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Four Tips For Choosing Your Next Corporate Meeting Destination

Four Tips For Choosing Your Next Corporate Meeting Destination

by | Aug 24, 2021 | Podcasts

DE 38 | Corporate Destination

 

Choosing the right corporate destination contributes a lot to having a successful – and memorable – business trip or event. But it is more than just choosing a lovely place and going there. Andy McNeill and Todd Bludworth share their most important tips when picking event destinations for a corporate purpose. Looking into their own experiences, the two break down how to make meetings and events as organized as they can be by learning the proper way of determining the most suitable place out there.

Andy McNeill and Todd Bludworth are travel and hospitality entrepreneurs and owners of the global meetings organization, American Meetings, Inc. From sourcing hotels to corporate event management around the world, their team selects corporate event venues and meeting planners for a wide array of enterprise business clients, providing ideas for convention themes and strategies for running global meetings and events. Learn more at www.americanmeetings.com.

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Watch the episode here:

Four Tips For Choosing Your Next Corporate Meeting Destination

Your chosen destination for a formal business event can make or break your trip. Therefore, in-depth planning is required when picking a venue for such an important gathering. With various factors to consider, remember that it is not only about the place’s overall atmosphere. Instead, you must also take into consideration the current weather, the activities you want to perform, and a lot more.

Andy McNeill and Todd Bludworth look back on their own corporate travel experiences to list down seven essential business tips in finding the perfect business destination out there.

  1. Contact the local CVB

The Convention and Visitors Bureau or CVB serves as a wealth of knowledge about a particular area. Through their help, you can discover what to expect in that place, from what kind of venues you can rent to which restaurants you can dine in.

Moreover, CVBs typically offer incentives to bring in business. By taking advantage of their rebates, you can get access to special deals and build direct relationships with other businesses within the local community.

  1. Create a list of top things you want to do

Narrow down your choices by listing down everything you want to do once you are at the destination. Be specific with each one so you can come up with the best keywords and make your research more targeted and quicker.

  1. Consider the time of year based on the destination

A simple Google search will help you discover the weather in your chosen destination depending on the time of the year. For example, heading to Florida in the summertime will make your nose a little hot and sticky, but visit San Diego in June and expect to have an awesome time.

With this information, you can carefully choose the most appropriate month and date for your trip to ensure an optimal and memorable experience.

  1. Do a quick Google Map search

After deciding the venue for your event, it is time to know the establishments next or near it. Again, a quick online search will help with this. Using Google Maps, you can see detailed pictures of the buildings and neighborhoods around the hotel’s vicinity. This can contribute to your activity planning around the area, from comfortable walking/jogging paths to biking/skiing lanes.

Most importantly, checking out Google Maps will allow you to estimate travel times between your venue and the places you want to visit. 

  1. Get in touch with the hotel concierge

Aside from your salesperson or conference service person, the hotel concierge is your next best source of information. They will be your best friend not only in getting directions but also in embracing the place’s overall feel. In fact, they can even assist you in choosing the loveliest restaurants around to get the most exquisite food.

  1. Research about lifts

Although it seems not that necessary, checking available lifts within your chosen venue is a great idea. This can determine if the attendees will either have an easy or hard time reaching and leaving your venue. Once more, looking up the features of the place online can greatly help you in discovering the lifts’ location and how to access them.

  1. Read reviews about the venue

Finally, secure your trust in your chosen venue by searching reviews about it on the internet. This will offer you a general idea of their services, the level of their customer service, and any edge it has against other potential venues.

Another great sign of a good hotel is if they keep an active account in online forums. They may also be interacting with former guests by leaving replies on the reviews about them, both favorable and not.

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Three Meeting and Event Trends for 2021

Three Meeting and Event Trends for 2021

by | May 27, 2021 | Hybrid Meetings, In-Person Meetings, Virtual Meetings

The landscape for the corporate meeting and event industry has been entirely disrupted by the pandemic of 2020. As we begin to unravel from it all, our hope is in what is to come.

