10 Considerations for A Selecting the Perfect Destination for Your Meeting
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As a meeting planner, you have a lot of decisions to make when planning an event, including picking the right hotel and meetings venue, selecting the right food and beverage offerings, hiring the best speakers, and sourcing good transportation services. But none of these things can be put into place until you’ve chosen the right destination for your meeting. And with so many great cities to pick from, finding the right destination to suit your group can seem like quite a daunting task. But it doesn’t have to be! With 10 simple considerations to follow…finding the perfect destination for your meeting might just get a whole lot easier – and more fun! During this webinar you will learn ways to: • Analyze Your Group Dynamics • Consider Your Cost Constraints • Ask the Right Questions to Help You Uncover What You’re Really Looking to Find! All contributing to a perfect match between your meeting and your destination.
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10 Considerations for A Selecting the Perfect Destination for Your Meeting
- 1. 10 Considerations for Selecting the Perfect Destination for Your Meeting Terri Roberts Training and Communication for empowerMINT.com Destination Marketing Association International an empowerMINT.com webinar Production Jennifer Beam Johnson, CMP The Johnson Meeting Group Jerry Cito First VP, Convention Devp NYC & Co.
- 2. Why do CVBs make perfect meeting planning partners? • They are your best first call to help you FIND the right fit for any size meeting – Comprehensive view of the destination – Local expertise – Extensive in-market relationships
- 3. The Business of FIND Analyze Your Group Dynamics Consider Your Cost Constraints Ask the Right Questions???
- 4. 1. What Matters to Your Group? • Study your demographics • What’s most important? • Consider success/failure of past meetings • Prioritize the list • Now you can match against destination offerings
- 5. 2. Will You Fit? • Physical space – Meeting space, convention center, hotel rooms – Own the town or be one of many
- 6. 3. How Will You Get There and Get Around Once Your There? • Airlift • Ticket price points • Driving accessibility • Mass transit in the destination • Walkability, how centralized
- 7. 4. What is the Meetings and Hotel Infrastructure? • Meeting space city has to offer • Proximity to guest rooms • What layout has worked best in the past? • Compare and contrast at empowerMINT.com
- 8. 5. Are There Enough Things to Do? • Interesting and unique amenities • Restaurants • Culture • Entertainment • Outdoor activities • Something you can’t find anywhere else • Easy to get to…safe
- 9. 6. What’s the Lay of the Land? • City infrastructure • Construction • New Development
- 10. 7. Is It Worth the Expense? • Overall cost • Attendance pull • Price sensitivity of attendees • ROI considered
- 11. 8. Are They Green? • LEED certified • Environmentally minded properties that walk the walk, not just talk the talk.
- 12. 9. Does the City Have Destination Appeal? • Broad appeal of first – tier cities vs. unique appeal of a lesser know destination
- 13. 10. Have You Identified Your Destination Partner? • Asks the right questions • Good listener • First impressions • Delivers on what was promised • Meets time lines establishes • Helps ease the burden saving you both time and money
- 14. With over 113,000 hotels and facilities in the US… how do you navigate?
- 15. Well, there are over 880 destination experts to help you FIND just the right FIT and all the right answers…
- 16. Direct to the CVB ….one- stop-shop for planners: •Planners easily search and compare meeting needs across multiple destinations. •Planners save time and money submitting one FastTrackRFP to multiple destinations. •Planners manage a single profile, check their histories and power shop at over 200 top cities.
- 18. CMP CREDIT • This session has been verified by CIC to qualify for continuing education credit. towards the CMO certification. • Participation has earned you .50 Clock Hours (30 minutes) for CMP-IS Domain: A. Strategic Planning. • Please print your registration confirmation as proof of attendance. • And simply list the course on your year-end detail. • Thank you for participating!
Editor's Notes
- Shimo to do introductions, turn over to Terri to begin:
- Terri:As a meeting planner, you have a lot of decisions to make when planning an event, including picking the right hotel and meetings venue, selecting the right food and beverage offerings, hiring the best speakers, and sourcing good transportation services. But none of these things can be put into place until you’ve chosen the right destination for your meeting. And with so many great cities to pick from, finding the right destination to suit your group can seem like quite a daunting task. But it doesn’t have to be! With 10 simple considerations to follow…finding the perfect destination for your meeting might just get a whole lot easier – and more fun!
- Terri:During this webinar you will learn ways to: Analyze Your Group DynamicsConsider Your Cost ConstraintsAsk the Right Questions to Help You Uncover What You’re Really Looking to Find! All contributing to a perfect match between your meeting and your destination.
- Before combing the countryside for your perfect meetings destination, figure out what is most important to your attendees. Do they crave gourmet restaurants or will cheaper meal options suffice? Is walkability important or would they not mind being shuttled from place to place? Do they care about culture or would mainstream attractions be more appealing? Do they want to meet in a regional destination or is traveling long distances not a problem? Once you’ve gotten a better picture of your attendees’ tastes and preferences, you can start whittling down your options to a smaller group of cities that fit their criteria.
