Rate That Hotel
Creative Brainstorming
A Planner’s Dream
Poll: How do you handle an increased workload?
Around the Industry
Krisam & GEP News

Rate That Hotel

What did you think of the hotel that you used for your last event? Would you recommend it to others?

John Iwaniec wants to know. Or, more precisely, John is providing you with a web site where you can rate hotels you’ve used and check out the ratings of your peers.

This new web launch, meetingscollaborative.com, was created by John to fill a gap in meetings industry resources – peer to peer reviews of hotels and other products that meeting professionals use.

Here’s how meetingscollaborative.com works and how you can use it.

Creative Brainstorming: Part I
Defining your audience and goals

Group creative thinking, or ‘brainstorming,’ is the art of getting a collection of different brains to function as one big brain. To do that you first have to make sure that all the brains are working with the same knowledge, and using the same criteria to develop ideas and make judgements about the effectiveness of the ideas generated. We spoke with Eric Steidinger, vice president and executive creative director of the August Jackson Company, about how he leads teams to develop effective and exciting solutions for their clients.

A Planner’s Dream Program

Imagine this... Your guests are wowed by the destination from the first minute! They are all strolling around with big smiles on their faces. The accommodations are first-rate and the meeting rooms are just right. This is shaping up to be the most successful event you’ve ever planned...and it took almost no planning.

• No food and beverage plans, except for a cocktail party or two. And no complaints about the menu choices.
• No need for dine-arounds.
• No need to plan entertainment.
• No need for a spouses’ program.
• Children welcome and happy but not underfoot.
• All gratuities arranged in advance.

Poll: How do you handle an increased workload?

If recent surveys are correct you will be planning more meetings this year without a greatly expanded budget. Is that the case with you, stretching your human resources as much as your budget? Let us know how it’s going by telling us how you are handling your workload. Take our poll .

Results of the December Poll
Based on the results of the December poll, the new web site MeetingsCollaborative.com should be just what busy planners are looking for. When asked where they turn for professional assistance and news, the top two answers were “Web sites” and “Colleagues and word-of-mouth.” Meetings Collaborative combines the two (see story above). Here are the complete results.

To which do you turn most regularly for professional assistance and news? (Check your top two).

• Websites 25%
• Colleagues and word-of-mouth 20%
• Industry Organizations 16%
• Print magazines 16%
• E-newsletters 9%
• Real-Life 9%
• Professional meetings 5%

Around the Industry

• New Service Tracks Bad Hotel Guests
  Hotels lose over 5% of revenues annually to fraud, according to Hotel Safeguard, a centralized database for reporting repeated abuses by guests. The company claims that they can help hotels drastically reduce or eliminate fraud losses and protect property and employees. There is a fee for membership and members must be authenticated as Hotel Industry Members and as authorized representatives of their property.
  
  If there is an incident or a guest requests COMP at check-out, a representative from the hotel logs into Hotel Safeguard, enters the guest information and checks for a Hotel Safeguard report. If a report is found, the clerk can then use the specific information to deter the fraud and losses. If a hotel suspects fraud, the hotel may submit an online investigation request and upon authentication, the incident details will then be added to that guest record.
  
   
• Yellow Fever Shots Recommended for Brazil
  Brazil has recently had a few cases of yellow fever in areas like the Amazon, Goiás and Mato Grosso States, near Brasília. The Brazilian Coastal cities are not included in the affected areas, reports Rosane Palha, sales manager of Havas Creative Tours, Rio de Janeiro.
  
  The Brazilian Ministry of Health recommends that tourists visiting Brazil check with their doctors for yellow fever shots. Please note that yellow fever shots must be taken at least 10 days before the trip, she cautions.
  
  The U.S. Embassy in Brasilia concurs recommending the vaccines for travel to all rural areas of all states, but reports that Yellow Fever is not a risk for travel to major coastal areas including the major tourist/business destinations of Sao Paulo, Salvador, Rio, Recife, and Fortaleza.
  
