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How a Meeting and Event Planner Uses a CVB

March 7, 2012 By Comments

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There’s no doubt that a meeting and event planner wants a CVB (Convention and Visitors Bureau) to assist them with their planning needs when bringing a group or convention to a particular city. A CVB is basically a marketing division for the city that they are in. It’s their job to promote their city in such a way that a meeting and event planner wants to bring their group to the CVB’s city. A CVB will spend mind boggling marketing dollars to brand their city. What exactly does branding a city mean? Well the best example that I can think of, when trying to demonstrate a city that has branded themselves well, is New York City. If anyone comes up to you and asks if you been to the “Big Apple” you most definitely will know that they’re talking about New York City. That’s branding.

A Meeting and Event Planner Uses a CVB to Start the RFP Process

Let’s assume that you are a meeting and event planner. And also let’s assume that you have selected a city to take your group of 50 to. So now what you do? Well obviously you want to develop a meeting planner template or checklist and start listing all of the steps that will be necessary for you to execute a successful meeting. For more on meeting planner templates or checklists see the related articles below.

CVB’s are a free service for a meeting and event planner. So the first thing the meeting and event planner should do is contact the city’s CVB and get their meeting put on the books. Your CVB contact will spend a little time getting to know you as well as a little bit of information about your group (i.e. the type of people, what they like to do, where they like to go and what they like to eat). Following that meeting, the CVB will then send out a request for proposal (RFP), usually to hotels first, indicating how many rooms you are seeking and for how many days (otherwise known as room nights) plus any food and beverage and meeting room requirements. Then the hotel salespeople get to work. They’ll look at their books to see if they can accommodate your request and then send you a summary of rooms available and at what rate. Depending on your food and beverage and meeting requirements you may have some wiggle room as far as room rate negotiations. A meeting and event planner can tell their CVB contact how many hotel properties they want their RFP to go to. The CVB will manage the RFP process from the hotels (although it is the norm that the hotels will communicate directly with the meeting and event planner). Once a hotel has been selected the others will be notified that they did not make the cut.

A Meeting and Event Planner Will Consult with the CVB on Which Service Companies to Hire

A CVB also has an extensive list of service providers. Whether it be a DMC (Destination Management Company), a transportation company, and attraction or restaurant, a good CVB will be able to point the meeting and event planner in the right direction. I usually recommend to meeting and event planners that they ask their CVB contact not to have service companies contact them until they know which hotel they are using. Sorry service providers this is not an attack on your operation at all. It’s just that a meeting and event planner can be inundated with sales calls and e-mails from service providers. And having been a service provider in the past I can tell you that these calls and contacts are all well intended. However the reason I advise meeting and event planners today to hold off on having service companies contact them is so that they are allowed enough time to make the proper decision on their hotel and meeting facilities. Then, once the hotel and meeting facility has been finalized, initiating contact with service companies would proceed. Of course if a meeting and event planner has the budget a DMC is recommended to help with all of the other service aspects of their program (disclaimer – I have worked for a DMC in the past – so I know how valuable their services can be).

While this is usually not a major issue it is worth noting that a CVB can only put forward companies that are members. I say this is not a major issue because most reputable companies do belong to their local CVB. When selecting smaller parts of the program, such as restaurants, you may want to consider talking to your hotel contact as there may be excellent local restaurants that are not a member of the CVB.

A CVB is a great tool for a meeting and event planner. It can help provide the local expertise to execute a successful program. One that has the attendees talking for some time. A CVB can also be assistance by offering city guides and other tourist information to the meeting and event planner.

 

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Key Items for an Event Planner Contract

December 15, 2011 By Comments

Someone once told me that they view contracts like a divorce is to a marriage – you only need to review the contract if something is going wrong. And let’s face it we’ve all entered many contracts where, after we’ve signed and agreed to everything, we’ve never looked at it again. And that’s really the goal with event planner contracts as well. But before you get to the point where you don’t have to look at your event planner contract agreement anymore there are few things that you need to be aware of. Or, more specifically, there are a few things that you need to make sure are covered in your event planning contracts.

