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There is an old expression that suggests that killing two birds with one stone is wise, even if it does sound a little graphic. In the modern era a business equivalent of that translation might be offering top employees the chance to go work on an all-inclusive cruise. Here’s how it works:
• Many companies are now hosting meetings at sea, and that in turn means that companies usually need to have staff members and some of the top brass on the trips. Who better to bring than some of the company’s better employees? • Choose better employees with a contest that uses set metrics to determine who gets to go and who gets runner up prizes. Runners up should get something reasonable to keep them motivated. • Make sure to let different departments compete for spots whenever relevant but setting up different departments to compete for spots might be more difficult because it is almost certain to cause some complaining. Department A feels that the metrics they have to live up to are actually more difficult than they feel Department B’s metrics are. Not surprisingly, Department B feels that same way about Department A’s metrics. Avoid this by giving each department a set number of seats or slots. • Remember that corporate travel expenses can generally be written off so long as they are working trips, so make sure to get proper receipts for the accounting department.
In today's business world, when employees hear about meetings they often grimace. While meetings are an essential part of business, meetings are often over scheduled and under utilized. Workers may begin to feel as though meetings are interrupting their productivity. For this reason, meeting planners must be thoughtful, diligent, and resourceful when planning meetings – even incentive meetings. Businesses desire for their incentive meetings to be effective, successful, enjoyable, informative, and motivating for their top employees. By following a few guidelines, meeting planners can ensure they get the most participation from employees.
Meeting planners need to make certain that the meeting has an agenda and that all participants are apprised of this agenda. Not only should individuals be aware of the meeting agenda, but they should also be aware of the objectives of the meeting. Information provided to meeting participants should include items such as topics of discussion, presenters, location, date, time, and any other pertinent background information. This can help participants to be well-prepared for the meeting. It will be the job of the meeting planner to ensure the meeting begins on time, presenters are well-prepared, and that employee participation is encouraged. Evaluating the effectiveness of the meeting and noting any suggested improvements will also be beneficial.
One of the largest problems that incentive meetings have is a loss of control over attendees who would rather be at home cleaning their bathrooms. Even participants who enter a business meeting with the best intentions can become bored and restless if equipment is malfunctioning or there are lengthy pauses in the presentation due to an agenda that isn’t working out as planned.
A great way to guarantee quick results at an incentive meeting is to hold your meeting in a venue that offers desirable after-meeting entertainment options that is not available until all work is completed. When your meeting is composed of busy individuals who have other things to do, they will settle down and do their best to complete the work-at-hand in a fast and productive manner.
Combining a structured incentive trip with fun participant activities requires some creative thinking and a calculator. In reality, a business incentive meeting can be held in any appropriately setup conference room that comes complete with reasonably priced comfortable accommodations, food and beverage choices, and an easy-access location that allows for all transportation concerns.
Cruise ships have luxury accommodations, free food, no transportation needs after reaching the point of departure, and conference room facilities that are available with state-of-the-art equipment for passengers to use. These floating hotels also offer quality entertainment options, health spas, room service and activities for traveling family members to enjoy themselves too.
A few quick clicks on the calculator will show you how the price of a cruise meeting will beat the traditional lodging, restaurant, and transportation costs of a business incentive meeting from many locations inside of the United States today. Even with airfares involved to get to the port-of-departure, with many of the vacation industry discounts being offered today, a cruise can be the most economical way to conduct your next business meeting. In fact, a cruise can save you as much as 40 percent over the price of a land based venue, due to the fact that it is all inclusive.
An all inclusive cruise event can save you up to 40% compared to hotel venues since so much is included. Meals, meeting rooms, A/V, coffee breaks, activities, entertainment and even room service are part of the all-inclusive cruise fare.
There is a misconception among a number of segments of the corporate meeting and incentive travel industry that cruises are an excessively expensive choice for corporate meetings and incentive travel. When instead, choosing to arrange your next corporate event onboard a cruise ship can be extremely economical and can effect in sizeable cost savings when compared to corporate event destinations that are land-based.
According to a recent report published in Corporate Meetings & Incentives magazine, 34 percent of their readers had used a cruise for an incentive program and an astounding 72 percent said they planned to – a clear indication of where the industry is moving.
This is especially true when incentive travel and meeting planners take advantage of inviting packages offered when planning meetings with many attendees. The cost benefits can be even more if the majority of the attendees live nearby a port or cruise terminal, avoiding the need for air travel.
The notion of participating in a corporate meeting at sea event is additionally much more thrilling and intriguing to meeting participants, which results in them in reality looking forward to the voyage, to a certain extent dreading yet another incentive event where they use up hours locked in a boring meeting room in Omaha or Kansas City.
Onboard cruise ship activities and entertainment are an outstanding way to relax after a long day of meetings, and offer ample of options for days off. Stopping in fascinating ports of call also adds appeal to shipboard corporate incentive travel, and permits event participants to spend time enjoying attractions, dining, entertainment and shopping off the ship as well.
Plan your next corporate event on a cruise ship and you will find that attendees will be happier, more motivated and more productive as they enjoy the opportunity to both work and have fun onboard.
If you are planning a business incentive travel package, make it easy for yourself and delight your attendees when you go to Seasite.com start sourcing cruise event package.
