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Improve Your Next Conference – 5 Really Easy Tips

On 18 April, 2014 by Ciara Feely Comments (0), leave your own!
Categories: Book more conference business, Conference Hotels, Conference Planning, Conference Sales Toolkit, Conference Venue Tips, hotel sales professionals

Tips to make your delegates conference experience easier and dramatically improve networking.

Today’s blog post is written by Kevin Newman who organises BrightonSEO.com conferences as posted in Event Managers Blog. You will love these tips – they just make sense!!

Improve the Usability of Your Name Badges.

Why do you give people name badges at events? It’s probably to make sure you’ve got no freeloaders.
Why are they useful to attendees? To help them remember the name of someone they’ve forgotten or to spot people they’d like to speak to. Yet the badges at most events are tiny, with minuscule fonts that might be on brand but are a nightmare to read at distance.

We take a different approach, that seems to work well for us.
Our badges are huge. A double sided sheet of A6. We do get comments about how huge they are, but making them bigger makes it much easier for them to be useful.
We also use the font Blue Highway. This is not one of our brand fonts. It’s a free font based upon the fonts used on American road signs. That means it’s designed to be clearly read from a distance.
If you can’t read the name of the attendee from 20ft away, we have failed on our badge designs.
Also think about what extra information you could put on the badge with the extra space a bigger badge allows. In the past we’ve included Twitter handles. Sometimes people are more familiar with people’s names on Twitter than their ‘real name’.
Though don’t be afraid to exclude things, on badges whitespace is your friend!

Programme More breaks.

I’ve struggled with this one over the years. I’ve always wanted to cram as much content into a conference as I can, so I was always nibbling away at the breaks.
Then I had a proper read through our feedback. I got the message that the opportunity to network was one of the main reasons people attended our events. So we made more time for exactly that.
Having healthy breaks does mean when a speaker inevitably runs over time, there is still plenty of time for attendees to stock up on caffeine, fresh air and industry gossip.

Arrange More Power Sockets
You can spot who the conference veteran is. They are the first person in the auditorium scoping out the seat nearest a power socket. They will even get charging early in the day to ensure their fully juiced for the whole day.
The reality is at most events your audience will be spending time on their mobile, tablet and/or phone. They will want power to keep them charged.
You can never have enough power sockets at a conference.
Use this opportunity. There are some great off the shelf charging solutions and it’s a great thing to get sponsored or branded. Chargebar is a great service where charging stations can be rented. It becomes the centre for connecting and like the “watering hole” of the conference. Chargers are the most forgotten item at a conference, if you are providing a solution to someones panic of almost running out of juice on their phone or notebook, then you are a saviour.

Send out a ‘What to Expect’ Email

Early on in my conference organising days it amazed me the number of emails I used to get about dress codes. I was organising marketing conferences not gala dinners. It’s one of the things people legitimately get concerned about in the run up to events.
One way to fight this anxiety in your delegates is to send round a ‘What to expect email’ a few days before the event. Talk about dress codes, what types of food and drink are going to be available, whether there will be wi-fi etc.
Think about every small question your attendees have asked ahead of your events. Turn then into a helpful piece of communication. You’ll save your attendees a lot of mental energy fretting.

Schedule Tweets to Pre-empt Problems
There are certain problems we know we are going to have at our events. People arrive early, they can’t find the wifi password, their running out of battery and are looking for a charger.
We know to expect these things so ahead of an event we schedule tweets covering exactly these issues.
It leaves us the time to concentrate on other things on the day but allows people on the back-channel to answer their own questions. You’ll also find other attendees retweeting these ‘Public Service Announcements’. Spreading the message for you.

In Conclusion.
A successful event is all about the details.
These are just a few of the things that have helped make our events more successful. Useful badges, more networking time that you might expect, extensive power sockets, allaying people’s fears with a what to expect email and pre-scheduling tweets to pre-empt problems.

You probably do lots of your own, I hope these tweaks will help you run your event better.

