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
21 Jul 10 Meeting Planner Self-Assessment
If you are a meeting/event planner that needs to have a way to perform a self-evaluation, consider the following points:
• Don’t look at success – The success of a meeting can, and probably will, be claimed by other parties. When an event or meeting does not go as planned, the onus of responsibility tends to land on the shoulders of meeting planner. This is certainly unfair, so look at the matter analytically and discover why some things and other things do not.
• Don’t look only for failures – It is easy to think that it is easier to learn from failures than success, but this is not necessarily true. Learn from everything you can.
• Create checklists – Create checklists and try to quantify the steps to what your organization considers to be a great meeting. Isolate those factors that you can control, and focus on those. Keep records in case the blame starts to roll downhill in an unfair manner, but be wary of pointing fingers uphill.
• Compare notes – Ask others for honest feedback and ideas for improvement. Remember that doing a good job is less important than finding subtle ways to remind others that you do a good job. Show your professionalism by looking for ways to improve your performance and add to your job-related skills.
Knowing how you stack up in these ways can help you negotiate raises and bonuses more effectively.
Tags: Event Planner, Good Job, Honest Feedback, Meeting Planner, Onus, Pointing Fingers, Professionalism, Rsquo, Self Assessment, Self Evaluation, Shoulders, Subtle Ways, Success
03 Feb 10 How to Hire the Perfect Keynote Speaker
The success of your meeting or event could hinge on how good your keynote speaker is. Meeting and event planners need to have a good plan for finding great keynote speakers. Here are some tips:
- Establish the date, location and budget of your event. These factors will play an important role in determining the pool of keynote speakers available to you. Your date, for example, will affect which keynote speakers are available, whereas your budget will limit whom you can and can’t afford to hire. In order to save on the cost of the keynote speaker’s travel, you may want to consider the distance between where he or she resides and where your event will take place.
- Determine the type of presentation you want and the time of day when it will take place. Some speakers are skilled at delivering workshops, while others excel at providing keynotes. After-dinner speakers should incorporate humor into their talks, where morning speakers should be energizing. (more…)
Tags: Audience, Budget, Change Effort, Decision Makers, Demographic Group, Demographics, Desire, Dinner Speakers, Event Planners, Humor, Keynote Speaker, Keynote Speakers, Keynotes, Morning Speakers, Pool, Rsquo, Success, Tap, Time Of Day, Travel
22 Jan 10 Serve Your Clients Better by Taking Care of Yourself and Your Staff
Providing absolutely stellar meeting planning services is your main goal, as it should be. That is the only way to keep your clients coming back for more and to encourage satisfied clients to refer others to you for your services. You read the trade mags, attend seminars, stay up-to-date on the latest industry news and constantly seek out new, innovative ways to wow your clients and continuously upgrade the meeting planning services you provide.
All of these things are essential to your success; however, all of the knowledge and new ideas in the world will not help your company reach its full potential if you and your staff are overworked, tired and on the brink of burnout.
Here are four things you can do to take care of yourself and your staff, which will result in happier workers and happier clients:
1. Reward yourself and your staff by implementing incentive travel programs.
2. Treat yourself and your staff to a day at the spa once a year, once a month or as often as your budget will allow.
3. During staff check-ins, don’t just ask about which deadlines have been met. Also ask how they are doing with their workload and stay updated on non-work goings-on that might influence their work-life balance.
4. While your staff might be small, company-hosted family picnics or outings are still a fun, effective way to let off steam and create a family-friendly work atmosphere.
Tags: Brink, Budget, Burnout, Family Picnics, Incentive Travel Programs, Ins, Knowledge, Latest Industry News, Main Goal, Meeting Planning Services, Rsquo, Seminars, Spa, Staff Check, Steam, Success, Work Atmosphere, Work Life Balance, Workload, Wow
08 Jan 10 The Importance of Knowing a Little About a Lot
Knowing at least a little about a lot of different topics is important to your success as a meeting planner. You never know when your next client might need food planned around a Hindu diet, may insist on a LEED-certified meeting location, will ask if you can arrange to feng shui the meeting space before their arrival, or will need a space that will accommodate attendees with various disabilities.
If you have taken the time to familiarize yourself with these particulars before you ever have a client in need of them, it will make the planning process much simpler and will allow you come across as knowledgeable and sensitive to their needs.
