NYC team building planner frustration

I’ve been planning & producing events professionally for nearly 15 years, and 99.9% of the time I love it – especially when things go well. However, as anybody who has ever attempted to pull an event large or small together knows, it’s not always smooth sailing.

Two recent such episodes (which occurred back to back) were enough to give me pause, and I wanted to share them with you.

Last month, I received an inquiry from someone at one of New York City’s largest & well-known financial service companies. She wanted a small-group team building activity in NYC, and the turnaround was quick – within the week. I had a lot on my plate at the time, prepping one of our mega public trivia events with Pat Kiernan at The Bell House, not to mention two other events that week as well – including one which I would need to be out of town for. However, I was still able to accommodate this last-minute event, setting aside the time necessary to conduct multiple phone calls with this person, develop a formal proposal, arrange venue & staffing, work out all of the technical/logistical details etc. – I even drafted and sent over a service agreement, coming down significantly on my rate to accommodate her limited budget.

As I was walking into The Bell House to prepare for Pat’s trivia night, this person called me and told me she wasn’t going to proceed with the event – she had reached out to another vendor who was charging less – so, goodbye. All the time & attention I had provided during an extremely busy period, my availability & responsiveness, my experience, expertise & reputation – none of it meant a thing to her. She wanted to spend as little as possible, and that was that.

Yeah. Frustrating.

But wait! Get this – that same week, I had to deal with yet another blow. I had previously received an inquiry from one of the world’s largest & well-respected print media outlets, wanting to do a large event – again, on a very tight turnaround, limited budget, and when we already had other events planned. I conducted the exploratory call, drafted a proposal, confirmed staffing etc. – then received word that while they liked what I had to offer, they were not going to go with me. I wrote back asking if there was any reason for the decision, but received no reply.

Three weeks later, I received an Email out of the blue from this media outlet, asking what time I would be arriving at the event tomorrow – ironically, on the same day as the previous non-event described above was scheduled to take place. I was initially confused, but a moment later understood what had happened.

This guy was writing to me, thinking I was someone else – specifically, the OTHER guy named David he’d hired for the event.

How’s that for adding insult to injury? I responded, politely letting him know that he had intended his Email for someone else – oh, and that I’d never heard back from him with feedback as to why they chose not to go with me.

Of course, I received no reply to that Email either.

The point I’m trying to make by bringing these recent examples to your attention is that in the event world, these things happen. Fortunately, they don’t happen all the time – actually, my stories of nightmarishly frustrating event planning experiences are (mercifully) few, with the vast majority of both clients and events being an absolute blast.

The main lesson I’ve learned over the years with dealing with stuff like this? You MUST let it remind you of how fortunate you are to have clients that you DO like – who are professional, courteous and respectful, whom you would bend over backwards to please.

Ours isn’t an easy path we’ve chosen, this events business. It’s full of stress, countless details, fires, crises and so much that is beyond our control. Yet with the occasional rough patch comes enormous reward, in knowing that we’ve helped create positive shared experiences and cherished memories for others to enjoy.

And that’s worth it.