I like baseball and since the World Series just wrapped with my childhood favorites the Red Sox winning again, I am quite happy. Do not get me wrong, I have been in Chicago for 20 years and the Cubs are my team......but I digress.

Event planning is not baseball, in many ways alike, in many ways different.

Not all event planners understand that one night of a four day program can make or break the entire event, a poorly worded event program can cause disaster and I shudder to think of all of the conferences that are held with no back up for the computer that holds 15 presentations…..You shuddered too, didn’t ya?

Some planners give up or do not care when things go wrong and head back to the dugout and say “next time the event will be great”.

Hitting three out of four every day in baseball would make you a legend, better than the Babe, Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio or even (gasp) Barry Bonds. Better in fact, than all of them put together. You would make a gazillion dollars and retire at the old age of 29 because you would have broken almost every record in the books. There would be nothing left to accomplish.

Now, I am drawing a million comparisons between baseball and event planning but here is the biggest difference; Hitting three out of four in the event industry makes you average at best, a failure at worst. It is simply not good enough.

Now, this is not saying that every aspect and every detail have to be perfect, that is impossible. Events are smoke and mirrors. The attendees must think that everything is perfect even when they are not. Getting on base is what matters so the attendee sees a seamless program, which is the essence of a true event professional. The event planners that get on base every time are the Cal Ripken’s of the event industry.

Sometimes a hitter clips the ball and it bounces three feet, a terrible hit and almost certainly an out. A true professional makes it to first base by using ingenuity, cunning and smarts. They do not give up or say oh well, there is always next time. They push it out and get to the bag, regardless of the obstacles in the way.

Go ahead, swing for the fence…………

Just a thought.

Keith