An Event and Party Planner Contract Sets the Tone of Your Relationship

If you’re like me you hate the contract stage. To me it takes the warm and fuzzy relationship that you’ve built and turns it in to a period of technical bullet points which often don’t sound very accommodating. It always baffled me that you can buy or sell a house, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, with a two or three page contract. But you may have an event that’s worth tens of thousands of dollars and find that you have a 5 to 10 page contract to cover all of the details. When did we become so technical? But if you look at an event and party planner contracts as documents that basically confirms how your business relationship will move forward then it’s a good idea to get everything covered and signed so that you can go back to servicing the event itself.

I also recommend that you look at various sample contracts for event planners as there are many free event planner contract templates available on the web for you to review.

There are key issues that you do need covered in contracts for event planners. I guess this is where that technical stuff comes into play. However whether you’re the event planner or the client of the event planner you do want to make sure the following items are covered in your contract;

Deposit and Payment Schedule – here you don’t want any surprises as this could have an adverse affect on your cash flow. You want to make sure both sides are on the same page when it comes to finances. A good event planner contract will have a clear outline of how much will be paid before the event. And these payments should also have a schedule of when they are due.,

Cancellation Policy – like the deposit and payment schedule it’s a very good idea to outline what happens if any aspect of the event is cancelled. A lot of times cancellation charges are related to how far in advance the cancellation was made. Therefore the cancellation policy along with any potential charges is a necessity for the event planner contract.,

Liability and Indemnification – this is where the wording get so technical that you could literally fall asleep. However, all jokes aside, this is a crucial part of an event planner contract. As the client, it’s imperative to you that you know what your liabilities are when it comes to your event. And as the event planner it’s just as crucial that you relate to your client what insurance their event requires. A tip on liability and indemnification is to include a cause regarding terrorism. Many groups were left with a fair amount of liability after 9/11 because their event planner contracts did not cover acts of terrorism clearly enough.

If Everything Goes Well You’ll Never Look at Your Event Planner Contract Again

The contract is the period in the relationship where you have to cover the “what if” scenarios. Nobody really likes to discuss legal issues or try to determine who will be at fault if certain situations arise. But these are crucial areas of an event planner contract that need to be covered. The Association for Destination Management Executives(ADME.org) deserves credit as they have been hard at work trying to streamline how and what contracts are used in the meetings and events industry. And they have made great strides in that area. It’s worth a visit to ADME as you’ll get many ideas for your event planner contract template there.

If you’re at the stage where it’s time to review your event planner contract hopefully you can be lucky enough that this will be the last time you have to look at the contract. Because if it is the last time it generally means that your event was a success.

 

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Meeting Planning Tip-Save Money by Selecting the Right Venue

November 30, 2011 By Comments

In the meeting planning industry it’s always a challenge to find the right venue for your group while working within your budget framework. As any seasoned meeting planner will tell you, meeting planning is always a delicate balance between budgets and creating an exciting program to attract delegates. There are ways that you can still impress your delegates by selecting the right type of venue based on your budget.

Venues with In-House Kitchens Are Attractive to Meeting Planning Companies

From my full service destination management days I can remember doing site visits with meeting planners that wanted their functions to be held in the best museum in the city – yet with a budget that would only accommodate about half the cost for that facility. I guess that’s where my job really came in to play. As I’ve mentioned here many times before, providing budgets to your event planning company is not a bad idea. However, a lot of meeting planners tend to hold this information back for fear that the event planning company will always spend the budgeted amount. My attitude towards budgets is more the opposite of that thought process. I like getting a budget so that I know what venues will work for that client so that they can have a great event and spend only what they anticipated.

Here’s the rule of thumb, or tip as it were, on selecting a venue based on a lower budget. Basically any venue that does not have an in-house kitchen (meaning that they don’t have their own equipment such as tables, chairs, linens and cutlery etc.) will always have an additional expense to the per person cost. And that expense can be as much as the food menu cost itself (meaning double the food menu price). Venues that typically fall within this range are museums, galleries, attractions etc. To help eliminate this additional service and equipment cost I would advise my meeting planning clients to look at venues that have in-house kitchens. Of course hotel ballrooms would fall into this category as well as event spaces that have been designed to handle group business. And believe it or not there are a lot of these types of venues in most major destinations.

So if your meeting planning budget has you losing sleep consider selecting a venue that has their own in-house facilities. You’ll be very surprised at the savings without sacrificing the wow factor. Selecting venues that do not have in-house facilities can often double your food cost alone. And the good news is that there are many venues that do offer in-house facilities.

