Mary Kay Career Conference 2024
Mary Kay Inc. needs to work smarter, not harder. Career Conference is coming in a couple of weeks and there are thousands of seats available in some locations! Remember when they used to brag about Career Conference selling out? I’m thankful consultants are not wasting their time or money on this rah rah session, which is only designed to hype up consultants for peak ordering season. (Not selling… ORDERING.)
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An important note for the uninitiated. There used to be DOZENS of locations all over the US for Career Conference. Sales Directors this year lost their shizz because there are so few locations, and they’re inconvenient. Career Conference has always been billed as the Company coming to the consultants, while Seminar was the reverse.
The fact that they have limited it to six cities is telling. Either CC isn’t as much of a cash cow as it once was, and Corporate is starting to cut its losses. OR Nationals are losing money hand over fist in other areas, and are demanding that Corp transfer CC to them so they can start cashing in on this event (like Fall Advance, January Jumpstart, etc etc etc).
That they have limited locations this much and STILL have so many seats unsold makes me think the sales force is dwindling, and most of what’s left is entirely uninterested in “growing their business” through Corporate sponsored propaganda events that consultants themselves must fund.
Dozens of locations over several weekends — that was the norm. Most locations were within a 3-5 hour drive, too, and if you lived in/near a larger metro area, CC might be in your city.
I wonder if corporate will still have an upcharge for on-site registration unless you’re a new consultant.
When I was doing this, there were frequently two within 1 1/2 hours of my home. There was always at least one that close. And they were usually at or near capacity.
Oh yeah…. I remember the one in Orlando in 1996 or 1997. Orlando was a fun city, and many consultomers and SDs drove there for CC. A handful of us drove the three hours and went to Disney for part of the day.
Career Conference is a complete waste of time and money. It’s all speeches and stage walking and is meant to get consultants excited to attend an even more waste of time and money- Seminar. With airfare and gas prices the way they are, not to mention the high hotel room cost, it’s a wonder they don’t have even more seats available. Yet, the indoctrination continues.
They call this a “Carreer Conference”. My guess is there not a mention of keeping an accurate ledger, no forecasting of sales numbers needed to meet income goals, nor realistic business plans shared…not even a discussion asking consultants what Mary Kay could do to make it easier to sell the product.
Of course if Mary Kay Corp was about retailing product, they’d eliminate upline commissions and drop the “wholesale” price 80% allowing consultants to sell at a competitive price even with a price mark-up.
But in reality, this is all about advertising for MKC, ordering, and recruiting others to do the same, all at the personal cost of the consultant/xSD. Actually selling the product has no place in the Mary Kay “carreer.”
You are exactly right. They didn’t ever teach us anything of substance, like how to track your sales appropriately. They would mention how you need to do the weekly accomplishment sheet, but no clear instruction on it. And of course when you didn’t know how to do it or you asked for help/clarification, you were gaslit and sent elsewhere to learn. Or, I was just told to focus on recruiting and not worry about the sales part anyway. The money was (is) in recruiting; the sales are just a smokescreen.
I thought it might be interesting to see what these venues can hold and how it compares to the numbers of bookings, so I did. Seating numbers are based on what I could scavenge from the convention centers’ websites and Wikipedia.
Please note I am neither an event planner nor a kaybot so I don’t know what rate of booking is typical for big conventions.
Charlotte: one ballroom holds 2400-4200 and another can hold 1748-3500. It’s also connected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame so… zoom zoom zoom! Assuming middle numbers, that’s 1/5 to 1/6 unbooked for the first session.
Long Beach: the largest ballroom holds 9700; that would mean a quarter unbooked. Even more laughable for the smaller spaces.
Minneapolis: I couldn’t find seating capacity numbers, but they have a theater with 3433 seats. If that’s typical room size, that’s about half. People don’t want to go to Minneapolis in March. Shocking.
Allen: Largest available space is 4400 seats. About 20% unbooked. So much for Texas’ adulation of Mary Kay.
Atlantic City: Largest capacity is 14770, but there are scads of smaller spaces within the complex so I can’t really tell. Higher booking here actually makes sense because it’s the only one in the very populous northeast, close to NYC, Philly, and Baltimore, and AC is a destination unto itself.
Bellevue: Largest space I could find is 3600 so about 45% unbooked.
What is also telling is the number of NSD’s at some of these venues. Some have several, others have just one. (check the thread in the discussion post to see what I am speaking of)
More interesting would be how much it costs to attend these cult gatherings and whether you can get your own hotel or they play that stupid “all inclusive” game where you must stay in a particular hotel that’s “included” in the conference and can only be booked through them. Would also love to know if the sit-down restaurants nearby suffer whenever there’s a larger Mary Kay event in town like they do in Dallas, where groups of attendees sit around the tables for hours on end and order hardly anything. In fairness, I did hear the take-out only restaurants do pretty well when Mary Kay is in town, lol.
From what I’ve read on here, the food at MK events tends to be underwhelming, expensive, and janky service even though these venues literally exist in order to hold a zillion huge events professionally and seamlessly. I personally think MK orders the cheapest food and smallest staff they can get away with.
I’m sure there’s a lot of takeout gets gobbled up once they’re back in their shared rooms. And washed down with smuggled booze 🥴
They probably leave those fake folded dollar bills with a message written on the inside as tips too.
Or a business card with a cotton ball soaked in stanky cologne.
The Allen Event Center has a hotel adjacent but it’s not city owned. It’s in a shopping center and there are a few restaurants within walking distance but several are far enough across the shopping center that walking would be sketchy. The next closest hotel is in the outlet mall that had the mass shooting last year. Definitely driving distance. And there is no public transportation option.
I am surprised by the news there will be a career conference at all. I thought MK Corp had decided to skip this event entirely as it was very expensive to hold, in addition to sending a team of employees to each location. And yes the U.S. salesforce is shrinking along with their international subsidiaries from what I’ve heard. I read here on PT that MK worldwide sales were reported to be 2.5 billion. The company is definitely shrinking.
It’s crow time!! I’d like to toot my rusty pink horn!!
I’ve gotten multiple reorders in the last week or so (PCP!) and have referred them on to other consultants and let the customers know that I am done with MK.
21 years in May of this year as a consultant!
So many revelations. My biggest JOY has been – when I meet a new person now, I can take them at face value. No sizing them up for what kind of skin care they use, what might his wife like, does this kid’s mom use MK, could she use some “extra money” ?? – I can just meet the person and go from there.
That may sound psycho, but if you know, you know.
It really is a detox.
Evidence the company is dying. Outdated business model. Have you noticed the company advertising for recruits?
I’m not surprised at these numbers at all. A lot of consultants market is struggling to survive by just paying rent and food, so I’m thinking the sales have gone down to nothing for quite a while. I’m thinking consultants credit cards are beyond maxed out, they have no money for this event and they can’t even 50% discount their product to sell enough to go. I don’t see anyone buying anything at this time and for the foreseeable future. Outlook is the bleakest in MK history…..
I did notice that. Its weird.
More than 450 seats still available for Charlotte!
https://i.imgur.com/dnMvdNS.jpg