Plan Your Meetings
Features
Industry challenges and solutions
Despite talk of the recession being over, controlling event expenses remains a top concern for meeting professionals. At the 2010 PCMA Convening Leaders conference on January 12, Plan Your Meetings led a “Making Cents” roundtable between planners and suppliers designed to help them discover win-win solutions to current budgetary challenges. What follows is a summary [...]
When cheap is too cheap
Planning meetings and events are difficult enough. Factor in the economy and bosses or clients with high expectations and even lower budgets and you’ve got an equation for madness. Or, at the very least, an opportunity for a gullible miscalculation. Everyone knows the saying, “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is,” [...]
News Briefs
MPI Business Barometer reflects industry optimism, growth
Low budget levels continue to be the No. 1 meeting trend, but the economy and business conditions are gradually improving, say meeting professionals in MPI Foundation’s December 2009 Business Barometer report. Predictions of a poor economy have dropped from 10 percent in the October report to one percent in December, and concern over the perception [...]
Destination news: February 2010
A roundup of hotel openings, new developments and other amenities now available to meeting and event planners, both domestically and internationally.
Names in the news: February 2010
New hires and promotions throughout the meetings and hospitality industry.
Meeting planners see signs of economic upswing
According to a recent Meetings Industry Association (MIA) study on the “real state of the economy,” 100 percent of corporate and government planners surveyed said their organizations have began to see signs of the economic recovery expected to end the recession. And 60 percent of all respondents, which include planners and suppliers, reported seeing signs [...]
Social media here to stay, say association planners
The prevalence of social media and the use of digital tools are on the rise among association meeting planners. What was once looked at as a time-waster, is quickly becoming a standard in the way associations conduct meetings-related business.
According to a recent survey by Champion Exposition Services, 83 percent of respondents currently use [...]
Green your thinking at the 2010 Sustainable Meetings Conference
What are the two most important actions an organization can take to remain viable and improve trust? According to the Green Meeting Industry Council (GMIC), they are to create innovative business models designed for sustainability, and measure and demonstrate positive social and environmental impact.
From Feb. 9-11 in Denver, Colo., the GMIC’s 2010 Sustainable Meetings Conference [...]
Destination news: January 2010
A roundup of hotel openings, new developments and other amenities now available to meeting and event planners, both domestically and internationally.
Spotlight
Up-close and personal city tours
The Kessler Collection hotels (Bohemian Hotel Savannah Riverfront and the Mansion on Forsyth Park) in Savannah, Ga., put a new twist on traditional group tours. Meeting attendees staying at either property can get up-close-and-personal with historic downtown Savannah via self-guided iPod Touch tours. The tours have been customized to give visitors access to insider information, interviews, images, video and voice content, GPS maps and more.
Advice from PYM
The danger of planning meetings by template
Many years ago I had a boss who was the “King of Clichés.” His office was filled with motivational or thought-provoking sayings, like “You can’t expect what you don’t inspect.” I’d often sit and wonder, “Why? What was the point?” As I got older and had more experience, I realized it was not the saying, [...]
How to include green requirements in RFPs
By now, most of you have seen the “Top 10 best green practices for meeting planners.” We know plastic bottles are bad, compostable or recyclable disposables are good, china is better, and to never, ever use styrofoam. However, after finally wrapping our heads around what we need to produce a sustainable meeting, we are now [...]
Ice, ice baby: February 2010 morsel
As we are entering the month of February I thought it would be only appropriate to discuss the very thing many of us experience in this blizzardy winter month — ICE!
Do I like it ? Yes, I do.
Do I think from a culinary perspective that it gets a bad rap? Yes, I do.
Do I think we [...]
2010 top social media trends
2009 was arguably the year to characterize social media as the shiny new toy. Excitement and curiosity drove critical mass adoption in many of the public social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Other sites with less notoriety such as Jigsaw and Slideshare aimed to further develop, package and market their value proposition. Niche [...]
Town Hall
Suppliers: What’s the biggest challenge you’re facing right now? What are some solutions? PYM Town Hall: State of the Industry luncheons bring together PYM partners to discuss current economic challenges and potential solutions. Held regularly in Atlanta and Dallas, the findings from each provide a snapshot of what’s going on and show how industry leaders are adapting to current market demands. Visit the Town Hall site for video clips, summaries and downloadable documents filled with the best solutions your peers on the hotel, CVB, restaurant, entertainment, transportation, products and services side have discovered.
Welcome Newest Partners
Corpus Christi CVB
Upcoming Events
- 23 February:
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- 16 March:
- 20 April:
From the Blog:
PYM Planner Profile: Paula J. Rigling, CAE, CMP
By Lisa Kraus
This February, PYM will spend a lot of time in the great state of Texas for our PYM LIVE Dallas & Austin events. I had the wonderful opportunity to speak to a veteran Austin-based planner, Paula J. Rigling, CAE, CMP. Paula is the president of Meeting Planning Professionals, and has focused her business [...]
How ‘Lost’ are your attendees?
After years of ignoring the hit TV show “Lost,” I decided to tune in for the series premiere last night. It was interesting, but I felt utterly adrift. Evidently, it was filled with all sorts of people and bits of information that I would have gotten had I been plugged into the TV show over [...]
Introducing the PYM Knowledge Series
Every month we’ll be posting a new educational video where we speak with your peers about questions and challenges you may be having and talk about the solutions. Last month, we discussed Social networking for meeting planners:
On Feb. 12, we’ll be filming our episode about working with CVBs. So if you have any questions [...]
