Plan Your Meetings

If Robin Leach is interested in resurrecting his long-running television show “Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous” with a bit of a corporate twist, he should consult with Cara Luft, Gateway’s senior manager-executive briefings.

Assignment: Create a once-in-a-lifetime, three-day, customer appreciation program.

Challenge: Give guests the unique opportunity to step into the wondrous world of society’s elite.

Solution: “From my perspective, Newport [Rhode Island] represents bed & breakfasts, mansions, seafood and sailing,” says Luft, based at Gateway’s headquarters in Irvine, Calif. So she built a program that included all of these elements – and much more.

Guests arrived on a Friday afternoon and checked into one of three luxurious bed & breakfasts located within two blocks of each other before gathering for a welcome reception on one of the B&B’s gracious verandas overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and a rare, saltwater swimming pool. Buffet offerings included an array of fresh, local seafood. Following a business session on Saturday morning, guests were transported via open trolley through historic downtown Newport to the city docks where they boarded a classic, 80-ft. sailing yacht.

Onboard to welcome Gateway’s guests was Dennis Connor, winner of four America’s Cup trophies and perhaps the world’s most recognizable figure in competitive yachting. “We sailed out into the ocean where we met up with Stars & Stripes (a retired America’s Cup yacht once captained by Connor),” Luft says. “Ten guests at a time were transported via ship’s tender to Stars & Stripes where each had the opportunity to take the helm and have a photo made with Mr. Connor” before heading off for a leisurely afternoon of casual sailing and tasty nibbles.

While aboard Stars & Stripes, much of the conversation among guests revolved around the “surprise venue” for that evening’s activities. All they knew was the evening would be “black tie” and they were to gather for cocktails precisely at 6 p.m. in the sitting area of their particular B&B. Shortly after 6 o’clock, a vintage Rolls-Royce pulled up in front of each of the B&Bs to transport guests to majestic Belcourt Castle, a 60-room “summer cottage” built by Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont in 1894.

Upon arrival at Belcourt Castle, reserved exclusively for Gateway’s event, guests were taken on a personalized tour before gathering in the second floor ballroom where the first of nine acts from “Phantom of the Opera” was performed. The theatre-based evening included nine courses for dinner, truly melding the finest in cultural and culinary arts. Guests were returned to their B&Bs in the vintage Rolls-Royces.

Results: “We contained costs by making multiple trips with the three Rolls-Royces,” says Luft. “Our guests were comfortable networking with one another in the environment of the B&B, in the Rolls-Royces, and at the castle.” And they were blown away by the theater-themed evening.

Information compiled by Pete Foley, director of creative services at Access Meetings & Events. Read more about Dream Meetings in the latest edition of Plan Your Meetings magazine. Sign up for your free subscription here.

Despite all the dreary discussion around the U.S. housing market in the past year or so, there does exist one clever little housing niche that an Arizona-based meeting planning professional has exploited quite nicely. Bella Palazzo Exclusive Private Estates, with an inventory of 32 multi-million dollar, palatial homes in Arizona, California, Nevada and Colorado, offers private homes as event venues.

“Once you’ve been to all the great hotels, you get to a point where you want something different, something more unique,” says Margie Van Zee, president and founder of the company. “These homes are something the general public can’t access. Once you get into one of them, you get to see amazing architecture, world-class art collections in some cases, and spectacular views and vistas. People are always blown away.”

With daily venue rental fees ranging from $4,500-15,000, a planner has to be truly committed to creating a dream program. But once the decision is made, imagination and creativity run wild.

“One group did a progressive dinner in a European-style home that had all these beautiful gardens. We moved from one location to another with each of the courses, which gave them the opportunity to enjoy a tour of the home and gardens during an actual dinner event,” Van Zee recalled. “Another time, we did a luncheon for spouses with panini sandwiches served right by a beautiful lily pond while a landscape architect explained the design of the garden and talked about the various plants and flowers. After lunch, we moved to another location where they did an olive tasting.”