If you like this blog post, you will love these related topics:
One Brilliant Question to Ask When Organising a Conference
How to Effectively Analyze Your Conference – Survey Questions

Feel free to Contact Ciara if you have any questions on how to get the biggest results from your Conference or Event.

Tagged: arranging conferences, charging stations at conference, conference experience, conference organisers, conference planning tips, conference technology. conference apps, networking tips, tips on planning an event

1 Brilliant Question to Ask When Organising a Conference

On 6 November, 2013 by Ciara Feely Comments (0), leave your own!
Categories: Book more conference business, Conference Hotels, Conference Planning, Conference Venue Tips, Hotel Sales Tips

What is the point of the Conference? 5 Tips to ensure the investment in a Conference pays off…

This week’s blog is taken from the brilliant Tuesday Tips of Andy Bounds. I had the pleasure of hearing him in action at a conference recently and he was outstanding. I also had a meeting with him and got some nuggets on my communication. He is the Afters Man…. read any of his books to discover the genius behind why it is so important to speak with our clients in terms of our Afters – what we leave them with after having worked with us. In this blog post Andy discusses my number one question for Conference Organisers to ask themselves and the Conference Committee. It is also a brilliant question for Hotel Conference Sales Teams to ask.

“Conferences are a massive investment of man hours and money. The outcomes have to be amazing to warrant that level of investment. Here are simple techniques to help ensure you get them:

#1 be clear on the DO
Every time a company asks me to help with a conference, my first question is always “what do you want the audience to DO after it?”
And, virtually every time, people don’t know. They often have lots of ideas about content, speakers, venues, welcoming music and other funky ideas… but not enough clarity about their #1 issue: what they want the day to cause. But, of course, when you don’t know this, it just won’t happen. You’ll have a great day; nothing more.

#2 identify your very few, very key messages
Once you know what you want your audience to DO, identify the 2-3 messages you have to get across, to maximise the chance of them doing it. This simplicity and clarity helps guide all future planning. And, without it, things can get very messy, very quickly.

To illustrate this, here is an example that worked for one of my customers:
- The DO – for the audience to be more audience-focused every time they communicate
- The key messages to get across:
# communication isn’t good here
# everyone suffers because of it
# the three steps to improving it
# how we’ll follow up

Once they had this, it was relatively straightforward to build the content around this skeleton (believe me, this is much better than starting with “what slides have you got that we can use?”)

#3 create content around the DO/messages

The next step is to build the day’s content. This involves identifying:
- Content that will:
* give people the ability, motivation and confidence to do the DO
* overcome their concerns about doing it (if you don’t overcome these, they stay concerned)

- The best speakers, who have the skills, authenticity and power to deliver the messages (remember when choosing your speakers: availability is not a skill. Think “who’s best?”; not “who’s available?”)
the flow, so people understand how everything fits together

#4 simplify things even further

A lot of people have heard the mantra “you should have no more than three key messages in your presentation”. But, if you have six speakers, that’s a total of 18 key messages. And nobody will remember all of them.
So, simplify everything into the smallest number of messages, for people to remember.
As a general rule, it’s worth making one point in an entertaining, memorable way, rather than ten points in a rushed, forgettable way.

#5 practise
If your speakers don’t practise, they won’t be as good as they could be. This is bad whichever way you look at it:
# is disrespectful to the audience
# wastes time – thousands of man-hours absorbed watching somebody wing it
# causes people to feel disappointment and underwhelmed

And, let’s face it, it never does the speaker much good, does it?
You can add your own points to my five, of course. But if you don’t do things like this, the costs of holding a conference can become higher and more measureable than the returns.
However, get it right, and everything changes. I’ve seen countless examples of conferences that have been so powerful, that a workforce has transformed within just one day. Are yours as good as they could be?”

So that is it! Wonderfully written by Andy Bounds, I couldn’t have said it better myself! Hearing this from the Man Himself is so much more powerful.

