09 Sep 10 The ABCs of Meetings at Sea
Meetings have traditionally been held at hotels, conference centers, and other land-based public venues, but all of that is changing. The new way to host meetings and major events is to do at sea on a luxury cruise ship. Why? Because of the ABCs of meetings at sea:
- A is for awesome service – Cruise ships are renowned in the travel industry for their unparalleled commitment to customer service.
- B is breathtaking views – Some hotels have nice views or quaint views, but few of them can match the views afforded by a cruise ship. One day it is a gorgeous island paradise, the next morning it is clear open waters until the ship eventually arrives in a port with historic interest. Hotels stay put, what you get is what you get.
- C is for customization – There really are not too many limits to what you can ask for and not reasonably expect to get on a cruise ship.
These floating resorts offer all sorts of options to make your cruise a truly unique and wonderful experience.
There was an ‘s’ at the end of ABCs, and it is small for a reason. That small s stands for savings, and the fact that you will actually save a modest amount of money by opting to have a meeting at sea instead of having it in a hotel with a conference room. No more caterers, no more booking a night club for a serious mixer, no more DJs to worry about. All you will have to do is determine where to invest those savings.
Tags: Abcs, All Sorts, Amount Of Money, Breathtaking Views, Cruise Ships, Customer Service, Gorgeous Island, Host Meetings, Hotels, Island Paradise, Luxury Cruise Ship, Meeting At Sea, Mixer, Next Morning, Night Club, Open Waters, Public Venues, Rsquo, Travel Industry, Unparalleled Commitment
16 Aug 10 How to Choose a Venue for Your Next Big Event
Planning your next big event almost always involves picking a venue near the beginning of the process. With so many different venues, there must be an easy logic flow for determining how to pick the venue for your next big event. Try this logic flow:
- Size counts – Venues that are too small are not worth looking into and venues that are too large will look empty and deserted if unfilled. Determine a reasonable number of participants and use that as the basis for a venue.
- Look for deals – The number one reason why many people do not attend events and/or seminars is that they feel it is too expensive. If a deal can be arranged that includes the event and meals/accommodations, participation generally increases. Hotels often have large meeting facilities and/or deals with local meeting halls/convention centers and many such centers have deals with reputable hotels.
- Themes and art are important – If your event has some sort of theme, then assign additional importance to venues that work well with that theme over money if it is feasible. A seminar about online art and graphics design would be ideally located in a venue with an artistic theme, and perhaps offer all-inclusive stay options at an art-deco themed hotel or another hotel with a noteworthy sense of style.
Tags: Artistic Theme, Event Planning, Graphics Design, Hotels, Logic Flow, Meeting Facilities, Money, Participants, Participation, Seminars, Venue
23 Jul 10 Can Your Company Afford NOT to Hold Cruise Events?
If you have been looking at cruise meetings as an alternative that is not cost-effective, then you may be missing out on some of the math. Here is how you should be looking at the whole picture: even if your company does not pay for the meals and entertainment of participants at a meeting or event, then someone else might. IF given the choice between a cost effective cruise or a compensated hotel with continental breakfast, which would you choose? That’s right, you’d go with the cruise ship, and that is exactly what other people would do 9 out of 10 times.
When you consider all that cruise ships offer, they are truly a bargain destination for meetings. Those that look only at hotels and conference centers might forget this, and may be completely insensitive to the fact that they are actually costing their customers, partners, clients, suppliers, colleagues, or even branch offices to incur expenses simply to participate. This might be the cause of barriers to successful events and productive meetings, so be sure to evaluate your strategy carefully in this regard.
Also remember that cruise events are typically cost effective when measured against landlocked alternatives. The all-inclusive prices can often be lowered when booking multiple cabins, and there are plenty of compensated bonuses to be had. These bonuses, such as a massage in the spa, can be used as incentives to further enhance the profitability and success of a cruise.
Tags: 9 Out Of 10, Bargain, Colleagues, Continental Breakfast, Cruise Events, Cruise Ship, Cruise Ships, Hotels, Incentives, Massage, Math, Participants, Productive Meetings, Profitability, Regard, Spa, Success
16 Jul 10 Meeting at Sea: The Perfect Meeting Destination and Surprisingly Affordable
Planning meetings can be fun, but it tends to be more fun whenever the meeting is someplace exotic or interesting. What is more interesting than a meeting on a cruise ship? Possibly a meeting on the International Space Station, but at around $20 million a ticket, it is probably better to go with meetings on exotic cruise ships bound for sun drenched destinations. Surprisingly, meetings at sea are not only more affordable than blasting off into low-orbit, but they are often more affordable than meetings held at hotels. Consider the following:
Hotels are forced to compete with many restaurants in terms of quality and offerings. Today’s cruise ships bring the restaurants and hotels with them, reducing the competition and overhead associated with advertising while simultaneously increasing the power buying authority of the vendor.
Safety is job number of all cruise ship employees, while job number two is ensuring that you and your business guests have a great time. This means you get more bang for your buck on a cruise ship than you would with a hotel in virtually any city.
Top quality business meeting rooms and chambers are available on cruise ships, big and small. Most cruise ships have rooms that can be easily converted from theaters to huge meeting rooms to dance floors with relative ease as well as standard meeting rooms. It does not matter how big or small your event is, a cruise ship is perfect!
Tags: Business Guests, Business Meeting Rooms, Chambers, Cruise Ship, Cruise Ships, Fun, Great Time, Hotels, International Space Station, Job, Low Orbit, Meeting At Sea, Meeting Planning, Offerings, Quality Business, Restaurants, Sun, Theaters, Top Quality
25 Jun 10 Different Venues for Different Meeting Types/Sizes
Meeting and event planners are often expected to automatically know exactly where to go for almost any meeting or event. Instead of being caught flatfooted when asked for suggestions, it pays to know at least a dozen or so local venues and be ready with pricing information. Even if that pricing information is outdated, it should not be too far from accurate. Here are a few ideas of places to hold off-site meetings:
Local hotels – Most hotels of any substantially size have some sort of conference center, and may also offer catering services. Larger hotels typically have larger conference centers and better deals on rooms and/or catering.
