SIFMA-CL Conference

So by the 3rd to 4th week of March, I was finally getting away from faxing and copying papers. Well, so I thought. I had the pleasure of working with an event company based in New York. The association, SIFMA-CL (http://www.sifmacl.org/en/cev/49/), held its annual conference at the JW Marriott from Sunday, March 22nd to Wednesday. It's expected attendance was well over 1,000 guests from across the nation. The association focuses on securities and financial markets. (I know this, because I did a little research about the association before working the conference.)

The Saturday before we opened registration, we had a small meeting to discuss everyone's assignment. Although I was not hired to work the conference, I went to training hoping I would get added to the team. According to my supervisor, this project was only for experienced meeting planners. So, of course, that meant I had to spice up my elevator pitch and prove I could deliver the same results given I had no prior experience. I was surrounded by people with an average of 15 years of experience. It was pretty intimidating especially when I had to state my qualifications in front of everybody without making it seem like I was just a rookie.

After our meeting, I was given the opportunity to assist in registration. We trained to utilize a computer software program to register attendees and modify their daily schedules. Then, I assisted in stuffing over 1,000 eco-friendly bags with materials and assemble name badges. Over the course of the conference, I directed any payment issues to my lead person, provided quality customer service, assisted with Q&A (Questions & Answers), tallied evaluation forms, as well as copied and stapled papers.

I really did enjoy being a part of the meetings industry. One new thing that I learned was how to work a Q&A session. The number on the microphone indicates the number of fingers you should hold up in the air when an attendee is ready to ask a question. This tells the A/V team what microphone to turn on and off once the attendee has asked his/her question. If Q&A is being filmed, then you step out of the way and kneel to avoid being in the way. If not you can either hold the microphone or hand it to the attendee.

It was interesting to see meeting planners work together. At times, they made the simplest task complicated. Overall, they were great people and we all worked well as a team. Maybe next time I can learn how to work the panel discussions.