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Good morning,

Every day there are more and more administrative assistants being asked to plan the next big event for their employers. It can be a stressful job but don’t worry! This article from iaap gives us tips on the one thing you need to help you plan your next event. Read about it below.

“The One Tool You Need To Plan Your Next Event

Submitted by Tracy Orpin on Fri, 02/21/2014 – 1:31pm

More and more administrative professionals are being asked to plan meetings and events for their employers. This is big job and it can be intimidating. Thankfully, there are some fantastic resources that will help make your gathering a success and help make you look good. I want to showcase one event/meeting planning tool that has proven to be particularly valuable for me throughout my career.

I started out my career as an administrative professional and had many different responsibilities. I always enjoyed putting together the different meetings and events for the vice president that I assisted.

One day I was asked to complete the president’s two-day conference. I wasn’t quite sure where to start. I happened to receive Meetings & Conventions Magazine at the time and remembered they had a section of checklists for planners. I went to the magazine and from that day forward never missed reading and clipping the magazine’s one-page checklist every month. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used these lists to get my events and meetings squared away.

As both an administrative professional and, now, a full-time planner, the M&C Magazine checklist section is always the page I tear out and keep in my files. It is an amazing reference no matter what I’m doing or who I am assisting. You can turn to these checklists for help with first-time planner jitters to AV needs, hotel security and many other issues. It’s an essential tool as I plan things like IAAP’s EFAM 2014, a huge professional development and networking event that’s expected to draw 1,300 to 1,500 people over several days.

Meeting and event planning is a big and often-stressful job. Most administrative professionals I know love using lists to keep their tasks in line. There’s no reason to go at this alone. Check out M&C Magazine’s planner checklist and start benefiting from a valuable resource that has helped me tremendously over the years.

(Tracy Orpin, CMP is the Conferences & Professional Development Manager for IAAP. She can be reached attracy.orpin@iaap-hq.org.)”