Meeting News - February 11, 2008 - (Page 35)

Destination Insider: Atlanta MeetingNews Q & A: No Slowing Down for Meetings in Atlanta The vice president of sales for the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau, Bob Schuler, talks about what gives the Georgia metropolis its strong meetings status. It’s an exciting time, quite frankly, to be selling this destination. The perception, the appeal—everything is moving in a steep vertical curve. Leads are up, and customers are [making more inquiries]. The addition of more boutique hotels helps us widen our product spectrum. If you’re a smallmeeting planner, you’ll have more nice, quaint places. If you’re a convention planner, you’ll have more choices that are conveniently on the transportation routes. The more diverse we can be with our offerings, the better chance we’re going to have in attracting planners. Q A How has recent growth impacted the industry? We’re really trying to put some emphasis on service delivery for customers. Speciﬁcally, we want to help planners garner attendance by providing the necessary tools for communicating to their members just how easy it is to get here and what great choices they have in hotel products. For instance, we’re able to build a mini-website or landing page for meeting planners so that they can customize what they want their attendees to see. That’s been a huge home run for us and meeting planners. Q A What projects are you working on with your bureau? So much is dependent on the economy; we hope that the economy holds up. But from an accessibility standpoint, we generally don’t feel the hit as quickly as some other cities because of our airport and how easy it is to get here. We fight through some of these troubled economic times better than most. www.meetingnews.com Q A What are some of the challenges that Atlanta will face in 2008? Your guests will never forget the extraordinary experience waiting for them at the Georgia Aquarium.Through two large observation windows in our ballroom, they’ll come face-to-face with fascinating animals from around the globe.Whether you’re hosting an intimate reception or a large event, our ﬂexible space can be customized to create a unique personalized setting for your occasion. Complementing this dramatic scenery, Wolfgang Puck brings innovative cuisine to elevate your one-of-a-kind event. ® ® To book your event today contact our catering sales team at 404.581.4126 or booking@georgiaaquarium.org February 11, 2008 MeetingNews 35 http://www.georgiaaquarium.org http://www.georgiaaquarium.org http://www.meetingnews.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Meeting News - February 11, 2008

Meeting News - February 11, 2008 Contents What’s Up @ MeetingNews.com Convention Centers Insider Report: Insurance Meetings MN Webcast Report Successful Meetings University Colin Rorrie to Temporarily Lead CIC Advertisers Index Live from the Forum

Meeting News - February 11, 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.