 

 

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Selecting Bad Event Planning Organizations

November 17, 2011 By Comments

How do you know which event planning organizations are better than others? Meeting and event planning companies come in all shapes and sizes. Unfortunately a lot of them come with empty promises as well. Of course that’s what industry associations like MPI (Meeting Professionals International) are for.

In the video below you’ll cringe when you see what can happen when an event planner selected a meeting venue that wasn’t quite the right setting for the company’s product launch. Thanks to our friends at Funny or Die and at Hyatt meetings for another in their series for the meetings and events industry.

The Lounge – watch more funny videos

 

Of course on the serious side of things the moral of this story is to ask for references. If your meeting or event is a large one then perhaps a site visit might be in order as well. But one thing is for certain and that is there are good and bad meeting and event planning companies. Make sure you do your due diligence and select the right organization based on your needs.

 

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Today There Still Are Ways to Make Profits in the Event Planning Business

October 26, 2011 By Comments

There’s no doubt that anyone in the event planning business today is certainly feeling the crunch when proposing to clients. It seems all we hear from the client is “we don’t have the budgets to hire an event planning company so were going to do it ourselves unless you can come in at a reasonable budget”. And quite often the event planning business feels the frustration because it’s usually their profits that take a hit. Believe it or not there still are ways to make profit in the event planning business.

An Established Event Planning Business Has Great Supplier Relationships

Most event planning businesses have very good working relationships with their suppliers. Otherwise they certainly wouldn’t use those suppliers. When economic times were good most suppliers would provide a quote to the event planning business and then it would be marked up for the end client. And quite often the rates given to the event planning business were close to what the end client would have paid to the supplier had they gone direct. I’ve always stated that for any event planning business, preferred suppliers should offer a reduced or what’s commonly referred to as a wholesale rate to the event planning business (especially if they’ve done a lot of business together). I’ve found that most suppliers when approached have no problem whatsoever in providing a wholesale rate. Then the event planning business is able to charge their end client a rate that is close to the suppliers retail rate. The end client wins because they pay pretty much the same amount while having the benefit of utilizing an event planning business. The event planning business wins because they’re able to get that piece of business without overpricing and losing out in the bidding process.

Most people in the event planning business know that hotels will pay commissionable rates. The qualification varies from hotel to hotel chain so make sure you know ahead of time what their policies are for commissionable rates. Like general suppliers, event planners are able to offer their clients hotel rates that are not marked up. The event planning business gets their commission from the hotel rather than from their client.

It is tough today for any event planning business competing in the RFP (request for proposal) process. One barrier that’s hard to break is convincing your client that by utilizing a company like yours they’re not necessarily going to be paying extra. That’s where your sales role is still needed. And if it’s a win-win for the client and you haven’t sacrificed too much on your markup, it’s a win-win for you in the event planning business.

 

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Meeting Planning-How to Run Effective Meetings (Wishful Thinking)

October 18, 2011 By Comments

As all of us in the meeting planning business know, one of the biggest challenges that we face is running effective meetings. If anyone just cringed reading that line then you surely know what I’m talking about. Wouldn’t it be nice if all of your delegates arrived on time for their meetings – and no one’s mobile device went off during the meeting –  and people actually paid attention. Well like all industries, meeting planning certainly has its challenges.

In the video below a meeting planning company called Match Peg Meetings (matchpeg.com) has put together a promotional video promoting their new meeting software. They chose to take the comical approach by presenting a unique way of making sure all of your meetings go off without a hitch. If only it were that simple.

 

There are a lot of companies out there selling meeting planning software. While we’re not necessarily endorsing Match Peg Meetings, they get full marks for getting our attention in a very unique and funny way. And based on that alone I think their software is well worth taking a look at.

 

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Event Planning Online – The New Norm for Planners

October 11, 2011 By Comments

It wasn’t so long ago that event planners would often higher local companies to help them source out local suppliers for their successful events. These local experts, commonly referred to as destination management companies or DMC’s, would assist the event planner in finding the perfect venue or suppliers. And then came the Internet. Event planning online has become a rapidly growing Internet community for meeting and event planners. A lot of traditional DMC’s migrated their services and began offering online searches to help these meeting and event planners.

