Thank you for educating the newest wave of meeting planners on the importance of ROI (Forward Thinking, by Michele C. Wierzgac, Meetings SouthL, February 2007).
I met Michele a few years back at the MPI Orange County conference and really enjoyed her session on ROI—she is the Queen of ROI to me.
I want her to know I took a lot of her tips/learning lessons, and it’s a true mantra and part of my ongoing message to my staff. I have been referred to as “always having my eye on the ROI ball” in my organization, and I have her to thank!
Keep up the great work—her education is truly making a difference and changing perceptions that we not just party planners selecting menus, etc., but involved in real strategy.
Sandy Liarakos, CMP
Director of Special Events
Scripps Health Foundation
San Diego
Crises Counseling
RE: Meeting planners not having a written contingency/emergency plan (2007 Meetings Market Trends Survey, Meetings South, January 2007).
Each resort or hotel should have a crisis management plan that fully describes how they will handle all types of emergencies.
Make that a contractual requirement and check the credentials of the relevant security staff. How have they handled past emergencies, i.e., medical? Have they identified trauma centers, hospitals, local police contacts, etc.? Is there an evacuation plan?
Will the director of security brief your group? The primary responsibility for responsible security lies with the resort or hotel. If they are still not up to a reasonable standard after 9/11, you might want to consider going elsewhere. All it might take to screw up a program is one serious incident badly handled.
John Giacomini
Director of Special Programs
School of Law, George Mason University
Fairfax, VA
Huzzah for the Redesign!
It is apparent that you’ve spent a good deal of effort in researching and developing your redesigned periodical, and the result is nothing short of entertaining.
You substantiate your tagline “The Destination Experts” with details that allow planners to choose from a more and more elaborate buffet selection of choices of things to do and places to go with attendees within each destination highlighted. You demonstrate a broad scope of knowledge about destinations and this is a handy resource for the industry to use, subsequently make themselves look good on-the-job, and then ultimately profit from.
Your redesign is certainly visually stimulating. It’s easy for me to agree with “A picture is worth a thousand words,” and the photos in your magazine are splendid—just like eye candy. The graphics and photos in the mag do convey nonverbally the meaning that parallels the words they accompany—excellent use of color to enhance positive emotions and to reinforce varied learning types.
Perhaps the greatest contribution your magazine has to its readers is the jolt to the creative juices it gets flowing. That creativity is a fleeting and fickle friend that we all wish would stick around longer than it usually does. So, it’s a welcome relief to pick up your mag for a quick creative pick-me-up and get me back to making my clients smile!
Stan Aaronson, CSEP
S M Aaronson Marketing Strategies
Valencia, CA
