Incentive travel is an wonderful way for a company to not only show top-performing employees their appreciation, but to provide them with the motivation they need to continue to be at the top of their game. When organizations are considering planning incentive travel, there are numerous destinations from which to choose. Whether the destination is close to home or across the ocean, it is important that the travel incentive spark the interest of the organization's employees. If employees are not interested in the travel itinerary or destination, the motivational aspect of the trip will be moot and productivity may be stifled. Increasing productivity is an important factor.
While these land venues such as hotels and resorts can be quite interesting and are often located in desirable cities, employees may not find these types of meeting venues as attractive as other types of incentive travel. One type of incentive travel that is becoming popular is incentive cruises. An incentive cruise allows organizations to hold meetings at sea while treating their employees to tropical, exotic, and far away destinations. Incentive cruises provide employees with a serene setting to think outside the box which can lead to increased productivity. Increased productivity and paradise? It can happen with an incentive cruise.
Oftentimes, businesses overlook the small things when trying to determine what type of incentives will work best with their employees. For meetings that do not require travel to some exotic destination or if a budget simply will now allow travel at the present time, there are other ways to reward employees and express appreciation. One of the most overlooked ways in which to show employees how much their work is appreciated and to provide motivation for continued dedication is food. Businesses that select food as one of their incentives need to ensure they plan the incentive meals properly.
Providing food as an incentive or reward can keep a business' costs low if planned properly. While catering is ideal if a business' budget permits, the business can purchase and serve the food themselves. Businesses may want to plan to serve either breakfast or lunch to employees before or after a meeting. Breakfast foods such as juice, coffee, muffins, doughnuts, and bagels are staples. A business could have a lunch delivered, such as hot sandwiches or pizza, and give employees the opportunity to relax while having lunch. Incentives do not always have to be grand gestures or expensive trips. Sometimes the small things can say thanks in a significant way.
Whether you run your own meeting planning company or are a meeting planning professional employed by a major corporation, self-promotion should be considered an integral part of your job. Many meeting planners avoid self-promotion for one reason or another, but if you do not have the confidence in your skills and the motivation to get out there and get your name known, others will likely pick up on this and may not have complete confidence in your meeting planning skills.
Self-promotion is, of course, absolutely imperative for self-employed meeting planners and is a key component in landing new clients and sparking interest in your services. Making yourself available as a speaker, writing articles for trade publications, maintaining a blog and billing yourself as an expert are all excellent forms of self-promotion that will increase awareness of your meeting planning services and will instill confidence in potential clients considering using you for their meeting planning needs.
For planners currently working for corporations or non-profit organizations, self-promotion is also important. Participating in the abovementioned activities, such as blogging about event and meeting planning, offering your expertise to partner organizations or writing articles, can increase exposure for your current employer, while also positioning you for stepping out on your own at some point or increasing your marketability to potential future employers.
“Incentives” Magazine recently printed an editor’s note (Vincent Alonzo) that described a way to bring online tradeshows to the world. Virtual Incentive World is making it possible for people to log on and visit booths any time of the day or night and get information over the transom that would have taken much more time to gather previously.
The June, 2009 editorial entitled “Motivation 2.0 and 2009” did not really say how this would be motivational, but it does bring up an interesting idea for meeting planners: How can it benefit you and your business?
For one thing, it confirms what you may already suspect. It means that lots of people are trying to find alternatives to spending money on travel, lodging, meeting space, etc. It may also mean that if you don’t become familiar with technology to the point where you could help create an online event, down the road you may be left behind.
Of course, this is speculation. However, it may give you some incentive to beef up your knowledge of technology so that you can at least cope with the technological advances that meetings will experience over the next decade, even if the yare not all incentives.
