April Round Tables were back and better than ever at the April Monthly Meeting. Planners and suppliers across the industry shared ideas, best practices, and experiences with one another as our chapter celebrated Global Meetings Industry Day by learning from the vast knowledge our chapter members possess. Thank you to our amazing facilitators.
If you had a wonderful time at our April Meeting, please make sure to let us know by taking the Monthly Meeting Survey. We’d love to get your feedback
Below you will find highlights from a few of our April Round Table Topics:
Round Table Topic - How to use CVBs to help you plan the perfect event
with Table Leader Nathan Hermiston, Meet Minneapolis |
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CVBs are partners to our Industry in many ways
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Help provide content for marketing purposes
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Can help identify “black out” date in a city, ie Superbowl, Final Four
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Provide honest assessments
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Utilize CVBs housing bureaus
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Collaboration with on-site visits to make them more impactful
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CVBS help find suppliers for their partners
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CVBs help hotels get exposure
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Help utilize the convention calendar
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Round Table Topic - Meeting Planning Best Practices with Table Leader Nicki Vincent, ACG Minnesota: |
This round table covered two topics: How Can We Better Manage Our To-Do List and Daily Task and Time Management.
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Group #1
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Group #2
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Accomplish 5 things a day
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Know your audience, know your niche
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Know how to use technology to your advantage
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Maintain an empty email inbox
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Color Code Emails
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Filter Emails
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Be flexible and able to pivot on a dime
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One Note! / Creates paperless binders, shared drives/apps and more!
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Google Docs/Drive
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Calendar used as a management tool
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Contracts on calendar with deadlines
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Re-organize shared drives and eliminate duplicates
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Del 5 program / project management tool for tracking tasks and timelines
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Create a single To-Do list for Work
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Follow the simple 1-3-5 Rule (1 major thing, 3 medium and 5 small)
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Complete one significant task before lunch (your least favorite if possible)
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Reduce meetings to increase productive time (schedule one “meet up” a month).
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Routine/don’t drop the ball on email/make your workspace work for you
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Group #3
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Turn everything off and make time to get stuff done
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Set timer & take breaks every ½ hour or so to avoid burn out
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Turn off notifications!!!!
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Osana / Project management tool
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Sticky notes on computer
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Organized Audrey (a local expert to help get you organized)
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Unroll.me (to unsubscribe to junk)
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Be quick to respond to inquiries to acknowledge that you will follow up later. ALWAYS get their timeline/deadline
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Ear buds
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Symbol on your screen to signal that it is your work/quiet time. i.e. picture of a flower = your power hour
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Know how your colleagues, clients and others want to communicate (in person, IM, call, text etc)
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Dale Carnegie courses
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DAILY TASK & TIME MANAGEMENT
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TIME MANAGEMENT
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Avoid multi-tasking
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Start early
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Eliminate distractions
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Take breaks
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Learn to say no.
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Take care of yourself
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Round Table Topic - Discussion on Team Building with Table Leader Elizabeth Hattara,
Taste of Wayzata Food Tours
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First group of 12 people represented a good cross-section of MPI – about half suppliers and half planners. I started the session by having everyone introduce themselves and sharing their favorite snack food with the group.
I introduced the topic of Team Building by asking the group which of them had managed a team building experience – either as a planner or supplier. A few folks raised their hands. That opened the door for me to ask open ended questions and get things rolling. One planner contributed that she organizes a team building activity for their monthly staff meeting (45 people). They’ve done many charity-based activities from “potting with a purpose” to making sandwiches for The Sandwich Guy (he distributes them to the homeless community daily). The activities have fostered camaraderie and conversation between employees that normally would not have occasion to speak to each other.
Another planner jumped in and added that they had done something similar but had also brought someone from the charity in to show a video and talk a bit before starting the activity. He felt that addition contributed to the sense of commitment and connectedness from the group.
Other topics discussed with this group were taking groups on scavenger hunts at the Mall of America as a team building activity through Dick’s Last Resort (in the Mall). They utilize iPads to present clues and for teams to take “photo evidence” of their accomplishments throughout the hunt. One planner mentioned that what they noticed often with these activities, was that the participants involved often showed a different side of their personality – one that never presented itself in the workplace. It also leveled the playing field so that everyone had equal footing. There were no titles or labels, just regular folks interacting. We all agreed that was probably the common denominator in successful team building.
Other ideas flowed from suppliers, as well. One hotel representative mentioned that they offer quite a lot of team building activities, such as bowling, right on-site at their hotel. They also provide other original types of scavenger hunts for planners to take advantage of without having to use another outside resource.
We also heard from various suppliers about the various other types of team building trends that are current: Escape Rooms, Iron Chef Competitions, Amazing Race, Game Show Battles, Playing Picasso, