Association Events

As every party planner knows, until the drinks start flowing, the usual office or corporate holiday party can be a little stiff. With (hopefully) most of your associates on their best behavior, and a few plotting a quick and discreet exit, introducing some fun to the mix is essential to get your party started, and to keep it going.

To do that, we'd suggest picking an activity that encourages interaction across departmental and hierarchical lines. The easiest way? Host a holiday bowling party instead of the same old wine-and-cheese soiree!

New York City now has an excellent selection of bowling venues to choose from. A far cry from the flood-lit retro lanes of The Big Lebowsky or Happy Days, today's bowling alleys are more like lounge-style night clubs, decked out with banquettes, low lighting, comfortable couches, candles, elegant cocktails and restaurant caliber fare for all. So if it's a holiday party for the entire company or just a small gathering with more friends than can fit in your living room, consider an ice-breaking evening on the lanes at one of these unique New York venues for bowling:

Lucky Strike Lanes

Bowlmor Lanes & Strike

Leisure Time

300 NY Bowling

Browse over 1,000 other New York special event facilities on the Cvent Supplier Network

When brainstorming ideas of where to take your clients out to a business lunch, I'm betting McDonald's doesn't come to mind. However, if a newly-renovated location in New York City is any indication of things to come, that could soon change.

The 168-seat outlet in Manhattan's Chelsea area recently received a very chic makeover. It now boasts upholstered vinyl chairs, softer lighting, bold colors and a wall emblazoned with French architect Philippe Avanzi's magnified fingerprint. The amenities have improved, too, as it now has flat-screen televisions and free wi-fi. Even the employees look sleeker in their all-black uniforms.

"It's like a lounge," Kimberly Burgess, a McDonald's patron, told the Associated Press. "It's so different from all the other McDonald's. It's beautiful."

McDonald's has updated thousands of its properties over the past few years, but the Chelsea outlet was the first in the United States to receive an "urban redesign," according to McDonald's Corp. spokeswoman Danya Proud. She said the makeover was meant "to give [McDonald's] customers more of a reason to make McDonald's a destination."

So far, it could be working.

Franchise owner Paul Hendel told the AP that customers have been taking their time to dine, rather than rushing in and out.

"We're becoming a more relevant type of restaurant for the younger crowd," he said. "They don't feel rushed. They're reading the newspaper, relaxed."

Check out some great pictures of the McDonald's at the Pulp Culture blog—it's pretty impressive. Still, I'm still not sure if I would ever think of McDonald's a venue for business or entertaining. Any thoughts on the new look?

I've been seeing more and more articles that point to a recovery in the meetings industry. Check out this quick recap:

• HOTELS interviewed David C. Marr, senior vice president of brand management in North America for Starwood Hotels & Resorts, on the chain's outlook for 2010. "If I had to sum it up, I’d say we’re in a better place today than we thought we’d be, with all signs pointing to a recovery, albeit a slow recovery. We saw our first signs of life this summer, with leisure travel coming back first, and occupancies at or near pre-crisis levels...As business continues to stabilize and improve, we’ll see more meetings booked in the year for the year."

• A recent survey by ICCA and IMEX asked association meetings executives about this year's events, and more than half reported a steady increase in attendance. In regards to what they see ahead for their 2010 events, only 16 percent predicted a decline in attendance while 39 percent were optimistic about seeing more delegates next year.

• The U.S. Travel Association has announced a projected increase in 2010 leisure travel by two percent, business travel by 2.5 percent, and international inbound travel by three percent. As a result, the industry will add nearly 90,000 American jobs.

Need information about implementing a Strategic Meetings Management Program? Are you looking for tips on negotiating contracts? Or maybe you just need to check out the latest food & beverage trends for events? MeetingsNet is the perfect resource!

MeetingsNet’s websites and magazines are conducting their annual subscription drive and invite all professionals with meeting planning responsibility to sign up for free subscriptions to Corporate Meetings & Incentives (now including Financial & Insurance Meetings), Association Meetings, and Medical Meetings. Religious meeting planners can get more information about obtaining a subscription to Religious Conference Manager.

MeetingsNet also publishes the popular MeetingsNet Extra, delivered every Tuesday to your inbox with newsbreaking stories, and MeetingsNet Tech Extra, a monthly newsletter that takes the mystery out of meeting technologies. It just takes a few minutes, and planners have the option of signing up for digital or mail delivery.

Visit MeetingsNet to subscribe today!

