Need Temporary Staff for Meetings? Look No Further

Good news: If you are maxed out with the meeting you’re planning, professional help is available for hire, both on-demand or for long-term contracts.

You don’t have to do it all yourself.

Where do you find contract help? There are agencies that specialize in staffing for meetings and events, and former meeting planners who have started their own companies as contractors. In addition, social media can be your friend when you’re looking for freelancers. 

Search Firms

These three companies specialize in placing meeting planning temps:

1. Soundings supplies contract talent to fill the following roles: Event Design & Execution; Creative Services; Project Management; Corporate Marketing; and Production & Creative. Soundings prides itself as ‘focusing on a combination of skills, strengths, character, purpose and performance to ensure the perfect candidate.’
   
2. Cadre considers itself the Upwork for meeting planners – an online marketplace where you can post your project; set your own budget; and directly obtain offers from, interview and contract experienced event-industry freelancers, all through the app. Cadre’s database of  6,500+ event freelancers includes professionals in numerous roles, such as: Event Planner; Corporate Meeting Planner; Conference Manager; and Trade Show Coordinator.
   
3. MeetingsNEvents provides staff to assist with the planning and management of conferences, meetings and conventions in 13 cities. Freelancers can help with everything from registration to transportation coordination to venue & hotel sourcing.

Independent Meeting Planners

Many ‘independents,’ as they’re called, were formerly corporate meeting planners. For example, after 24 years as a financial event specialist with a top Fortune 100 company, Carlin Putman now has her own company, Page-One Meetings and Events, and works for various clients as a contract meeting planner.

If you have regular meetings you are planning, the ideal contracting scenario is when your outsourced meeting planner functions less like a taskmaster and more like a part of your team, said Jen Squeglia, who started her company, RLC Events, in 2007 after working on staff for Fidelity and John Hancock. “When you contract steadily, you know the culture, the systems and the team, so you seamlessly come and go from the projects.”

Other Sources

LinkedIn can be a valuable source for finding freelancers. Unemployed meeting planners who are available as contractors can be found by searching #OPENTOWORK. Or join Facebook’s National Meeting Planners Group, where members post when they’re looking for help, or to announce their availability for contract work. Many of the freelance web sites, such as Upwork and Fiverr, are also a source for freelance event staff.