Many believe that the economic meltdown of the late 2000s will forever change business, or at least make businesses more frugal during our lifetime. This is likely to be true for many industries, but some industries such as the travel industry rely heavily on the free-spending big budgets of other companies and organizations. This could be good news for meeting and event planners. Here’s why:
Even if the money is available for corporate travel incentives such as ship charters, this type of travel may simply not be feasible for one reason or another. Oftentimes, trips are complicated to plan due to scheduling conflicts. However, businesses must still hold essential meetings with their employees on an annual, semi-annual, or quarterly basis. To make these meetings more enjoyable and memorable, businesses may want to consider other types of incentives. When the travel itself or the location of the meeting is not necessarily an incentive, there are other ways that businesses can motivate employees and show their appreciation.
Favors can make excellent incentives. As a rule, incentives given to employees at meetings should somehow relate to the task at hand. The majority of items distributed as incentives should be useful and relevant to the meeting. A few of the incentive items should be things that will simply make the employees or meeting participants happy. For example, coupons or vouchers for free coffee or dessert at a local coffee shop is a great way to make employees feel appreciated. Other types of incentive products that are well-received include things such as pens, notebooks, coffee mugs, and shirts. These items should be branded with the business' corporate logo.
The sad truth is that most workers do not actually throw themselves into their work these days, and many only hold on to their job because it is inconvenient or difficult to replace them. This is the situation in many businesses simply because they lack a meeting planner that knows how to turn meetings into the bright spot of any day. Here’s how:
Make meetings more interactive – Most people hate being ignored. Try to insure that everyone is listened to at a meeting by including time for each department to comment on various proposals or ideas.
Set aside time for brainstorming – If ideas are needed, then let those ideas be generated in an open environment free of critique and negativity. Nobody likes having their ideas shot down, and nobody knows when a sub-par idea will inspire someone else to come up with a good idea.
Offer small rewards for participation – Even things as silly as branded pens or a USB memory key can substantially impact how participants feel about a meeting. Never overlook the opportunity to build morale and loyalty with branded products bought at bulk prices.
Remember that loyalty is something that can spread just as easily as a bad attitude. A good meeting planner can kill the latter with the former simply by planning meetings well.
Meetings themselves can be incentives, especially when they are held in exotic locations or on group cruise events, but that is not always practical for run of the mill meetings. There are other ways to make average meetings a bit more interesting than they have been in the past with proper incentives. These same ideas have proven to be very popular in meetings that are non-compulsory as well. Here are three ideas for anyone looking into ways to liven meetings up:
Favors or gifts – inexpensive gifts or favors are a great way to keep participants happy and on-task. These favors should probably be a combination of useful items that relate to the meeting or business in general along with one or two gifts that simply make participants happy. Vouchers for coffees at the local coffee shop are great examples as they are inexpensive and appreciated.
Branded products – Pens, notebooks, USB memory keys, shirts, caps, coffee mugs, and other items that are stamped with the corporate logo make for great ways to liven a meeting up and add morale to a room. Consider offering on or two very special branded products to those who perform the best or meet some special criteria.
Offer something tangible – One reason that many people do not like meetings is that many meetings go nowhere. Offer tangible results and check back in on those results and see how the mood can liven when those who are frustrated now feel engaged.
Meetings have the capacity to be soul-crushing events or very lively, team-building exercises if they are properly planned. Meetings that are about creative problem solving can be broken up into two stages with a break in the middle.
The first stage is one where all ideas are accepted and negativity is simply not allowed. This promotes better idea sharing and creates a more open atmosphere that allows others to build off of ideas that may or may not be practical. The second meeting is one where negativity and even constructive criticism still need to take a back seat to the priority of choosing the most reasonable plan. Emotional investment in ideas should be distributed due to the very nature of the first meeting, and thus nobody should be championing a cause to further their own ends.
Another idea would be to give people special seats on corners when they are ‘idea’ people. The seats are honorary positions that change whenever a new idea comes up that is useful. Some meeting planners have special incentives ready for whoever spends the most time in one of these chairs, such as a covered parking spot for a period of time.
By following the aforementioned ideas and/or being a little creative, it is possible to create strong incentives without having to actually spend any money. Furthermore, productivity gains from smart meeting planning can be phenomenal and almost impossible to put a price tag on.
When planning corporate meetings and conventions, reserving shuttles to carry your participants from their hotels to the event location, from the event location to planned excursions or between multiple venues is generally taken for granted as part of the meeting planning process. Meeting and event planners automatically add a line for shuttle expenses to the event budget and usually assume this service is a must, even if the hotel is barely two blocks from the convention center. It would appear that having a shuttle has worked its way onto the essentials list, right along with tables, chairs and lighting.
While there be some circumstances where shuttles truly are a must, this additional expense is often unnecessary. Most cities with meeting and conference venues have plenty of hotels located within walking distance of event locations, as well as well-established public transportation systems that can easily and economically carry event participants to different venues or excursions. Most event venues also have dining options in close proximity.
Considering that most companies are still looking for ways to cut event expenses and many are on the lookout for easy ways to go green, cutting shuttle service out of your list of musts is an easy way to accomplish both goals. Before reserving shuttles for your next corporate event, take a moment to determine whether or not they are truly necessary. If most venues are in close proximity to one another and hotels are just down the street, shuttles may just be an extra expense that you can easily avoid without participant complaints.
