In our last post, we discussed a variety of event professionals and how to work with them to make your food truck’s catering business more successful. Remember that the key to working well with event professionals is to listen—listen to their needs, and look for ways that you can meet those needs.
Knowing whom to meet is one thing. Actually meeting them in a positive and natural way is another. So, how should you meet event professionals? You could cold-call them, which is just as fun as dipping your hand in the deep fryer. Instead, go to where they gather: association meetings.
It’s no surprise that event professionals love (you guessed it) events. They throw a lot of them for themselves under the name “association meetings.” While there are many event associations, I’m going to focus on the two I think will be most useful to you.
MPI is the broadest of the bunch, encompassing all event planners, from corporate to government to special event planners. Members of this organization are split into two groups: planners (people who plan meetings) and suppliers (people who sell things to planners, like hotels, florists, and caterers like food trucks).
Your goal: If you’re looking to meet a lot of meeting industry professionals, MPI is probably the best choice for you. You’ll be exposed to all aspects of the events industry in your region, and will have the opportunity to meet both people who can book your truck as well as people who can tell their clients to book your truck.
This association is specifically for the people who produce creative special events (see the definition of special event planner). Association members also include event suppliers.
Your goal: If you want to connect specifically with the people who plan special events, ISES may be the better first choice. The people attending will be focused more specifically on creative events, where as with MPI, many people plan more traditional (and often more boring) corporate meetings for a living.
Both of these associations have local chapters all over the U.S. and Canada (as well as worldwide), and most local chapters hold monthly meetings, as well as an annual conference and an annual awards event. A typical association meeting has two components: a networking session (i.e. stand around and meet each other) and an education component, which is usually a presentation or panel discussion.
Associations truly are an example of “you get out what you put in.” Attending MPI or ISES meetings can yield great results, but you need to do far more than show up.
Before I launch into a list of tips and tricks that will help you maximize your attendance, I want to remind you about your message. The clearer you can be when you talk about your business, the better off you’ll be across the board. You’re going to be asked “And what do you do?” again and again. If you can be short and to the point (and perhaps make people laugh), you’ll increase your odds that people will remember you come booking time.
And now, here are those tips and tricks.
Both MPI and ISES will allow you to attend a few meetings as a non-member guest.
To truly make the most of an association membership, you need to put in a lot of time—that may be asking more than you can give right now. You can still get some benefit by staying tuned into association. Here’s how:
Have you attended any association meetings? Have you found one to be useful that I didn’t mention? We’d love to hear about your experiences, leave them in the comments below.
image from North Charleston
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