Prevue: What trends are you seeing in the affordable meetings space?
Ingrassia-Neuman: Labor shortages are having a tremendous impact on relationships. I have noticed that some hotels are struggling to meet our planning needs leading up to the event. The response time is often slow. I believe this is due to staffing shortages and sometimes lack of experience. Many CSM’s are doing other jobs on site and this affects their response time leading up to other meetings and events. What is just a quick email response can sometimes take over a week. For a planner, this is very frustrating. It seems that nationwide much of the trained staff is gone, and with them so is the institutional knowledge and relationships. With many hotels the turnaround of the staff is quick and leaves little time to develop an impactful relationship with planners.
Rising costs is another concern. I am always searching for cost savings in areas that will not diminish our attendee experience. I have noticed that many hotels are now charging a meeting space rental fee where in the past if we hit a certain food and beverage minimum it was negotiable. As a planner, I would always rather spend that money on our food and beverage rather than a room rental fee. Often times, when this happens it forces me to choose a less expensive meal option. I am also always looking for shoulder dates or deals to help reduce the rising costs. I have found if I provide as much information as possible, and if I am as transparent as possible, it really helps with the negotiation process.
How can you best incorporate sustainable practices into a value-conscious experience? The need for sustainable practices in a value conscious experience is growing rapidly in the meeting world. Meetings and events have a tendency to create a lot of waste from the handouts we provide to the water bottles on our buffet tables.
We always try our best to create a sustainable and environmentally friendly event, but sometimes the demographics at an event create a bit of a challenge. For example, about 95 percent of our handouts are digital. Older attendees seem to prefer that good old paper agenda as well as a pen and paper at a meeting. Our younger attendees prefer to be fully digital. It’s often a balance. Years ago, we would ship endless boxes of materials to an event, now we are down to one small box. For our internal events we ask our attendees to bring their own water bottles. Our team loves CVENT. All invitations and communications are sent via CVENT. We also encourage our guests to ride share to our meetings when possible.
How do you create an affordable event that will wow attendees? Every single event has a theme. Many times planning around a theme will help keep costs down. For example, a theme will help keep the cost down on décor overload and help create a more cohesive guest experience.
Food and drink are one of the most important aspects of a positive guest experience. Keeping a budget will help you keep track of where your food and beverage dollars are going. Be creative with your food and drinks. Try to choose a menu where guests can network with each other rather than a traditional sit down menu that tends to be more costly. When you are serving alcohol, paying by consumption always helps keep the cost down.
If your event requires entertainment always look for local entertainers first. Consider inviting local emerging artists and performers to provide music or other forms of entertainment. Usually, they perform at a fraction of the cost than big ticket names.
Set a timeline for evening functions. Most corporate parties do not need to be over two hours. Longer events drive your costs up, and you always want to leave the crowd wanting more. Be sure to set a timeline and set expectations with your vendors and a two-hour dinner is doable.