Proficiency and hard work aren’t always enough to advance your career. Self-promotion is the best way to let the industry know about your good work and enhance your professional standing. By Janet White Bardwell

Meeting and incentive travel planners have traditionally had a tough time getting respect in the corporate world. Oftenconsidered the busy bees who blow up balloons and choose cake flavours, this archaic myth is certainly fadinginto the background as event professionals continue to prove their mettle in the wake of world tragedies and corporatecutbacks. Now, they are more often in the driver’s seat when it comes to maintaining a corporation’s image,profile and brand through tragic and challenging events. But, as with all things done well, many eventsuccesses seem effortless—and therefore the work involved in pulling them together goes unnoticed.Do you get recognition for what you contribute to your workplace? If not, it’s time to brush upon your promotion skills and apply them—to yourself. Here, in the final part in our three-part series onimproving your craft, we’ve convinced two corporate planners to reveal how they make sure theystand up and be noticed at work—and stay in the minds of outside suppliers.

SELLING HERSELF
Originally from Johannesburg, South Africa, Marianne Thompson has worked at Remax Promotions Inc. in Mississauga, Ont. for almost 13 years, which services Ontario and Atlantic Canada. Starting as an administrative assistant just three weeks after arriving in Canada, Thompson is now director of special events and meetings in the seven-person office and—with the help of a strong team of outside suppliers— plans everything from incentive trips for 125 people and awards galas for 1,800 delegates, to sales meetings for 2,000. She kindly agreed to answer some questions about how she promotes herself within her company and to her cherished suppliers.

Do you have a conscious self-promotion strategy?
I certainly don’t have a conscious strategy. I just build on a continuous basis to position myself in a better light. I think we all do that, whether consciously or subconsciously. With me, it is all about building myself to get further, through education and broad experience on the job. From a planning point of view, I’ve done things as wacky as working at the Bell Canadian Open, just because I wanted to be there and see how they do it. And it’s the same internally. I want experience.

What are some specific actions you can suggest?
Find your promotion opportunities and take them. I did a couple of key things in my career that perhaps really helped me stand out. Out of this office we deal with the Remax balloon administration. The woman who takes care of that area went on maternity leave and while she was gone I created a formal resource manual, which streamlined the balloon managing process. It took a lot of time, but I really wanted to make it work so when that person came back, she could see that I had really helped her job. It was sent out to each Remax franchise. Also, during another maternity leave situation, I put together a fundraising manual for our franchisees.

Did you get immediate kudos for those projects?
At the time I don’t think I got recognition directly, but this is all stuff that gets banked. You think it doesn’t get noticed, but then as the years go by it all comes back to you. It’s that type of thing that has serviced me really well.

How do you spread your “brand” around within your company?
Remax internationally has a lot of regions like us, and each region has its own promotions department, so it’s been very important for me to communicate and share information with other regional promotions departments. I’ve made an effort in that area to call them up and introduce myself and making an effort to share information. But they’ll only get to know you if you have something useful to offer them. Find an area of shared interest and make yourself valuable to them. It might not do anything for you right away, but you are creating a support network of sorts that will help you down the road.

Has your CMP designation given you more respect?
That was one way I could show the corporation that there is a designation applied to meeting planning and special events, and that I’m serious about pursuing it. Also, I approached them to pay for the CMP, and told them that if they wouldn’t pay, I would personally sponsor myself because I felt that it was crucial.

Any advice for other planners wanting to get their name out there?
You’ve got to be generous with sharing information. Make sure you are always staying on top of the latest trends and learn wherever you can so you can be the one pointing out the newest or edgiest ideas. Remember that it’s about making a continuous effort all the time. You want to create a manual? It’s going to be extra work. You want to make that contact? It’s going to be extra effort. Post-event strategies are very important as well. When you are finished working with a supplier and you know you won’t be working with them again for the next 18 months, find a way to offer them extra value or follow up with them in a way that will make them remember you.

SMART COMMUNICATION
Diane Whittington knows how to make herself useful in the corporate world. As events manager for the Enterprise Communications Solutions (ECS) division of Sprint Canada Inc., in Toronto, she’s witness three downsizing periods in the three years, which has made her keenly aware of her place in the mix. “In a big corporation you are always wondering if you are proving your worth and showing as much value as possible,” she says. Here’s how she does it.

Do you have a conscious self-promotion strategy?
Not a strategy as such, but it’s just some things I’ve found working in a large company. It’s a constant effort to make sure what you are doing gains the attention of someone who sees the value in it.

What are some specific actions you can suggest?
The events I handle are at a fairly senior level, involving our senior executive team, so they are all familiar with who I am and the work I’ve done. But it’s important to reinforce it. Before a kickoff event, for example, I ask them to thank our third-party planner [Etobicoke, Ont.-based, Communique]. I couldn’t do the event without that company. And, they can’t really thank the vendor without thanking the people within the company who captain that team, which is my boss and I. It reminds people who pulled it all together, and who put in all the hours to make their day and a half or their two days really fun and a learning experience. So that usually gets my name mentioned at least at a presidential level from our business unit.

Any other ways you promote yourself?
If I get complimentary e-mails from the sales force on events I run for them, or customer seminars I organize for them, I’ll be sure to forward them to my boss, who then forwards them to our vice-president of marketing or our president of ECS to make sure he’s aware of the reaction. You’re in charge of your own press clippings. If I don’t toot my own horn, nobody else will. I try not to do it in an arrogant way, and I make sure I don’t do it too much.

Within your department, how do you make sure you are known as someone who be counted on and is promotable?
I’m lucky because my boss is great. She always looks for opportunities to use me in different ways other than specific eventrelated items. She’s very supportive of me making contacts in the other departments and making sure they know my services are available to them. It’s so important to have a boss who will stand back and let you get the recognition you need.

How do you promote yourself to your suppliers?
I think in the end the best business relationship is really when your suppliers become your partners and they are forthcoming with information and they’ll make sure you are always presented in your best light as well. My vendors do that all the time, and I think that’s because I take the time to make sure I know who they are, on many levels, I meet their deadlines and I understand their concerns.

INTERNAL NETWORKING
Networking isn’t who you know, it’s who knows you, says Colleen Clarke, Toronto-based columnist, career coach and author of “Networking: How to Creatively Tap Your People Resources.” Here, her tips on internal networking:

• Take the initiative to launch project teams for problem solving, organize social functions, sit on committees unrelated to your work.
• Volunteer to chair a committee for the annual general meeting so your name gets mentioned throughout the planning process.
• Introduce a senior executive to an audience at an important company function—be visible.
• Keep an updated rolodex of resources so colleagues know to come to you first when looking for a contact.
• Dress like you are being looked at all the time.
• Act like you work in a fish bowl, because you do.

– Judy Allen is president of Toronto-based Judy Allen Productions and author of EVENT PLANNING: The Ultimate Guide to Successful Meetings, Corporate Events, Fundraising Galas, Conferences, Incentives and other Special Events (John Wiley & Sons).