For much of the time employees are in meetings, meeting participants are simply a captive audience. In cases such as these, participants are very likely to “tune out” and miss important information that is being disseminated. This is where the meeting planner can step in and be of invaluable assistance. To avoid situations in which meeting participants “zone out” and either daydream or doodle, meeting planners can make meeting preparation assignments. While this may sound like a meeting planner doling out homework, it actually helps meeting participants take a more significant role in the incentive meeting.

There are several types of meetings that can be held, and these include: problem-solving meetings, sales meetings, brainstorming session, and other types of less formal meetings. With problem-solving meetings, the participants may be made aware of the problem to be discussed ahead of time. They can then be asked to think of a possible solution and potentially share this solution with the group. For sales meetings, participants could be asked to discuss successful strategies they have learned. In a brainstorming session, participants can be asked questions related to the topic of discussion and provide potential solutions are answers. There are many ways in which incentive meetings can be tailored to encourage meaningful employee participation.

An incentive cruise can be an excellent way to reward top performers, motivate employees, and save money on travel costs. With typical land based meetings, companies will incur expenses for things such as accommodations, airfare, meals, entertainment, and meeting services. All of these expenses, when paid for separately, can be quite costly. Because company budgets may be more restricted now than they were in the past, incentive travel may not even be on a company's radar. However, it is very important that companies do not suspend incentive travel du to finances. A meeting planner can help companies plan incentive travel, such as a ship charter, that will be enjoyable and affordable.

There are many services that are typically included on an incentive cruise that make meetings at sea ideal. Inclusive services that make an incentive cruise unique include things such as: complimentary room services and in-room movies, round trip airfare and transfers, all meals including snacks and a midnight buffet, production shows, cocktail receptions, and other types of special shows. Cruise shops also provide things such as basic audio/visual equipment, computer equipment, and choice of meeting rooms that may include theater seating as well as light and sound. Meeting planners can assist companies with incentive travel such as ship charters.

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.

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.

There are several things that must be taken into consideration when traveling with a group: hotel, restaurants, meeting rooms, equipment, activities, entertainment, and many, many other assorted details. Planning group travel can quickly become a nightmare as costs begin to stack up and overwhelm many companies meager travel budgets. Making cuts to save money on trips such as these will result in less than stellar trip reviews from those in the group. This has the potential to damage employee morale and negatively effect productivity. Instead of planning an expensive trip on land, companies and organization should consider taking their group on an incentive cruise to the Bahamas.

With land travel, every aspect of the trip has to be planned on an individual basis. The hotel may not have a restaurant or have only one dining option. A separate meeting room may have to be secured, and all of the equipment needed may not be provided by the meeting facility. When the meeting is over, employees may not know where to find local entertainment or activities they would enjoy. Furthermore, employees have no real incentive to build camaraderie or spend time with one another outside of schedule meetings. Finding transportation for the group from the hotel to restaurants, activities, and meeting spaces can also be difficult.

Now consider a cruise. A cruise can be all inclusive, and meeting planners can customize the cruise to meet the needs of their clients. Compared to land travel, a customized cruise can save companies up to 40 percent. This is because meals, meeting rooms, equipment, activities, entertainment, and many other services are inclusive of the cruise fare. This means that taking a group cruise to the Bahamas can be less expensive than planning a trip on land. In addition, the Bahamas is a tropical, exotic destination that will be seen as exciting and adventurous. Because everything is included in a cruise, employees can band together and participate in activities as a group. This helps to build solidarity and cohesion among the company's top performers and management.

Taking a group on a cruise to the Bahamas is definitely more feasible that most companies realize. Instead of spending thousands of dollars on hotels and expensive restaurants, save money and book a custom cruise. A cruise to the Bahamas will be memorable, and it will give new employees an incentive to work harder and achieve greatness. Incentive travel programs are integral to the success of a company and retention of top talent. Incentive travel program such as a group cruise to the Bahamas is an excellent to draw top talent to a company, inspire success, and give the organization a distinct edge.

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:

• With the travel industry being more hard hit than most other industries, it is possible to get some truly amazing deals by leveraging that fact. Some deals are even unreasonably good as businesses are willing to take a small loss over a big loss to keep the doors open another season and see what happens. Take advantage while you can.
• Customer service and choices have both gotten a little bit better, but only so long as they are a known demand. The travel industry has had to let a lot of talent go, and that means that customer service is stretched thin. Some accept this along with budget prices, but that does not have to be the case. Let the management know that you expect quality service at any price and chances are good that you will get it and more.
• Some of that talent may also make for excellent meeting and/or event planners. Especially the venerable hotel or cruise line concierge. These people know how to plan meetings/events, leverage industry knowledge, and may even have contacts that will prove valuable.

Last minute planning is always a no-no, but sometimes it is unavoidable. Unfortunately, some bosses drop last minute meetings on their meeting planners and expect everything to be ready. Here are four tips to planning a last minute meeting without it turning into a debacle:

• Anticipate – Record the times and locations of every meeting as well as other related data. If it looks like the powers that be seem to like Friday afternoon meetings with deli snacks, then you should know what is coming without being told. To this end, keep all relevant supplies and coupons stocked, and favorite restaurants that deliver on speed-dial.
• Take imitative – You do not necessarily have to wait to be told about meetings in every case. It is usually acceptable to ask about meetings unless you have been expressly directed not to do so.
• Check schedules – Are the powers that be showing open schedules are the same time? If so, this might be a clue that a not-so-surprise-to-them meeting is getting set to be dumped into your lap at the last second. Now you have some warning!
• Have a to-go kit ready – Do meetings require certain tools or props? If so, keep all these props in a suitable to-go bag and have it ready 24/7. This will give you more time to get everyone into the meeting room and you will spend less time getting yourself prepared.

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.

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.

Incentive planning is important to building guaranteed attention and focus of any audience, and luckily there are a number of tools to help with this. Some of the tools are available in the most obvious of places, while others might be a little more subtle.

Venues – surprisingly, many venues have built-in incentives that they can offer, such as tours or gifts. This is more common in more exotic locations, and special destinations such as Las Vegas and Atlantic City. For more information, inquire with the hotel’s concierge service.

Local Concierge Services – In many cases, it is possible to find local services that offer meeting planning services at a discount. Smart meeting planners can and will consult with these for pricing whenever appropriate. Often it turns out that the local services have developed special relationships based on volume and history, and thus are able to offer better pricing.

Searching – If you do not look for it, then do not be surprised if you do not find it. The Internet is an amazingly powerful tool for looking for anything, and Google makes the entire process look simple. Simply navigate to Google’s home page (www.google.com) and type in what you are looking for. For example a search for ‘affordable tours in Tucson’ is a great way to locate an incentive.

Seasite.com – This amazing portal offers group cruise planning tools you can use to plan an incentive cruise.  With all cruise brands represented, you can source a group cruise easily with a single electronic RFP.