When I volunteered to assist my husband with the 1995 Biennial Conference of the Society for Marine Mammalogy, for which he was chair, I discovered that our local Convention & Visitor’s Bureau had a staff of ‘convention assistants’ who could be hired to assist with the meeting. They could hand out registration materials, take new registrations, monitor entry into meeting rooms, guard the coffee urns – in short, perform just about every task that a meeting required. The best way to learn about managing meetings was to see them from the inside, so I hired on with the Bureau. The pay wasn’t much, but the hours offered great flexibility. Over the next year, I observed dozens of meetings, from gigantic trade shows such as the PGA with 50,000 attendees, to small organizations of a few hundred delegates. I saw what worked and what didn’t work, and applied that information to my husband’s marine mammal meeting.The Society liked the way the meeting was run, and they asked me to manage their next Biennial, a joint meeting with the European Cetacean Society. Since the meeting was going to be held in Monaco, I was more than willing to offer my services in return for a plane ticket. They even offered me a stipend to cover meals, so I was delighted. The international flavor of the meeting was wonderful, although coordinating the two different societies with their different traditions and rules was a challenge. In all, it was a wonderful learning experience.
The next Biennial was in Maui. Again, not a bad venue. The folks in Hawaii said they'd take care of all the local issues, and I would organize registration and offer advice. This time I enjoyed some private time in the islands both before and after the meeting, and learned to smile in the face of unavoidable crises such as tote bags being confiscated by customs, and computers with no operating systems. The Hawaiian ‘relax, it’ll all work out’ attitude succeeded in the long run, but I wished they’d have been a little more skeptical and followed up on things a little more closely. In the future, my father's age old motto will be the one I follow: "If you want something done right, do it yourself." The attendees never knew what we went through, however, and they pronounced the meeting ‘seamless.’
Some time later, I was approached by Joyce, the CEO of the Adult Literacy League, a volunteer group that teaches adults to read. Their parent organization, Laubach Literacy Action, holds a biennial meeting, and the Adult Literacy League had volunteered to host it in Orlando in 2000. I was asked to be the local chair, based on my convention experience. The job description listed the number one qualification as having good connections in the literacy community. I went back to Joyce and said that due to the nature of the one-on-one tutoring system, my contacts in literacy numbered about three. She said the office would take care of the people stuff; she wanted my organization skills. So, I accepted that job as well. Everyone said that the Orlando meeting was the best in the history of Laubach Biennials.
My husband told me that one of his colleagues had mentioned some involvement with a meeting to be held on the coast in 2001, and he gave him my name. Although I enjoyed the work, I was no longer willing to do it as a volunteer. Thus, TLC Conference Consulting was born. It’s a one person operation, but I can help give advice to groups wanting to hold meetings. I have no great desire to have this paid hobby turn into a large scale operation, but I’m happy to work out of my home office. I can manage registration, look after all the little details that must be coordinated, and help a meeting run smoothly by trying to figure out everything that can possible go wrong, and plug the holes before they’re formed.
I still work for the Convention & Visitor’s Bureau, and I still maintain my loyalty to the marine mammal meetings and donate my time to them. But when the Society for Marine Mammalogy decided they needed an executive assistant to maintain continuity as the leadership of the organization changes, they hired TLC Conference Consulting. In that capacity, I can answer questions, letters and emails, organize the files, and keep an eye on the website among other things. My corporate memory of meetings is a plus; since the Society is a volunteer run organization, they have no permanent office or staff, and things tend to move around a lot and get forgotten. This way, I provide continuity, do something I’ve been doing for the past 6 years, and get paid for it.