Successful Meetings - December 2007 - 32

Planner’s Workshop > Pre-Event cocktails, and keep food simple and filling—especially when the alcohol is flowing freely. Have a few more substantial treats to back up the usual canape selections. Creative invites are the first tantalizing taste of the theme, design, and event direction. An online, flash, or animated invite with a back end RSVP for a large company will save money and time spent licking envelopes and making door lists—and can still be cost effective compared to printing. A note for those who do go digital—always get a few printed invites for those who can’t access e-mail. Safety first. Remember the Responsible Service of Alcohol (RSA) and be sure to check your public liability will cover the event. An emerging trend is pre-arranged coaches for your guests to shuttle home. It can prevent drunken disasters or stranded guests wandering the streets looking for scarce and highly sought after silly-season cabs. experience with music, clever lighting, ambient smoke machines, and costume suggestions. Hire the help you need. Don’t plan to do it all yourself unless you never want to do it again—because you won’t want to! Professional waiters, pourers, hosts, emcees, security, and door staff are all worth their weight in gold, for much, much less than you think. Tasting stations can be a cost effective, fun way of serving food and allows people to graze at their leisure. Pair food with matching wines or 10 7 9 8 Janette McKee is the group event executive producer for ECI Group, a New Zealand-based firm that creates, manages, and produces events, conferences, and incentives. To contact McKee, visit www.ecigroup.com.au. Tools of the Trade THE VIRTUAL ASSISTANT BY VINCENT ALONZO Ever sat in a meeting when your boss or a customer asked you about the status of an event, and you wished you had the answers right then and there? Smart Alerts from Passkey will help you access and assess information immediately and manage your groups and events like never before. From alerts that are sent out when a room block is at a certain pick-up level, to daily, weekly, or monthly event status snapshots, Smart Alerts help you keep your finger on the pulse of your meetings and events. Smart Alerts are simple to customize to get specific information any way you want, and you can have them go out to as many people as you want—colleagues, bosses, planners. For more information, visit www.passkey.com. THE USB NETWORK The YEGO USB Drive is a unique, multi-function USB flash drive featuring two additional USB ports. This allows the user to connect more USB devices and expand their computer’s capabilities. The YEGO features true Plug & Play technology, is USB 2.0 compliant, transfers data up to 480Mbps and is powered via USB port. Bright, tie-style LED lights indicate usage status. The YEGO USB Drive is available in six fun, bright colors and capacities ranging from 1GB up to 4GB. The hardware system requirements are minimal. You simply need a desktop or notebook computer with a USB port and one of the following operating systems: Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP, Support Driver for Windows 98SE, Support Mac OS 9.x or later version, or Support Linux Kernel version 2.4 or later version. For more information, visit www.ritekusa.com. 32 mimegasite.com DECEMBER 2007 SUCCESSFUL MEETINGS

http://www.ecigroup.com.au http://www.passkey.com http://www.ritekusa.com http://mimegasite.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Successful Meetings - December 2007

Successful Meetings - December 2007
Contents
Editor's Note
Special Report
Research
Industry Trends
2008 Meeting Events
Planner Spotlight
Websites of the Month
Mouth for Sale
Technology Talk
Food & Beverage
Pre-Event
On Site
Pre-Event
Tools of the Trade
Goodbye, Booth Babes
Five Tips to Improve Your Golf Events
When Crime Pays
Office for Hire
More Miles for Your Money
Places & Spaces
South Florida
Biloxi / Mississippi Gulf Coast
Fort Worth
Monterey
Beijing
Gurus
Special Supplement: Hawaii Island-by-Island Guide

Successful Meetings - December 2007