If customer satisfaction is the hallmark of the service industry, Joan Balinson serves up a full course of it, blending established knowledge of the industry with fledgling and expanding ideas. She combines pre- and post-advanced technology service in a fascinating persona.

Competition and challenges abound in Ms. Balinson’s event and meeting planning business. She’s quick to point out that her competition is not fellow event/meeting planners but the administrative assistant(s) in most corporations where the employer doesn’t understand the complexity of events planning and the need for professional representation.

“Often times, the CEO would think it’s ok to have the administrative assistant do the job. Even after being in this business for almost two decades, I still face such competition today,” she says.

In Ms. Balinson’s business, one of the greatest challenges is scarce large corporate accounts. Few major companies have their head offices in her primary base of Hamilton.

“In the fundraising business, for non profit organizations, you know right away that you need to be well-connected and engage in a lot of networking in the community to access strong supplier relationships,” she says.

Ms. Balinson’s previous career was teaching in elementary schools. While volunteering in various organizations, she took interest in events planning and worked her way through the process, learning ’on the job.’

She started her event planning business, About Town Event & Meeting Planners, in 1989. Before then, Ms. Balinson volunteered for more than two decades with La Leche League, an organization that promotes breastfeeding. There, she learned about meeting planning, and her last five years with them, she was the Coordinator for the Canadian conferences.

Ms. Balinson’s teaching expertise is still very much in demand, and she still applies her knowledge in the classroom, teaching courses at most of the community colleges in the Golden Horseshoe area, including Mohawk, Sheridan, and Niagara. Though she had previously worked in retail management and printing, it’s the experience she has gained being a volunteer and sitting on various boards of directors, that she believes applies most to running her event planning business.

One of the projects that stand out in Ms. Balinson’s record of event planning is an international Environmental Ministers’ conference hosted by Sheila Copps. The conference was held in Hamilton, with 11 environmental ministers from around the world in attendance. Another outstanding event was the Canadian Christian Festival #4. “I worked on this event with other planners, handling logistics. It was interesting to work with the world leaders of the Christian faith,” she adds.

Employment-related events also stand out in Ms. Balinson’s mind because she enjoys helping to create an environment and ambience that makes job seekers feel comfortable and encourages them in their pursuit of new careers.

Most recently, Ms. Balinson has combined her many years of experience to offer consulting with smaller non profit organizations on board development, organizational structure and marketing.

A recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from CPRS Hamilton, Ms. Balinson is also the 2006 honorary chairperson of the Women of Distinction dinner taking place in Hamilton on May 31.

Jumoke Giwa works as Campaign Assistant with Women’s Place St. Catharines & North Niagara. She holds a postgraduate in Public Relations. She is studying for a postgraduate in Tourism Development from Niagara College and a Masters in Professional Communication from Royal Roads University. She can be reached at jumokegiwa@gmail.com.

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