28 Apr 10 Spend Memorial Day in Maine
Corporate teams work hard together but often do not get enough opportunity to play together, especially during the long dreary months. Many parts of the US were hit hard by winter storms and your staff may need to shake off their winter blues. A great way to motivate, inspire, and reward your team is a four day cruise meeting to Maine, relaxing on a historic windjammer.
The Lewis R. French is a magnificent windjammer in the truest sense of the word; she travels without the aid of motor and skims around Penobscot Bay and the Maine Islands relying solely on 3000 square feet of sail. The vessel sets said from Camden, Maine on May 27 kicking off with an all you can eat lobster bake. No strict destination is set as this 136 year-old windjammer relies on the wind, tides, and mood to guide her way.
The French, as she is affectionately known, has 13 cozy cabins, each with a window, running water, and electric lights. Fresh sea air, great food, and the opportunity to relax while learning about Maine wildlife will make the voyage one your team will always remember. Leave the laptops, cell phones, and PDAs behind; the goal is to create bonds and interests outside the boardroom.
Tags: Boardroom, Bonds, Camden Maine, Cozy Cabins, Laptops, Lobster, Maine Islands, Maine Wildlife, Memorial Day, Nbsp, Pdas, Penobscot Bay, Running Water, Sea Air, Skims, Square Feet, Wind Tides, Windjammer, Winter Blues, Winter Storms
10 Feb 10 How to Have Lasting Relationships with Clients
Clients are the most precious assets for a meeting planning business. Without clients, there can be no business. With poor quality of clients, the business will be poor and if you manage to get very good clients and retain their loyalty, your business will only go up and up. This all sounds very exciting. But it is not easy to get very good clients and all the more difficult to retain them. After all, whatever you do, your competition is trying the same and may use better techniques to get business. Are there any innovative approaches to client relationships?
The first need is of course client satisfaction. If the client is satisfied with your response time, after sales service and can depend on you, pricing may become secondary. All clients do not buy from a supplier whose sales at the lowest price. If your product cost is a small percentage of clients total expense or if your product is essential for your clients, you are onto something good. How to retain such clients despite all the competition? What are the other factors than client satisfaction?
Relationship is one such other major factor. Do you relate with your clients only professionally, or are very good friends? Both these extremes can hurt. For a long-term business relationship, good friendship is not good for health of your business. Any problem in the personal friendship will directly affect your business. What if you relate to your meeting planning clients mechanically in a professional style totally devoid of personal touch? You know the answer yourself.
What is needed is a relationship that does not border on personal friendships, but crosses mechanical approach. A fine balance between personal and professional.
Tags: Client Relationships, Client Satisfaction, Extremes, Fine Balance, Good Friends, Health, Lasting Relationships, Loyalty, Mechanical Approach, Meeting Planning, Nbsp, Personal Friendship, Personal Friendships, Personal Touch, Poor Quality, Precious Assets, Professional Style, Response Time, Term Business Relationship
04 Jan 10 7 Simple Steps to Get More Out of Your Day
Let's face it – time is probably our greatest resource, especially for meeting planners. We never seem to have enough of it and it seems to pass so quickly. Well we won't get any more of it and we can't slow it down.
What we can do is make the most of the time we have. Here are some simple steps you can take to get the most out of your day.
1. Plan your day the night before – At the end of each day write out all the things you need to do the following day to achieve your goals. Pull together all the information you'll need, phone numbers and relevant paperwork.
2. Prioritise the list – Number each item and do the nasty jobs first. There's always the temptation to do the easy jobs first. However, think how the thought of doing the nasty jobs hangs over you as you do the easy stuff. Think how good you'll feel when the nasties are out of the way and how motivated you'll feel.
3. Stick to your list – Tick off each item as you go and don't let yourself be distracted. The temptation is to handle the telephone and e-mails as they come in. The phone is hard to ignore but you could always pull out the plug and let it go to voice mail and switch off the email program. Make an agreement with yourself to check for messages every two hours or so.