Assignment:

For Van Zee, the piece de resistance came when Germany-based Audi AG rented one of Bella Palazzo’s private homes overlooking Camelback Mountain in Arizona — for 30 days.

Challenge:

“They were rolling out their new Q7 vehicle to the international auto press and wanted to so something really memorable,” she says. Originally, the company wanted to stage a Q7 on a platform in the home’s negative-edge, infinity pool but decided at the last minute the risks were too high.

Solution:

Instead, they took advantage of the home’s spectacular vista as they hoisted a Q7 onto the side of Camelback Mountain (some 300 feet in the distance) with high-powered spotlights trained on it for dramatic effect. The home’s 2,000-square foot garage area was turned into a fully-equipped press center with TVs, high-speed internet, office equipment, etc., as 12 groups of 50 international journalists were rotated through every other day. As each press conference ended, the journalists were ushered into the home for a seated dinner overlooking the new vehicle in the distance.

Results:

“It was simply incredible,” Van Zee says.

Information compiled by Pete Foley, director of creative services at Access Meetings & Events. Read more about Dream Meetings in the latest edition of Plan Your Meetings magazine. Sign up for your free subscription here.

They may have changed the name from “Secretary’s Day” to “Administrative Professionals Appreciation Week,” but that doesn’t mean non-titled planners are getting all the props they deserve. (Just look at how many different jobs an administrative professional may have). From April 22-28, why not celebrate how much you’re worth to the company by reflecting on how much business the meetings you’ve planned have improved morale, made important business contacts and rewarded your company’s best customers? If you can put a dollar value on that ROI, you can explain to your employer why the best way to appreciate you is to give you a raise, or at least consider following these recommendations.

Assignment:

Holding a “dream” meeting may be as simple as helping dreams come true for people who need it the most. The Coca-Cola Company believes the “real thing” is the act of giving back and demonstrated that in a big way earlier this year. While considering locations for its annual McDonald’s Account Group Meeting (the team of Coke professionals who manage the company’s business dealings with McDonald’s), city and venue options were wide open.

Challenge:

“There were literally places around the globe that were being considered for this program,” explains Dave Quillin, event production manager at the company’s world headquarters in Atlanta. “Wherever we conduct our day-to-day business is always an option for us when we hold our meetings. Knowing we wanted to include community service as a key component of the program, we looked at New Orleans and considered its history and heritage, and the great need they have for any kind of assistance following Hurricane Katrina. We knew right away this was an opportunity to come in and make a difference and leave behind a legacy.”

Solution:

The multi-day conference was designed to include two significant community service initiatives. The first included allocating a block of time when Coke folks would clean, scrape, paint, replace fencing, refurbish a baseball diamond, and make other minor repairs in an effort to resurrect storm-battered Wesley Barrow Stadium in Pontchartrain Park. The second community-service initiative aided the St. Augustine Catholic High School Marching 100, an awarding-winning marching band that had become more like the Marching 53 when families were displaced and had to leave the storm-blasted region. Band instruments, uniforms, practice facilities — even sheet music — were destroyed by Katrina. For the St. Augustine Marching 100, Aug. 29, 2005, truly was the day the music died. But a generous donation from Coca-Cola helped to replace band instruments. A video chronicling the Marching 100’s plight also was produced and funded by Coca-Cola, and shown during the company’s meeting. Video dupes were then turned over to band leaders to be used as a selling tool as school officials sought donations from other corporate entities.

Results:

Coca-Cola and one of its local bottlers managed to align community service, a needy high school band, and an ailing strategic partner — all in the interest of helping a city still struggling to recover from disaster.

The program also was the first major piece of corporate business for the Ritz-Carlton New Orleans after reopening post-Katrina, allowing Coke to help out a valued business partner. “It’s just one of those great situation when everyone benefits,” Quillin says. “Including community service when you’re planning a meeting just makes the whole experience so memorable.”

