The Two Points of View

By Bill Heaney

Whenever I am asked how I started in the hotel business, I answer "as a customer."  Planning meetings, conferences and travel arrangements for large groups of customers on a daily basis brought me into contact with numerous hotels and their associates. What made my transition into the hotel business easy is what I believe to be one of the most fundamental and important talents of meeting planning: understanding the other's point of view and appreciating why. Of course, being honest with yourself about what you believe the other's point of view to be - even if runs contrary to your own - enables a very expedient meeting of the minds.

So, before actually working in the hotel business, I already knew much about the "hotel" point of view. And now in the hotel business many years later, my first hand familiarity with the "meeting planning" point of view has proven invaluable.