The best incentive programs to motivate employees include rewards of money or travel. People love to win trips to destinations that are different from their own environment. Trips to exotic destinations such as an incentive cruise to interesting ports of call are among the most popular incentives, and tend to have the best ROI overall.
Seasite.com, the first online group cruise meeting planning portal, allows planners capitalize on the value of cruise meeting and incentives. Cruising can cut the cost of land based venues by as much as 25-40%, allowing planners to persevere with today’s shrinking budgets. Why not make your next corporate incentive event a meeting-at-sea ? Take a look at Seasite.com today!
Ignite, Canada’s innovative meetings magazine, provides event planners fresh ideas and strategies for meetings and conferences as well as special Hot Rates & Dates from hotel meeting venues
Toronto, ON (PRWEB) November 24, 2009 — Successful meeting planning has just been made easier for event management professionals with the launch of Ignite Magazine’s new website. The site, a companion to the print magazine, offers event planning professionals access to a wealth of educational articles designed to assist in meetings and events production; incentive programs; and tips for corporate travel planners and association and corporate meeting executives.
Plus, Ignite’s special Hot Rates & Dates section at http://ignitemag.ca/hot_rates is helping companies save money and find the best sites for business events, with the most up-to-date offers from an array of hotels, meeting facilities, airlines and other suppliers.
The Ignite Magazine website offers articles on topics from teambuilding ideas to incentive programs; sample RFPs and budget checklists; and useful planning tools such as a room space calculator to assist in booking appropriate space. Event planners can also find tools for conference event management, such as a guide on how to successfully spread responsibilities among an organizing committee.
Recognizing that corporate travel managers play an integral role in administering cost-effective, results-driven programs for their companies, Ignite Magazine’s website features tips and strategies tailored to business travel planners. The site features a corporate travel planner’s guide to cost-conscious travel, business travel tips for successful corporate travel programs, and recent articles on corporate travel policy and how to manage a company’s travel risks.
Ignite Magazine’s Hot Rates + Dates offers special packages from meeting venues across Canada and the U.S., assisting meeting planning professionals in getting the most out of their budgets. Hot Rates + Dates include everything from special room rates and rebates to airline miles and event planner points. The launch of the new Ignite Magazine website comes on the heels of the publication’s first anniversary and marks a new era for the meetings magazine in its ability to serve the event planners community with contemporary strategies in an increasingly competitive environment.
For more information about Ignite Magazine, visit www.ignitemag.ca.
About Ignite Magazine: Ignite Magazine offers fresh, new resources for people who plan and manage meetings, events, business travel, promotions and incentive programs. The magazine’s mission, in print and online, is to provide event and meeting planning professionals with information, inspiration, guidance and great ideas for everything from conference services and event management details to corporate travel management and unique business gift ideas.
Successful incentive programs will not only increase company profits but can also raise morale and inspire employee loyalty. Your ideal incentive program should include both of the following features:
Recognition of a well-done job creates greater autonomy, increases visibility within your organization, and showcases success.
"There are two things people want more than sex and money… recognition and praise." – Mary Kay Ash, Founder, Mary Kay Cosmetics
"People want to feel what they do makes a difference." – Frances Hesselbein, President, The Drucker Foundation
Top recognition incentive programs to motivate staff include rewards of money or travel. People love to travel to destinations that are different from their own environment. Trips to exotic destinations such as Hawaii or an incentive cruise to interesting ports of call are among the most popular incentives.
Corporations are working on motivating their personnel through incentive reward programs. They appreciate the significance of incentive travel trips such as a cruise meeeting to improve the morale of their staff. Hitting the high seas for an adventure on a luxury cruise liner is becoming a well-liked corporate getaway.
Putting together a corporate event such as a conference or a business meeting at sea makes a lot of sense, especially when it comes to getting the greatest value from the investments.
Employee retention is a critical issue for corporations. Establishing a good rapport with your employees and keeping them happy is valuable for the continuous flow of business. Accordingly planning incentive travel rewards becomes a priority. An exciting cruise is guaranteed to keep your staff happy as nothing soothes, heals, and inspires like the sea.
The allure of the sea and the comforts of a luxury cruise ship are sure to motivate your valued employees.
An all-inclusive incentive cruise is a great choice for corporate events. A cruise offers the following advantages:
- An agreeable environment to bond and network with business associates – An exotic variety of dishes for you to relish – A completely unconventional and exciting ambiance on the move, filled with delightful surprises. – Having meetings on ships fosters camaraderie as most meetings, dining and social events take place on premises – Today?s ships offer meeting facilities and conference rooms that rival those of land-based resorts – Meeting and conference room facilities and AV equipment are usually included in the fare (as opposed to land-based programs, which usually charge extra) – With the increasing scrutiny from accounting departments or investors, many companies have been cutting back on their incentive programs at a time when morale is even more important, but a cruise program allows them to provide more value for much less.
A cruise can also be employed as a training venue for your employees who will definitely enjoy the exceptional setting. The days of strict education inside a training room are rapidly being replaced by inspired venues such as cruise ships, much to the delight of employees.
Cruise ships are well equipped when it comes to holding corporate events, satisfying the demands of the most stringent client. The best news is that these ships are easy on your budget, compared to other conventional conference venues.
Any employees who are accompanied by their families have less concern over what their spouses and children will be up to while they are in a meeting. A cruise ship provides a lot of entertainment to keep everyone busy and happy.
Another fantastic thing about a cruise is the chance to experience several destinations as you cruise along.
Seasite.com, the first online group cruise planning portal, allows planners capitalize on the value of cruise meetings and incentives. Cruising can slash the cost of land based venues by 25-40%, allowing planners to persevere with today’s shrinking budgets. Why not make your next corporate incentive event a meeting-at-sea ? Take a look at Seasite.com today!
While we usually think of incentive programs benefiting the top producers–and the incentive itself does–the real effect is on the average employee, according to Fay Beauchine. In May 2009’s Incentive Magazine, she made the point in Incentive House Roundtable that it’s the middle producers who move up.
“We all know top performers are usually top performers,” she said to interviewer Leo Jakobson. She claimed that it’s the middle that improve by trying to hit the target. Even though they will miss it, they will still improve, even if only a few percent, and that will increase the total sales by “huge numbers in some cases.”
This underscores the importance of the incentive travel programs currently in place in corporations today. You as the meeting planner need to understand that you are a key player in your client’s bottom line, and you have to produce sales in an indirect way. This can be more difficult than the motivation speaker who simply gives them all a good talking to.
Remember that when you plan incentive travel, you need to plan with the person in mind. Tailor it to fit a participant’s ideal needs and wants and she will talk about it for a long time–and she will say it to some of the middle producers in the company.
Incentive travel programs are one way corporations reward star employees. One of the best things about being a corporate meeting planner is the added perk of incentive business trips. If you are wondering how to plan a corporate incentive trip, it is not all that difficult. These days there are so many options available for business travel destinations that you could be hard pressed to decide on one.
In fact studies have found that incentive travel programs are one of the main attractions of event planning jobs- it is one of the main reasons why most people opt for careers in event planning and stick to it.
If you are not familiar with what an incentive program is, the answer is quite simple- an incentive program is an all expense paid trip for a group of corporate individuals as a bonus for excelling in the work force. For example, a food processing company could offer an incentive travel program to its sales staff for meeting desired goals. This is a great way to motivate employees and ensure that they retain their interest in the work, looking forward to more of such trips. Read the rest of this entry »
