Meeting News - March 9, 2009 - (Page Cover3)

Live from the Forum @ MeetingNews.com TOPIC: Cancellation Penalties After Group Cutoff Date O ur association is looking for ways to reduce the number of hotel room cancellations after the cutoff date. Our policy has been that after the cutoff, registrants lose one night’s room deposit. Has anyone increased the penalty to two nights’ deposit? Did it alleviate the problem? Was there ill will? Were there other repercussions? Do you have a burning question to ask your peers? Log on to the MeetingNews Forum to get answers fast. meetingnews.com/forum Morgan Lucero, Meetings and Logistics Coordinator, National Association of College & University Food Services, Okemos, MI Losing a one-night deposit after cutoff is a pretty hefty penalty considering cutoff is, what, 30 or 21 days out? Most hotels allow individual room cancellations from 24 to 48 hours prior to arrival. In order to limit cancellations, we arrange to alter that policy contractually for our group up to seven days prior to arrival. Most important, for anyone that ends up canceling after the seven-day policy and gets charged the one-night penalty, the room night gets credited to the block. That helps, somewhat, in managing room block performance. Hannah Greenberg, CMP, Director of Conference Services Meeting Mavericks, Cherry Hill, NJ I don’t recommend groups creating more restrictions than what hotels normally have. So if the hotel allows a 24-hour cancellation, go ahead and do that too. Today, more than ever, it is going to be hard to ﬁll your block. You don’t want to create more restrictions (reasons not to stay in your block). What some groups do is send out reminders to make sure that folks ﬁrm up before cutoff. I’ve seen groups do a ﬂat cancellation fee as the date draws near, i.e., no charge if more than 30 days out, $50 inside 30 days, $100 inside 14 days. This would be in addition to the hotel’s standard policy. When you couple a charge like that with a friendly reminder, it can be very effective. Dave Lutz, Managing Director Velvet Chainsaw Consulting, Aurora, OH Morgan, you don’t say whether people are “covering” themselves by making a hotel reservation and then canceling when they will not attend. If this is the case, then I have your solution. We have completely solved it by not allowing telephone reservations for the hotel. Reservations can be made only via a special link. The registrant does not receive this link until he has registered with us (read: paid). Yes, it was a little rocky with our registrants the ﬁrst couple of times, but now it is ﬁne. Once the cutoff date comes, if there are any rooms left in our block, they are released in the usual fashion, and people can call and make a reservation. This has completely eliminated the “wash” 10 or so days before the meeting. Deborah K. Gaffney, Director of Conference Planning Tax Executives Institute, Washington, DC TOPIC: How Long Is Too Long Between Meeting Session Breaks? e’re in the process of ﬁnalizing the schedule of events for an upcoming conference, and my colleagues have been debating how long is too long without a break. The breakout sessions now are 2.5 hours without a break. Gael Sandoval, Strategic Project Management, Meetings and Events Sherer Inc., Detroit W My experience conﬁrms that 2.5 hours is too long to expect people to be able to be focused and interested. One option is to do a “stretch” break at 90 minutes. Izzy Gesell, CEO IzzyG & Company, Springﬁeld, MA At 2.5 hours without a break, I envision people with crossed legs and eyes tightly shut. I never go more than 90 minutes without a break. Sandy Biback, CMP, CMM, Founder Imagination+Meeting Planners Inc., Toronto When I learned to develop corporate training programs, I was taught to plan for 10-minute breaks every 55 minutes of classroom time. When I present workshops at conferences, I plan one 10-to-15-minute break. Within a twohour program, I invite people to get up and take care of needs throughout the session. Sylvia Henderson, Founder Springboard Training LLC, Washington, DC Two hours max; this about the time the mind starts to wander and needs a little refreshment. After two hours, I ﬁnd myself looking out the window or doodling on my notepad, even if the subject matter engrosses me. Keith Johnston, Group Vice President, OnSite Events Inc., Chicago I think the magic number is 75 minutes or less for education sessions. Dave Lutz MEETING NEWS (ISSN 0145-630X, USPS No.356-010, March 9 2009, Vol. 33, No. 4 is published semi-monthly except for January, June, August, November and December, which is monthly, by Nielsen Business Media, 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003-9595, tel. 646-654-5000. Subscriptions are offered free of charge to individuals actively engaged in planning meetings or conventions in the U.S. and Canada. The cost of a subscription to non-qualiﬁed subscribers is $79 in the U.S. and $95 in Canada (Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement No. 40031729). The cost of a foreign subscription, payable in U.S. dollars, is $195. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and additional mailing ofﬁces. MeetingNews is a trademark owned exclusively by Nielsen Business Media. Copyright © 2009 by Nielsen Business Media Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this magazine, in whole or in part, is prohibited unless authorized by the publisher. 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Meeting News - March 9, 2009

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