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The Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) has joined Venue Directorys Instant Booking platform, offering event planners the ability to reserve rooms for up to 30 people with just a single click. The new platform is designed to simplify the process of booking smaller spaces, while also giving users real-time control over their reservations.
Whether on the world stage or within our own industry, negotiations are everywhereand their outcomes matter more than ever. In a time marked by geopolitical tension, fragile supply chains, and economic uncertainty, the ability to negotiate effectively isnt just a business skillits a survival tool.
As an Amazon affiliate, Smart Meetings earns from qualifying purchases. The first book I ever received from a boss was Who Moved My Cheese. A couple of years later, the team was given a copy of Dale Carnegie’s famous book, How to Win Friends and Influence People. Another memorable gift was a book on emotional intelligence.
Avoid pitfalls and protect your event Contracts are the lifeblood and backbone of the meetings industry. Negotiating contracts is the first step before confirming speakers, color themes or catering options. Hidden Fees and Surcharges When booking with a hotel, look for fees and surcharges.
Smart Meetings chatted with Cheryl M. Payne, CMP, CMM, strategic partner at INNOV8 Meetings + Events , to get her take on the current marketplace and its impact on meeting planners, and some helpful tips and tricks planners should be looking at when drafting up a contract with a hotel or venue.
Negotiation coach Alex Carter will lead two PCMA Business School sessions during Convening Leaders 2025, on Jan. Negotiation coach Alex Carter starts off her April 2024 TEDx talk, “How to Ask for More — and Get It,” by saying the most important things she knows about negotiation she learned in a kayak.
Meeting planners are responsible for the success of corporate events, conferences, and incentive programs. Hotels, CVBs, and destinations looking to attract more group business, need to understand the top pain points of meeting planners.
Date, venue and rates are critical and typically given priority in the earliest stages of the meeting planning cycle. However, leaving audio visual (AV) equipment services to the end could be a costly mistake, especially when negotiating these services with a hotel. You have the most negotiating power before signing the contract.
As a luxury hotel sales director, youve seen how increasingly sophisticated meeting planners are becoming in their venue selection. Takeaway Tip: Suppliers who embrace these trends and market them effectively in their RFPs, proposals, and promotional materials will stand out as trusted partners for meeting planners.
Here, Smart Meetings brings you the key takeaways. #1 1 2028 is Poised to Spur a Significant Market Shift With the demand for meeting space continuing to soar, event planners are increasingly feeling the pressure to lock in venues ASAP.
Skift Take: AI-powered startup Nowadays features a virtual assistant that can communicate, negotiate and book event venues, all via email. — Miguel Neves Read the Complete Story On Skift Meetings
Do you sometimes wish you could book the most reasonably priced rental car by clicking a few buttons on your phone? The travel management company CWT just added car rental and train booking to their app and website to give travelers more independence in making their reservations at a time when travel costs are reaching historic highs. .
What are the fairest rules to use when running meetings? ” I think it’s reasonable to concentrate on fairness to participants : the majority of those involved with the meeting. All meetings have rules, whether overt or covert, conscious or unconscious, that influence how they proceed. Status and power at meetings.
Smart Meetings chatted with Michelle Crosby, CMP, CITP, an account executive at Bright Spot Incentives and Events, and Yvette Campbell, CMP, a meeting broker at Meetings Made Easy, to explore how planners can seek out third-party agencies and independent planners that fit their needs and how to integrate resources into their organization.
Future bookings are getting more difficult as organizations are more reluctant to take on new risks. No question, negotiating contracts is going to get more complicated as the industry rebounds. Challenges abound for event professionals looking to reduce housing block commitments.
Experts weigh in on what needs to change to work together better Editor’s Note : Hospitality sales consultant Steve Steinhart will be speaking at Smart Meetings Extraordinary Experience in Monterey, California, Nov. If all the meetings that we have re-scheduled for 2024 come through, we will show a very nice gain in the group market.”
As we speak with meeting and event professionals for our Interviews with Planners series, we continue to be amazed by the variety of books that help these talented professionals in their jobs as planners. See what other meeting planners read to help them excel in their careers. How to Grow Quickly & Profitably.
Trade shows and exhibitions These large-scale industry gatherings allow companies to showcase products or services, connect with prospects, meet with partners/vendors, and assess competitors. Finding and booking an appropriate event venue 2. Negotiating with vendors and adhering to their policies 5.
6 tips for a smooth European event from an international DMC expert If it seems to you everyone is taking their incentive meeting to Europe this year, you are not alone. Start Early The first tip is to book early and contract early! The post How to Host a Brava Meeting in Italy appeared first on Smart Meetings.
Read more tips for negotiating contracts amid Covid. . Now Global Head of Events, Training and Certification at Amazon Web Services, she has realized that the challenges meeting professionals are facing and the way they are learning has changed since she published her book pre-Covid. Contract and Negotiation Tips.
The word “partnership” gets thrown around a lot in the events world, but when there are too few ballrooms for too many functions being planned, meeting planners and hotel and destination counterparts often find themselves on the losing end of negotiations that could be win-wins.
Editor’s Note: This is part of a series reporting on FICP Chats about the future of meetings. See also : Meeting Profs Demonstrate Community and Resiliency on #MeetingsChat. Based on the in-person site inspection, that clause should allow meetings professionals the option to cancel the contract without penalty. group business.