Wondering how to save on costs associated with speakers and performers and their required travel? Sometimes, it only requires looking into what's locally available...you'll be sure to find at least one good source of low-priced (or even free!) talent. For example, we've seen event planners tap into local universities or cities' live arts programs to find musical, acting and other forms of entertainment.

Recruit hidden talent: even if a speaker doesn't have formal "celebrity status," that doesn't mean he or she is any less intelligent, poised or inspirational. However, it does mean that the speaker is likely to charge you less for time at your event.

Use your networks! This could mean anything from enlisting executives within your own office's walls to tapping into contacts in a member organization that you're involved with. Executives will engage the audience for free, and the professionals that you network with probably won't force you to pay too much.

...and then milk them for all they're worth...

A speaker can provide more than just a speech. Ask your presenters to stick around for breakout sessions or networking "coffee breaks" to further the attendees' learning and to increase the amount of positive interactions.

As we prepare for the holiday season, people  all over the country have visions of sugar plum fairies and giant Christmas trees.  Just because Orlando may not have a white Christmas every year, a holiday in the city can be just as spectacular. In fact, you can rest assured that at least one classic element of the holiday season will always be present: traditional entertainment!

The Orlando Ballet is renowned throughout Florida for its rendition of The Nutcracker. This holiday classic will be preformed to the full Tchaikovsky score by the entire Company and will include more than 100 Orlando area children from the award-winning Orlando Ballet School and Patel Conservatory.

The Nutcracker is performed every year at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Center, in downtown Orlando, just east of I-4.  Year-round this Orlando attraction plays host to the Orlando Opera, Orlando Ballet, Florida Theatrical Association and the Orlando Celebrity Concert Association. Parking is generally $5. Don't know where to sit?  This Orlando Venue has a sports arena-like online seating chart!

View more information about the Bob Carr Performing Arts Center on the Cvent Supplier Network

Annual meetings - each year many of us are charged with planning at least one to rally the troops and motivate the team. The challenge this year? Produce the annual meeting on a smaller budget, without compromising the bells and whistles. Here are a few budget-tweaking suggestions that will make even the guys in Accounting smile:

Hit the slopes - in the summer.

By all means, book your meeting into a wonderful resort location, but go out of season to get the best rates. In the last few years we’ve scored some amazing meetings packages in Stowe, Vermont, in May; Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in June; Phoenix and Las Vegas in August. Better yet, our team got bragging rights about the amazing resorts they stayed in for the meeting.

Work backwards.

Once a banquet manager has received your RFP, traditionally they’ll send a list of their standard meeting menus. Problem is, your numbers and theirs may be miles off the mark. If this is the case, then work backwards – start from the amount per person you are willing to spend, and ask the vendor to come up with a combination of menu items to meet that price - including tax and gratuity - and all below-the-radar charges associated with the event(s) in question, such as fire marshals, delivery-to-seminar-room charges, bartender-to-guest ratios, etc.

Ban the bottle.

Save money and the planet by knocking bottled beverages out of your budget. The most inexpensive way to keep liquids flowing throughout the day is to limit the beverage selection to those that can be easily decanted in urns and pitchers instead of individual bottles, such as coffee, tea, lemonade and ice water.

Oops, I did it again.

Things being what they are these days, rather than overestimating the number of attendees and potentially getting stuck with a larger bill than you can afford, underestimate the number of guests by five percent. Vendors are usually fairly happy to increase quantities at the last minute depending on your contract. Dropping the numbers at the last minute? Um, not so much.

You're getting hosting a wedding in Orlando—Congratulations! Orlando is one of the most beautiful and affordable locations for a wedding.

As an event planner myself I would be remiss to not mention my own services as an Orlando wedding planner, but I would love to also tell you about some of the most fantastic resources to be found in Orlando for your big day!  My head wedding coordinator Helena and I have compiled a list of some of the best ways to prepare for a wedding event in Orlando and the days that lead up to it.

• Local bridal shows can help open your eyes to a world of possibilities. I always recommend going to a show early on in the planning process before choosing a wedding planner so that you can go to them with a basic idea of how you want your Orlando Dream Day to go. Orlando publications are a fantastic way of finding out the bridal shows around the area that you can take advantage of! WPCF.com is the site for the Wedding Planners of Central Florida group. Here, you will find a list off some great shows coming to your area and the wonderful people associated with the organization.

• Use the Internet! It is the most inexpensive, most useful, and most convenient way to obtain information on the area. You found your way here, didn't you?

• Check out the online versions of Modern Bride, Martha Stewart, The Wedding Channel, The Knot, Today's Bride, and www.topweddingsites.com/florida. All of these have fantastic Orlando event insights!