For more brilliant tips from Andy Bounds, sign up here.
To find more brilliant Conference Speakers – talk to Mary Menton, Irish Speakers Bureau.
To get more brilliant tips on organising a Conference, sign up here.
To get more brilliant tips on how to “Win More Conference Business” – sign up here.

Tagged: arranging conferences, arranging events, conference organising, conference tips, how to increase midweek business hotels, midweek business hotels, midweek hotel business, top tips for organising a conference, win more conference business

Create the Buzzz Factor at your Conference – how the venue can help..

On 16 September, 2013 by Ciara Feely Comments (0), leave your own!
Categories: Book more conference business, Conference Event Technology, Conference Planning

How to Determine if a Venue can Provide Good Event Wi-Fi for Your Next Event

Ensuring the Wi-Fi is strong enough at your Conference Venue to allow for streaming and multiple delegates online at the same time is the smartest way to Market your event. It is also the smartest way for the Hotel to market itself… let the magic of social media multiply the power of your marketing budget.

This is a great article by Corbin Ball, Technology Expert in the Meetings Industry.

In today’s world almost no event can be successful without the aid of Wi-Fi and other technology. And Wi-Fi networks at events and tradeshows are becoming more and more crowded as attendees use an ever greater number of Wi-Fi enabled devices including smartphones, tablets, and laptops.

Bottom line, Wi-Fi is no longer an optional perk you may or may not offer. It’s a must.

And as the number of wireless devices grows exponentially, so do the expectations of your attendees. Poor Wi-Fi can do more than create a bad user experience; it can cause attendees to leave in order to find a better connection, or even keep them from attending the event at all if they think their productivity will be limited. Bad WiFi can also ruin a key talk and ruin exhibitor interaction – along with your reputation.

Because every venue has its own unique characteristics, and every event has attendees with varying needs, there is no simple formula you can use to ensure a great event Wi-Fi experience.

Unfortunately, many event organizers do not have the technical background or skill set to truly determine whether or not a vendor has the ability and capacity to provide the needed Wi-Fi for any particular event. Which means hiring an expert during the event planning phase is easily worth the investment when that expert can help ensure a great user experience and smooth running talks and presentations.

Beyond knowing the needs of your attendees, creating a positive Wi-Fi experience begins with being able to ask the right questions. The following questions give you a non-tech heavy approach to trying to determine if a potential venue will be able to provide you with the proper Wi-Fi for your event’s needs. These questions are effective whether you’re interviewing a potential venue, a Wi-Fi company, or a Wi-Fi consultant.

Step 1:
Ask these 20 essential questions:

1. Have they done similar events?
2. How many people attended those events?
3. Were attendees using multiple devices?
4. How much dedicated bandwidth will be available to your group?
5. Will Wi-Fi be available 24/7?
6. Will there be a qualified technician on site, who you can easily reach, during the entire event?
7. Will Wi-Fi be available in hotel rooms and conference rooms or just conference rooms?
8. What is the capacity in each of the rooms?
9. What is the minimum signal in each room?
10. Will the network be actively managed during the event?
11. What is the backup plan in case things go wrong?
12. How will they deal with any outages?
13. Where are the access points?
14. Is the Wi-Fi coverage consistent in all areas or are there weak areas of connectivity?
15. Can you provide hard lines for each of the meeting rooms for speaker needs?
16. Can you separate Wi-Fi for rooms or for different groups?
17. Can we bring in a tech from an outside AV company as an additional resource?
18. Will we be allowed to have access to the site prior to our event?
19. What type of Wi-Fi security is in place?
20. Does the bandwidth provide the same uploading and downloading speed?

If you are satisfied with the answers to those questions and the information leads you to believe their system or expertise fits with your needs, then go to Step 2.

Step 2:
Ask for reports from previous similar events. They should be able to provide reports on previous events which include bandwidth, numbers of users, and any problems that were encountered. Make sure the reports are from events that are similar in scope and attendance to what your event will be.

Step 3:
Ask for references from similar events that they handled. Actually call the references to get their perspective and ask a few questions about how easy or difficult the staff is to deal with and if the venue fulfilled everything they said they would.

