Jack Chiasson, CMP, had no intention of applying when the position of executive director at the National Association of Independent Life Brokerage Agencies (NAILBA) came up two years ago. Hired by the organization as a meeting planner in 2004, he was perfectly happy in his job. But the interim executive director, whom Chiasson knew from various interactions throughout his 20-year career, convinced him to give it
a shot.

"He told me, ‘They [the executive committee] know you, they like you, and trust you. What do you have to lose?'" Chiasson said. "He was a real mentor to me." One of four applicants interviewed, he said, "I was not a shoo-in by any means. The executive committee interviewed me just like all the others."

How was he selected to fill the executive director's shoes? "I did a lot of thinking before answering their questions, and I was honest," Chiasson said. "I made sure I was thinking like a CEO with a broader range of vision, not just as a meetings guy. I told them what I knew a lot about as well as what I didn't know. Government affairs was not a strong area for me, but I knew where to get the information they were looking for. I also told them I knew where to get the training to develop the skills I might need." Chiasson said he was more prepared for this interview than for any position he'd ever applied for before. "I was lucky," he said, "because they were looking for a set of qualities - honesty and integrity - rather than a set of skills."

Lisa Block has spent 19 years with the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), in the role of director of meetings and conferences nearly the entire time. Yet, she said, her job is "completely different from when I first started." In the beginning, SHRM's annual meeting drew 3,000 attendees and was more of a leadership conference. It has grown nearly sevenfold, to 20,000 attendees, with 70 seminars. "Our meeting evolved," Block said, "as the profession evolved."

Since SHRM's primary source of revenue is its annual meeting, the organization's board considers Block's role to be of equal importance to the director of finance. "I have developed the meeting in the last 10 years around collaborative planning," she said. "Accountability is not just in the meetings department. Everyone has a piece of ownership, so the planning implementation structure supports the goals of the entire organization."

Raymond Kopcinski, CMP, director of meeting services for the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT), says he took a "circuitous path" to his executive position. It started with a love of film and audiovisual technology. Following stints as a high-school teacher, college cinematography instructor, and audiovisual trainer for a chain of grocery stores, he moved to MDRT, an association of high-powered life-insurance and financial-planning sales representatives. "I started out as the AV coordinator, and I worked closely with the meetings director," Kopcinski said. When the meetings director left, the two departments merged, and Kopcinski took the helm.

A proficiency in audiovisual technology, an ability to adapt and expand his knowledge, and a willingness to help save the board money, he says, clinched his appointment. He's been there for 19 years. "I wasn't interested in this position initially," Kopcinski said, "but it's quite satisfying." That's probably because MDRT relies heavily on his technological expertise for its gatherings: an annual four-day meeting of 8,000 attendees, nine smaller meetings for members who are top earners in their field, a yearly non-English-speaking meeting in Asia that draws 7,000 people, and around 50 smaller committee meetings that are held in the organization's home city of Chicago.

"Our annual meeting is our signature event," Kopcinski said. "We invite top speakers, and the general session features up to six video cameras and 10 screens. We have more than 50 concurrent breakout sessions translated into 12 languages."

Jaime Stephens, executive director of the Color Marketing Group (CMG), spent nearly 20 years as a meeting planner for organizations such as the American Educational Research Association, the National Council for the Social Studies, and Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. In 2002, she became director of conferences for CMG, and three years ago was named the organization's executive director.

"I wasn't promoted," Stephens said. "The first time I applied for the job, I did not get it." Her predecessor, however, left after two years, and Stephens tried again - along with 100 other applicants. "This time when the search committee interviewed me," she said, "they felt my experience and knowledge of the organization were right."

Johnnie C. White, CMP, director of meetings and conventions for the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF), started off as a meeting planner with the Endocrine Society. While there, he worked his way up to director of meetings and CME services. White has been in his current position with CRF for three years, during which time he's earned the board's respect - and its attention. "When I first got here, I reported to a vice president in the department, not the board," White said. "He left, and I began to present different ideas and processes to the board directly. It is more efficient without a middle person to go through, and they appreciate that."

The CRF holds about 30 educational activities a year. Its annual meeting of 11,000 attendees broadcasts live procedures from 26 hospitals around the world to the host convention center in the United States, with surgeons from each hospital interacting with panel members at the convention - a process, White said, that involves "more live video in HD than the Olympics last year."

