Whether it’s your first event or your one thousandths, the fact is that you should have a conference planning guide to help plan your event. But where can you find a good conference planning guide? Well it’s a very good question. There is no shortage of places that claim they have good conference planning guides. But how do you set out to find a guide that will actually help you plan your event rather than promote products and services from the company that is offering them?
Your Hotel Is a Good Place to Start When Looking for a Conference Planning Guide
No doubt that if you’re planning a conference or event that you will be using a hotel. It used to be that you could rely on your hotel to only provide you with direction for matters that related to services within the hotel. That’s not necessarily the case today. Hotels, like other companies in the event planning industry, are always looking for new and innovative ways to stay ahead of their competition. One area that I’ve noticed over the last few years is in conference planning. Most hotels will now offer a conference planning guide to help you with not only the hotel portion of your conference but with all the other aspects that are no doubt bogging you down with details as well. Marriott (I’m only singling them out as I personally feel their meeting planner information is top notch – they are in no way connected with this site) has an excellent conference planning guide that they offer on their website. It’s certainly worth taking a look.
Convention and Visitors Bureaus Can Also Provide You with a Conference Planning Guide
What if you are at the beginning stage of your conference planning? The hotel websites still allow you to visit their conference planning section without necessarily being a guest. Of course what they are hoping is that you be so impressed with the planning tools that they have implemented that you want to use them to book your hotel rooms as well.
Another excellent source to obtain a good conference planning guide his through your Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB). CVB’s are basically set up to be the marketing division of the particular city in which they are in. And it’s because of that that you’ll find excellent resources to help you plan and execute successful conferences or events. I have always found CVB staff to be very accommodating to potential clients (after all they are the initial ambassadors to the city that you’re considering). Note that with CVB’s that, while you’ll be presented with a large selection of potential suppliers, you will only get supplier information from companies that are members of the CVB. I only say that as a word of caution or as a disclaimer. But, speaking from experience, most serious players in the conference and event industry are members of their local CVB’s.
A good conference planning guide is a great tool that can help you plan for all aspects of your conference or event. Utilizing the tools and resources that are available to you from potential suppliers is a great place to start in your search for a conference planning guide.
Leave a Reply