As an event coordinator or planner, keep in mind that Wi-Fi is something you can negotiate and you should do so up front which means it cannot be an afterthought.

The upside? Well planned and implemented Event Wi-Fi means that attendees can live stream and blog about your event, right then and there; Media can quickly and easily get their stories out; and product announcements can go viral in real time.

All of that adds up to a powerful buzz-factor which becomes the most positive type of marketing and hype for your event.

For more conference technology tips see our post – 3 Smart, Innovative Conference Hotel Experience Ideas.

Tagged: arranging conferences, conference and meeting place, Conference Centre Venues, conference hotel, conference organisers, conference technology. conference apps, conference venue ireland, corporate event planning tips, how to save money when planning a conference, market conferences, market your event, organise a conference on a shoe string budget, smart marketing tips. conference planning, tips on planning an event

How to Effectively Analyse your Conference – post event surveys…

On 1 July, 2013 by Ciara Feely Comments (0), leave your own!
Categories: Book more conference business, Conference Planning, Conference Survey Questions, Conference Venue Tips, Marketing Events

Top 10 Conference Survey Questions……..

This comprehensive list is taken from a post on LinkedIn, started by Wendy Sullivan – NABC Planner at American Contract Bridge League. She asked a question and got 66 comments back with some great suggestions from Conference and Event planners worldwide.

Here is the Top 10;

1. Create a pre-event survey to better understand the goals of your attendees, and then follow up with a post-event survey to see if they accomplished those goals.
2. What was the best part of the Conference?
3. Why was this event successful for you?
4. Is there anything we could have done better?
5. How was the Staff/Food/Location (rating 1-10)?
6. Would you refer us to a friend or colleague?

Ask all of the above with a why section so delegates can elaborate more and you can evaluate the information.

7. Did the technology used at the event enhance, take away from, or make your participation more enjoyable? If you didn’t use technology, ask for suggestions on what they would recommend.
8. Ask for the feedback once participants are back at work. By waiting a couple of days you receive much longer, insightful and interesting feedback. I put this down to attendees rushing off at the end of an event but having the time back at work to be more considered. Our ’scores’ remained consistent but the open questions elicited much more comprehensive answers.
9. Capture video testimonials post-event before people walk away from the event. Not only does it create excellent marketing material, but it captures the immediate “wow” factor.
10. Was the conference a good opportunity to Network?? (a recent report shows 80% of the reasons delegates go to conferences is to Network). Rating this question 1-10.

There are lots more suggestions so I will post them at another date.

If you liked this post, check out 27 Things to do before a Conference!

Tagged: arranging conferences, conference and meeting place, conference event management, Conference Hotels, conference organisers, Conference Survey Questions, conference surveys, conference technology. conference apps, corporate event planning tips, event management, event planning, hotels, post event survey, post event surveys, questions to ask in a survey, tips on planning an event

If Lady Gaga was a Conference Organiser…

On 12 June, 2013 by Ciara Feely Comments (0), leave your own!
Categories: Book more conference business, Conference Event Technology, Conference Venue Tips, Hotel Sales Tips

This is what it would take to book her conference…

1. Don’t waste her time not sending clear photos and floor plans of the venue. She is not going to visit 4 or 5 Venues, just the one or 2 that make it easy for her to book the venue.
2. A video of the conference facilities
3. Demonstrating what value the venue adds to her event
4. Ideas to make her look WOW and the event stand out
5. How the conference hotel can deliver an amazing delegate experience
6. To communicate with her by her preferred method- phone, email, social media.
7. Fresh ideas on how she can embrace conference technology and integrate it to make her event stand out
8. Expedient follow up on the event
9. The venue to ask- how can we make it better?
10. To quote Lady Gaga – “You have to be unique, and different, and shine in your own way.” The Proposal, Brochure and Site inspection must be kick ass material and show that you are the best at your game. What can you do to make your hotel stand out from the crowd??