There's no doubt that conferences and trade shows add value to any industry, but planners are admitting to attending less of them for two main reasons:

1. From an economical standpoint, corporations and other organizations are struggling to find the practicality behind these events and are currently cutting back.

2. Planners can't seem to find the time to spare in their hectic schedules.

Once the economy picks up, industries are hoping to see an increase in participation so that planners can again begin to reap the educational benefits from seminars, make new supplier contacts, meet with familiar contacts, and network with new peers.

In the meantime, meetings industry associations need to make a move to ensure that past participants don't fall off the radar. For example, they should consider consolidating and co-locating their shows over the coming months.

Cvent will be sponsoring Friday night's reception at NBTA's Leadership Summit this weekend at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Reston, Virginia. Since Cvent is headquartered in McLean, Virginia, just a few minutes away, we were thrilled that this will take place in our own backyard!

The event is designed as a few days of training and networking for chapter leadership from all across the country. Cvent aims to cultivate the partnership with NBTA; we feel the association's industry expertise is unmatched. Of course, we also look forward to catching up with the current board members - some we know well, as clients or from past tradeshows.

Hope to see you there!

Branding should be at the forefront of every event planner's mind as they coordinate an event from start to finish. The event invitation emails, website, collateral—it should all have a consistent, polished look. Quality event branding not only makes your event look more professional, it also makes it easier to tie your event into other marketing strategies.

Cvent does its best to help event planners with their event branding efforts. One unique feature we offer is branded URLs for your events.

Brand URLs offer several benefits to planners. For example, they:

• Make it easier for attendees to remember your web address

• Improve your event websites rank in search engines

• Establish consistency between your event and company or association

Event planners can create branded URLs in Cvent that include the company name or even the title of the event itself. For more information on branded URLs and Cvent's branding package, contact Customer Care.

Yesterday I blogged about how the travel industry is preparing for flu season. Now I want to know, are meeting planners even concerned?

The answer is "Yes," according to a recent survey by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE), but that won't stop them from hosting events. The survey found that 63 percent of travel mangers surveyed have serious concerns about the spread of H1N1 flu, but 91 percent aren't holding off on meetings and conferences because of it.

"On one hand, it is commendable that companies are not giving in to panic," ACTE Executive Director Susan Gurley said in a statement. "Yet on the other hand, this is a situation that can develop very quickly and it is very important that the appropriate arrangements be put in place."

The survey found that 34 percent of companies have a plan or instructions for travelers who may get caught up in airport screenings with flu-like symptoms. If you need some advice on getting your flu season action plan together, read my 4 Ways for Meeting Planners to Prepare for Flu Season.

Chicago is known as the city to accommodate most large meetings and events for associations and corporations. In fact, the meetings industry brings thousands of guests to Chicago for annual events and product launches every year. With McCormick Place listed as the nation's top facility for meetings and conventions, Chicago has built the resources to accommodate these groups with some of the best brands of hotels in the world.

These large hotels are now not only housing guests who attend these meetings, but also hosting them in their own top-notch Chicago meeting facilities. Check out some of the premier hotels in Chicago that have meeting space to welcome thousands of convention guests:

Hyatt Regency Chicago

In addition to being the on-site hotel brand stationed at Chicago's convention center, Hyatt Regency is no stranger to large meetings of its own. With 228,000 square feet of contemporary and flexible function space, Hyatt is equipped much like any other large convention center. The Hyatt is home to four ballrooms, 63 meeting rooms and 70,000 square feet of exhibition space.

This Chicago hotel's impeccable service is monitored by a Meeting Concierge. This friendly aide is by your side from start to finish, ensuring that everything runs flawlessly.

Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers

The Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers has over 120,000 square feet of meeting space. This property can host up to 4,600 people for an event or conference. With four above-ground levels of meeting space, 34 breakout meeting rooms, and a 40,000-square-foot ballroom—standing as the largest hotel ballroom in the Midwest—the Sheraton Chicago has all of the amenities to host large groups.

Situated  the heart of downtown Chicago, the Sheraton is near the city's most popular attractions, making it easy for guests to venture out and explore the city. From their 35,000 square feet of exhibition space to their convention registration area, the Sheraton Chicago is sure to cater to your every need!

To find out more about Chicago convention hotels, please visit the Cvent Supplier Network.

While using a system like Cvent's certainly makes sense for the traditional corporate event planner, our association clients are a little different. We count nurses, teachers, doctors, engineers, dentists, psychologists, and pharmacists as our clients and users of Cvent! These volunteers give their time and energy towards increasing the value of their respective associations and professions - in addition to demanding full time jobs.

