GDM Seeds Conference
GDM Seeds is a soybean breeding company out of Gibson City, Illinois. They hired me to help with their 2019 Annual Executive Meeting in July 2019. The conference took place in Gibson City and Champaign. Honestly this is my favorite event I have ever planned thus far. It was the most challenging job I’ve ever had and I made the most mistakes with this event. In the end, I learned a ton, created amazing relationships, and had so much fun!
General event specs:
50 attendees
Week-long event with meetings and team building exercises
Multiple locations throughout the week
Attendees from Argentina, Brazil, and various US states
All transportation, housing, meals, translation services, and meeting items needed planned
Vendors involved:
Event Planner - 618 EVENTS, Maggie
Catering - Michaels Catering
Transport - Peoria Charter Coach
Transport - Starr Limo
Rentals - Herriotts Rentals
Rentals - CORT Event Rentals
Lodging - Hyatt Place Champaign
Dining - Big Grove Tavern
Dining - Hank’s Table
Dining - MIGA
Photo - Holly Birch Photography
Video - Five Foot Productions
Sound - Bugbee’s DJ Plus
Translation - Lexicon
Name tags/Plaques - Trophy Time
Floral - Village Garden Shop
There were attendees that didn’t speak fluent English so we hired translators through Lexicon to simultaneously interpret what was being said during the meetings. Additionally, everyone flew into O’Hare so we had to transport everyone to the Champaign area along with all transportation throughout the week. A huge thank you to Peoria Charter Coach and Starr Limos.
Food and drinks, of course, were essential and Michael’s Catering did a phenomenal job all week long! For those at the meeting that weren’t from the area we wanted to show off our amazing downtown. Big Grove Tavern, Hank’s Table, and MIGA were the perfect taste of Champaign with fun group atmospheres and delicious eats.
Holly Birch Photography and Five Foot Productions helped capture the week for everyone to remember.
We transformed GDM’s warehouse into an executive meeting space with table and projector rentals from Herriotts, chair rentals from CORT Event Rentals, sound from Bugbee’s DJ Plus, and floral from Village Garden Shop in Mahomet. Trophy Time once again nailed it with our name tags and plaques for the week.
Lessons Learned:
Hire vendors you can rely on. This removes so much responsibility off my plate because I know each vendor will pull through. And when things go wrong (which they always will!) you can count on the vendor to make it right, and fast. I was so thankful for each vendor involved in this event. I definitely couldn’t have done it without them!
Never assume. This one is hard because most of the time I don’t know I am assuming until something doesn’t go the way I planned and it’s because I was incorrectly assuming. Whoops. But when you hire vendors you can rely on (see above point) you can fix the problem and keep moving forward.
Apologies go a long way. When you have frustrated vendors, send a handwritten apology. And then also follow up with an apology email. This goes a long way. Thank them for their work, flexibility, time, everything!
Be flexible. As an event planner we often have the stereotype of being rigid and 100% type A. However I would argue it’s most important to NOT be that way. Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Therefore you have to be flexible and calm in order to come up with a solution.
