meeting planners

Planners: Collaborate With Suppliers to Wow Your Attendees

Lynne Wellish | August 6, 2018

By Lynne Wellish When starting out in the industry and learning to source and procure, I made the mistake of always asking how much things were—often overlooking other factors. I played a tug of war with all my suppliers, forgetting we had the same goal, a happy client and repeat business. Then one day it hit me, I had a budget and its purpose was to craft the event and communicate a message to the participants. Those tools are used to reach the goals and objective and to show an ROI. Sitting down with your AV team and other suppliers not only expands your options and creativity, but creates great synergy. Case Study: The Event Ca...

4 Ways to Win the Hearts and Contracts of Meeting Planners

Groups360 | October 13, 2017

Every group is different. Every meeting planner is unique. Every event comes with its own set of objectives, attendee patterns, and complications. Then, why does your hotel's group sales managers continue to sell the property the same way, over and over again, no matter the group? Here's the kicker: Meeting planners know they are being sold to. They see it when you insist on trekking them out to the golf course during a site inspection, even when golf isn't relevant to their group. They see it when you fail to ask them the right questions or give biased answers. They see it immediately in your cookie-cutter proposal. Instead of presenti...

Uncover the Best Sales Leads in a Pile of RFPs

Groups360 | August 15, 2017

Not converting as much group business as you expected to this year? Before you start pointing fingers at any particular sales manager, consider this: Your hotel may be receiving TOO MANY leads. Right now, hotel sales departments are drowning in RFPs – qualified or not. This is caused by meeting planners casting out a too wide a net for proposals and sending them to the inboxes of 10+ hotels that may or not be the best fit. As a result, sales managers spend a bulk of their prime selling hours sifting through this barrage of potential business simply trying to determine which are the BEST leads to pursue. Then, and only then, can th...

The Type of Group Business Marketing That Attracts Meeting Planners

Groups360 | March 30, 2017

Are your once-successful group business marketing efforts not producing as much interest and leads? It's not surprising. Too often, hotels settle for recycling their groups sales and marketing assets year after year, instead of giving them the deep overhaul they deserve. Don't fall into the tempting trap of merely updating your current sales kit with a handful of new photos or sprinkles of new verbiage. Here's what we suggest to hold meeting planners' attention: Revamp Your Destination Marketing Pages Reconsider how you're selling and marketing your biggest asset – your destination. You know that planners need to also market the d...

What Do Meeting Planners Actually Want? Here’s the Surprising Survey Results…

Tambourine | January 19, 2017

Looking for the ultimate tip to booking more group business this year? Get inside the planner's mind to find out what marketing they prefer, respond to, and act upon. So, we decided to do just that. To help hotel sales managers win at various phases of the sourcing process, we partnered with EproDirect to collect insights from more than 83,000 meeting planners to find out what promos and incentives peak their interest, what marketing strategies actually influence them and what impacts their booking decisions. After analyzing the data, we discovered some things you might expect along with some surprises. Use this data to shape your sales...

IACC Reveals the Top Meeting Package Trends for 2016

IACC | January 29, 2016

Useful tips for meeting planners and meeting venues contribute towards better meetings and conference experiences Chicago, Illinois, January 2016 … Following research among the 378 members of the International Association of Conference Centres (IACC), the association released its Top Meeting Package Trends for 2016, which are influencing meeting planners and venue operators across the globe. The concept of meeting packaging is one where the required components provided by a venue are included in a per person package. The concept carries different names in different parts of the world (such as Complete Meeting Package, Day Meeting...

IACC Survey Explores Generational Preferences of European Meeting Planners

the International Association of Conference Centres | June 3, 2014

(NEW YORK, NY) - June 3, 2014 - This week at IMEX Frankfurt's Inspiration Centre, Development Counsellors International (DCI) and International Association of Conference Centers (IACC), present the findings of a recent study of meeting planners living and working in Europe, entitled "Exploring the Generational Preferences of European Meeting Planners." Conducted in partnership with IMEX Group, the study explored the varying preferences of different generations of meeting planners and how these preferences shape how meeting and conference space is selected. For the purpose of this study, generations were defined as: Mature (age 66 and ol...