Because of this, volunteer board members need to ensure that their time is spent effectively. Here are some tips and tricks we have seen that will save you and your board a lot of stress when it comes to crunch time:

• Automate your communication. We all know how big of a pain it can be to manually add your entire database to an email invitation, or reply to each individual registrant as they sign up for your event. Sending the right message to the right person can be confusing and time-consuming. With Cvent, this entire process is automated. Simply design your email templates, and the system will intelligently know when to send confirmations, regrets, and reminders - based on a schedule that you pre-determine.

• Use your resources. Part of the beauty of an association is that everyone involved has a passion for the material and dedication to the chapter. Delegate tasks to board members, form committees, and plan ahead. Cvent allows you to have multiple user logins, so that different people can use your account to complete different tasks. Especially with a limited budget, associations must make good use of their most valuable resource - people.

• Clone previous events. We know that associations typically have reoccurring events that are fairly similar each time - annual conferences, monthly luncheons, etc. With Cvent, you can simply clone these events, change the pertinent details (date, time, location, menu options) and open for registration. When you don't have to reinvent the wheel, you are able to spend time focusing on more important aspects of your event.

• Put fee collection in the hands of the experts. Managing and collecting funds from each event can be a giant headache, especially when fees are different for members and non-members, you have early-bird discounts, or when some sessions command a certain fee and others do not. Simply ensuring that you are collecting the right amount is hard, and you can forget about getting complete payments at registration time! With Cvent, this headache is erased completely. With each account, you receive a commercial-grade Verisign account, which allows you to directly deposit fees into your bank account. Furthermore, our system automatically totals everything in your invitee's registration. There is little room for error, and no need to wait around for you to receive your money from a third party.

• Source your event with the Cvent Supplier Network. Our comprehensive listing of venues and service providers is so easy to use and dramatically cuts down on the time it normally takes to find the perfect spot for your next event. Even small board meetings need a location, and we can help you find and negotiate the best rate for your group. Best of all, this service is free - certainly the best price tag for a non-profit. Sign up for your complimentary account today.

Of course, these tips are only a few of the ways that Cvent can help streamline your processes. We'd love to hear from you with more ideas!

Perhaps you're worried about the cost of investing in online event management software because your organization charges little or no money for its events. No matter the price (or lack thereof) associated with your events, you shouldn't let it hold you back from reaping the benefits of a great online system - so let's look at a new way to work around some seemingly unavoidable expenses.

Among the numerous industries Cvent works with: corporations, associations, universities, non-profits, government and independent planners, many rely on sponsors for support - whether it be financial help or through the provision of products and services.

Many of our clients have taken advantage of this situation by tapping into their sponsors to further cover event costs. How? They charge them more money in exchange for more exposure!

Think of it as selling "electronic real estate." As a planner, you can use Cvent's capabilities with email invites and event websites to generate this additional revenue. For example, you can require sponsors pay a higher price to have their logos displayed on every event-related email or placed prominently at the top of the "Sponsors" page you create on your event website.

Or you can "sell a survey question" in a pre- or post-event survey (think about selling multiple questions if you have multiple sponsors).

Just check out this sample event Cvent did for a real client to see how SCW Fitness Education leveraged its sponsors!

Slowly but surely, your sponsors are realizing that there exists a two-way street and that they benefit from getting their name advertised throughout the entire registration process as well as on the day of the actual event.

So don't be afraid to leverage those who are already willing to help your organization - just approach it in a smart way and be prepared to defend your request with reasons why it's smart for them to get as much time in the spotlight as possible.

Slow and steady is the motto for business travel next year, according to a recent survey by the National Business Travel Association. According to its 2010 Business Travel Buyers' Cost Forecast of 180 direct corporate travel buyers, 69 percent of respondents expect to see business travel volume "grow slowly" throughout 2010.

For meetings, 58 percent of respondents said that reducing the number of meetings is one of their measures to cut costs in 2010. However, on the bright side, this percentage is much lower than last year, when 85 percent said they would be cutting meetings.

To save money, travel buyers also cited auditing travel and entertainment expenses (84 percent), enforcing travel policies (77 percent), mandating online booking (76 percent), and reducing nonessential travel (71 percent) as their cost-cutting measures. Just over half of respondents—more than twice as many as last year—also said they would start implementing Strategic Meetings Management programs for their meeting in 2010.

For many of you, your online event registration form may be a "first touch" point of contact for potential registrants and new members to your organization. Following the guidelines outlined below will ensure that this first impression reflects both your marketing strategy and a high level of professionalism in its design and functionality.

