Bob Hooey

A Captive Audience On The High Seas

By: Bob “Idea Man” Hooey

Imagine you are lying face down as your masseuse gently smoothes away the stresses of your day. Instead of recorded music, you listen to the sea breaking on the rocks just metres from your Caribbean seaside massage hut. A soft breeze gently caresses your body. “Ahhhh,” you think, “This is ‘sooooo’ much better than last years ‘typical’ conference.” As you relax deeper, you wonder, “How could they provide this amazing experience and still the registration was even less than last year?” The answer is deceptively simple: Your innovative meeting planner wisely took advantage of the challenging economy to negotiate with the cruise company and/or hotel and spa to leverage their investment on your behalf.

Cruise lines are open to negotiating what might have been luxury items in previous years. Currently, groups account for only four to five per cent of cruising clients and cruise lines are seeking to increase this profitable market segment. Groups now represent their “survival,” particularly conference or incentive groups. Previously, incentive groups were more fun based; now they serve as enrichment programs to refresh and recharge the individual’s creativity and focus while creating a shared growth experience.

The hospitality industry is still reeling from the global economic turmoil. This provides a gap for a wise meeting planner to step in and leverage their investment. Wise planners understand that value is not only about dollars and cents. Incentives do provide a return on their investment and should not be dismissed lightly – they can be leveraged profitably!

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Jean Martinson 

How gender has shaped companion Programs
By: Jeanne Martinson

As we toured the Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans, scoping out facility possibilities for a financial conference that was scheduled the following December, my husband commented, “What will we do with the wives?” Married to a diversity strategist, he should have known better – alas, he did not. Standing in the corridor next to the Vieux Carre meeting room, I felt the need to drag him into the 21st Century. Later, though, I contemplated the impact of gender on how meetings are planned. 
“Wives?”

In the early 1970s, my parents attended a financial conference in Montreal, where my father represented the credit union for which he served as president. My mother accompanied him and had a wonderful time. Her days were full of cultural touring and shopping, every moment scheduled as part of the “wives’ program.” My father, in meetings during the day, met up with her for the evening’s festivities. All the delegates were men and all those accompanying them were women. Back then, the “wives’ program” made sense.

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Beverly Beuermann-King

 Are they too much NATURE and not enough MEETING?

By: Beverly Beuermann-King, CSP

  Exotic destinations can be beneficial in attracting, engaging and retaining participants. However, many of these types of meetings suffer from too much sun, too many activities, too much nature and not enough planning in how to manage these distractions so that learning still takes place. “When planned well, a meeting in an exotic destination can have many benefits for the organization as well as the participants,” says Alfredo Oporta, executive director at the Costa Rica Convention Bureau.

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Ed Bernacki

Why Do Business in a Box?
Challenging the boundaries for successful meetings
By Ed Bernacki

You’ve tried laser light shows and motivational speakers to engage people. You even thought of drummers, indoor fireworks and opera singing waiters to stir things up. And what is the result?

I have seen these gimmicks in different countries as a speaker on innovative thinking. What is clear is that too many events think that adding some sparkle to the same old format for meetings will improve results.
It is time for more “outside the box” thinking to design our meetings. Yet, before we can think “outside the box,” we need to see what the current “inside the box” thinking is producing. Here are my observations: 
We start planning many events without defining learning objectives for what it should achieve for participants.

With no overriding objectives, speakers are not challenged to create more original, unique and focused presentations.

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