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A week or so ago Cindy and I covered a class for our colleague, Monica. It was a one-day program. At first glance it was pretty straightforward... until it wasn't. Do you ever think about writing down all the things you do on a daily basis or all the intricacies of running your events? Or updating your checklists daily? I would say most people don't. Here's what you can do when faced with having to cover for someone.
I came across this article on Meetings Mean Business that perfectly summed up the top signs you're in the meeting industry. I love a good top ten list. I also love when they have animated GIFs that correlate to the point being made. BuzzFeed is notorious for having their articles contain these hysterical, yet appropriate animations. Sometimes you find that someone else can say it best.
I can't help but get excited to watch the US Women take on the "Group of Death" just as the US Men did during the World Cup just a year ago. The main difference between the men's team and women's team is that the women are not underdogs as the men were last year. However, the road to the final will not be a walk in the park as it has been in the past. With the pool of teams expanded from 16 to 24 this year, there seems to be no clear favorite to win it all. Thus, you have to stay tuned in to find out if American will be victorious.
Today has been packed with learning for me. I sat through a webinar this morning as a facilitator/presenter and learned about how various technology can be used to better facilitate meetings and learning interactions. I heard from quite a few people that it was one of the best webinars they've ever sat through. I was proud to be able to put this together for NC SGMP.
I am currently in the process of booking a conference for 2017. I have updated my request for proposal (RFP) and have begun sending this out to various hotels and convention and visitors bureaus (CVBs). Now I am waiting. In the past few years we have been able to get fantastic rates of $82 per night for this group of 350 people. However, we are living in a different time now.
Contracting a hotel block and meeting space is a very typical job of a meeting professional. That's why I wanted to make sure that it was part of last week's NC SGMP Conference. We had two planners, two hoteliers, and a CVB representative speak on a panel about contracts. The information that was shared proved to be one of the most valuable parts of the conference.
Dr. Kevin Snyder kicked us off encouraging us to "Think Differently." He was very high energy and got us on our feet (and even dancing on chairs). The idea? To go out and conquer fear, have a vision (even if it's not a popular one), and bring our passion out in everything we do. It was a fantastic start to our conference.
Last weekend, Jerry and I enjoyed our first weekend off in awhile. However, prior to that we did two mud runs in back to back weekends. First was The Ninja Challenge in Fuquay-Varina and the second was the Rugged Maniac in Rockingham. We raced in both of these races in previous years, and we had one same old, same old, and the other with many successes.
I remember when webinars, conference calling, and other event technology first came about. Everyone was afraid that technology would over take the meeting industry and there would be no need for face-to-face meetings anymore. These fears were eventually squashed and the events industry continued on. Face-to-face meetings are not going away and in fact the meeting and event industry is booming! The reason? Relationships.
Last week I posted what was more or less a rant about the terrible service that I received at a hotel where I was holding a conference. However, I think that I need to follow up on what could have been done better in the situation. Thus, here are 4 steps to recover from a service failure during an event.
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