If you also acquire a basic understanding of the ins and outs of various industries, cultures, diets and more, it will help you communicate better with your diverse clientele and will certainly increase your referrals as folks who have a difficult time finding meeting planners sensitive to their needs will be happy to tell their friends and colleagues how wonderful you are.
While it may seem like it will take a lot of time and effort to increase your knowledge base on multiple fronts, it is well worth the effort. It will make your job easier in the long run and will open the door to an ever-expanding potential client base.
Tags: Attendees, Clientele, Colleagues, Cultures, Diets, Disabilities, Feng Shui, Food Diet, Hindu, Ins And Outs, Job, Knowledge Base, Lot, Meeting Planner, Meeting Planners, Meeting Space, Particulars, Planning Process, Referrals, Success
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
02 Nov 09 Learn How To Create An Event That Will Generate Revenue For You!
When you are thinking about getting a great event together and making it special, you will want to use a little bit of your creative mind to make it great. You will want to learn how to create an event that will generate revenue for you. You will be able to make a great profit with your event and this will be a great success.
If you are trying to plan something that will bring you a little bit of profit, you will have to spend a little bit too. You will want to make sure that you are able to find the funds to spend on your special event. This is something that will be a great idea for you and one that will defiantly work out in the end. (more…)
Tags: Creative Mind, Entertainment, Find Money, Fundraisers, Great Event, Little Bit, Love, Need Money, People, Reason, Right Start, Success
19 Jun 09 Ways to Save Money on Events
Today more than ever your clients are going to ask you to find ways to save money. You will have to be creative at the very least for many of these clients, some of whom are limited by the new government meeting guidelines. Here are three ideas that can serve as jumping-off points.
Good for the Environment Equals Good for the Pocketbook
When we think of environmentally friendly items, we think of increased cost. Not so. Avoid using disposable plastic knives and forks for a meal, and you may save some money–sandwiches and other finger foods may also be cheaper than prepared meals. (more…)
Tags: Amenities, Black Pen, Booth Space, Budget Crunch, Creative, Drawing Room, Find Money, Finger Foods, Knives And Forks, Making Money, Meeting Guidelines, Meeting Planners, Plastic Knives, Pocketbook, Sandwiches, Saving Money, Success, Ways To Save Money
20 May 09 Big Fish and Bigger Fish: When Scheduling Meetings Can Lead to Catastophe
We live in a society where competition is supposed to be a good thing. Generally, that is true. But what about when an organization schedules a large meeting for their members and clients, and a competing group suddenly comes up from behind and schedules an identical event in the same general geographic area? In a time when almost all organizations have an overlap of members with another institution, preventing this sort of competition is critical to success of an event–and sometimes of the group itself.
Although it can happen quite by accident, sometimes a group will schedule its meeting earlier–but after the competing group has made its event announcements–simply to quash the other group’s membership numbers. The group that now has the later date will not have the same attendance numbers, the same booth rentals, or the same energy from those who do attend.
What can you do in the planning stages to prevent this competition? You are a potential client of a hotel, its facilities, and possibly an entire event center–use financial clout. (more…)
Tags: Attendance Numbers, Big Bucks, Big Fish, Clout, Competitor, Lead, Members, Membership Numbers, Organization Schedules, Planning Stages, Scheduling, Success, Tactic, Tap, Verbiage, Willingness, Would Make Sense
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Corporate Meeting Planner Resources
- Cruise line Expansion in Chinese Market Good News for Meeting PlannersChina is becoming a popular destination for MICE events due to its rich cultural heritage, beautiful natural landscapes and most of all - its high economic growth. Everyone wants to do business in China right now. Naturally, that translates into lots of meetings, trade shows, conferences and other events. According to The China Incentive, Business […]
- Time to step out of the ZoneSo often we find ourselves repeating the same patterns both professionally and personally because it feels “safe”. While that perceived safety may or may not be real, it explains why so many people feel their lives are in a rut. It is that comfort zone that so many long for that ultimately is their worst enemy. In order […]
- Stimulating Your Attendees in a Positive WayAfter reading the article Boost the Brain Computer, Don’t Crash It, I got to thinking about how foods definitely have an effect on mood and concentration. Anyone who has ever seen a child at a birthday party, loaded with candy, snow cones, cake and soda can attest to the fact that while the sugar will […]