Meeting Planner Careers

There are many types of corporate incentives that companies can offer to their prized employees. They may provide these top-notch professionals with things such as tickets for sporting events or other types of gifts. While these corporate incentives can be good, corporate travel incentives are even better. However, not just any type of corporate travel incentive will do. These incentives must be desirable and something to which employees will want to attain. Desirable corporate travel incentives may include land venues such as hotels or resorts, but one of the most popular types of incentive travel is cruise events.

An incentive cruise is an excellent corporate travel incentive. An incentive cruise offers a break from the mundane and provides a fresh venue to encourage innovative thinking. When organizations choose a ship charter and meetings at sea, everything they will need will be included. The all inclusive aspect of a cruise events makes this travel incentive even more desirable. Furthermore, an incentive cruise will offer participants the opportunity to visit exotic locations. Organizations should not be concerned that this travel incentive will be unaffordable and unproductive. The opposite is true. Cruise events are quite affordable, they will inspire dedicated employees to think outside the box and be more creative in their work.

When it comes to planning meetings or events outside the main offices often requires considering different locations. While most people think of hotels and convention centers, the best meeting planners consider the cities that these venues are in. Here’s why:

• It’s not all about the meeting – A city has many things to recommend it, from restaurants to golf course. All work and no play makes for bored staff members and participants. Keeping people happy after hours is often just as important as the contents of the meetings/events themselves.

• Certain cities have venues that offer special significance – The significance could be historical in general, or specific to a certain party to the event/meeting. Sending a message that a meeting was panned at a location for a specific reason could be flattering or it could be a massive warning sign. Therefore, consider this piece of advice one that cannot be ignored because every participant may read something into the choice of venue.

• Weather and allergies – The weather just happens to be sunnier and less humid in certain areas, and that may be perfect. Of course, planning to hold an event or meeting in a city without regards to the fact that the speaker at the event is deathly allergic to the local plant life could also be a major mistake.

If you just got out of a meeting with the boss who just happens to want the company’s first cruise event planned, then you might be a little panicked. All that time making friends with the powers that be at the local hotels and conference halls cannot prepare you for this. Don’t worry!

Here are some simple steps to planning the perfect cruise event:

Start by trying to get a good handle on how many people will be attending.

Will any (or all) of the participants need you to schedule additional travel?

Are there special needs that any of these people have that need to be addressed? Examples include dietary needs, special access requirements, and even placement on the ship.

Determine a suitable meeting schedule and create a few backup schedules that may or may not happen depending upon conditions and attendees.

Try to think of unique events that can be used to help people unwind and relax while on the cruise. Some of these ideas can be translated into really unique meeting ideas.

Go to Seasite.com to plan a group cruise.  They will take the workload off of you with unparalleled group cruise planning tools and resources.  One electronic RFP will get you the quotes you need.

At this point there should be a lot less work on your plate! Congratulations, this cruise event is going to be a success!

Meeting and convention planners search for prospective meeting venues, which may be hotels, convention centers, or conference centers. They issue requests for proposals to all the sites in which they are interested. These requests state the meeting dates and outline the planners’ needs for the meeting or convention, including meeting and exhibit space, lodging, food and beverages, telecommunications, audio-visual requirements, transportation, and any other necessities.

The venues respond with proposals describing what space and services they can supply, and at what prices. Meeting and convention planners review these proposals and either make recommendations to top management or choose the site themselves.

Once the location is selected, meeting and convention planners arrange support services, coordinate with the facility, prepare the site staff for the meeting, and set up all forms of electronic communication needed for the meeting or convention, such as e-mail, voice mail, video, and online communication.

Your client has come to you asking for an event that is fun, relaxing, and socially responsible. One of their top priorities, along with a successful presentation, is reducing their carbon footprint.

Can you sell your client on the idea of a green hotel? Of course you can! Green hotels save on energy consumption, reduce waste, and save water. A simple notation on a menu such as “drinking water served by request only” can save thousands of gallons of water a year.

Green hotels reduce water and product consumption in a number of ways that do not inconvenience their guest. Do you really need to take home all those little bars of soap and bottles of shampoo? Shampoo and skin care dispensers work just as well and do not contribute nearly as much to solid waste.

Clients who work to reduce their solid waste and recycle at home will be very responsive to green hotels. Some hotels offer stainless steel water bottles that can be refilled rather than plastic bottles that will end up in a landfill.

Going green does not mean the hotel is less luxurious than before, it simply means that the management team is being more creative and caring for the earth as well as their guests.

It’s a hard world out there right now for meeting planners. From government restrictions on meetings to a ruined economy, companies just are not planning what they used to. On top of that, many are no longer going to self-employed planners as contract help for their needs. So how will you survive in this jungle? Look to the properties.

Many of the hotels are using inside people to help companies plan their events. Why? Because companies are asking them to do it. Rather than pay a freelancer, they are asking the hotels for help with planning events, sometimes holding the entire shindig in one place.

Hotels, on the other hand, are having to dedicate an employee’s time to helping each client. Rather than dump the complexity of a conference in the hands of a desk clerk, they are looking to their own in-house planners to serve the clients. Read more…