4. Remember the Three "D's" – Do it, Delegate it or Dump it. Handle each piece of paper only once. Either do something about it now, delegate it to someone else or chuck it in the trash. And remember – "Only do it if only you can do it." 5. Don't procrastinate – Procrastination really is the "Thief of Time" It's so easy to put things off till another time or till "I've had time to think about it." DO IT NOW!
6. Plan your leisure time – Take up activities that need you to be at a certain place at a certain time. Instead of just "going to the gym," book a fitness class or an appointment with a personal trainer.
7. Be honest with yourself – Keep asking – "Is what I'm doing now getting me to where I want to get to?" if the answer is "no," change what you're doing.
This is the easiest way to more out of your day and more out of your life.
Tags: Jobs, Leisure Time, Meeting Planners, Nasties, Nasty, Nbsp, Phone Numbers, Piece Of Paper, Procrastination, Quot, Relevant Paperwork, Simple Steps, Temptation, Thief Of Time, Trash, Voice Mail
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
12 Nov 09 Blogging for Success…
Blogging is a great way to promote your meeting and event planning business. It is a one of the best ways to get your message out, post by post. You can also announce events, get feedback on past events, and connect with clients and vendors.
Anyone who maintains a blog can tell you that it is not always easy to come up with regular, interesting posts. Many good blogs fall by the wayside for this very reason.
But the importance of blogs should not be ignored. A study from BlogHer, a women's blog network, found that 42 million women in the U.S. alone participate at least weekly in social media of some type. Although Facebook was first on the list, blogs are the second choice with 23 million women visiting blog sites regularly. They tend to spend more "quality" time reading blogs that are relevant to their job and industry.
For bloggers, that's a real opportunity to build a strong readership by developing and maintaining a blog that develops a loyal following.
If you decide to setup a blog for your meeting planning business, here are some tips that may be of help:
- Catchy titles – having a title that jumps out from the page can gain you more curious readers
- Quality content – the content must backup the titles. You need to provide quality information that is interesting and useful for your readers
- Update regularly – establish a schedule for your blog posts. Having a regular schedule of posts lets your readers know that your blog is active and alive.
- Respond to comments – aside from spammy comments, it is a great thing when people comment on your posts. It means they are not only visiting your site, but reading your posts, as well. Responding to their comments shows you care about what they say – even if it is on the negative side.
- Read other blogs – if you read enough blogs out there, you'll get a good idea of what works and what doesn't. Also, by following blogs related to your industry, you can stay on top of events, news and issues important both to you and your readers. You may also gain ideas for future posts on your own blog.
Tags: Blog, Bloggers, Blogging, Catchy Titles, Curious Readers, Event Planning, Indust, Job, Meeting Planning, Nbsp, Quality Content, Readership, Reason, Second Choice, Success, Time Reading, Wayside
10 Nov 09 World Meeting Time Planner Tool
We just found an interesting new meeting planning tool – the World Meeting Planner.
Planning an important conference call or videoconference with participants from many different locations around the globe can be difficult, especially when you need to find a time in the day when everyone is in their business hours, or at least close to business hours! This world meeting planner tool allows you to select the date for your meeting and the various locations of the people attending.
Your world meeting time planner results show you the relationship each location has in regards to daytime hours with any needed adjustments for locations observing daylight saving time, so you can quickly target a time that works for everyone who is to be included in the virtual meeting.
For anyone who has had to try to plan a teleconference with participants from many locations around the world, you know how difficult it often is to determine a time that is convenient for all, and doesn't have anyone having to be on the call at 3am. The world meeting planner tool is a great resource for scheduling those calls and conferences.
Tags: 3am, Business Hours, Business Tool, Conference Call, Conferences, Daylight Saving Time, Globe, Important Conference, Meeting Planner, Meeting Planning, Meeting Time, Nbsp, New Meeting, Participants, People Meeting, Relationship, Target, Teleconference, Time Planner, Videoconference
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