For more ideas on how to book more conference business, I have developed a workshop showing hotels how to book more conference business. Contact me and I can show you how to generate more conference leads and convert them. I have listened to hundreds of hotel pitches and very few of them have made an impact on me. I have spoken to and gained a deep understanding of hundreds of conference organisers. I have interviewed lots of event organiers, I share those insights and more in this workshop.

Tagged: conference technology. conference apps, convert more conference business, hotel consultant, Hotel Sales Tips, how to build your business, Lady Gaga

Telling Stories to increase conference business and attract more delegates…

On 28 May, 2013 by Ciara Feely Comments (0), leave your own!
Categories: Book more conference business, Conference Planning, Conference Venue Tips, Hotel Sales Tips, Hotel Site Inspection, Marketing Events

As they say – Facts tell, stories sell…

I subscribe to Andy Bounds Tuesday Tips and always find some great nuggets in them. He is strong on communication tips and a go to expert in that area. This weeks tip is on Telling Stories and how they can transform the sales process. These are the 3 essential elements of a story –

1 Why it’s needed
2 The desired future
3 Immediate next steps

You can also add the drama of filling in who the villain is, what is the build up, who is the hero (usually you or your service), how it helped someone.

To illustrate your point – start by the story illustrating the need to change – what was the lead up? For conference organisers for example they discovered that delegates were tired of their usual venue and it wasn’t conducive to networking.

Then paint the picture of how it could be – a change of conference venue attracted new delegates and really enabled networking, both the exhibitors and delegates were happy, got great feedback and resulted in higher sales.

What are the immediate next steps?? – how the venue can help conference organisers run a better and more profitable event.

I’d love to hear your hotel and conference stories. Please do leave a comment.
If you liked this blog, you will get great tips in this one on how to market your event on Twitter.

3 Smart, innovative conference hotel experience ideas

On 23 May, 2013 by Ciara Feely Comments (0), leave your own!
Categories: Book more conference business, Conference Event Technology, Conference Hotels, Conference Venue Tips, Hotel Sales Tips

3 great ideas that create a wonderful sense of arrival for any conference hotel to deliver….

I discovered a great article on luxury hotel innovations written by Coyle Hospitality that enhance the guest experience. These would really be fantastic for any conference goer and make a conference organiser’s life a lot easier too.

1 – This is my favourite one — ipads supplied for each guest. The Plaza Hotel in New York have enhanced their guests experience by offering each guest an iPad from which they can do just about everything they need while staying at the hotel, including control the temperature in their room, order room service, make restaurant reservations, communicate with the concierge, request wake-up calls, explore NYC destination guides, and even check airline schedules and print boarding passes. How great would it be then to pre-load the ipads with the conference agenda, list of delegates, apps to network with, articles on the conference speakers, the conference organisers contact information, things to do in the area and a feedback on the conference app.

2 – Good bye to the front desk(This one I just love too as it is my pet peeve checking in at hotels) — Arriving guests are met by roving hosts, who sit down with them, offer a free glass of wine or coffee, and complete the check in process on a tablet computer (or iPad). It is soooo welcoming and sets a relaxed tone for the stay.

This I would just love for a conference experience as networking would be made so much easier, conference delegates generally arrive around the same time so this would kick off networking straight away. I find the “Front desk” just places a barrier between the guest and the hotelier, the most welcoming guest houses don’t have them, why should hotels? The new Hyatt brand – Andaz has this “welcome” as standard and more and more luxury boutique hotels are moving towards this also.

3 – This is niche within a niche – introducing hypo-allergenic rooms. This has been introduced by Hyatt Each “Respire” room gets a one-time shock treatment to minimize irritants, hypo-allergenic mattress and pillow cases, a powerful air purifier that’s listed as a medical device by the FDA, and other treatments that eliminate allergens on carpets and upholstery. – The number of asthma sufferers is projected to hit 400 million by 2025, so this may no longer be niche, just necessary.

