2018’s Planners of the Year Award Recipient: Heather Lynch Walters
- By Jessica Elmore
- •
- 06 Sep, 2018
- •
In the meeting planning world, Smart Meetings is a highly respected publication for all industry related news and information. Each year, they select planners across the globe to acknowledge and celebrate their hard-work and dedication to their profession. Elm Planning is proud to announce that Heather Lynch Walters was chosen as one of their Planners of the Year for 2018. Below is the excerpt from her interview.
HIGH-FIVE MOMENT: In addition to corporate meeting planning, Elm Planning specializes in pharmaceutical/biotech medical meetings. Our signature event was a worldwide series of investigator meetings for a new therapy regimen for cancer, spanning 17 days in five international cities—Athens and Thessaloniki on mainland Greece; Heraklion, Crete; Tel Aviv; and Sydney. As a full-service planner, we coordinated every aspect of the logistics for the meeting, from sourcing, travel and visas to on-site support and planning for the 300 participating physicians from 12 countries, and 20 client employees. The success of these meetings led to our client exceeding projected new patient enrollment and participation in the initial phase of the clinical trial.
VISION FOR AN IDEAL EVENTS WORLD: Deep-rooted relationships between the external planner and client, based on trust, is the ideal vision we hope for in our industry. At Elm Planning, we pride ourselves in understanding and anticipating the unique needs of each client and event by listening and drawing upon our experience to share what works and won’t work.
TOP OF MY TO-DO LIST: Despite being the founder, Elm is not an “I,” but a “we,” a family. We are successful due to the absolute best and most experienced team in the industry. We want our team to be self-sufficient, with the ability to build client relations and empowered to use creativity to do what’s right for our customers.
WHAT KEEPS ME UP AT NIGHT: I never want to become “the boss,” where I am viewed in a negative light by the people who work with me. It’s my hope that our people look forward to work each day, knowing they are making a difference for our customers. I’ve worked very hard to build a company based on teamwork and trust, where our people are always encouraged and supported to grow professionally. I’ve worked to ensure our team loves what they do and share in Elm’s success.
WHY WILD HORSES CAN’T DRAG ME AWAY: The relationships we’ve built with our clients. There is no greater feeling than when a client transitions to a new company and brings us with them to plan their events and meetings. We get to continue our partnership while we work to build new long-lasting relationships with a new team.
It motivates me every day to strengthen relationships and live our values, so that Elm is truly a valued partner and the first call someone makes when they advance to a new organization. It’s a tremendous source of pride that this has been the sole way we’ve grown, and it’s all due to high standards, values and the Elm team.
If you are interested in working with the best, please contact us today. We would love to help you plan your next meeting or event!
During the pandemic, thousands of pilots were offered early retirement packages in order to cut labor bills due to the lack of travel demand. Now that travel for pleasure and business is rebounding from the pandemic, approximately 14,000 flights in the US were recently cancelled or delayed due to the lack of pilots, carriers, and other staff.
