A meetings industry veteran offers up her money-saving secrets
By Bonnie Wallsh
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Bonnie Wallsh
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1. Use value season/holidays/days of week or hot dates and watch for special deals and sudden cancellations if you are flexible.
Flexibility is the key to saving money when you are selecting dates and sites. Take advantage of special deals if it fulfills your meeting objectives. Also, remember that hotels prefer that you book Sunday-Wednesday and Wednesday-Sunday patterns. If your meeting is scheduled for a Tuesday-Thursday pattern, it is more difficult for a hotelier to fill the hotel on days that don’t fit into their preferred pattern.
2. Use cumulative rather than nightly when negotiating complimentary room nights on sleeping rooms.
If you negotiate one complimentary room for every 40 rooms picked up and your pick up for a four-day/three-night meeting is Sunday: 39 rooms; Monday: 39 rooms; and Tuesday: 39 rooms, you would receive NO comp rooms if it is based on a nightly count. However, if you base your comp rooms on a cumulative count, you receive two comp room nights. One word, cumulative rather than nightly, will save you money.
3. Streamline the agenda to minimize meals and additional hotel nights.
If you have input in developing the meeting agenda, consider beginning your meeting after breakfast or lunch or end the meeting prior to a meal to save money on food and beverage. Also, analyze where your attendees are coming from and plan your agenda around the airline schedules. A meeting on the West Coast could begin in the afternoon and end prior to lunch so that your attendees can fly in and out without staying additional nights.
Read more...
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Upcoming Webinar
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Free On-Demand Webinar
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Corporate Social Responsibility: Meetings as Conservers, Creators and Catalysts
Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2012
As meeting planners, we have more power than we may think to create an impact when it comes to sustainability. Instituting best environmental practices and creating events built on the principle of effecting change are increasingly important in today’s world of dwindling resources.
Join Mariela McIlwraith, president of Meeting Change, for this enlightening CSR webinar, shot on location in the Beaches of Fort Myers and Sanibel, Fla.
In this session we'll explore three facets related to CSR in the meetings industry:
- Meetings as Conservers, examining best practices in reducing a meeting's environmental footprint, including a review of newly released sustainability standards in the industry.
- Meetings as Creators, covering how meetings can create positive change within their own communities of stakeholders, as well as in the communities in which they are held.
- Meetings as Catalysts, highlighting how meetings can inspire action that leads to a more sustainable industry and environment, including influencing the supply chain and encouraging post-event sustainable efforts by our participants.
Earn CEUs: This webinar is worth 1 clock hour of continuing education toward the initial CMP application and recertification through the Convention Industry Council
Register today!
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Budget Tips: Making More and Spending Less, Parts 1 and 2
Original Air Date:
July 11 and 25, 2012
Creating budgets is challenging work but extraordinarily important to the success of your meeting, and if you budget with confidence, it actually can be fun.
In this webinar, moderated by top meetings industry educator Bonnie Wallsh, you'll be walked through the process of budgeting in an easy-to-understand manner. You'll learn three key factors that are essential in preparing your budget, and you will discover how to avoid seven common mistakes that can lead to budget overruns.
You will learn practical and effective ideas on how to stretch your budget as far as you can and acquire techniques and tips that will impress your boss, and also will receive 70 specific cost-saving tips. In addition, you can submit your most effective money saving tip as participants share how to reduce costs without diminishing the effectiveness of meetings and events.
As a result of participating in this session, attendees will learn the following:
- Identify three key factors in preparing your budget
- Discover the seven common mistakes that meeting planners make, and which should be avoided at all costs
- Produce a budget customized for your meeting or event
Earn CEUs: This webinar is worth 1 clock hour of continuing education toward the initial CMP application and recertification through the Convention Industry Council
Watch today!
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Benchmark Hospitality International, a leading US-based hospitality management company, has just released its Top Dining and Top Wine Trends for 2012 and beyond.
Read more...
Discriminatory travel taxes and fees enacted on travel-related services impose an average increased cost on visitors of 57% over general sales tax, according to new research released by the GBTA Foundation, the education and research arm of the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA).
Read more...
The Convention Industry Council announced on Sept. 12 the beginning of the development process for a healthcare subspecialty to the Certified Meeting Professionals program. Development will begin in the next 60 days and it is expected that in the summer of 2013, CMPs will have the opportunity to pursue the industry’s first healthcare meetings certification.
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HSMAI and MPI announced a big new development in their partnership—first launched at MPI’s World Education Congress in July—that initially just entailed each organization providing education and networking events at the other group’s conferences. HSMAI and MPI announced the change during HSMAI Meet Conference, held Sept. 4 to 6 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
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The Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority has begun looking for companies that are qualified to help run the Convention Center. The move had been expected. The 15-member PCCA board voted Aug. 15 to examine other options to operate the Convention Center, which completed a $786 million expansion in March 2011.
Read more...
Two people have died after contracting Legionnaires' disease in an outbreak linked to a downtown Marriott hotel this summer, Chicago Department of Public Health officials have reported.
Read more...
A new forecast by PKF Hospitality Research provides another reminder that U.S. travel continues to rebound despite tepid economic indicators..
Read more...
The San Diego Convention Center has reported inaccurate numbers of convention-goers who stay in nearby hotels, according to a report from San Diego's Office of the City Auditor.
Read more...
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Budget Bites
When planning a banquet—or a range of food and beverage events over the course of an event—on a budget, one’s first instinct might be to order the chicken versus the steak, buffet versus plated, and take other basic steps to keep costs low. Experts chime in with their budget-busting F&B strategies.
Take 10: Budget Tips: Making More and Spending Less
Does Bonnie have a sample comprehensive budget template she can share?
PCMA’s Professional Meeting Management has a chapter written by Vicky Betzig on Effectively Managing Your Meeting’s Budget in Chapter 3. Included are sample functional income and expense budgets. Check out www.pcma.org for further information
Take 10 F&B: Creating Impressions on a Budget
With some of the outrageous prices for coffee, what do you suggest doing in order to save on beverages and beverage breaks?
To save money on coffee, here are some options: Order coffee by the gallon and estimate coffee consumption accurately according to gender and whether they are heavy regular coffee or decaf drinkers.
Affordable Meetings: Brain-Power Breaks
With many organizations strapped for time and money these days, planning innovative breaks can be an affordable and efficient way to give attendees a refreshing energy boost between intensive sessions.
F&B Strategies:
The Meat of the Matter
Veteran meeting planner Arlene Sheff’s detailed list of how to save on your F&B budget.
Going Green: "R" You Saving Green?
Sustainable meeting strategies are just another filter for decision-making—strategies that can save you valuable time, money and human resources
Negotiating Speaker Fees
Ruth A. Hill interviews some experts to discover strategies for lowering the costs for a top-flight speaker for your meeting or event.
Negotiating Speaker Fees: Takeaway Tips
Professional speaker Laura Stack, who goes by the moniker "The Productivity PRO", lists some easy ways to save money on your speaker budget.
Meetings in a Minute Video
How to stretch a budget while still delivering a quality meeting product.
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