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Posted Feb 19, 2010
When I first wrote about using social media tools, such as Twitter at meetings, attendees were using the technology to tweet back and forth during event sessions about how the presentation was going, exchanging opinions and then collaborating to propose questions to the panelists or presenter. How industrious and efficient!
Posted Feb 16, 2010
I'm heartened to see some evidence that the meetings business is picking up among some hoteliers, yet there's still some time for aggressive sourcing for bargains. Starwood Hotels & Resorts earlier this month said that it is seeing higher weekday occupancies and revenue per available room -- partly due to more business bookings and "pent-up" demand for meetings and conventions bookings, according to a story in The Beat.
Posted Feb 2, 2010
Have you noticed a surge of interest in measuring ROI on travel and meeting (T&M) spend? I’ll get right to the point. Trying to measure the return on travel or meeting spend is not worth the effort.
It’s like taking a long walk in the desert with a crappy map. You wouldn’t do it by choice.
Posted Jan 29, 2010
Has your company created an outright ban on holding events at hotels with the word "resort" in their name? If so, you might want to re-think such a sweeping gesture, especially if you're e-sourcing and resorts are responding with competitive rates and services.
Posted Jan 22, 2010
I'm a big believer and advocate of green meetings, so when I came across this figure, it startled me and motivated me to share some thoughts. Seems that very large events held in a central location can produce over a ton of carbon per attendee, according to a whitepaper from ClimatePath, an organization that provides industry solutions to help event planners, consumer brands, travel providers, and other businesses measure and reduce the climate impact of their business activities.
Posted Jan 7, 2010
In preparing for ProMedia.travel Content Solutions' upcoming webinar, 10 Top Travel Management Tactics for 2010, I surveyed registrants as they signed up to find out what trends, tools and technologies they expect will influence their travel management programs most in 2010. My technology limited me to seven choices (including "other"), but here is what I have learned so far from our current 276 registrants.
Posted Jan 5, 2010
If you're a meetings manager at a drug company or medical device manufacturer, it would be a smart move to get up to speed on just how the so-called Sunshine Act, a bill sponsored by Senators Charles Grassley (Republican-Iowa) and Herbert Kohl (Democrat-Wisconsin), is going to affect your strategic meetings management program...and what you should do to prepare if it passes and becomes the law.
And let me forewarn you, there’s good and bad.
Posted Nov 27, 2009
A recent story in Successful Meetings about a new Business Barometer survey by Meeting Professionals International Foundation says only 12 percent of meeting professionals interviewed expect the economy and our industry to improve by the second quarter of next year.
Wow! That's a pretty low number, and at first glance a bit depressing.
Posted Nov 4, 2009
I read with much interest yesterday's release of something called the Hotel Negotiability Index by Egencia for 2010. Egencia, the travel management arm of Expedia, says its Index is an indicator of the overall supply landscape and other factors in top cities globally. The data indicates that, at least across North America, it'll continue to be a buyer's market up until at least the last two quarters of next year.
Posted Oct 9, 2009
I came across a blog the other day that asked the question: "What the heck is a hybrid event? (using virtual technology at a face-to-face event)." It sparked in me the need to address a few points about the use of different virtual technologies at meetings -- because I think there is a lot of confusion these days about the tech that's out there.
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