Seven Ways to Increase Event Attendance RIGHT NOW with a Fully-automated System:

1. Send email invitations in addition to snail mail.
Due to the costs and hassles of mail, increasing invitation frequency is not economical. With broadcast email you can schedule perfectly timed invitations to go out in sequence. Giving you more opportunity to attract registrants. An automated system automatically emails your registrants whenever you want it to.

2. Receive commitments quickly.
No licking envelopes or searching for stamps is required by your potential registrants when you include a direct link to your registration form from your email invitation.

3. Automatically notify people who abandon registration.
Ever wonder how many people start their registration but don't follow through? Well, with an automated system, you can not only be notified when this happens, but create an email that automatically gets sent to them when they abandon the process, recapturing 20-25% of these fence-sitters directly from the email.

4. Communicate with people who haven’t RSVP’d.
Some people need several prompts or reminders of an upcoming event before they finally register. Schedule subsequent invitations to go out automatically and on the days you select to those on your list that have not yet registered.

5. Automate confirmation emails to increase ‘word-of-mouth’ advertising.
Statistics show that you can increase your word-of-mouth registration by including a "Refer-a-Friend" link in your confirmation emails. You can even give them suggested verbiage to send on about your event right in the body of the email. Automated systems make it easy to get referrals, giving you additional registrants.

6. Decrease no-shows with reminder emails.
We have heard of event planners that see a 90% attendance rate after sending a reminder email when their previous no show rate was as high as 35%. An automatically generated reminder email is a great place to send final event details to your attendees.

7. Keep registrants informed with automatic wait list emails.
A wait list without coordination headaches is possible in a system with automated wait listing. When a spot opens up, an email is automatically sent to the next person on the waiting list. They can confirm and pay, or decline and the process will repeat – automatically – effortlessly keeping your event at capacity.

With a fully-integrated online registration system, you can get an easy to use broadcast email system that will increase your sign ups by 25% or more.

Life is all about relationships, and business can be too. Meeting and/or event planners can use this piece of knowledge to their advantage once they have recognized and fully accepted it. Contacts are often the difference between a successful event or off-site meeting and something that turns out to be less than stellar. Here are some basic tips to consider:

Make friends everywhere you go, especially at venues, restaurants, and catering services. Even the lowliest dish washer or clerk might be remember you if you are friendly, and could let you know when an opportunity is ripe for the plucking. Perhaps the restaurant or hotel is not doing so well, and that information could be leveraged to save expenses at a particularly good venue.

Keep in touch with those people that you do meet, and remember to invite them to events whenever appropriate. Even a night out at the bar once a month or so is typically enough to keep contacts friendly and willing to let knowledge slip out that may prove useful in certain cases. Keep in touch in other ways too, such as phone calls and e-mails.

Find the best scheduling program you can and learn how to use it effectively for social networking. If calls to contacts and meetings are not on one’s schedule, then something is missing.

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.

If you plan meetings and events for the SMERF (social, military, educational, religious, fraternal) market, you may want to consider adding self-catering accommodation options to the lodgings available for your events. While this is clearly a non-issue if your meeting or event is taking place on a cruise ship or if you are hosting your event at a hotel and offering on-site lodgings, this can be a rather appealing option for other situations. For example, if you are planning a meeting to be held at a community hall or a conference at a convention center, you may want to consider adding self-catering options to the list of lodging possibilities for out-of-town attendees.

One of the main reasons for offering self-catering accommodations when working with the SMERF market is that this type of event participant is more likely to be traveling with their partner or family than other types of event attendees. Accommodations that have kitchen and laundry facilities can make the non-attending partner and other family members feel more at home and allows them to keep food and drinks readily available, rather than having to leave their lodgings every time they want a snack. This also allows your SMERF participants to enjoy the convenience and savings of dining in for some meals, if they prefer.

Seasite.com makes it easy for event planners to source and plan a cruise event. They provide search tools that help you identify the right ship, meeting space grids that show you how the ship fits your needs, and other great planning resources.

It's a well known fact that cruising for groups, meetings and incentives offers outstanding value with savings of up to 40 percent off land-based venues, but is it right for you? According to a recent report in Corporate Meetings & Incentives magazine, 34 percent of their readers had booked a cruise for an incentive event and an astonishing 72 percent said they planned to book one – an unmistakable indication of where the industry is moving.

If you are planning a group cruise for your next incentive travel event, you may be considering whether chartering a ship would be a more appropriate option than booking reservations on a cruise containing unaffiliated passengers. It may or may not be, contingent on a number of issues.

Initially, it is valuable to understand your alternatives. When chartering a cruise ship, you frequently can pick between group, half-ship and full-ship charter options. Full ship charters clearly allow for the most freedom, customization, exclusivity and prestige, while group-level charters will probably be most economical.

All of these alternatives has pros and cons; but, they each present distinctive advantages for those event planners deciding if chartering a cruise ship is their top option.