Branding the form to fit your business gives registrants a great visual that will stick in their minds. Cvent allows you to match the look of your website, event emails and other marketing materials with your brand's color schemes, fonts and logos. This provides a personal touch that looks more professional than some generic "cut and paste" design.

Asking for information? Only collect what you really need! When filling out online forms, registrants will appreciate the time you save them if they are only required to answer relevant questions. Cvent wants as many people as possible to complete the registration form for your event, so our registration functions allow you to create different paths for different types of registrants. This way, you don't have to worry about invitees abandoning your form because they won't be forced to provide answers to questions that don't seem applicable to them.

Clearly communicate your customer-focused cancellation and refund policy. With Cvent, you have the flexibility of coming up with appropriate cancellation and refund policies for your events. Once they are established, make sure invitees can clearly view these policies on your registration form. The goal here is to encourage potential registrants to register early while abating any fears associated with a "no refunds" policy.

And finally, make your privacy policy public. Even more so today than in the past, people are concerned about access to their personal and financial information. Show potential registrants that you hold their privacy concerns to the highest standard by assuring them that you are taking careful steps to protect their information and clearly stating how it will be used to avoid any questions or confusion.

By implementing these tactics, you'll secure a professional, registrant-friendly and trustworthy impression for your organization that will prove true after you actually execute those successful events!

Ever wondered what makes Cvent different from all other e-registration tools? One of our clients, a reading association, used Cvent for their annual event and had nothing but great things to say about our customer service excellence and level of professionalism. As they put it, "Cvent doesn't just make events, they make events a success."

Why? For one, sending out event reminders three weeks before the actual event helped them capture 30 percent more registrants. And their planners did not have to spend hours sitting in front of an Excel workbook to compile the list of undecided invitees. Cvent’s email delivery system is intelligent enough to automatically send out these reminders only to those who have not responded.

Cvent's ability to create customized pages on event websites also afforded this client the opportunity to sell space on these pages. They allowed presenters/exhibitors to contribute to the event by purchasing some "electronic real estate" in which they could put their company logo and a weblink.

Overall, what really sets Cvent apart is our service. As this client told us, "You have a question and the Cvent Client Services team of professionals really is just a phone call or an email away." To make a software WORK for the clients' events is as just important working on the software itself, and Cvent is happy to hear from clients who see this in action!

Lead times remain short for meeting and event planners looking to secure the best deals from hotels and event venues. According to a recent MeetingNews survey, 41 percent of planners said their lead times for meetings of less than 100 attendees are 30 to 90 days before the event date. These abbreviated time periods are holding steady, as 73 percent of planners said lead times are about the same in 2009 as they were last year, while 15 percent said they are even shorter this year.

Paul Salvatore, HRG North America president of events and meetings management, told MeetingNews of one client who booked a Pittsburgh meeting for 160 people on September 24 just three weeks prior. Meanwhile, another client is waiting to announce its Boston meeting for 300 guests until a week before, in case a better deal comes along or it needs to cancel.

"Even though we made them aware of the penalties—both on air, using nonrefundable tickets, and on the deposit at the hotel—they factored all that into their budgeting and are willing to forgo their deposit and take the penalties," Salvatore said.

Meeting planners are obviously looking for a deal, and hotels are certainly willing to provide them.

"In the past, we would have to bring up additional features and benefits, concessions on F&B, meeting room rental and other things, and they seem to be thrown on up front," Salvatore said.

It's all just another example of how this is one of the best meeting buyer's markets in years.

"Businesses know it's a soft marketplace. They don't need to negotiate rates this far out, so we can go inside of 90 days and still get good pricing," Jim Fausel, Jr., Global Conference Associates president, told MeetingNews. "Most of inventory is still there within 90 days, at least for 2009."

One of Eric Clapton's guitars. A beaded glove from Michael Jackson. Elvis Presley's white jumpsuit. What do all these items from music's colorful past have in common? They can be the backdrop for your next New York City event!

Located in SoHo, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Annex is the New York venue of choice for event planners looking to add a little edge to their meetings. Events—from parties to meetings to receptions—held at this New York special event facility can include access to the VIP room, private use of selected galleries and even private shopping in the annex's retail store. The entire annex can fit up to 300 people, while the VIP room offers a intimate New York meeting space for up to 30 guests.

Amenities at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Annex include three projectors, preferred New York catering by Restaurant Associates, and venue music or iPod playback.

Find more unique New York venues on Cvent's New York venue directory.