James Youngblood, CAE, CEO of the Heart Rhythm Society (HRS), began his career in hospitality, then joined the American Heart Association's (AHA) human resources department in training and organizational development. He moved into AHA's meetings department, where he managed a variety of programs along with the trade show for the annual meeting of 30,000 attendees. Becoming involved with the AHA's membership, research, and journals divisions, he eventually became executive vice president of science operations. From there, he was recruited as CEO of the organization's cardiology subsection, which evolved into HRS.
Now eight years on the job, Youngblood said the "appropriate training" that AHA provided as he moved up the ranks has served him well. In addition, Youngblood - a former chairman of the PCMA Board of Directors and member of the PCMA Education Foundation Board of Trustees - said he learned a lot from the PCMA committees and task forces he served on.

Janet Astner has been deputy executive officer, administration and technology, for the American Sociological Association (ASA) for two years. "I've been with the organization for 33 years in a variety of jobs," she said. "The longest was meeting planning, for 23 years." Starting in a part-time position in the minority fellowship program, Astner became an administrative assistant in the governance department and worked her way up to director of operations and meetings services.

"There are less than 30 employees here, and the opportunity for advancement was not always obvious," she noted, adding, "There were times I was looking for jobs outside the association, but fate always seemed to intervene. The organization would change and an opportunity would arise." For example, because she didn't have a master's degree, her former executive director wouldn't consider her for her current job. "When we got a new executive director," Astner said, "I explained what I had done as director of operations and meetings services, like setting up an entire office operation on a meeting site. My experience was valued enough to promote me."

Throughout her career, Astner added to her knowledge of ASA's human-resources and information-technology functions whenever she could. "When I was an administrative assistant in the 1980s, I was willing to learn about computer systems when other people were not," she said. "By learning the computer processes needed to support the meeting, I became valuable. At the beginning, I was responsible for scheduling our program of 200 sessions for 1,500 attendees in five days. Now we have 600 sessions for 4,500 people over four days. I managed the transition in programming from index sorting cards to computer iterations."

The Path to the Executive Suite

Stephens believes her meeting-planner skills landed her the job as executive director of CMG. "I am very detail-oriented and have had opportunities to manage really large budgets," she said. "When I was director of conference services for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, the convention budget was $1.5 million." When she assumed the top slot at CMG in 2006, managing an annual budget of $1.6 million wasn't such a leap.

Nor was it necessary for her to suddenly develop people skills. "Diplomacy is an important qualification [for planners]," Stephens said. "Ultimately you have the responsibility to get certain things done, but the credit invariably goes to someone else, and that's okay." Ironically, one of the biggest challenges Stephens has faced as executive director is letting go of those meeting-planning duties. "The conference was my baby; I felt very proprietary towards it," she said. "I don't micromanage our current conference director, but I still take part in site selection and contracts."

When White arrived at CRF, he found a lack of processes and appropriate documentation in place. "The vendors planned the meeting," he said. "I put the processes in order and made sure the organization, not the vendors, dictated those processes." In other words, he found a solution. Said Astner: "Meeting planners are good problem-solvers, and there is always room for good problem-solvers as you move up. You just change the components from sessions and rooms to people and departments. By listening to needs that exist and reconfiguring the pieces, you can move your skills to other arenas such as strategic planning for your organization."

That said, as prepared as Youngblood was to head up HRS, "Running the whole organization was a shock," he said, noting that reporting to a board as opposed to an individual supervisor required a whole mind shift. "I was not used to dealing with the management of health policy, lobbying, budgets, and finances. I was hired to reinvent the organization. They asked me to create a vision and manage the change needed to accomplish that vision. It was a lonely place to be, I didn't get a lot of advice, and there was a greater weight to my decisions than in my previous jobs." That included moving the HRS office from Boston to Washington, D.C., and replacing most of the organization's 50-person staff. "Now I have a terrific senior team that I trust," Youngblood said. He added: "The job gave me new skills. I love it now, but if you had asked me years ago if this is a job I would take, I would have said no."

Astner has also had to cultivate a broader mindset. "My biggest challenge was not having a specific department to run," she said. "Now what I do is about overall welfare and supporting each program and department. A different kind of planning is necessary. You never truly know what the day will hold. You just have to rise to each occasion."

How They're Leading During a Downturn

By closely monitoring expenses, the National Association of Independent Life Brokerage Agencies (NAILBA) has seen few cutbacks, according to Executive Director Jack Chiasson, CMP. "Our annual meeting this past November," he said, "drew 1,600 people and was our largest ever."

