If you are planning a meeting or conference in a popular tourist destination, such as the Caribbean, South America, Australia, Hawaii, Spain or Greece, you can rest assured that you will have plenty of interested participants that will certainly attend. However, you may be concerned about how good their attendance will be once they are at the destination and have to make the tough choice between attending meetings or spending the day at the beach and shopping for souvenirs in open air markets. Your attendees are naturally going to be tempted by pristine, sandy beaches, the warmth of the sun and the draw of local villages and sites of cultural interest. Because of this, it will take a bit of planning to ensure that your attendees participate fully in your meeting or event.

One way to encourage them to attend planned functions and to ensure them that they will also have plenty of time to explore the area is to provide a schedule that clearly defines blocks of free time. This will provide them with a visual reminder that they are there to work, as well as play, and will let them know that you have planned plenty of free time for their enjoyment. You may also want to consider scheduling a free day within the first few days of the event, rather than only towards the end. If they see that they have to wait until the end of the week to hit the beach, they will be much more likely to play hooky from meetings to sneak away to the shore.

Another way to ensure attendance at important events is to plan a group cruise event.  Cruising is extremely popular with meeting attendees, and meeting planners can plan structured events at sea around the cruise itinerary.

While we would all like to believe that if you plan it they will come, that is not always the case with corporate events and meetings. Employees and executives have so many meetings and events to attend in any given week that it can sometimes take a little extra effort to ensure that they will show up at yours. Fortunately, there are several simple ways to increase the appeal of your corporate events and business meetings, which will increase attendance and show your client or boss that you know what it takes to deliver the results they need.

Here are five tried and true ways to increase attendance at corporate meetings and events:

1. Invite an enticing guest speaker. Whether it is a trendy guru or a respected leader in your field, adding an enticing guest speaker to the line-up will significantly enhance your event’s appeal.
2. Choose an appealing venue. Folks grow tired of going to the same venue for meetings and events repeatedly. Switch things up by opting for a museum, theme park or cruise ship to increase interest.
3. Serve alcohol. While you might not want to serve alcohol during the annual stakeholders’ meeting, you can certainly arrange for a cocktail social afterwards. Alcohol always seems to increase the appeal of any event.
4. Arrange exciting entertainment options. People love to be entertained, which makes this an easy way to get folks interested in attending your event.
5. Stay in touch prior to the event and ask for confirmations. Send out regular reminders and updates as the date approaches to keep your invitees interested and involved. And, do not be afraid to ask them to confirm their attendance prior to the event.

Hosting a business meeting on a cruise ship not only ensures stellar attendance, it also can make your job as a meeting planner simple and convenient. At the same time, your company or client can enjoy cost-savings of up to 40% over a land-based event at a resort hotel. Cruise ships are now well-equipped to handle meetings at sea and will be standing at the ready with group discounts, business meeting packages and everything you need for a successful meeting when you contact them.

Part of the simplicity of holding business meetings at sea is that the accommodations, entertainment, meals, meeting venues, audio-visual equipment and décor are all included for one upfront price and can all be arranged without having to contact multiple vendors and negotiate multiple contracts. Opting for a cruise ship meeting allows you to choose from a wide array of possible destinations, as well as offering you the opportunity to select the cruise length that will best suit your event budget and planning needs. Depending on the size of your group, you may also be able to choose a half or full ship charter, which allows for a more personalized experience.

If conducting your next business meeting on a cruise ship sounds appealing, visit Seasite.com to learn everything you need to know about hosting meetings at sea and to take advantage of convenient group cruise planning tools.

Are you always looking for ways to improve meeting attendance? Are enticing incentive travel destinations sometimes just still not enough? While opting for destinations in Mexico, South America, The Caribbean, The Bahamas or other exciting locations are usually enough to have attendees tripping over themselves to confirm their attendance, sometimes you need something special to really entice folks. Memorable, once in a lifetime experiences are the best way to ensure that your meeting attendance will improve, such as world-class sporting events, an incentive cruise, rare exhibits or concerts put on by musical icons are all sure to increase interest in your next corporate meeting or event.

If you plan your corporate event to be held in South Africa to coincide with the 2010 World Cup, or your next event to be held in the host city of the Super Bowl or to take place along with an event to honor the newest Hall of Fame inductee, and are able to procure tickets for these events for your attendees, you can be sure that attendance will soar. While this level of event may not fit comfortably into every company’s budget, these are simply examples of the possibilities for offering experiences your potential attendees will not want to miss. Other options that are more affordable include concerts, Broadway shows that are usually sold out or traveling exhibits that will likely only be in town for a short time and may never return.

When professionals attend well-planned meetings or conferences, they often want the contact information of the event planner for possible future use. Meetings that run smoothly, are productive and enjoyable, and include comfortable meeting spaces, good food and fun activities are sure to be remembered. Therefore, when you make sure that each attendee knows that you planned the meeting and that they will return home with your contact information, you are taking an important step in setting yourself up to obtain additional clients and experience future success.

Aside from high-powered professionals that may be in attendance, you should also keep in mind that each staff member at the meeting has the potential to rise in the ranks of the company they are currently with, to broaden their career path and go to work for another company, or to go out on their own. Making sure these folks remember you and have your contact information is an excellent way to increase the likelihood that they will tell their new company about your services, or use you for their own meeting planning needs in the future.

Promotional products that can be used during the meeting or conference, as well as after the attendees return home, such as pens, notepads, folders, rulers, calculators, desk sets or conference bags are affordable, effective marketing tools that will put your name and contact information in the hands of conference and meeting attendees, and will ensure that they have your information when there is a need for your services.

Money and time are at a premium in this fast-paced world. It is harder and harder to make time and place in the budget to attend meetings no matter how attractive travel and hotel rates may be. One way to step around the challenges of the present economy is to use video streaming.

Video streaming is communicating live from one computer to another. All you need is healthy internet connection and a web cam plus the skill and confidence to use them. A live stream allows more people to attend your presentation in real time.

The presenter’s charismatic appeal and knowledge base will speak equally loudly to remote viewers as they will to up close and personal attendees. In addition, a symposium may have several panels and cover a range of topics. Remote viewers can pay for individual panels at a reduced rate.

Record the event and sell the DVDs on your company’s website. This benefits attendees who can watch panels they may have missed at the conference and individuals who were not able to watch the live streaming.  Allow room for comments and questions on your website, either through a comment page or by providing an email address for queries. Video streaming is a good way to increase both attendance and revenue for your presentation.

As a planner, you know how business conferences can help employees become more productive, more motivated, and more valuable to a company. However, meetings can also create a more well-rounded employee as well. Here are two ways you can help businesses improve their employees’ breadth of knowledge through conference and meeting attendance.

Technology Transfer

This term may be old, but it’s a good one. Transfer of information happens even between conference/meeting session. When people have to choose between two sessions that they are interested in, they often ask for materials or information from others who attended the one they missed. Offer to plan interim meeting sessions for technology transfer, even if they are only for an hour a day. Reserve a room just for that purpose and schedule nothing else during that time. Read the rest of this entry »