For expertise on Hotels and venues, feel free to call me. Ciara zero86-3611428

Tagged: andaz hyatt, arranging conferences, conference and meeting place, conference hotel, Conference Hotels, conference innovatino, conference organisers, conference technology, conference technology. conference apps, corporate event planning tips, hotel experience, hotels, hyatt hotels, networking tips, smart conference tips, tips on planning an event

Email is killing your conference business… how to book more conference and meetings business…

On 21 May, 2013 by Ciara Feely Comments (0), leave your own!
Categories: Book more conference business, Conference Venues, Hotel Sales Tips, Venue Reviews

Top tips for converting more conference and meetings business.

There is a dangerous trend that has crept into the hotel industry- that of not picking up the phone and speaking to a conference organiser, instead choosing to email on the proposal for a conference, meeting or event and perhaps following up in the next few days, some choosing to follow up by email- again!! others taking the smart customer service approach and calling. However, calling the client days after a meeting proposal has been received is too late.

It is a lazy sales approach that became the norm when hotels were too busy to talk to their clients. It’s my mission to eradicate it. My first lesson in the importance of speaking to the client first was made when I was sales coordinator for Crowne Plaza Hotel San Francisco, Sheila Fonseca my Sales Manager was away that week and I was stepping in for her. She got mystery shopped that week and I was the person replying to the enquiry for her. I couldn’t get the client on the phone, they didn’t answer my call for days, I got nervous and was just so anxious to get the proposal to the client, I decided to email it without first speaking to the client. (Actually, fax was the preferred method of delivery then!). Needless to say, she failed the mystery shop that month as I also made the mistake of leaving the rates proposed on their voicemail.

So here are my top tips for converting more meetings and conference business-

If the request is received by email or through a contact page on the website or through my lead generator site, pick up the phone and call the client first. It is amazing what valuable information you will learn by starting to build a relationship and asking the right questions.

Ask great, open ended questions- in my 7 years of working as a venue finder I have never once been asked ” what is the number one result needed from this conference, meeting or event?” This is a massively powerful question because it demonstrates you understand their needs. It also turns the conversation from a sales pitch to a partnership relationship when there is less focus on price.

Other great questions are-

1. What went well at your last event?
2. What would you change about the last conference you attended or organised?
3. How important is networking to the success of the conference?
4. What do you want the delegates walking away from the conference thinking and saying about your organisation?
5. What do you need to achieve by the set up of the room? Opportunity here to advise on best set up styles to suit the result they need from the event.
6. Where are your delegates attending from?
7. How important is access and parking?
8. What photography do you need of the venue to help you make a decision?
9. What more can I do to help you make a decision?

Above all, if there are any important issues you need to deal with, any clarifications to be made, call and discuss it first. Just yesterday I had a major Dublin conference hotel that I have referred 10 conferences to this year; tell me by email they will not pay me for referring business to them. The most disappointing element of this lack of foresight is that they chose to tell me this by email. That is what is most annoying and I won’t forget. If they chose to communicate with me like this, will they also choose to annoy my clients by email?

Never underestimate the power of building a personal relationship. We are all human and prefer the personal touch. It is the hospitality industry after all!

If you like this blog post, check out this blog post on how to win more conference business. and How to do a fantastic site inspection.
Or feel free to call me – Ciara (zero) 86 3611428.

Tagged: arranging events, conference business, Conference Hotels, conference venues dublin, corporate event planning tips, Crowne Plaza Hotel, Dublin Conference Hotel, hotel marketing, hotel marketing tips, Hotel Sales Tips, how to book more meeting business

How to Network Effectively at a Conference…

On 23 April, 2013 by Ciara Feely Comments (0), leave your own!
Categories: Book more conference business, Business Network International, Conference Planning, Conference Venue Tips, Networking in General

Simple, easy tips on how to make your time pay at a conference – make networking work!

Networking is the number one reason delegates attend a conference! It is a perfect opportunity to meet the movers and shakers in your industry. While networking online has become very important and popular in the last few years, nothing can beat meeting people face to face. It is an opportunity to start, build and strengthen business relationships. Conference hotels and the conference venue can very much enhance the networking experience, depending on how they are set up.

