Meeting and event planners working with a facility’s convention services team can help ensure their program is a success by providing some very basic, but essential, information.
Maxine Compean, associate event manager for the dual-branded Marriott Convention & Resort Network properties the DOUGLAS, Autograph Collection and the JW Marriott Parq Vancouver, offered the following six tips to keep meeting and event planners and the convention services team on the same page before, during and after the program.
1. Know the Purpose of Your Meeting
It’s important to know the purpose of your meeting and share that with the convention services team at the host facility. And if time is of the essence for you, that’s something the convention services team needs to know.
2. Detail Considerations About How Your F&B Will Be Served
For the 48-Hour Film Challenge, it was important for the food to be very portable, as different crews were working in different areas, all on different schedules.
Cater to your attendees according to their schedule.
[Related Content: 5 Meeting Planner Takeaways From the 48-Hour Film Challenge]
3. Be Transparent With Your Convention Services Team
As soon as you book an event, realize that the host facility’s convention services team is your partner. As with any team member, the meeting planner needs to disclose any critical information so the event will be a success. What is most important to you? Is there a strict budget that needs to be abided by? Give the convention services team all of the information they need to bring your vision to life, and then trust them to execute.
4. Leverage All of the Tools Available to You
Major hotel chains such as Marriott have a variety of resources meeting and event planners can use, such as its Meetings Imagined tool that can provide guidance on setups for food.
If you want to turn an event space into a market, for instance, programs such as Meetings Imagined are available to provide inspiration and the tools.
Ask what tools are available to make your program elements rise above the ordinary.
5. Define How You Want to Communicate
A convention services team wants to start off on the right foot by making sure the meeting planner is receiving the information she or he needs in the way they want to receive it.
There are multiple communication tools available now.
State what the best one is to keep everyone in the loop.
6. Repeat Customers Should Provide a Critique
If you are bringing repeat business to a facility or a hotel chain, make sure to let them know what worked, or didn’t work, during the previous event. If something didn’t work, a good convention services team will want to know how they can elevate the experience in the future.
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