Features real-life examples and situations, and advice on how to handle them with poise and professionalism.
• Includes a list of "Event Planning Do's and Don'ts."

Event Planning Ethics and Etiquette will be of value to the professional event planner; to event planning suppliers and clients working with industry professionals; as well as to those in related fields, such as public relations, administrative professionals, communications; and anyone in the hospitality, culinary, and travel industry.

PART ONE

Business Ethics

The first three chapters of Event Planning Ethics and Etiquette explore event planner and supplier professional working relations; the ethical cost of doing business; supplier to supplier ethics; the issue of fair competition; how to maintain ethical boundaries and delves into event planner and client interactions both in the office and on site.

Questionable behavior—personal and professional—is no longer overlooked, swept under the carpet or condoned. People are choosing who they align themselves with—as individuals and in business dealings—carefully. They know selecting the wrong business partner to work with can lead to criminal charges and legal liabilities, with not only the company they work for being held responsible, but individuals as well. For example, when using special effects at an event, a supplier, venue or planner should hold themselves to high standards of ethics in providing guest safety and demonstrate they value saving dollars more than saving lives. If they choose to sidestep terms and conditions that have to be met to ensure participants are as safe as possible, such as making sure all permits and safety codes have been met (fire marshal permits, clearly marked exits, exit ways have been clear and not locked or blocked, required number of working fire extinguishers on hand, sprinkler system in place, certified and tested flameproof material, on duty fireman to oversee event, proper insurance coverage) and a death results, criminal charges and lawsuits can be laid with all involved—client, planner, suppliers—in the event production.

Neither clients, planners or suppliers can afford to do business with those who cross ethical boundaries, crave financial gain at all cost, flaunt disregard for event planning principles and openly show a lack of respect for moral values. The cost is too high—to do so puts individuals and companies at risk personally and professionally.

Business ethics is now an industry standard. Exhibiting ethical behavior—as an individual and as a company—will be the guiding compass leading the way to those we chose to do business, work and associate with.

1

THE ETHICAL COST OF DOING BUSINESS

EVENT PLANNER AND SUPPLIER PROFESSIONAL WORKING RELATIONSHIPS

WOULD YOU DO BUSINESS WITH YOU?

When competition is tight and budgets are on the chopping block, cutting corners in the ethics departments may seem like a quick fix. But as many in the event planning industry will attest, a burgeoning bottom line does not always mean that you are a success. Here is an ethical question for you. You are an event planner who wants to use a specific hotel for a high-level event. You contact an audiovisual supplier you trust (as opposed to the hotel’s in-house audiovisual supplier) to be sure everything will go off without a hitch. You inform the supplier of your dates and requirements. Then, about a week later, the supplier calls to say they have received a letter from the hotel stating that to do business in the hotel, the AV company must meet certain strict requirements: The crew must not sport any facial hair, or wear earrings, blue jeans or T-shirts while on site. While it seems appropriate that tech crews dress in a neat and tidy manner, something does not ring true about this letter. Techies with no beards, moustaches or long hair? Keeping in mind that most tech crews work behind the scenes, out of sight of participants and other hotel guests, and are often paying guests (their hotel rooms for out-of-town events are generally not complimentary or even at a staff travel rate; the limited negotiated allotment would have been assigned to event planning staff members first), most planners would smell a rat right about now. Are the terms merely a ploy by the hotel to promote its own in-house audiovisual company by making it difficult for outside contractors to be brought in?

From the hotel’s perspective, it has the right to require anything it wants from those who set foot on its property. Perhaps there have been some bad experiences with rough-and-ready AV personnel in the past. Who is to know? And accusing the hotel of this conduct will not win you any points in the business-relationship department. The option always remains to take your business elsewhere, which was the decision of the event planning company faced with this dilemma. They did not want to jeopardize the quality of the event they were producing by using an AV company they were not familiar with. Another recourse would be to speak to the hotel’s general manager or, if all else fails, the hotel chain’s president. A similar situation can also occur when planners are faced with a hotel or venue’s preferred supplier list. It is sometimes possible for the planner to overcome this obstacle and bring in their chosen supplier by paying a surcharge to the facility.

