Affordable Meetings West - June 11-12, 2008 - (Page 9)

Thursday, June 12 Maximizing Your Networking Skills Room 104A Theresa Syer President Syer Hospitality Group Oakville, Ontario, Canada In today's competitive climate, you need to continually build new relationships and get the most out of the relationships you already have. You need to reach out to everyone associated with your meetings – your managers, staff members, attendees, suppliers – in order to deliver your best services through these relationships. This seminar will help you understand the basics of networking skills and body language; and you will discover how to determine your networking goals. You will learn how to present an effective 30 second ‘elevator speech’ and build mutually beneficial relationships by identifying what you can do for someone else and what he or she can do for you. You also will be shown how to manage the follow-up to maximize your relationships. When you enhance your networking skills, you will see that unexpected good things flow to those who network well. 8:00 am – Registration Opens WORKSHOPS 9:00 am – 11:30 am The Strategic Request for Proposal: Selecting the Perfect Site Room 104B Jennifer Brown Partner Meeting Sites Resource Irvine, California The request for proposal (RFP) and hotel evaluation process are essential to assure selection of the right meeting site as well as a highly successful event. In this interactive workshop, you will discover how to produce a strategic RFP that helps you better communicate and negotiate with hotels and other meeting facilities and assists you with planning and assessing your leverage and negotiations strategy. You will learn the essential components and questions that must be included in an RFP , and you will be better able to establish a preliminary budget. This workshop also will focus on the processes of assessing your meeting needs and evaluating meeting facilities that ensure “perfect sites” for your meetings and events. You’ll walk away from the workshop with an invaluable action plan for success that includes planning tools and resources. The FUNdamentals of Creating Your Meeting Budget Room 102 Bonnie Wallsh, CMP CMM , Chief Solutions Officer Bonnie Wallsh Associates, LLC Charlotte, North Carolina Mention budget preparation to most meeting planners and their eyes glaze over with boredom and trepidation. Creating budgets is challenging work but extraordinarily important to the success of your meeting and if you budget with confidence, it actually can be fun. In this interactive seminar, you’ll be walked through the process of budgeting in an easy-to-understand manner. You’ll learn three key factors that are essential in preparing your budget – goals and objectives, profile of attendees, and meeting history – and you will discover how to avoid seven common mistakes, such as neglecting to include taxes and services charges, which can lead to budget overruns. This session will leave you with a light-hearted perspective, plus 36 money saving tips that are guaranteed to impress your management and ensure that you will never fear budgeting again. Effective Negotiation Strategies: Understanding How Hotels Evaluate Your Business Room 104A Tim Brown Partner Meeting Sites Resources Irvine, California It’s a hot sellers’ market today and hoteliers can be choosy about what meetings they accept – or decline. In this dynamic workshop, you will learn the new rules of hotel revenue management and specific negotiations strategies that will add significant value to your meetings and increase the bottom line. Industry trends that impact negotiations will be discussed as will the variables that influence hotel pricing and availability, and how hotels value your meetings. You also will be shown five steps to continued on next page Prize Drawing - 4:30 pm Registration Area Register online at www.affordablemeetings.com 9 http://www.affordablemeetings.com

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Affordable Meetings West - June 11-12, 2008

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