Here are some tips on how to make networking at a conference profitable!
1. Research the conference speakers before hand and connect with them. They will be happy to know their talk is eagerly anticpated. Email them – ask them can you say hello before hand. Connect with them on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook – whatever is their preferred medium. Tweet about them and the event. They may also mention/refer to you in their talk.
2. Introduce yourself to the speakers at the beginning of the conference and sit up the front.
3. Ask the organisers for a list of attendees and link with them, you can identify who you really want to speak with and connect with them before the event. Make a few appointments.
4. Always ask a great question at the conference – introduce yourself and your business and ask an intelligent, relevant question. Everyone will know you after that and it is easier for people to approach you.
5. Watch who the conference speakers are talking to and ensure you get to meet them.
6. Listen – it is the most important element of networking. Be interested! They will open up to you more if you seem interested in them.
7. Have open ended questions prepared to ask that can also lead around to your business – “what projects are you working on at the moment?” “ Who is a great connection for you and why?” And my favourite is “how can I help you?”
8. Be ready to get to the point quickly about your business – have the answers to the above questions prepared yourself.
9. SMILE! Make eye contact; Be approachable, wear a name tag very prominently – on the right shoulder, always talk to someone who looks more shy than you and not talking to anyone else. Act like a host rather than a guest.

10. Follow up!! Do what you say you would do, send a relevant article to anyone you spoke to about a certain topic. Those you said you would contact to have a futher meeting with – call them within 72 hours.

For more tips on how to ensure your conference is set up to be conducive to networking – feel free to get in touch.

Tagged: arranging events, corporate event services, networking tips, tips on planning an event

How to book more conference business and increase hotel revenue…

On 30 March, 2013 by Ciara Feely Comments (0), leave your own!
Categories: Book more conference business, Hotel Sales Tips, Hotel Site Inspection

I am really admiring Norah Casey these days, and very much enjoying her style in “The Takeover”. Her number one tip for business this year is to offer new services and try something different. So that is what I have done –

I have launched a new service for hotels. It is called the Conference Experience – and it shows hotels how to attract conference business. I have even made up my own word for it “Conference-ising” Hotels. The service does not exist in the market at the moment.

Have you ever done a site inspection of a hotel and thought – that hotel is great for weddings but they obviously don’t do many conferences? So many hotels in Ireland concentrated on the wedding market for the last few years as it was easier business to get – I have done hundreds of site inspections or tours of hotels over the last few years and little or no effort was put into it on the part of the hotel sales staff, that is very frustrating. Hotels are speaking to the conference organiser the same way they would to a bride. That will never inspire confidence in the conference organiser….

I show hotels how to speak to the conference organiser, in their language and do a wow site inspection. There is a lot of interest in it and I am getting fantastic feedback – most hotels don’t realise that they are not talking in the language of their clients. I show them how – it comes from years of being shown a hotel in the wrong way. I also show hotels how to book conference and meeting business from the traffic already going through their lobby.

Great, simple tips that are easy to implement and start booking business from immediately. Here are some tips on how to do a fantastic site inspection that will convert into business.

Call me or email for more information. answers (at) findaconferencevenue dot com. Ask for Ciara.

Tagged: conference business, corporate event planning tips, Hotel Revenue Management, Hotel Sales, Hotel Sales Manager, Hotel Site Inspection, Hotel tours, how to book more conference business, how to build your business, how to do a site inspection, How to do a walk through of a hotel, Increase hotel sales, site inspection

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GREEN VENUES

Improve Your Next Conference – 5 Really Easy Tips

1 Brilliant Question to Ask When Organising a Conference

Create the Buzzz Factor at your Conference – how the venue can help..

How to Effectively Analyse your Conference – post event surveys…

If Lady Gaga was a Conference Organiser…

Telling Stories to increase conference business and attract more delegates…

3 Smart, innovative conference hotel experience ideas

Email is killing your conference business… how to book more conference and meetings business…

How to Network Effectively at a Conference…

How to book more conference business and increase hotel revenue…