Such situations are thrown into the abyss of what could be called “questionable ethical behavior.” All planners and suppliers have experienced it, whether on the receiving end or the giving end, and it is a tough spot to be in either way.

Event planners and suppliers develop their professional working relationships in a variety of ways. Their relationship develops through interaction that takes place inside and outside the office and in both business and social settings, which can include:

• In-Office Sales Presentations

• New Product Updates

• Business Meals

• Familiarization Trips

• Industry Functions

• Holiday Celebrations

• Proposals and Quotes

• Event Operations

• On-Site Meetings

• Business Referrals

• Confidentiality

• Business Favors

In any one of these areas, ethical lines between planners and suppliers can be unintentionally—and certainly sometimes intentionally—crossed. In business, you will always find someone who would sell their soul for a sale. Seizing an opportunity that does not ask you to compromise your company and personal beliefs and values is very different from selling your honor for a sale. It is up to you to decide whether you or your company will take part in a particular behavior that is ethically discreditable. And the time to decide that is in advance, before you are mired in the quicksand of unscrupulous kickbacks or conduct that can pull your company and your personal reputation under.

A world of available supplier talent is literally at an event planner’s fingertips and on their doorstep—in their e-mail in-box, on the Web, over the telephone and delivered with the morning mail to their desk. Daily, planners are bombarded by an abundance of resources all looking to develop a long-term working relationship with them. Planners are looking to align themselves with suppliers who are creative, cost conscious, do outstanding work and offer inventive solutions. At the same time they must respect the planner-supplier boundaries, conduct themselves professionally, work until the job is done and at final billing present no surprises. Planners will often take suppliers with whom they have developed good working relationships and who have proven to produce client-pleasing results halfway around the world with them to create successful events rather than take the chance of trying someone new and untested.

Each supplier who calls on an event planner is looking for ways to establish that kind of bond. If out-of-country locations are being considered, airline representatives would like your client’s participants to fly to destinations that they service. Tourist boards are looking to promote their country or area and work to keep their location at the top of planners’ minds. Hoteliers and venues would like planners to select their (and related) properties to hold their event in. Destination management companies would like event planners to use their assistance all around the world or the services of those they are affiliated with. Suppliers of promotional goods and materials would be open to shipping their items anywhere in the world they may be needed rather than have planners use local sources.

Suppliers know that if they cultivate and establish good working relationships with top event planners it can lead to business referrals and serve to increase their market share. Competition is high and suppliers are always on the lookout for ways to set themselves and their company apart from the rest. As well, suppliers look for means to strengthen their personal business relationships with planners. In the event that supplier representatives should ever change companies, they would want to be able to take their established business connections with them. They look to cultivate planner loyalty to themselves as opposed to the company they represent. Some companies, in an effort to block this, have their account executives sign contracts with a two-year non-compete clause. This means that the representative would be barred from contacting their existing clientele, as well as potential clients, for two years should they decide to leave.

IN-OFFICE SALES PRESENTATIONS

Generally, event planners and suppliers initially meet over the telephone. The supplier could be calling from halfway around the world or from across the street. Their intent is to set up a face-to-face meeting to present their product. They may request to meet with an individual, the sales and planning group or the entire company team (planning, operations and on-site staffing). They may come alone or as part of a company-wide blitz. One hotel chain likes to have their top destination sales staff visit en masse once a year, in addition to individual hotel representative visits, giving planners a double dose of the same information. Planners often feel as though they are caught in event planning crosshairs if they live in a destination that can be used as a stop en route to a major industry trade show such as World Travel Mart in London, the Motivation Show in Chicago, or The Special Event Show, which changes venue every year. At a time when planners are working frantically to clear time to attend the trade show themselves it can sometimes feel as if their offices have been invaded by suppliers flying in from around the world—sometimes showing up unannounced—in the days preceding and following the show. Wise planners learn quickly to anticipate this and limit their access to essential suppliers they need to spend one-on-one time with so that their days are not eaten up in sales meetings. Suppliers arriving on a planner’s doorstep, deliberately not calling ahead to see if a meeting is even feasible, often find themselves advised by the receptionist that the staff can see people only by appointment. This is a buffer planners put in place so that they don’t damage their personal working relationship by turning a supplier away themselves. Some suppliers try the unannounced arrival on purpose, because they know if they call ahead in busy times to secure a meeting they will be turned down. Their intention is to put planners on the spot and maneuver them into a meeting. Their lack of respect for ethical event planning business practices, common courtesy, regard for your time and meeting deadlines does not warrant more of an explanation from the receptionist than an appointment is required—you do not owe them more.