- Not every group is good for every city no matter how popular a destination may be, so that’s why it’s important to pre-qualify cities to see if your group would be a good match. For instance, does the destination have the right physical space to meet your needs, such as a convention center with sufficient square footage and enough hotel rooms? Would your group prefer to be the focus of attention in a smaller city or would being a small fish in a larger destination not be an issue? “Ask yourself, do you want to own the town or are you okay with being one of many?” asks Leonard Hoops, president & CEO of the Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Association. “Some groups want to be the big fish in a smaller destination while some don’t care, they just want to be in a first-tier city and the destination appeal makes it worth it.”
- Make sure to evaluate the city’s air access and airlift capabilities, especially in relation to the key markets your attendees will be coming from. Will getting to that particular city be easy or complex? What are the airline ticket price points? Are the flights direct or non-stop? In addition, consider the transportation costs within the destination itself. Does the city have mass transit or light rail or will attendees have to spend money on cabs to get from place to place? More destinations are focusing on being walkable, so if this is important to your group, narrow down your search to cities where hotels, convention facilities, restaurants and other amenities tend to be concentrated in one centralized area.
- Many destinations can boast some great hotel and meetings products but those offerings don’t mean anything if they’re not the best fit for your attendees. Whether you’re planning an in-house meeting at a hotel or an event at a convention facility, understand the spaces the city has to offer. How are a hotel’s meeting spaces arranged in proximity to the guest rooms? Does the layout of their convention facility work for your particular event? How far are the hotels from the convention center and are there walkways that connect them? Think about where your group has stayed and met in the past, what they liked most and least, then compare and contrast (for a quick map of hotels and convention centers at each destination, go to empowerMINT.com).
- Find out what the destination has to offer when it comes to fun, interesting and unique amenities outside of the meeting space, including restaurants, culture, entertainment and outdoor activities. Does the city offer something you can’t find in any other destination? Is everything conveniently located from the hotel properties and are they within walking distance? If so, is the city safe to explore on foot, especially in the evening hours?
- Find out what the city has done to improve its infrastructure for conventions and how its overall convention package lays out. How close is everything situated? Are all their attractions downtown or are there pockets of entertainment options throughout the city? Consider any construction and development projects going on in the destination and understand how they might impact your event.
- Understand the overall value and cost of holding a meeting in that destination. Would you be better off going to a more affordable city that may not attract as much attendance but will cost you less to do business? How price-sensitive are your attendees and will they shy away from more expensive cities? “What is the ROI of your meeting to that destination?” says Tamela Blalock, national sales manager of Team San Jose. “If your meeting is of average attendance of 2,000 and smaller, a tier-one city may not necessarily fit your meeting as great ROI, where a tier-two city would treat you like the king. Also, affordable does not mean cheap. There are now two types of cities: expensive and affordable.”
- More and more cities are taking the environment very seriously and extending this consciousness to their meetings and convention business. If holding an earth-friendly meeting is important to your group, narrow down your search to cities that have green programs in place, including Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified convention centers and environmentally minded hotel properties that walk the walk, not just talk the talk. (for more information on LEED Certification, please visit: http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=1988)
- There’s something to be said about destinations that make people want to visit. And although nothing beats the broad appeal of first-tier cities, many second and third-tier cities can also have a their fair share of allure. When researching a lesser-known destination, ask about its culture, its industries and what makes it unique and special – you might be surprised! “You can’t get around the fact that there has to be some sort of destination appeal for that specific group,” says Hoops. “Planners will talk about the cost, the logistics and the infrastructure but at the end of the day a city has to have some level of destination appeal for their particular audience or they aren’t coming.”
- Does a CVB have a sales team that you can work with and trust? Do they appear interested in building a relationship with you or are they just working to close your business? Observe the sales staff’s attention to detail and initial follow-up, as that can say a lot about what it will be like to work with them later on, advises Nathan Tollett, director of sales for Visit Houston. “Do they ask the right questions and are they good listeners?” asks Tollett. “Do they have ten good reasons why you should hold your meeting there that make sense? Will they help you analyze what’s important to you and your attendees? If they’re willing to invest all that time, energy and resources on the front-end, the assumption is that will translate through the entire process.” Whether your group is looking for a large and popular destination or a quieter, more compact city, by taking the time to ask yourself these questions while leaning on the destination experts –Convention and Visitor Bureaus – to guide you through the process, you’re sure to find the perfect destination that will set the stage for a positive, memorable and successful meeting experience. And that’s the best ROI of all!
- Terri:Remember you don’t have to go it alone! The CVB in the local destination is there to familiarize you with unfamiliar territory
- Terri:A CVB will help you find the right fit, all for FREE. Their services are already paid for by the tax base in their destination. So whether you are planning or own meeting or planning the meeting for your customer as a third party service….the CVB should be your first call in any destination….and of course you can find the BEST CVBs right here in empowerMINT.comAnd don’t forget to think of them as the ultimate “fertilizer ,” when you are focused on building attendance. They can be called upon to assist you in finding real solutions and organizing the many different sources you may need to call upon in the destination. That’s why they are the best first call in any destination to support all your meeting needs, pre, during and post event.
- Terri: Read the bulletsAnd empowerMINT is there to connect you online in one stop with all the best CVBS.Give you the ability to search, compare even submit one RFP to multiple destinations of interest. Then feature….Destination Services ChecklistFacilities OverviewPlanner Profile
- SHIMOStress that the planners cannot change anything---
- A word about CREDIT!!!
- Shimo to facilitate ?’s.Take any questions…Terri, Ann and Kevin.