The good news is that the demand for corporate meetings remains strong. We are social creatures, and business meetings must happen to help us align on goals and with each other. The shift organizations made to online meetings, and virtual events showed us that business, events, and meetings needed to continue to move forward, regardless of the global pandemic landscape. Networking, product research and development, collaboration, and team communication must, and will, continue.

The question isn’t whether or not group events will happen; it is how they will look and how to make them successful. As we all look forward, prepare for the future and glide into the new normal, here are three trends we expect to see strengthened.

Venues are Getting Ready for Hybrid Events

Virtual events have been the primary way organizations have held meetings of every type. As businesses that have been limited or sheltered are once again opening doors, we expect hybrid events to take over.

The boom in virtual meetings has created new best practices in the industry, improving production logistics and technology for the better. We expect hybrid events to dominate with user familiarity, and venues must get ready to meet their needs.

CVBs and DMCs are Expanding

Convention and Visitor Bureaus, along with Destination Management Companies, are expanding their partnerships and adjusting their income models. Going from a steady income of event hosting, then coming to a complete halt in some cases, due to the pandemic, CVBs and DMCs are looking at how they price and who they need to have in their portfolio of connections.

Broadening networks and outreach to be more diverse helps balance out income sources, and partnering with additional vendors will allow for more agility should something like a global disruption happen again.

Focus on Health and Safety

Hybrid events will continue to attract participants most comfortably – live or digital. Meeting technologies, along with health and safety will continue to be a focus and priority for attendees, venues, and event planners. Local government mandates will continue to shift, and those in the meetings industry will need to be flexible to meet those changes. Procedures to maintain safety will continue to be front and center with signage, technology, PPE, and more. Onsite testing is likely to be a live event standard. Find more resources here: Meeting Health & Safety

American Meetings Network Prime Member: Explore Asheville

American Meetings Network Prime Member: Explore Asheville

by | Sep 23, 2019 | The American Meetings Network

Meet our Prime Supplier: Explore Asheville

Our Prime Supplier Member Explore Asheville joined The American Meetings Network and they are already seeing the benefits by meeting 1:1 with AMI’s Meeting Planners and Sourcing Managers at Global Procurement Day.

About Explore Asheville: Let Your Spirit Run Free

Named Lonely Planet’s “#1 Best in the U.S. Destination for 2017″ and long celebrated for its bohemian flavor and superb quality of life, Asheville exceeds the expectations of meeting and conference planners. Asheville has 8,000 hotel rooms, the Asheville Regional Airport, with non-stops and easy connections through major US hubs and a range of conference hotel options. Explore Asheville offers vital planning services to help create the most successful meeting ever. Our award winning staff is a meeting planner’s connection to the best local information to find the right hotel and create memorable destination experiences for attendees. Working with our team makes planners eligible to our full menu of Exclusive Services, which includes the Have More Fun on Us incentive program, registration staffing, attraction value cards for attendees and more.

American Meetings Network Prime Member: Arlington, Texas.

American Meetings Network Prime Member: Arlington, Texas.

by | Apr 12, 2019 | The American Meetings Network, Uncategorized

Meet our Prime Supplier: Arlington, Texas.

Our Prime Supplier Member, Arlington, Texas joined The American Meetings Network as Prime Supplier in 2018 and they are already seeing the benefits of becoming a Prime Member Supplier in The American Meetings Network by meeting 1:1 with AMI’s Meeting Planner and Sourcing Managers at Global Procurement Day.

About Arlington, TX.

We’re centrally-located between Dallas and Fort Worth, just 10 minutes from D/FW International Airport and a place full of massive year-round events and things to do. On your way to Arlington’s world-class AT&T Stadium? Catching a thrill at Six Flags Over Texas or Six Flags Hurricane Harbor? Checking out the Texas Rangers? Striking it up at the International Bowling Museum & Hall of Fame? We can help you plan. We’ll show you the best restaurants, hotels and where to find great shopping and public art. Arlington: The Pursuit of Happy! 

Click here to learn more about becoming a Prime Member of the American Meetings Network.