Sales representatives arrive in planners’ offices determined to share all their company’s services. Supported with Web sites, promotional material and letters of reference they set out to win over new clients. Often they arrive bearing gifts. Those that are appreciated by planners are examples of quality promotional items (trinkets, not trash) that feature the destination, facility or product that they can add to their research files. Planners can then use these items in their presentation proposal to clients as suggestions to include in their teaser mailings to guests or as one of the event elements included in their program recommendations. Planners also get to see the quality of the items firsthand, which can tell planners volumes about the supplier and its ingenuity. Promotional items deemed interesting and worthy of future consideration are filed away. The ones that are not are returned because planners, respectful of the promotional dollars being spent, advise suppliers if they would not use these particular items.

One special effects company handed out samples of small, light-as-air puff balls made of extremely soft material with a customized ribbon attached. The customized labels on the puffs the supplier handed out featured the special effects company’s name and phone number so that planners knew who to call should there be a need. These puffs could be used as part of a special effects finale such as a confetti burst, and done in a client’s corporate colors. Holding a sample in their hands, planners and clients could clearly see that guests would not be injured in any way by a cascade of puffs raining down on them. Whether or not these puffs would serve a purpose being visually effective or easy to clean up afterwards, for example, is a decision the planner and client could easily make after seeing a sample firsthand.

Other welcome offerings are inexpensive food items that may depict a destination or theme. One retro (1940s-1970s) candy manufacturer brought with them a sampling of fun items we loved when we were kids that could be ordered for party loot bags or used to create a centerpiece at a theme party. They brought a fair size assortment—enough for the office to partake in—but rather than eat them, they were kept on hand as props to show clients. Had they brought in a quantity of just one item, some may have been eaten and the balance filed away for promotional purposes, but the supplier brought in one of each item and it was of greater benefit to the event planning company to keep them than to eat them. Specialty food items that do not have a long shelf life are generally shared with the office and consumed. Smart suppliers who choose to bring food (or other) items on their sales calls ensure that the items are inexpensive, representative of their company product and are useful. It is essential that they bring sufficient quantities to distribute around the office. For example, a company that sells unusual party favors was remembered more because they handed out beverage glasses that glow as opposed to the tired and traditional coffee mug with the company name imprinted on it. It was an item that was intriguing, of value (could be used afterwards and would serve as a reminder of their company long after the glow had faded—it lasts up to six hours) and one that showcased what the supplier had to offer. The glass was not imprinted with a logo. A company business card was merely placed in each glass. It was small, discreet and memorable.

Suppliers bearing large cumbersome promotional leave-behind items will not be welcome with open arms. Bringing tumbleweeds or steer skull candles from Arizona would not be appropriate. Prickly pear, margarita jams and jellies, or Arizona popcorn with a southwest chili pepper kick would depict the area and be a better choice.

One Caribbean hotel on a sales call brought each staff member at an event planning company a large double-size umbrella featuring their hotel’s name and logo. The umbrella was a sample of the umbrellas found in each guestroom for guests to use on hotel property to protect them from the sun or “liquid sunshine” (rain) and take home with them at the end of their stay. That gift was deemed by the receiving office to cross no ethical borders, since the hotel was one that they highly recommended to their clients and the gift was one that tied into the supplier’s product. The supplier had called ahead to find out how many employees the event planning company had because they did not want to leave anyone out. It was to the supplier’s benefit to have more people walking around with the umbrellas featuring their hotel’s name, since it was advertising for them.