Event Planning Online Has Changed the Way the Industry Sources Suppliers

When I first started in the meeting planning business I was with a full-service destination management company. In those days it was our job to know all of the top venues and suppliers in my area and then to be able to make recommendations, or proposals to my potential clients. Then, the company that had the best options and often the best price won the peace of business. Today unless those companies have adjusted their business models to accommodate event planning online than they are most likely suffering with less revenue. I started to see that happening in my own company in the late 1990s. It started slowly, basically from providing full event details (such as facility rental, transportation, caterer and entertainment) to all of a sudden only providing transportation for the event as the meeting and event planner found the other services directly online. For my company we saw the writing on the wall. We either adjust our business model or quite frankly we would become a dinosaur in the industry. We decided that we would revamp our business model completely. Instead of taking supplier quotes and marking them up to present them to our client we now were in a situation where we would provide a selection of suppliers and allow the client to search and make their own selection. So our business model went from marking up wholesale prices from suppliers to a model that was more in tune with today’s web businesses. We needed to get our revenue from supplier listings and advertising on our website. More about the challenges with that business model in a later post.

What has now happened is that meeting and event planners are getting exposed to great venues and suppliers without having to pay additional marked up costs. It’s a win-win for planners. For the service industries that service meeting and event planners it still is an adjustment period. What this means for planners is that they can now do their event planning online.

For those planners looking for sites that offer event planning online what they should be looking for is variety. A planner should not be penalized for doing event planning online and only being able to see suppliers that have paid to be listed on a particular site. A seasoned planner will soon realize that they are perhaps not getting the best selection of suppliers available. They’ll soon look for another site with event planning online.

I’m going to list a few sites here that you may want to consider for event planning online. The criteria for the sites has no scientific formula applied. Basically the sites are known as leaders of information within the meeting and events industry.

Welcome To The City, or WTTC.com is a great site that breaks down its suppliers by the various categories that a meeting or event planner would be searching. Planner accounts are free and you can set up as many events as you would like. Right now the company is focused in North America and has listings for 24 cities.

Cvent is known as one of the biggest in the industry. Cvent started in the industry as the leader in registration software and has expanded to include supplier listings. Cvent has supplier information for hundreds of cities were meetings and events occur.

Meetingplanner.com is another website for event planning online. This site offers supplier information in hundreds of locations as well. It also allows for suppliers to bid for certain events that planners are posting. It is also a free to use website.

Event planning online does help those that need to find venues and suppliers for their upcoming meetings or events. You can easily get bogged down by only Googling for venues and suppliers. Instead of doing generic Google searches why not try a site that is tailored to event planning online. Make sure the sites you are looking at do not preclude vendors that are only paying to be on those sites. By using a site that is specific to event planning online you’re sure to receive the best of the best for possible suppliers.

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3 Things to Consider When Selecting an Event Planning Company

September 23, 2011 By Comments

If you’re someone that’s responsible for planning and executing events then you may or may not have worked with an event planning company in the past. Depending on your role, you may have other responsibilities and planning events is an additional task that you have been asked to do. Unless your sole role is planning events you may want to consider working with an event planning company. Selected properly these companies can help make your event a success. And in turn you will also be a success. If you have never worked with an event planning company here are 3 tips that will help make your task of selecting an event planning company that much easier.

1) How Transparent Is the Event Planning Company

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t trust the various companies that you’re considering. But most reputable companies do not have an issue with telling you how their pricing structure works. Not necessarily their exact markup, but an event planning company should be able to tell you where their fees are applied. Having worked in an event planning company in the past I had no problem telling clients that we were indeed a for profit company. I wanted to address that at the beginning so that my clients (especially the newer clients) didn’t think that we were there just to provide them with ideas that they could then run on their own. And believe it or not this is too often the case. However flipping to the other side of the coin as a person selecting an event planning company, you also want to know whether or not you’re receiving a fair price for the work that will be executed. Good event planning companies know that they can make a lot of commissions on hotel rooms from the hotel itself. Therefore as someone hiring an event planning company I would have an issue if they were also charging me a fee on top of the commission they were getting from my hotel. Same with most suppliers in general. If the event planning company has a reputation in their area then they most likely have preferred rates (i.e. wholesale rates) with certain suppliers . That enables the event planning company to still be able to markup the suppliers price and yet you would still receive a fair price overall.