Past NAILBA supporter American International Group (AIG) "sent fewer people and took their name off some of the things they sponsored," Chiasson said, "but they still sponsored and paid." The economy created an even greater need for Chiasson to reach out to clients during the past year. "We have terrific relationships with our exhibitors and sponsors, and a personal call from me was appreciated by most," he said. "So far, we have not lost any, but I suspect cutbacks will manifest themselves in reduced numbers of booth personnel at this year's annual meeting."

Fortunately, NAILBA board members understand the value of their organization's meetings as profit centers, so Chiasson hasn't had to "sell them" on continuing the meetings. "Leadership, along with most of our members, values our annual meeting as the No. 1 benefit of membership," he said.

The health-care field isn't as badly bruised as other sectors, but it has been affected, said James Youngblood, CAE, CEO of the Heart Rhythm Society (HRS). "The registration at our annual meeting is down 10 percent, but our trade show is not down," Youngblood said. "We haven't had any staff layoffs, but we'll shave back our budgets in places like travel. We also might delay introducing new programs by a year."

Johnnie C. White, CMP, director of meetings and conventions for the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF), said that while the number of physicians attending his group's annual meeting has remained steady, the staff members vendors send to the trade show is down. CRF hopes that expanding its online component will help grow its audience. "This will complement what we do live," White said, "so doctors who can't attend can still watch the sessions from wherever they are located."

The Color Marketing Group (CMG), whose members come from the home-interior, paint, automotive, housing, and fashion industries, has been kicked hard by the recession. Membership is down 45 percent, said Executive Director Jaime Stephens. "We've had to cut our staff in half," she said. "When I started, there were eight employees. Now there are only three, including me."

CMG holds two yearly meetings, but Stephens says that may change. "We have a meeting in the fall, and we'll have to assess after that," she said. "We usually book a year-and-a-half out, and we have held off for 2010. Although some members might want the two meetings, we have to look ahead and do what is right for the organization. It might even be time to re-envision CMG in order to grow our membership."

The 100-plus-year-old American Sociological Association's (ASA) annual meeting is its "third revenue generator, after publications and member dues," said Janet Astner, deputy executive officer, administration and technology. "There has never been a question of not having it, except during World War II, when two years were combined into one."

ASA members are motivated to attend because "they present papers, which is very important to academics," Astner said. "Presenting leads to publishing, and our members ‘publish or perish.'" Although attendance at ASA's last meeting in Boston wasn't down, Astner noticed that attendees' stays were briefer. "That's because they pay their own way and are sensitive to the costs of travel and lodging," she said.

At the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT), "We've hit a brick wall," said Raymond Kopcinski, CMP, director of meeting services. "We've had to cancel a new meeting we were going to introduce for our American members this year. We are hoping this is a temporary setback, but we're making plans in case it is not."

MDRT's board understands the importance of face-to-face meetings, because that's how the organization gets its message out. "We are a member-driven organization, and the meetings are a place to network and recharge batteries, which is critical for salespeople who often work alone," Kopcinski said. But, he added, "I have to synthesize the objective of a meeting and prove those objectives are met with quantitative metrics."

Advice From the Top

Convene's "roundtable" of executives shared their tips for climbing the ladder:

Participate in industry organizations. "It's important to take advantage of the opportunities that PCMA offers," said Lisa Block, director of meetings and conferences for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). She advocates joining committees and playing a role that is different from what you do at work. "Then you can take that experience back to your own workplace," Block said. "That's how I learned to do strategic planning and how to work with committees."

Added Raymond Kopcinski, CMP, director of meeting services for the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT): "In my career, networking has been critical. With support and the ideas of others, you'll learn and grow."

Go outside your comfort zone. "Any chance you get to present, take it," said Johnnie C. White, CMP, director of meetings and conventions for the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF). "Giving presentations builds confidence and provides an opportunity for you to be heard. You develop a rapport with the groups listening, they'll feel comfortable with you and eventually trust your ability to make decisions."

Keep growing in knowledge. "Learning new things is integral to success today," said Janet Astner, deputy executive officer, administration and technology, for the American Sociological Association (ASA). She also advises getting to know your organization's constitution and bylaws. "You need to know the parameters in order to suggest changes that will work," she said. "It's also important to know what the budget is for the entire organization."

Embrace opportunities to become more strategic. "The nature of meeting planning is a micro focus on details," said James Youngblood, CAE, CEO of the Heart Rhythm Society (HRS). "Making a transition into a position with strategic and global thinking is difficult. What helped me was committee and task-force work with PCMA. It got me outside my niche and into broader strategic thinking." Becoming chairman of the board at PCMA enabled him to recognize his own leadership qualities, Youngblood said, and to realize that the only thing limiting him was himself.