Hiring an Event Production Company

There are a lot of production companies out there. How do you pick one to stage your event?

By John Mackenzie

If you don’t know any meeting producers or have word-of-mouth recommendations, you can start sorting through options by checking out professional associations. Meeting Professionals International (MPI) is the largest organization in this field. MPI (www.mpiweb.org) may have a chapter in your area. The International Special Events Society (ISES) is another event-planning membership association (www.ises.com) with a national membership base.

Once you have narrowed down the field, here are some tips to help you evaluate event producers:

Visit the producer. You’ll get a chance to see more samples of the company’s work. In my experience, office and staff size control the amount of business a producer can handle, but have little to do with quality or ability.

Check out awards. Bronze, silver, and gold award plaques on the reception room wall? Could mean a lot. Could mean nothing. It depends on the source of the awards. Some competitions and festivals are more concerned with collecting entry and judging fees than they are with originality and quality.

See video clips. Every producer has video clips (or CDs) of his or her best work. And that’s fine. Just make sure their areas of strength match your needs. Planning beach barbecue costume parties doesn’t automatically imply great speech support or effective new-product intros.

Check out listening skills. How well does the producer listen and let you to talk about your plans and problems? Motor-mouth producers may be more interested in their work than yours. I recall several pitches where producers picked up new business without showing a single capability demo. They just let the client monopolize the conversation.

Put them on the spot. The question, “If you got my business, what’s the first thing you’d do?” can elicit interesting (revealing) responses.

Factor in time in business. A production firm in business for ten or 15 years is doing something right. And you gain some assurance they won’t go under in the middle of your job (although the attrition rate in this business is legendary).

Repeat clients. The size of a client list provides an indication of diversity. But, in my opinion, size isn’t as important as the number of clients who have been there more than once.

Specialization. If your meeting concerns something like Managing Risk Assessment for Subordinated Debentures, you may need a producer with special experience. Flip side: If you really need some new ideas, consider those who haven’t learned what they’re not supposed to do.

Grace under pressure. Try this one sometime: While talking with a producer ask the following (with a straight face), “What’s the worst mistake you ever made?” The pro will smile and answer. The pretender will smile and waffle.

John K. Mackenzie worked in corporate conference management before becoming a business communicator. Visit his website at TheWritingWorks.com or contact him at info@thewritingworks.com.