Episode XI Studios Blog

As a meeting planner and a frequent business traveler I can honestly say that booking a hotel can be a bit of a daunting task. I have had mixed luck with choosing hotels over the years. Usually for the typical few nights stay there is no site visit beforehand, so you must rely on pictures of the hotel provided on their website, or the reputation of their brand name. As we all know photos can be very misleading, and even though the hotel has a brand name, they are usually privately owned franchises, so not all of the quality levels are consistent throughout the chain. A prime example of these inconsistencies is the Holiday Inn. Some of the hotels in this chain are almost 4-star, and others could barely earn a single star.

When planning a meeting, the endless exhausting site visits are one of the worst parts of the process. One thing I’ve noticed is that if you contact a hotel to discuss having a meeting there, they will send you pictures of the meeting space looking it’s best, but very few photos of the rooms or the rest of the hotel. When you tour the hotel on your site visit you find that while the meeting space may be sufficient the rest of the hotel doesn’t measure up. If only there was a way to narrow down the list of possibilities even more before the site visit trip.

The best way to showcase a hotel is with video. It’s much harder to doctor up a video than a still picture and it also gives you a “feel” for the ambience in addition to a clearer visual of the space. Most videos are filmed with actual guests in the background. You can see if they are enjoying themselves!

Hoteliers should consider video marketing. How many times during the initial RFP phase have I heard a hotel sales rep say, “If you could just see this place, I know you choose our hotel!” Well, give me a professionally produced video tour, and you’ve already enticed me to see more, even if typically something else would have taken the hotel off my consideration list earlier.

On one occasion I received an RFP and decided that the room rates of a certain hotel were too expensive, but after seeing a video showing how beautifully well appointed the hotel was, the restaurant and all the extra amenities, I decided to add that hotel to my site visit list after all. I reconsidered spending the extra bucks and cut back elsewhere in the budget so that we could host the meeting at that location. In the end the video made the sale, and the hotel got my meeting bringing in a group of 400 people for 5 nights.

Everyone was happy! It’s a win/win situation.

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There are a few ways to quickly make a mess of your trade show booth and discourage visitors from stopping in to see you. My advice would be to avoid the following. Be sure to post this list in a storage closet or area where employees will be sure to see the list, and go over the rules with everyone before the trade show begins.

* DO NOT Sit down, read newspapers or anything else, smoke, eat or drink in the booth (this includes coffee and bottled water).
* DO NOT Ignore prospects by forming a cozy cluster and chatting with colleagues.
* DO NOT use your mobile phone in the booth, if you must make a call, step out of the booth to do so. And NEVER interrupt a prospect to take a phone call.
* DON'T Leave the booth unattended or leave without informing colleagues.
* DON'T Be late for your scheduled booth duty.
* DON'T Stand with your back to the aisle, it makes you seem unapproachable, and you can't see prospects to greet them.
* DON'T Use inappropriate language, complain about the show or about being at the show.
* NEVER Badmouth your competitors.
* Keep the booth clean, throw out trash as soon as you see it, and don't leave prospect's business cards lying around as though they are unimportant.

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Trade show demonstration and marketing videos are the best way to support your sales and marketing efforts in the trade show! It is already so expensive to exhibit at a trade show, you really need to be sure that you're doing all you can to get the attention you deserve from attendees. The best part of having a good video is that you can use it in so many different ways other than just airing it at your tradeshow. It's a worthwhile investment.

* Trade Show Video
* Tools for Sales Reps to take on Sales Calls
* Website Online Video
* Company Sales Meetings
* DVD Distribution

Videos for Trade Shows are proven to work!

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Corbin Ball Associates - Exposition and Onsite Management - 10 Do’s and 10 Don’ts in Staffing Your Exhibit Booth

As mentioned in the article in the link above, there is a certain trade show etiquette and it's important to follow the rules if you want to get, and keep, your booth traffic. I've seen too many sad mistakes by sales reps on the trade show floor.

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EventPlanner: Tips: Event Planners / Consultants

One of the important things I've learned as an event planner is that you must know the budget early on in the project. Alot of folks who hire a planner are afraid to discuss the budget. There are several reasons why people hesitate, some are uncomfortable discussing money altogether, but mostly I think that they are worried that by letting the planner know how much is budgeted that the planner will in turn charge them too much money to help plan the event.

I would like to take the fear out of the equation! Planners aren't out to take every penny of your budget dollars, we just want to make sure you get the most out of your budget and really want to make sure you don't spend more on the event that you had budgeted.

Above is a good article about how to work with a meeting planner.

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Concord NC Hotels: Embassy Suites Hotel Resort & Conference Center Charlotte-Concord - North Carolina

When planning your next meeting or special event in the Charlotte area, keep the Embassy Suites Concord in mind! We recently had the pleasure of working with them on a project and got to "experience" the hotel. With a beautiful decor, fantastic breakfast and manager's reception, relaxing spa and excellent restaurant, we couldn't find a bad thing to say about the hotel.

The best part about the trip was that the hotel staff is extra friendly and helpful and always going above and beyond to make sure that we were comfortable. Kudos to the Embassy Suites! We will come back!

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BiZBash.com - Press Release - NEW YORK, December 27, 2000

There's really no reason to continue hosting the boring sales meetings of yesterday. If you want to see endless PowerPoint presentations during the day, you absolutely MUST spice it up during the evening. The article referenced above lists a few new trends to spice up your meeting.

Remember that casino night has already been done a thousand times, so come up with something new for your guests and give them alot of color, great food and entertainment. It's up to you to be sure that they come around again for the next event.

