Successful Meetings - August 2008 - (Page 33)

Planner’s Workshop cut-and-dried rules. But we don’t live in a cut-and-dried world when it comes to variations in hotels, catering, ease of air access, and so many other factors the meeting planner must consider. So we have to use good judgment on behalf of our clients and advise them on what constitutes modest and appropriate, but entirely satisfactory, meeting arrangements. The opposite of modest is excessive, and to paraphrase Justice Potter Stewart: We know excessive when we see it. A modest gift could be a nice $5 pen with your company’s logo on it. An excessive gift would be a Mont Blanc pen with your logo on it. A modest meal, under certain circumstances, might consist of duck pate followed by a choice of mahi-mahi or filet mignon, accompanied by a nice Pinot Noir that goes for less than $50 a bottle. An excessive meal might start with Beluga caviar washed down with a Cote de Beaune Montrachet at $450 a bottle. Common sense will get you a long way in determining what is “modest as judged by local standards.” Put yourself in the place of your doctor clients and consider what would make them comfortable, put them at ease, and encourage a receptive mood to learn and work. That might mean a hotel with quiet rooms, late-night room service, a good gym, and a serene cocktail lounge where the doctors might retire for conversation in small groups. Modesty is all about context. Doctors are not, generally, Franciscan monks, and they do not require utterly austere surroundings to feel at home. And we don’t need to place them in the most spartan of settings in order to adhere to the letter and the spirit of PhRMA guidelines. But we do need to use good judgment on a thousand small details all the time, and as long as we do, everyone will be happy. > Pre-Event Making Pre-show Promotion Stand Out By Susan A. Friedmann, CSP There’s a lot of pressure on marketing departments today: A tightening economy and increasingly competitive environment means that every promotional effort must generate a positive return. Every decision has to be viewed critically, and that includes the decision to participate in tradeshows. For most exhibitors, show participation must generate a positive, demonstrable ROI if exhibiting is to remain a viable part of the marketing strategy. This means taking advanNKY_4.5 x 4.75_SM_Ad2.ai 6/26/08 tage of every opportunity to maximize the return on participation: before, during, and after the show. Many exhibitors do a great job at the show, but lackluster or non-existent efforts prior to and after the event sabotage their efforts. For those marketing professionals who believe in the core value of exhibiting and the face-toface relationship building that is part and parcel of exhibiting, there should be renewed emphasis placed on the value of pre-show promotion. 1:34:30 PM OPEN THE DOORS Where else can you y “FREEDOM” nkycvb.com/SM to the meaning of ? Judy Benaroche Johnson, CMP, is CEO of Rx Worldwide Meetings, Inc. She can be reached at jjohnson@rx-worldwide.net. SUCCESSFUL MEETINGS AUGUST 2008 http://nkycvb.com/SM

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

Successful Meetings - August 2008 Contents Editor's Note Industry Trends Industry Events On the Record Technology Calendar Websites of the Month Personal Success Technology Talk Food & Beverage Pre-Event On Site Tools of the Trade Pre-Event Crude Awakening Oil’s Well Betting on Development The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of No Spa, No Dice New & Improved Bean Counting Places & Spaces Cleveland Palm Springs, Desert Resorts Midwest Meetings San Antonio Yucatan Peninsula Gurus

Successful Meetings - August 2008

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