Successful Meetings - April 2008 - (Page 52)

Gaming Conference Meetings > Beyond the Flames Centers WHEN THE FIRE STARTED 1. Guests were evacuated to a staging area at the MGM Grand Arena. 2. The guests were relocated to rooms at other MGM properties. Staffers, such as Fletch Brunelle, senior vice president of marketing for the Bellagio, pitched in as lobby greeters at their properties. 3. Bellmen and security guards from other MGM properties converged at the Monte Carlo to assist the Monte Carlo staff with the transfer of guests’ luggage and other valuables to their new hotels. Brunelle also had to deal with some inebriated people and keep them calm. sets of two breakouts with breakfast and lunch and two more general sessions, as well as welcome receptions, that would have to be moved. “We had just over 50 groups in the next seven days at Monte Carlo,” says Brunelle. “We moved 45 of them immediately, and by Sunday we were able to move all of them, including their meeting event orders (MEOs) and banquet event orders (BEOs) and the set ups, such as a horseshoe for 20 people.” Schwartz sent a blast e-mail to all registered delegates to keep them informed, and within a day he heard from the Monte Carlo saying that the meeting would be transferred to the Bellagio. “They transferred all the reservations, produced our banquet event orders from Monte Carlo; within 24 hours they had everything in their system; and a week before the meeting everything was ready to go.” In fact, Schwartz’ delegates really lucked out. “At the Bellagio, the meeting space was all close together; they didn’t pigeon hole us. All the food and beverage and audio visual services were honored at the Monte Carlo rates. Even our room rate was honored at $95 a night.” Schwartz tried to stay in touch with all the delegates through blast e-mails and changes on the website, but there were a few glitches. “We tried to call or e-mail everyone; one person didn’t get the message went to Monte Carlo and was then directed to New York and finally on to the Bellagio. There were a couple of complaints, but nothing significant; on a one to five scale our attendees gave it a 4.7,” Schwartz says. “In fact, they want to come back to Bellagio at Monte Carlo rates—but that ain’t going to happen.” What can meeting planners learn from his experience? “The importance of regular and immediate contact with your attendees when the situation is up in the air,” says Schwartz. mimegasite.com APRIL 2008 SUCCESSFUL MEETINGS MEETINGS UP IN SMOKE? What to tell meeting planners about their upcoming meetings wasn’t as simple. And with visions of their carefully “We had just over 50 groups in the next seven days at the Monte Carlo we were able to move all of them, including their meeting events orders and banquet event orders.” —Fletch Brunelle, Bellagio planned meetings going up in smoke, planners were already calling. One was Neil Schwartz, senior event manager of the California/Nevada Credit Union Leagues, who he had a 270-delegate meeting scheduled at the Monte Carlo for February 10 to 12. “With our meeting coming up and the Monte Carlo not rescheduled to open until February 8 [it would not actually reopen until the 15], it made us nervous.” Schwartz had four 52 http://mimegasite.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Successful Meetings - April 2008

Successful Meetings - April 2008 Contents Editor's Note Industry Trends Suppliers Events On the Record Suppliers Planner's Spotlight Technology Talk Personal Success Websites of the Month Food & Beverage On Site Professional Development On Site Pre-Event Professional Development Miforum Q&A Beyond the Flames Reservation for—21,000 Casino Riches Entertainment Jackpot Who Needs a Passport? The International Swing Around the World in 18 Holes Places & Spaces Denver Orlando Missouri Puerto Rico Show Special: Washington DC / Frankfurt, Germany Gurus

Successful Meetings - April 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.