Information compiled by Pete Foley, director of creative services at Access Meetings & Events. Read more about Dream Meetings in the latest edition of Plan Your Meetings magazine. Sign up for your free subscription here.

Assignment:

Getting down and dirty in the details of a program is nothing new to any meeting industry professional but literally getting down and dirty is a different matter altogether. Just ask Kenneth Jones, managing director and founder of Atlanta-based dynami group, who was asked by heavy-equipment manufacturer Doosan Infracore American Corp. to create a grand-scale, pseudo sandbox for its dealers to test drive two new models. Imagine adult-sized Tonka trucks and a wide-open field of loose dirt.

Challenge:

“They were rolling out their DL wheel loader and the DX excavator, and wanted us to create an environment for their dealers to climb in and test-drive the equipment,” Jones says. “It was important to them to take the equipment to the dealers vs. doing the opposite. Plus, they wanted to do a demo in a natural setting.”

Identifying demo sites was the most challenging aspect of the program since Doosan Infracore needed a nearby hotel block of 100 to 200 rooms for each location.

Solution

Ultimately, Doosan Infracore settled on Fort Worth, Charlotte and Trenton. Jones’ dynami team coordinated the three-city road tour, including the securing of local permits for land areas where dealers could work the vehicles, push dirt around, and simulate a real-world, earth-moving experience.

“We took as much as we could out of Atlanta; tenting with floors, A-V equipment, POS banners, staking, you name it,” Jones says. “We rented restroom facilities, HVAC systems, arranged catering, security, local transportation, the whole thing. We used smaller tents for breakout sessions and did general sessions in the larger tent.”

Result

“The whole program was very successful and helped Doosan Infracore enhance their relationship with dealers across the country,” Jones says.

“This is the first time this company had ever done anything like this but they recognized the need to do something out-of-the-ordinary,” he adds. “They definitely saw the value because their market share is rising steadily. It was a challenging program but a lot of fun once we got everything settled.”

Information compiled by Pete Foley, director of creative services at Access Meetings & Events. Read more about Dream Meetings in the latest edition of Plan Your Meetings magazine. Sign up for your free subscription here.

By Teresa Mariano

For Tony Conway, CMP, and owner of Atlanta-based A Legendary Event, life is a party. After spending 20 years working in the hotel industry, and achieving the position of director of catering and conference services at Ritz-Carlton, Conway decided to start his own company in 1997 to, in his words, “get out of the ballroom and start designing events.”

Today A Legendary Event employs a team of 48 managers and more than 200 employees who oversee and work more than 1,200 events a year. “That includes everything from catering small events to planning events for 10,000 people,” Conway says. “It keeps us out of trouble.” Plan Your Meetings spoke with him about planning fabulous events, staying on top of trends and how a little service goes a long way.

What have been some of the most extravagant events you have done?

We created the name A Legendary Event because we want every event to be legendary. So you know when you put a name like that on your company, you have to make sure you’re sticking to your promise. I would say some of the over-the-top events this year alone have been working with Delta Airlines on their restructuring training hospitality program, doing an event this past fall with [Spanx founder] Sara Blakely with her Give a Damn party [It closed down Peachtree Street in Downtown] … getting to work on a wonderful multi-million dollar wedding — a destination wedding that was quite lovely. In the past, we worked with an individual on a Millennium New Years Eve party, which was planned in three months for over a thousand people … we had REM and Duran Duran and Cindy Lauper and Squirrel Nut Zippers, and a 40,000-sq. ft. tent on their property.

What are some of the challenges you’ve encountered?

For the Millennium event, there was a small driveway. So how do you get 1,000 people into it? We built a new drive for that event. We then dealt with some of the guests coming and their security issues, needing to add secret service at the last minute. Then there were concerns with this being in a neighborhood and parking 500 to 700 vehicles and how that works. Those are challenges you sit down and work out with your team; you don’t come up with those decisions yourself.

