Photo courtesy of LiminalMike
I was working with a long standing meeting and conference planning client looking to come up with a short list of cities for a couple of future annual meetings. While there’s a large educational portion and a mid-size trade show, this association is a very, very social group of delegates. The selection criteria included a city; they hadn’t met in for the past fifteen years, with appropriate meeting space, affordable and budget friendly, that has suitable venues, is easy to get to and will draw a range of attendees. And so as always my first step was to begin the search for potential meeting locations.
Not one single person can be familiar with each and every location appropriate to hold a meeting or conference. Anytime searching for a site to hold a meeting, whether it is domestically or internationally held, I rely on the experience of my peers and of course the expertise and know-how of the local CVB (Convention & Visitors Bureau) or even DMC (Destination Management Company). When time allows, I pursue probable meeting cities and then send out my RFP outlining the meeting necessities including dates, accommodations, meeting and trade show specs, AV & F& B needs and transportation basics. I then consider the received proposals along with the services and rates proposed and make my client recommendations and then go from there.
Meeting and Conference Planning – Help in Finding that Just Right Location, Location, Location.
But not this time, this time the recommendations were required basically “now” without allowing for the opportunity to facilitate my “normal” legwork. Not only did time not allow but coming from a DMC background I felt it was unfair to expect the DMC’s to put in the work until I had that short list of cities along with the real meeting dates. So while trying to figure out the fastest way to come up with at least three cities that not only have the space and accommodation requirements but the ability to come through on the other needs as well, someone I work with told me about a great website that they thought could help.
Meeting and Conference Planning – CVPREPS and Help Right at Our Fingertips!
With the goal of helping clients find that perfect meeting destination as well as coordinating a client’s meeting requirements with a destination’s background and amenities. The CVBREPS, a collection of DMO’s (Destination Marketing Organizations) also called CVB’s, purpose and objective is in the promoting and selling of their over sixty destinations. They will assist in finding meeting space, hotel availability and organize site inspections. One stop shop setting, with a team of experts educated and trained in the area of convention services ready to help with all our meeting and conference planning needs and wants.
CVBREPS.com is an easy to use informative website, with the ability to help meeting professionals to reach over 60 cities with satellite offices. And while you can effortlessly submit a RFP’s and receive assistance where needed, when time is at a minimum, you can also find city information with just the click of a mouse. When on www.cvbreps.com and clicking on a city you will handily find information for the CVB primary contact, headquarter location, website link, a destination description and overview as well as a list of quick facts including; guest room numbers, exhibit hall specs and numbers, maximum auditorium seating and breakout rooms, airport distance along with additional important destination info. A one stop shop when it comes to not only acquiring but executing city meeting information.
Thanks for the tip, I’ll check it out.