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Meeting Planning, Eliminating Free Time

After years of working for a company that refused to allow their employees to have any free time at sales meetings, I've learned a few lessons myself. You really can't and shouldn't dominate every free second of your employees time at meetings. Everyone needs a break for having to wear the "work hat".

This article lists several reasons why free time is extremely important.

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Your meetings often start late and run over time, but it doesn't have to be this way. It's time to take your meetings more seriously! Whether you're the meeting organizer or the attendee, commit to starting and finishing your meetings on time. Expect attendees to be punctual and the meeting to finish on schedule. Intolerance for tardiness will set a behavioral standard for the group, and participants will likely conform if expectations are well-defined and consistently enforced. Listed below are some tips to help you and your group stay on time.

If You're the Meeting Organizer:
1. state that the meeting will begin promptly at the scheduled time and that all participants should be on time
2. send a reminder e-mail thirty minutes before the meeting begins and encourage meeting participants to arrive on time
3. ensure that you begin the meeting at the scheduled time. If you've encouraged others to be prompt, don't embarrass yourself by showing up late.
4. close the meeting room doors at the scheduled time. There's nothing like late attendees to disrupt the flow of a meeting! Consider posting a note outside the door stating the meeting's time. This may seem harsh, but it clearly communicates how serious you are about keeping your meetings on time. If the tardy participants don't consider your meeting important enough to arrive on time, perhaps they shouldn't have committed to attend at all.
5. if your meeting starts a little late, you should still finish the meeting at the scheduled time. It's inconsiderate to assume the participants' schedules revolve around your meeting, so wrap up the meeting when you promised.
6. consider creating a "latecomer jar" to which meeting participants must contribute one dollar for each minute they arrive late to meetings. At the end of the week, you can buy muffins or donuts for everyone who attended the meeting… courtesy of the latecomers!

If You're the Attendee:
7. quickly review the agenda before heading to the meeting. It's a good idea to remind yourself why you're attending the meeting. Reviewing the agenda helps attendees be better prepared for the meeting and, in turn, will help focus the meeting, enable all of the agenda items to be covered and allow the meeting to finish on time!
8. make your way to the meeting ten minutes before it actually begins. This will give you enough time to visit the washroom, pour a cup of coffee or deal with any issues that may come up along the way. Plus, you'll get the best seat for the meeting!
9. consider speaking up if the meeting organizer shows up late. There are several ways to do this tactfully without insulting anyone. For example, if the organizer consistently arrives ten minutes late to your weekly meetings, ask him if it would be more convenient to start 15 minutes later next week.
10. try to ask only relevant questions during the meeting. If your comment isn't directly related to the topic at hand, don't mention it. Getting off track is one of the main reasons that meetings go over time. If your group can avoid getting off track, you'll all spend less time in meetings.
11. leave the meeting when it was scheduled to end. When the organizer extended the invitation to meet, he stated when the meeting would finish. It was on this condition that you accepted the meeting and committed your time. If you have work to which you must attend, politely tell the organizer that you have to leave and excuse yourself from the meeting.

By acting on these ideas, you can indicate how important punctual meetings are. You may even influence others whose meetings frequently run over time.

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by Beth Sowell

1. Meeting and event planners already know where to find the good venues in town. You can tell them about your vision and budget and they can help you find the perfect place to host your event. What if you decided to host a big bonfire and weenie roast just to give your attendees an unusual
night? Do you know where in town you can do something like that? We do! And I assure it’s not at the Renaissance Hotel.

2. Details, details, details… most folks are not aware of all the details that are involved in planning an event, at least not until they try to do it themselves. Even then, you may not get the full picture until the day of, then you realize all the things you did not do that you should have. A good planner knows this and they make sure that everything is ready before the event AND that there is always a backup
plan that will appear seamless to your guests in the event of an emergency.

3. Negotiating rates and contracts are one of the most important things that a qualified planner can do for you. There are so many loopholes in contracts that could cost you a fortune. You really need an experienced planner to take a look at contracts to be sure that you are covered and the contract is fair. I have seen contracts that were signed by administrative assistants that ended up costing the company an additional $20k because of a tiny hidden overlooked clause.

4. Experienced planners have hired most of the caterers in town already. The best part is that they can also tell you which caterers would be best for your particular event-type. And let’s face it; if you really are having a weenie roast, you probably do not need to hire the chef from the Ritz Carlton.

5. Budget monitoring is difficult enough without having to worry about surprise costs, like taxes and gratuities that get tacked on at the very end. Did you know that tax and gratuity can cost you about 25% or more of the final bill? That is an example of the unhappy surprises that can get you in the end. Your planner is aware of these costs and will be able to keep a close eye on your budget so that you don’t have to worry about exceeding expenses.

6. RSVP’s can be one of the most irritating parts of hosting an event. You get phone calls or emails from invited guests. Say, when you’re on the road, or busy in a meeting. You write the response on a tiny yellow post-it, and loose the post-it. You have lost valuable information. That loss could cost you either way! If the call was to say, “I’m coming!” you would not be prepared… no badge, no seat at the
table, the caterer’s head count is wrong. If they tell you they will not be able make it, you might pay the $50 per person for their attendance and have an empty seat. Some problems are bigger than others, some are just embarrassing, and you never want your guests to feel like they are not
welcome. It is just easier to let an event planner keep track of important RSVPs for you.

7. The most luxurious reason to hire a meeting planner is so that you can sit back and enjoy the event. You can let the planner keep up with the details and make sure that everything is running smoothly allowing you spend to your time with your attendees, and focus on your attendees
instead.

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