Elegants Blog

Peak Performance Meetings release this press release with a case study of a corporate event:

Background: Wall Street blunders of huge proportion have stunned the nation, the mortgage lending business is badly crippled, and unemployment numbers are the highest in over 25 years. In the middle of it all, a company has a beach resort sales incentive trip planned for 150 people to the Caribbean happening in less than 35 days. Six months prior, this incentive trip was showing positive effects in motivating its sales people. However, now feeling the impact of the economic pressures, shareholders are concerned about image and organizational restructuring looms. Bad timing for an incentive trip for sure, yet all the payments have been made and program cancellation will result in thousands of lost dollars in attrition, let alone yielding a terrible blow to those sales employees who have worked very hard for an entire year for this trip.

Challenge: Is it better to cancel the entire trip and cut the losses or make an attempt to save some budget dollars so not all is lost? And what savings can be realized on such short notice from a program that includes multiple group activities, meals, evening events, and a formal awards presentation requiring significant audio-visual support?

Solution: By making cancellation policies a friend! Using the attrition, food and beverage, event and tour program cancellation penalties as part of the revised budget process, the program was redesigned. Since the trip itself was an award to top achievers, Peak Performance recommended to eliminate the Awards program (a significant A/V cost) and recognize individual sales achievements regionally. Using the hotel food and beverage minimum to redesign the program. With the goal to maintain a level of program quality concerning meals but understanding cutbacks had to be made, Peak Performance restructured the meal program to include one group dinner event and replaced other group meal activities with a cash disbursement program. Attendees were given more freedom in dining and activity choices. Additionally, the activity program was preserved by shifting from a fully sponsored to partially sponsored spa program rather than eliminate it altogether. Tour penalties were waived and by adding more free time, what started as an all group activity program, evolved into an individual travel program with less emphasis on group activity. In surveying the trip participants post-program, there was an overwhelming appreciation that the group incentive trip hadn’t been cancelled, that incentive travel was by far the best sales motivator and allowing more free time with a cash allotment was a much more preferred format.

End Result: A budget reduction of over $125,000 for the shareholders. By combining group travel benefits with an individual cash disbursement allocation, attendees were able to enjoy the trip more as a vacation rather than a group function. Additionally, this format provides more flexibility when working with budgets in the event fewer funds are accessible without canceling the program altogether.

Two day class to be held on July 25th and 26th:

Thrilled to announce that Be a Planner will be offering another certification class in July in Gainesville, Florida. The class will be held July 25-26, 2009 from 8AM-5PM both days at the beautiful Sweetwater Branch Inn.

This class is a two day course, basically it is a very intense, but enjoyable, two days filled with everything you need to know about planning an event. It is like having a degree in event planning with a major in wedding planning. We feel that you could walk out of the class with enough knowledge to plan and direct a wedding on your own, or for a company without a second thought. And if you are already in the industry it will give you the credentials as well as some of the tricks to the trade including how to work with a difficult client and how to meet and exceed the needs of your current clients. It is a fun weekend, filled with tons of information that will be super valuable to you whether or not you decide to pursue a career in this industry. We talk about how to handle those simple but unique details to suit even the most extravagant requests, the proper way to cut a wedding cake, how to dress a bride, working with vendors, how to acquire contacts, how to receive referrals, how to work with a client, how to acclimate to new location, how to start a business, and A LOT MORE! This course has been approved through the Department of Education, and we are very excited to bring it back to Gainesville.

Social Media Metrics, a new product from PR Newswire, assists companies in tracking their brand on the exploding social media arena:

“Blogs, message boards and discussion threads can reveal invaluable information about how messages are resonating, what customers are saying about an organization, who is buzzing about a brand, and when a crisis situation is about to develop,” said Allison Murphy, PR Newswire. “However, sorting through the reams of information in the social media universe and then analyzing the data in an effective manner can be an extremely daunting task. With the launch of the Social Media Metrics service, communications professionals can now efficiently and intelligently analyze how key audiences and the public in general are reacting to and even dictating how their organization and brands are portrayed within the various online and social media circles.”

Social Media Metrics monitors over 20 million blogs, 5 million forum posts, and 30,000 online news sources, social networks and microblogs including Twitter. The system enables users to build customized searches to track keywords related to one’s organization, industry and competitors, while simultaneously isolating specific geographic, demographic and language parameters. Users can further refine Social Media Metrics searches to target those blogs and social media sites that are important to one’s customers or industry opinion-makers.

“With the spread of user-generated media such as blogs and discussion forums, consumers have become more influential than ever before and often, what they are saying can make or break a brand,” said Leon Chaddock, managing director, Sentiment Metrics. “As new media continues to grow in influence, the organizations and brands that effectively utilize social media intelligence to either build on positive buzz about their brand or to quickly respond to an emerging crisis situation will rise to the top, while those that ignore the influence of online voices will risk losing out on valuable opportunities and in some cases, suffering irreparable damage to their brand.”

From the press release:

A new Aussie designed website set to take on the world was launched online last week. Amanda Hampel, 28 year old mum of 1 and co-director of Coordit® said “The site has taken over two and a half years from concept to release we are now extremely thrilled to announce its availability.”

In a nutshell the Coordit® site, www.coordit.com.au is a new and innovative Online Event Planning System that helps individuals and businesses organise functions & events of all types. Providing the necessary tools (Calendar, To Do Lists, Favourites, Bookings, Budget, Guest List, etc) for Members to use, it keeps the planning process in one site, gives access to others involved in the organization of the function, allows the storage of records and files, as well as simplifying communication. Coordit® includes an Online Directory so that anyone planning an event can search to find the perfect service or product. Advertisers who take advantage of listing in the Directory now have a direct avenue to market their products and services to those organising events, thus making sure their marketing dollars target the right people.

Some good advice from Impact Entertainment Services.

Now more than ever you need to have your business coming in from multiple channels or markets, of course this is easier said than done. If you own an event planning company and all your corporate bookings have dried up and all your business is coming from social groups like birthday parties, weddings, bar/bat mitzvahs and more, you need to find ways to generate multiple streams of revenue for the business to survive and grow. One way to make sure you do not end up in this situation is to constantly keep in contact with your current clients because you cannot afford to lose the clients you already have as it costs much more to find new ones.