That brings event planners—individuals as well as companies—to another moral issue. By using a supplier’s product, staff are openly endorsing it. You must ask yourself if this is something you are comfortable with. Is the hotel one your company supports? Is it one that represents the quality of hotels your company recommends? Is it better to be standing outside in the rain with an umbrella that endorses a specific product or to be shielded from a storm of controversy by upholding your principles with a logo-free umbrella?

Supplier gifts start to cross ethical boundaries when they are expensive, personalized or inappropriate. Companies need to establish guidelines about what can and cannot be accepted. A supplier bringing a planner, who is a known wine connoisseur, an expensive, rare vintage, specialty bottle of wine that is clearly meant—no matter how subtly it is presented—for their own personal consumption, is an inappropriate offering. Ethically, the supplier’s motives can be perceived very differently from a representative scheduling a wine and cheese presentation, featuring their regional wines and cheeses or something special like an ice wine, fortified wine or new wine (such as Shiraz or Pinot Grigio) to an entire office at the end of their work day. One is aboveboard and out in the open for all to enjoy—and could be tied into destination education—while the first example is questionable because it is clearly meant to present the gift giver in a favorable light. Whether or not it is appropriate to serve wine in a business office is an entirely different matter that needs to be discussed before allowing such a presentation to take place. Whose responsibility is it (who is liable) if an employee is injured on the job or on the drive home after partaking in on-the-job libations?

Think breakfast served to an office is a better idea? It is not without its perils. One hotel decided to set up a food station in an event planning office and serve arriving employees breakfast. The number of sales calls from this supplier to the planning office was escalating and was being taken to new levels. They had opted not to bring in one of their professional chefs; instead, the hotel sales team was there in full force to cook breakfast for their guests. What was often bandied about the office was the hotel sales manager’s huge (and very visible) crush on one of the (happily married) sales executives. During the breakfast proceedings, the hotel sales manager’s mind was focused trying to get the sales executive’s attention and not on the omelet station, which caught on fire. It was quickly put out, but along with the omelet, the hotel sales manager had burned the supplier’s reputation.

What had been long apparent to the event planning staff was now obvious to the hotel’s sales team. The conduct of the sales executive had always been above reproach, always extremely professional and polite and never encouraging. In fact, she took pains never to be left alone with the hotel sales manager. In sales presentations where chitchat can sometimes take a general turn while waiting for a member of the group who might have stepped away for a moment to return, she always took care to mention her husband in the conversation. There was never a question of someone being led on. But it was a situation that had gotten out of hand.

Was the office at fault for not setting sales boundaries for their staff and making sure that limits were maintained? The hotel sales manager had repeatedly shown lack of professional decorum, but it had not been dealt with. The concessions the event planning company had been receiving from the hotel, which was one of their preferred ones, made it easy to overlook questionable behavior. The event planning employee was caught in the middle. Her demeanor to the hotel sales manager was always professional and respectful and had never crossed the line. But she and her colleagues both knew that if they spoke up and asked to work with another sales manager, their clients may not continue to receive special compromises from the hotel. While they had done nothing to curry special favor, they knew they were receiving it and why. The office and their clients benefited, but there was a cost to doing business that way. After the situation literally flamed out of control, the hotel stepped in and resolved the situation by having the sales manager assigned to a new territory. They had witnessed firsthand what was to them unacceptable business behavior and took immediate action.

T I P

Never “drop in” unexpectedly on clients or suppliers “because you are in the area.” Be respectful of one another’s time, commitments and deadlines. One sales representative assures clients that she will take up no more than 10 minutes of their time and makes sure she does exactly that. A timer is set...

Table of contents

• Praise
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Acknowledgements
• PREFACE
• PART ONE - Business Ethics
• PART TWO - Business Etiquette
• PART THREE - Codes of Conduct
• CONCLUSION
• ABOUT THE AUTHOR
• INDEX