We have the same challenges when we have a small party … weather and those kinds of things … a tent flying away the day before the event because it wasn’t anchored correctly. We have challenges of power — putting power in places where there is no power — or running water.

Your Web site states that event planners have to have the creativity of Da Vinci and the endurance of a marathon runner. What are some things you can do to stay in shape mentally as well as physically when planning an event?

I think communication — and everyone uses that term so loosely — is key. We meet daily; we back each other up. There are things that happen, and it’s how you deal with those obstacles and opportunities, and how you deal with the client. We don’t keep anything from our clients. Of the 10 years we’ve been in business, we have grown with our customers and they’ve learned to trust us. All we can do is sell a promise to our customers — you can’t buy it off a rack. So they’re getting it in black and white, on paper, and we’re saying this is going to happen. We’re up front with them; we share the obstacles we have; the opportunities we have. We don’t promise things we know couldn’t take place.

I think that’s it. I have never enjoyed the word “stress.” I think it’s unnecessary. We try not to use that in our company. We never use the word “assume”; it’s not a word in our vocabulary. We never assume anything, and we always get everything in writing.

You won a Gala Award for Best Event on a Shoestring. What was the event?

We actually turned something that was going to be black tie and very costly into something a little bit more fun and created it in a bowling alley atmosphere. [It was] a little more casual and relaxed, and everyone had a great time and raised tons of money.

What things can a planner with a limited budget do to step up an event, create a “wow” factor?

The first thing is never to skimp on the service. Look at your budget and make sure you have the right service to take care of things, whether it’s the valet parking or the caterer or whatever. You know in Atlanta, your guests are going to deal with some traffic issues, so take the ease off of that, so when they pull up, they’re not dealing with parking issues.

You might choose, instead of a full bar, to do a champagne party. You may want to create one type of cocktail. I think less is more sometimes when you’re trying to create that “wow” factor. Let’s make it really, really special for what you’re doing. And again, that can be doing two or three items instead of 13 to 14 items in this party. Maybe the music is the “wow” factor, maybe there’s the addition of an artist doing something, maybe there’s some entertainment happening where you’re giving back to the community.

Any advice to anyone just starting out, or the occasional planner?

It is an exciting industry. It’s an industry about show business. We plan and plan and plan, and we put the show on and we wait for the applause. I always suggest to people to make sure you have a balance of life and work. First of all, our life is nothing but a party, so how bad can that be? We’re there to help people entertain and entertain their guests, so it’s a great business. But you have to schedule your personal time as though it was an appointment, and take that time to recharge. What I love about all the young new talent coming into the event planning world is they do it; they’re not about working 60 hours a day like some of us old people in the industry.

Time management is the most important thing in the hospitality industry. You have to be really, really good at time management, and you have to be organized. Do nothing without a contract, and never assume anything. If you have a crisis and someone has to step in and take over for you in an hour’s notice, they should be able to take your files and know everything that’s happening. Get what’s in your head down into that file. And ask your team to critique what you’re doing. It’s not a one-man show.

Read more about Dream Meetings in the latest edition of Plan Your Meetings magazine. Sign up for your free subscription here.

Another inspiring story from New Orleans: This one is from Brian Panozzo, general manager of the Omni Royal Orleans Hotel in the French Quarter.

During the Katrina crises, the hotel was evacuating guests and matching them up with staff members who had cars. Employee Norma Valdez was sent off with these instructions: “Do whatever the guest wants.”

Meanwhile, the corporate staff moved to Dallas, where Panozzo was working at the time, and the general manager started to became concerned when no one had heard from Norma in two days.

Finally, she called.

The general manager asked, “Norma, where y’at?”
She said, “I’m in West Virginia.”
“What are you doing in West Virginia?”
Norma replied, “You told me to do whatever the guest wanted, and she wanted to go to West Virginia.”