Case Study: Protestant Women of the Chapel

Challenge: Building a working relationship with a venue undergoing staff changes

Planner Name: Pat Davis

Affiliation: The Protestant Women of the Chapel (PWOC), a chapel-based ministry for women to help chaplains carry out their religious programs and to bring Christian fellowship and spiritual growth to the U.S. military communities around the globe.

Event: More than 400 women attended PWOC’s biannual Southeast Regional Conference, themed “Our God Reigns,” Nov. 5-8, 2009, in Duluth, Ga.

What happened: Davis and an eight-person planning team tackled military regulations and government per diems in addition to the facility’s staff merry-go-round. After eight months of planning and building a relationship with a sales representative, the PWOC’s event was handed off to sales rep after sales rep. Conference Coordinator Davis faced three changes in sales representatives at the Atlanta Marriott Gwinnett Place.

“Hotel staffs are very fluid with big personnel changes all the time,” says Davis. “I built a relationship with my initial contact. I felt we had a strong business and spiritual connection. He expressed his Christian faith and we prayed together and I was excited about the location. Eight months later, I get the call that he is no longer my contact. A couple of months after that I call to inform my new contact about how our plans were progressing and discover my file has been transferred to another sales representative.”

Solution: As her planning process slowed and negotiations began to unravel, Davis decided to work on her relationship with the venue and sought a face-to-face meeting. “With my first contact, the communication was very conversational. With the new contact everything was very professional and point-by-point,” she says. “I had to change the way I communicated and learn her language. My conversational emails became bullet points so that she wouldn’t have to read between the lines or interpret anything.”

Advice: “Don’t be afraid to stay in communication,” says Davis. “Be willing to ask basic questions like ‘how do you like to keep in touch?’ Some people are phone people and others prefer emails.”