Planning in a global world
Plan Your Meetings speaks with the incoming President and CEO of MPI about the challenges and changes planners face.
Plan Your Meetings
Feature Archives
Current: December 2008
The state of the industry: trends and tactics
The key to success in our current industry seems to hinge on one word: flexibility. We see the U.S. financial market sitting on a seesaw with the global economy, creating ups and downs that require balance and tenacity. With one tip, the meeting professional can teeter, but a strong hold on creative solutions will level [...]
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Watch the bar
Every planner knows that the bar bill can drive costs way up. Here’s some valuable advice from our resident F & B expert, Claire Gould.
New travel regulations for air travelers
Now that airlines have implemented new restrictions on carry-on luggage and checked items, some planners are examining ways to minimize the amount of luggage attendees need to bring with them. Here’s a list of tips guaranteed to minimize hassles at the airport.
A view to better meetings:
Natural lights puts attendees at ease
People never outgrow the restless feeling they had as kids sitting in a windowless schoolroom, feeling cut off from the daylight and knowing life is moving on without them. Putting your attendees in a room with a view can alleviate those feelings and spice up a dull program, encouraging greater audience participation. But meeting planners have to be savvy or risk having scenery upstage what’s central to the program.
New planners’ exchange group stirs controversy
By Kristi Casey Sanders
Part humanitarian organization, part meeting planner resource and part union public relations department, the Informed Meetings Exchange (INMEX) is a controversial new organization that gives meeting planners a record of individual hotel and global hotel corporations’ human rights and labor infractions, advice on the kind of verbiage needed in contracts to protect [...]
Sizzlin’ Summer Drinks
After years of “red” or “white” being the choice at many events, the pendulum has swung back to hard liquor and boutique-designed drinks. Instead of the traditional lemon/lime, drinks are being garnished with everything from floating rose petals to a sprig of rosemary or thyme. Only the freshest of ingredients are being squeezed or puréed fresh before our eyes. How about a frozen rum drink with fresh puréed pineapple in a toasted coconut-rimmed glass with a rum-marinated cherry garnish?
How do you incorporate some of these new drink ideas into your events?
Small meetings feel the squeeze
Soaring hotel occupancy rates and diminished room supply are starting to squeeze small meetings. Heather Hawes, director of special events, Institutional Advancement, at Spellman College in Atlanta says she’s seeing small meetings getting bumped in favor of larger meetings “all the time.”
