Every time I attend a conference, open LinkedIn, or read a professional development message board, there is an overarching message: Admins deserve more. So many conversations center around a lack of recognition, low wages, or no opportunities for promotion or advancement. These things are all incredibly important, but what are we doing right now to earn it? How are we each individually taking ownership of our skill set and career trajectory? 

So, you're in the midst of planning all the wonderful aspects of your event when you are thrown a curveball. When faced with the challenge of unexpected changes, there are several steps you can take to ensure your event flows seamlessly.

When it comes to event planning, personalization is not just a nice touch—it’s a powerful way to elevate the experience for your attendees. In today’s post, we’ll explore actionable ways to make your guests feel truly seen and valued.

So you’ve started the planning process for your event by creating a basic agenda and task list. The next thing to do is find vendors. It’s important to ask yourself a few questions about the event in order to determine what kinds of vendors you are looking for.

On the first day of my second week in my new role, my executive told me that a large project I would be taking on would be planning a large offsite meeting in a neighboring town. I had a moment of panic, thinking about how difficult it could be to take on the event while still learning about the organization and industry. But after taking a deep breath, I thought about a few projects I had completed in the past that I could look back on and recall my experience, struggles, and learnings, all of which would have prepared me for this event.

This week’s post is going to be a bit different, as I’m currently in the midst of hosting a 60+-person week-long offsite, which requires my full attention. But fear not! Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the honor of being part of various media pieces from the American Society of Administrative Professionals (ASAP), which I am excited to share with you!

When you think about an administrative professional, what words come to mind? Words like dependable, adaptable, resourceful, or supportive? Maybe it is the words with more negative connotations, like “just an admin”, back office, or paper pusher. What if we internally embraced words that showcased not only our role, but the spirit we must have in it, such as encourager, influencer, and leader? How do we embody that spirit?

The Paris 2024 Olympics are in full swing, and as an Olympics Junkie, I’m juggling multiple live streams despite the time difference between California and Paris. This challenge got me thinking about the hurdles administrative professionals face when scheduling meetings across time zones, and how tools like EA Buddy and ShareCal can streamline this process, making it quick, accurate, and integrated with Outlook.

I don’t think anyone could argue that the job market isn’t horrible right now, because it is. Layoffs are seemingly being announced daily from sectors and industries across the board, and while it may seem like there is a plethora of job postings on LinkedIn, Indeed, or other similar websites, there is actually an alarming rise in fake job postings.

I recently read a post in a professional development group where an Executive Assistant was asking for advice about managing her email inbox. She shared that she had been out on PTO, and upon her return she went through her email chronologically and responded to each one in the order they were received. Due to this, she unintentionally missed a time-sensitive email that a meeting for that morning needed to be rescheduled, which resulted in her executive sitting alone on a Zoom call. Her executive was not too thrilled, and he told her that she needed to change something so that this didn’t happen again.

The hallmark of an exceptional administrative professional is their ability to stay on top of their work. We are the backbone of our office: we know what needs to be done and when, we keep track of projects and tasks, strategies and policies, and above all, we are trusted to be true to our word: if we say we are going to do something, we do it. However, it is not possible to do that unless you have a streamlined system in place to stay on top of everything, the most important piece of which is maintaining a centralized, comprehensive task list.

One of my biggest pet peeves as an administrative professional is being repeatedly asked for the same document, as I experienced for four months with a colleague who constantly requested the same PDF. This underscores how administrative professionals are often seen as the information repository, responsible for collecting, organizing, and retrieving information.