Man behind the meetings;

              The Man
WilliamT. Lawler
The following brief scenario may have
come from any of a number of Hollywood
productions:
MR. BUSINESS TYCOON (to his secretary):
'MissWelendowd, set up a four-day
meeting for all my sales managers in San
Francisco tomorrow."
MISSWELENDOWD: "Yes, sir."
Miss W. leaves office of Mr. Tycoon, sits
down at her desk, picks up the phone and
dials a number.
MissW: "Gracious Hotel? This is the
Havaplenty Corporation. We will be flying
eighty of our people in tomorrow for a
four-day sales meeting. You'll make all
the arrangements? Fine. Thank you."
Miss W. hangs up phone, signals to
Mr. Tycoon on intercom.
MissW: "Mr. Tycoon, I've made all
arrangements for the meeting in San
Francisco tomorrow."
There may have been a time when setting
up a meeting required little more effort
than reserving a table for four at a local
restaurant. But those days are long gone
—if they ever really existed. Today's
meeting planner and coordinator depends
on extensive files, schedules usually set
up more than a year in advance and—as
the ultimate indication of his acceptance
of advanced technology—that
omnipresent servant of modern man,
the computer.
For a major accounting firm like Haskins
& Sells, meetings have become as
important as the electronic calculator.
And the methods that must be employed
range from something as basic as a
personal "undercover" inspection of a
potential meeting site to techniques
People and places...Charles Goldsmith,
member of the Continuing Education
Section responsible for management
education, reviews upcoming meeting with
Bill Lawler and Sylvia Brochstein, who
assists Bill in the meetings coordination
program. Calendar at right shows some of
the meetings scheduled during the year.
20