BBB – Many local BBB offices have meeting halls, but they do tend to be limited in size and slightly expensive. On the upside, these facilities do tend to be very professional and can help add credibility to sales presentations.
Chamber of Commerce – Similar to BBB offices, many local Chambers of Commerce have meeting rooms that will lend a professional edge to any meeting. Many sales organizations find Chambers of Commerce help them close deals that are on the brink of falling apart.
Religious Community Centers – Many small churches, temples, and synagogues have given way to larger centralized facilities that have their own meeting halls. In most cases, these halls come both in denominational and secular varieties.
Tags: Bbb Offices, Brink, Catering Services, Centralized Facilities, Chamber Of Commerce, Chambers Of Commerce, Churches, Credibility, Event Planners, Hotels, Meeting Planners, Meeting Rooms, Professional Edge, Religious Community, Sales Organizations, Sales Presentations, Synagogues, Temples
16 Jun 10 Cruise Meetings are Affordable
When many people think of cruises, they do not think about work. While everyone is free to have their own mental images to do with as they wish, the fact is that cruises are actually cost effective solutions for holding meetings in many cases. In fact, there are entire industries where few options for hosting meetings or events make as much sense as cruise meetings do.
Consider the alternatives for a moment, and a better picture will emerge. Renting hotel suites and a banquet hall can be expensive and somewhat bland. Add to this expenses related to catering and entertainment, and even basic meetings hosted at a hotel and/or conference center can become very expensive indeed. All of these facilities are available on a single cruise liner at prices that cannot be matched; it is like putting all of the resources under one roof, managed by a single business.
Anyone who knows a good deal about businesses and pricing can probably appreciate the value of allowing a single company to leverage its size and buying power to return the lowest cost possible. This not only makes cruise meetings a very practical alternative to hotels and/or conference centers, it makes cruise ships significantly more fun. Add to this the incentive value of bringing top talent, partners, and clients on the trip, and it is clear why many organizations host their meetings and events at sea.
Tags: Banquet Hall, Cost Effective, Cruise Liner, Cruise Prices, Cruise Ships, Cruises, Effective Solutions, Few Options, Hosting, Hotel Suites, Hotels, Many People, Meetings And Events, Mental Images, Single Company, Talent Partners
14 Nov 09 Tips for Cutting Meeting Costs
With an increasing emphasis on savings these days, it seems everyone is looking for a deal. Resourceful meeting planners still can find new and innovative ways to cut meeting costs. It is just a matter of creativity and looking carefully at every single expenditure.
Here are some tips to help you cut costs on your next meeting or event:
- Find some great hotels in second-tier cities or near a major city that has easy access to the downtown area. Town center hotels tend to be much more expensive, and often have higher taxes than hotels outside of the city center.
- Consider when the best rates are available. Is it mid-week or weekend? Find the lowest cost dates for the venue you select based on the rate patterns.
- Be flexible with dates and scheduling and location, in order to take advantage of cost savings.
- Save on meeting room rental by serving food in the meeting room or allowing the hotel to book an evening meal event there.
- Get sponsorships from vendors who add value to your meeting attendees.
These are just a few of the ways bargain planners save. You can probably expand on this list and find many more creative ways to save on your next event.
Tags: Attendees, Bargain, Creativity, Cutting, Easy Access, Hotels, Meeting Planners, Meeting Room Rental, Nbsp, Sponsorships, Venue
04 Nov 09 Global Community for Meeting Planners
Meetings Collaborative is a global community space for meeting planners to review hotels and service providers, discuss issues and needs and share best practices. Learn more in the video below.
Tags: Community Space, Global Community, Hotels, Meeting Planners, Service Providers, Share Best Practices
29 Jun 09 Where to Turn in a Bad Economy
You may have some great ideas on how to save money on food, beverages, equipment, materials, and other items needed for a successful meeting. But what about the venue? Resorts and hotels are now outside the means of some companies and businesses. Where should you turn for these in a bad economy?
The answer may be easier than you think–the convention center. Not only are these facilities improving their technological infrastructures, remodeling older environments, and adding services, but they are also positioning themselves to be the answer to high-profile properties. (more…)
Tags: Economy, Environments, Equipment Materials, Flexibility, Food Beverages, Food Equipment, Hotel Resort, Hotels, How To Save Money, How To Save Money On Food, Ideal, Marketing Companies, New Technology, Positioning, Profile Properties, Proper Technology, Public Images, Remodeling, Reputation, Technological Infrastructures, Top Notch
04 Jun 09 How Meeting Planners Deal with Competition
Call it a work hazard or a part of the parcel, competition is unavoidable in a business scenario. Many times it may so happen that your competitors might be organizing a conference at the same day and in the same venue as you. This leads to a lot of confusion and unwanted chaos. You or your competitor might end up losing some valued customers who would not know where to go first or not even turn up for one of the events.
Another disadvantage of hosting an event at the same day as your competitor is the unnecessary comparisons between the two events that are bound to trigger up discussion among the attendees.
Nobody likes to share the same dates and venue with their respective competitors. However the good news is that there are many ways to avoid this unwanted and uncomfortable clash of dates, ensuring you of full attention from your attendees. (more…)
Tags: Attendees, Business Scenario, Chaos, Clash, Competitor Companies, Confusion, Full Attention, Hotels, Marketing, Meeting Planners, Organizing A Conference, Venue, Work Hazard
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