Asking an event planning company how they markup or charge for their services is something that you should address at the beginning of your conversation.

2) What Is the Event Planning Company’s Relationship with Their Suppliers

Another important item to address when selecting an event planning company is what is their relationship with the prospective suppliers that they are proposing to you. It’s not that an event planning company cannot own a supplier company that they are proposing to you. It’s just that you would prefer to know that at the onset to avoid any conflict of interest that may arise. You also want to be sure that you’re getting the best selection of available suppliers in the area for your program.

3) Ask for References from the Event Planning Company

Any reputable event planning company will have no problem whatsoever providing you with references. Make sure these references are people that have used the event planning company in a way that you’re planning to use them. Determine what’s important to you for your program and then design your questions around those important issues.

Also inquire as to what industry associations the event planning company is a member of. This will give you a little indication as to their length of time in business as well as how well they are known in the industry. You can also ask your hotel contact or the local convention and visitors Bureau if they have a list of recommended event planning companies that you can call. Just be aware that with the convention and visitors Bureau they will only provide you with companies that are there members.

Selecting an event planning company to work with is often times a very good decision. However it’s also important that you know what you’re looking for when selecting an event planning company. And make sure your relay that to the prospective companies. An event planning company is like an assistant to you. Their sole job is to make sure that they provide you with the best event possible working within the parameters that you give them. So do not be shy – make sure you express your desires and expectations. Being a Secret Service event planner is not the best approach to have with your event planning company.

 

 

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Why Do Companies Hire Meeting Planners

September 8, 2011 By Comments

Today we’re used to hearing that technology has replaced a job task that used to be done by a human. And that’s becoming more and more frequent especially in today’s economy. People, especially young people, always wonder whether or not the career path they are choosing will eventually be replaced by a computer. I hear that a lot at job fairs that I attend for the meeting planning industry. It’s usually after the question about “how much money will I make” that I usually get asked about the longevity of a career in meeting planning. Well I’m happy to report that, for as long as I can see, the role of a meeting planner will need to be done by a human.

Meeting Planners Have an Ever-Changing Job Description

Basically companies hire meeting planners to oversee and execute successfully the various meetings that the company conducts. And quite often these companies are looking for a very diverse set of job skills. One of the main job skill that a company looks for in a meeting planner is their ability to multitask. As anyone in the meetings and events industry will tell you, there are usually many, many things happening at the same time during the planning process. The role of the meeting planner also changes at the various levels of the planning. For example at the beginning they’ll be called upon to utilize their fiscal skills while establishing budgets. Very soon that will change into negotiation skills as they begin to tender the various components to their meetings. They also need to be team leaders as a meeting planner often needs to motivate and direct their team according to the tasks at hand.

Good Meeting Planners Actually Save Their Companies Money

As mentioned above fiscal skills are an important characteristic of a meeting planner. Meeting planners need to plan and orchestrate the various meetings that they oversee while being very aware of budgets. Before companies hire in-house meeting planners they often do their meetings piecemeal. Usually that involves someone within the organization overseeing the meeting while they still have their own job to attend to. So you can understand why budgets might take a backseat when the person planning the meeting has another job to do. Companies have found when they hire an in-house meeting planner budgets tend to be met. Many associations actually count on their yearly or regular meetings to produce revenue. Therefore these planners are typically more senior as their roles in the association has a direct impact on revenues.

At a glance it’s easy to see why some people think that hiring a meeting planner will be an extra cost. Often times, however, good meeting planners can pay for themselves many times over. Plus a company that hires a meeting planner usually produces top-notch meetings.

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A Sleek Way of Introducing a Meeting and Event Planning Company

September 6, 2011 By Comments

In today’s economy and especially in meeting and event planning, more and more companies are jockeying to get themselves in front of potential customers. And the more unique approach they take the more likely it is that they will stand out from the crowd and be recognized. You know the old saying “those that stand out get noticed the most”.

Today companies that host meetings and events have a number of factors to consider when planning. Each meeting has to be more unique than the one before. While at the same time cost savings and the risk involved are important factors for decision-makers.

While this is not intended to be an endorsement of StarCite we do have to admit that their video presentation is sleek and impressive. Watch below as StarCite takes us on a tour of how meetings were originally planned and executed up to today where meeting and event planning encompasses much, much more. My how the industry has evolved.

 

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