Imagine your attendees sitting at a conference roundtable and being able to look out on the turquoise sea for inspiration. This is what a corporate retreat should look like, some meeting planners say, and companies, large and small, are catching on.
Eight percent of companies surveyed by research firm PhoCusWright last year listed cruise ships as their first choice for a meeting venue -- up from 6 percent in 2009. Interest is growing partly because an all-inclusive cruise ship event saves 20 to 30 percent on cost, according to cruise event services company Landry & Kling. Cruising builds in the social and excursion time needed to get a clear head, generate fresh thinking and share new experiences with colleagues.
"There have been a lot of organizations that deleted or deferred meetings and want to do something to get their momentum back up," says Jo Kling, co-founder and CEO of Landry & Kling. "Taking people to an environment they don't go often or have never been shifts the perspective all together. They're not in a dark hotel ballroom ... thinking, 'Here we go again.'"
To accommodate increasing demand, Landry & Kling launched Seasite.com, an online portal dedicated to cruise meetings and events, to allow corporate planners to send custom electronic Requests For Proposals to five cruise lines and negotiate directly for group pricing.
Courtesy of CNN.com
