| Selecting the Perfect Site for Your Meeting |
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Successfully sourcing a hotel for a meeting or event requires planners to elevate their skills in many areas, such as stakeholder feedback, negotiations, budgetingand project management. Researching and evaluating sites also takes considerable time, however, careful analysis is essential to prevent cost overruns and delays at your meeting. Strategic planners must look beyond “dates, rates, and space” in order to evaluate hotels and assure an environment that will lead to asuccessful meeting with happy attendees (and ROI). Meetings are big investments and the following is a 12-step process that will help assure successful venue selection for your next event,conference or incentive. 1. Assess meeting needs –Meeting objectives/feedback from all stakeholders, determine purpose, what must be achieved/learner outcomes and attendee takeaways. 2. Gather information – Meeting agenda and requirements, number of attendees, sleeping room block, F&B functions, location/access, meeting and event space, meeting objectives. Develop meeting history including annual attendance, arrival and departure patterns, previous hotel and location by year. Calculate actual spend on sleeping rooms, food and beverage, A/V/production, business center, etc. Evaluate projected vs. actual budget expenditures and variance. 3. Define attendees – Develop a profile of your attendees,including their demographics, where attendees are coming from, their expectations/ learner outcomes and any special needs for attendees, guests, VIP’s and speakers. 4. Consider additional requirements - Weather (related to time of year), accessibility (by air and ground) and special needs (resort, golf), air lift/distance from airports should be defined early to ensure the venue is suitable. 5. Determine the budget – How much can you spend and can you be flexible with either the budget or event activities? Evaluate all budget line items and conduct side by side comparisons, by hotel and suppliers. 6. Design the meeting specification – Create a summary of all meeting and event requirements and rank each item based on the agenda and data collected. Will there be a general session, if so, how many attending, size/ceiling height, number of breakouts,audio visual requirements (bring own A/V or rent), dine-arounds, off-site/leisure activities and entertainment? 7. Create an RFP – A strategic RFP will breakdown all day by day meeting agenda components, including set-up/use days/tear down of meeting and event space/A/V requiremenets, social events, minimum square footage/ceiling height for all space including office/storage/speaker ready rooms. Include name of organization, contact information, name and purpose of meeting, dates (or additional dates/pattern options), meeting history, special requirements, i.e., golf, spa, off site events). 8. Begin site research – Planners can use one or more of the following options to find the perfect match: 9. Collect site proposals – Each site should provide: 10. Narrow your selections – Narrow the list to top hotel candidates in each city. Conduct side by side evaluation of meeting and event space/logistics, hotel budgets (room rates, food and beverage functions, A/V, tax, service charge, etc.). 11. Conduct site inspection – Conduct site inspections to the hotels that meet all stated RFP criteria and budget guidelines. Have all meeting and event space assignments for each hotel and hotel floor plans detailing all space, location and size. Utilize a site inspection checklist for each hotel for post site-inspection evaluation. 12. Site inspection alternatives – If you cannot visit hotels, set-up a web based “virtual site” to review all sleeping room and suite categories, meeting and event space assignments and flow/logistics, hotel facilities, amenities and dining, shopping and entertainment in the immediate area While the site research and hotel evaluation process can be overwhelming, these steps will keep you on the right track and assure that you select “the perfect site.” Make sure you maintain and organize all hotel information as this can be a resource for future meeting needs. Rob Wilson |
