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!

This might be the optimum time to book your group for a seagoing meeting or a resort and spa venue.

You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how open they are to provide total value to you and your group. Your group will be surprised and you’ll attract value-added speakers, too.

According to Jo Kling of Landry & Kling Cruise Event Services, “A cruise can save up to 40 per cent compared to a hotel because almost everything is included. Meals, meeting rooms, A/V, coffee breaks, activities, entertainment and even room service are part of the all-inclusive cruise fare. You spend nothing on linens, florals, lighting, labour, or state/city taxes, which saves you money and gives you time to devote to your business agenda and attendees.” Kling and partner Joyce Landry have been assisting meeting planners in successfully working with cruise lines for almost 28 years. “Cruising is perceived as an exciting adventure, a brand new experience,” says Landry.

Unique environment + creative agenda = successful meeting

CAPS Edmonton member Dave Rodwell suggests scheduling meetings in the morning to avoid competition with nature. He once conducted afternoon workshops at a mountain retreat. “It’s tough to keep attention when the golf course is beckoning. You need to carefully schedule workshops around meals and leave late afternoon for play,” he asserts.

Rebecca Morgan, CSP, has spoken and led seminars on various cruises. Her suggestion: “The more you can integrate the special situation of the environment, the better.” She says that she used her unique surroundings to encourage a different type of learning. “We’d take silent hikes and encourage participants to articulate a question they wanted answered and let their inner intelligence provide the answer.”  

Cruises provide exciting venues to hold meetings. They increase attendance, build a shared experience, encourage engagement and help put everyone in a good mood. Now, they are more affordable than ever. With all of these positives, cruise conference also offer a few unique challenges.

Professional speaker Barry Maher, who has a lot of experience speaking at sea, suggests locking in your meeting room and making sure it is conducive to your needs. “Make sure it is in an area with less foot traffic passing by or even moving through,” he says. “Remember, your group will not be the main priority of the cruise director who has many other things going on, things that may affect more passengers.” Double check your rooms the day before your meeting to ensure any AV or other required equipment is available.

In regards to selecting the right speaker, Maher had this to add: “On cruises and in spas content is even more vital. There are so many distractions, so many other things that your participants could be doing. If your speakers don’t know how to hold an audience, you’re dead. Even if participants show up, they’ll be daydreaming about what they are going to do once the meeting is over.”

There are differences between hotels and cruise lines when scheduling a meeting.

Meeting planners accustomed to arriving at the hotel a day or two before the group often arrive on a ship only an hour or two before their participants. Typically, everyone embarks within a four-hour window of time. You really have to hit the ground running.

There is no “24-hour hold” on the ship’s major public rooms. Flexibility and pre-planning with the cruise line is required.

Scheduling must be worked out further in advance of the event, and your attendees need to register and book travel much earlier.

You won’t need your normal budget for A/V equipment rentals, theme décor or special entertainment – it’s all included on a ship. So you can reallocate your budget to provide shore excursions, spa treatments or additional onboard amenities; or just drop the savings to the bottom line.

You’ll want to rearrange many aspects of your traditional land-based daily agenda.?These changes add a new level of excitement to your program and can be highlighted in the trip promotion. Some examples:?A) No pre-selected meals – you get to choose from a vast menu at every meal;?B) A wide variety of daily activities such as world-class spas and nightly entertainment, including casino gambling. You’ll visit several different destinations with no extra packing or travel hassle.

Many ships now have dedicated conference centres with air walls, wireless capabilities and built-in A/V equipment, theatres with plush seating for up to 1,500, professional lighting and other theatrical effects. Other public areas are specially designed to be convertible so they can easily accommodate special events.

Canadian Ideaman Bob Hooey travels the world to serve his clients. He challenges his audiences to push into the winner’s zone. His innovative Ideas At Work has taken him to 28 countries, on four continents. He engages leaders and clients who want to grow their business and equip their people to succeed. • www.HaveMouthWillTravel.com

This entry was posted on Monday, April 26th, 2010 at 3:14 pm and is filed under Spring 2010. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.