   
• Planners Cite Rising Costs and Scrutiny For 2008
  Rising costs and rising scrutiny were cited as the biggest challenges to meeting planners in Meeting News’ Outlook 2008 survey. Rising costs for nearly every meeting line item will be planners’ most pressing concern, followed by executive scrutiny of the value of meetings and planners, according to Meeting News. However, the survey found that meeting planners as a whole have a strong sense of job security, as shared by 95 percent of participants.

Krisam & GEP News
Get updates on Krisam Member Hotels & Resorts and GEP Partners here. For more information on any of these Members or Partners below, contact your Krisam or GEP representative directly or email us today.

New Krisam Member Hotels & Resorts

* Milwaukee, WI
InterContinental Milwaukee
Total rooms: 221
Total Meeting space: 13,000 square feet

* Fort Worth, TX
Omni Fort Worth Hotel
Total Rooms: 607
Total Meeting Space: 68,000 square feet
* This property will open in 2009.

* Portugal
Palácio Estoril Hotel & Golf
Total Rooms: 160
Total Meeting Space: 9,600 sq. feet



New GEP Partners

* International
- Borealis Destination Management– representing Denmark, Sweden and Norway
- Desert Adventures Tourism – representing Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Oman, Bahrain, and Qatar
- Excel Travel S.A.E. - representing Egypt
- Iceland Congress-representing Iceland
- Odyssey International Incentives and Meetings – representing Ireland
- WELCOME TEAM TRAVEL – representing Southern France

* Domestic
- Destination Concepts Inc – representing San Diego and Orange County, CA


GEP Opens 2008, Its 10th Year, with New Programs and Partners
Global Events Partners (GEP), this year celebrating its 10th anniversary, announced a series of moves designed to accelerate the growth of its partnership, bolster its company-owned DMC portfolio and connect even more closely with the meeting professional community through an important new performance standard.

Chris White, Chairman and CEO of GEP, announced the following initiatives:

(1) Creation of new risk management standards, in response to meeting professionals’ need to have adequate coverage for events.

(2) The formation of GEP Utah, following the acquisition of the DMC Division of Western Leisure.

New Risk Management Standards for U.S. DMCs
Responding to the needs of meeting professionals, White announced that GEP DMCs in the U.S. will now assume due diligence for ensuring proper risk coverage connected with events – removing that burden from the shoulders of planners. The new standards were unanimously approved by U.S. DMCs at GEP’s annual “Best Practices” meeting in Dallas in November.

Effective immediately, all GEP U.S. partners will adopt the following new risk management standards:

• Maintain current certificates of insurance of all key suppliers for a minimum of $1million in liability.
• Require key suppliers to name the GEP DMC involved in an event as additionally insured.
• Conduct at least one annual meeting with key suppliers to reiterate safety and service expectations and to review insurance and vendor agreements.
• Require a signed supplier agreement asserting compliance with all laws, ordinances, licenses, permits, rules and regulations, and service levels commensurate with the highest standards of the industry.

• Atlanta Arrangements, Atlanta
• Baskow & Associates, Las Vegas
• Bixel & Company, Los Angeles
• Bonnie Boyd & Company, New Orleans
• Destination Concepts, San Diego
• Destination Nashville, Nashville
• GEP Washington, Washington DC

• Boca Raton Resort and Club, Boca Raton, FL, 4-Star spa a
• Charleston Place, Charleston, SC, 4-Star lodging
• Grand America, Salt Lake City, UT, 4-Star lodging
• Hay Adams, Washington DC, 4-Star lodging
• The Hotel Hershey, Hershey, PA, 4-Star lodging
• The Island Hotel, Newport Beach, CA, 4-Star lodging and spa
• Loews Miami Beach, FL, 4-Star lodging g
• Mandarin Oriental, Washington DC, 4-Star lodging and spa
• The Peabody, Orlando, FL, 4-Star lodging
• The Sanctuary Spa, Sanctuary Camelback Mountain, Paradise Valley, AZ, 4-Star spa
• Venetian Las Vegas, NV, 4-Star lodging and spa
• Watermark Hotel & Spa, San Antonio, TX, 4-Star lodging and spa
• Windsor Court, New Orleans, LA, 4-Star lodging