In order for chartering a cruise ship for your next meeting at sea to be a good goal, you will need to have a definite number of attendees, a good idea of your event space requirements and the funds to make a significant financial commitment upfront, usually guaranteed by a letter of credit.

As soon as these things are in place, your next job is selecting the optimal cruise ship to fit your incentive event needs. This will need to include appropriately-sized meeting spaces, overall costs that are within your planning budget, a suitable itinerary and an overall quality that suits the level of service and prestige required by your meeting at sea client.

If you are planning a corporate incentive travel package, make it easy for yourself and delight your attendees when you go to Seasite.com start sourcing cruise event package.

Meeting and event planners often find themselves being asked to plan a variety of social and business events, regardless of their niche. Because of this, it is always a good idea to have a few tricks up your sleeve for when you choose to accept these projects. While you might be a corporate event planner who never anticipates planning a wedding, you never know when one of your best clients might ask for a favor or when uncertain economic times might encourage you to expand your service offerings. Therefore, having some unique ideas for weddings in the back of your mind might prove useful at some point in your career.

For a truly romantic, intimate setting for a wedding or vow renewal ceremony, river cruises are an excellent option. Whether opting for a small ship, a barge or an ultra-romantic steamboat, couples will have a memorable wedding day when they choose a river cruise wedding. This affordable option allows them to combine their ceremony and honeymoon in one price package and offers the opportunity for family and friends to join them for just the ceremony or for the full journey. Wedding river cruises can take place in Canada, Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, the South and the Great Lakes, or on one of Europe’s many rivers, depending on the couple’s preferred destination and budget.

Planning a river cruise wedding – even if you have never planned a wedding – is easy and convenient with the group cruise planning tools at Seasite.com.

For oceans of information, visit www.landrykling.com or www.seasite.com or call 800-448-9002.

The first step in tapping into the SMERF market would – of course – be understanding exactly what the SMERF market is. This particular travel, meeting and event market consists of social, military, education, religious and fraternal organizations, hence the SMERF acronym. This growing market of potential clients is the bread and butter of some event planners who have chosen to specialize in organizing events and meetings for these particular groups, and with good reason.

Most corporate meeting and event planners who do not have experience with the SMERF market do not realize that their needs and wants vary greatly from corporate clients, which makes many planners ill-equipped to meet the unique challenges associated with SMERF event planning. This has opened the way for savvy planners who are well-versed in working with SMERF clients to tap into this lucrative market and make a name for themselves as an expert in this niche.

At first glance, it may appear that there is less money to be made when working with SMERF clients. It is true that these groups may not have the per person spending power of profitable corporations, and it is also true that events for these groups can be absolutely huge, including such challenges as booking 1,000 rooms for a single event. However, SMERF groups also tend to have a higher level of loyalty than corporate clients, which means that putting together a single successful event for a SMERF client could result in repeat business from a loyal client for life.

Whether your corporate event lasts for two days or two weeks, there are bound to be certain points where participants begin to get edgy, stress begins to take its toll, or energy and attention begin to wane. Even in the most interesting meetings this can happen, which can lead to lower productivity and decreased satisfaction among attendees. This is why savvy corporate meeting and event planners have begun to include spa treatments in their event schedules. These luxury extras are an excellent addition to meetings and a great way to perk up attendees, relieve stress and prepare them for a few more hours at the table.

This growing trend is particularly popular at resort hotels that house spas on the premises, which also makes the inclusion of spa treatments much easier to organize. When the equipment and staff necessary to conduct spa treatments is already in place, only minimal planning is required to provide this added luxury to your event. Popular options for spa treatments during meeting breaks include chair massages, foot massages, head massages and mini, instructor-led yoga sessions and stretching breaks.

If your venue does not have an in-house spa, you can still incorporate spa treatments into your event with ease by finding a local, mobile team of spa service providers or contracting with a local spa that can send over staff and equipment.

The world of meeting and event planning is changing. As companies cut their budgets and keep a closer eye on expenses and an increasingly environmentally aware market demands that companies take noticeable eco-friendly steps to stay ahead of the curve, event planners must continue to come up with new, innovative ideas to keep their clients happy and the business coming in.

If you can make a name for yourself as an event planner that can assist clients in saving money and giving their image an eco-edge, you will be well ahead of the competition in the years to come.

One example of how you can help your clients cut costs and make their next meeting or event an eco-friendlier affair is to encourage the use of train travel for transportation. If the meeting is in close proximity to company headquarters, or near where most attendees reside, this is a particularly enticing option that will lower the carbon footprint of the event and show that the company is taking environmentally responsible steps.

Train travel is also more affordable and is enjoyable for the commuters, allowing them to relax and enjoy the ride, or brush up on talking points before their presentation. Begin to incorporate train transportation options into your event planning and you may be pleasantly surprised at the attention it will garner.