Master planner consultants offer 6 tips for negotiating your next corporate event Does this sound familiar? Smart Meetings asked two veteran independent meeting professionals : ConferenceDirect Vice President Carolyn Poole and Bravo! Whenever you ask for something—extra drinks in the meeting space, AV help, etc.,
Related Stories: Zeiss Shares Five Ways to Make Sales Meetings More Fun Q&A: San Francisco Travel Association Discusses Event Safety and Business 82% of travelers say business travel is ‘very or moderately’ worthwhile in achieving business objectives. Bleisure’ is influencing how your event attendees are booking travel.
Contracts are the life blood of the meeting industry. Smart Meetings sat down with Darryl B. Cost for meeting rooms. It depends on your ability to negotiate and how much leverage you have, how much you want the property and how much the property wants you.” You need to be able to say, ‘We can re-book at the same rate.’
Jaki Baskow reflects on celebrity booking trends in the top convention city In the 45 years talent broker Jaki Baskow has been booking celebrities in Las Vegas under the Baskow Talent brand, a lot has changed. He’s the best speaker I’ve ever booked. Prices, for one. And I love putting people to work.
I am resigned to the fact that OpenAI ‘s Large Language Model ChatGPT has scraped every blog post I’ve written here (over 750 posts in the last 13 years—around half a million words) so it can parrot my thoughts about meeting design, facilitation, and other topics. I don’t think so.
An Advisory Board, representing a collective buying power of £320m, has been established for GRATIS, the end-to-end sourcing and booking tool provided by venuedirectory.com. At the inaugural meeting, Instant Book topped the agenda as part of the group’s drive to progress venue booking.
Marriott, Hilton and IHG have announced reductions in group-booking commissions from 10 percent to 7 percent for their North American hotels, to take place over a period of time this year and next. It’s even tougher for those independent meeting companies that survive on commissions. housing-reservation fees.
Many built their expertise in an industry or function, shifted to consulting and then wrote a book to launch their speaking career. Onsite Optimization – Captured or streamed keynote, concurrent session presentation, sponsor recognition, book signings, social channel engagement and VIP sessions/experiences.
In 2014, venture capitalist Ron Shah was deep into a month of internal meetings when the pipes burst in. He worked the phones in a rush, trying to clinch local hotel meeting rooms on short notice. But the phone-tag negotiations moved at the speed of molasses. his building. The office’s conference space was flooded and unusable.
Be an open book with your clients and highlight value for money. We offer customizable packages designed to meet a variety of budgets. Navigate negotiations: Approach negotiations as a partnership, focusing on long-term relationships and finding a win-win. Dont say: “This price is non-negotiable.
The best event planning book recommendations as chosen by real event pros. Sure, you can get all your event and meeting planning information from the internet like most of us do these days. (We But what about good, old-fashioned books? Of course, reading books is great too. An event planning book with character!
Using various methods, businesses seek out attendees and exhibitors to recruit or pull them away from official negotiated hotel blocks. Misrepresentation : Poachers misrepresent themselves to sell bookings outside of the official hotel block. Notify attendees that haven’t booked in the official room block of possible poaching.
And that stress only gets worse when you factor in the process of booking entertainment for your event. Before you take any other steps toward booking entertainment for your conference or event, the first thing you have to do is sit down and figure out the event’s budget. Understand Your Budget. Define Their Role.
There’s hotel jargon, legal terms, and the idea of facing off against someone over the negotiating table. We’re here to walk you through the basics of negotiating hotel blocks. Why Negotiate a Hotel Block? What rooms do you have reserved for meetings and presentations? Where will your guests stay? Start Early.
Whether delays in planning, frustrations due to lack of proper organization, arguments amongst team members, and the need for extra meetings to address any issues that may arise, these problems can eventually lead to someone else taking over the project. Skipping a needs assessment can have some serious consequences.
Read More: Defy Conventional Meetings in Sacramento Education for Prosperity, in Life and Work On the first day, attendees met one-on-one with select industry partners to efficiently connect with organizations that offer solutions specific to their association’s needs. Inspiring, it certainly was.
Long-term contracts —three, five or even ten years—can save you money, especially if you book during a hotel or resort’s slower times. “A Site inspections: for your own protection, require a standard on-site inspection leading up to each meeting date. Negotiating: never, ever accept the hotel’s first offer, experts agree.
Now two years out from where we were at the pandemic’s genesis, one question continues to peck at the minds of meeting planners: “Can the fear of Covid be sufficient enough to trigger force majeure ?”. Deciding the “choice of law provision,” or what state and who gets legal jurisdiction, may come down to common law negotiations, Sheaks said.
Does this mean meeting planners, or their attendees, are stuck paying them? I have heard of planners negotiating out this fee,” says Lauren Wolfe, a lawyer who publishes the website killresortfees.com. “I I have heard of planners negotiating out this fee,” says Lauren Wolfe, a lawyer who publishes the website killresortfees.com.
Just as the 2024 hurricane season began on June 1, a few meetings-focused hotels in South Florida, both on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, publicized promotions to the group market featuring especially favorable pricing and contract terms for meetings taking place between July and December of 2024 and July and December 2025.
According to recent Smart Meetings webinar hosts Elaine Williams and Sallee Pavlovich, however, the answers are right at planners’ fingertips. People are not looking to go to a meeting anymore,” Williams says. The destination is now part of why people choose to come to a meeting.”. They are looking for an experience.”.
A hot topic during last week’s Hotel Data Conference was booking the right balance between leisure business travelers. Hint: A new meeting pattern could help groups having a difficult time at the negotiating table.
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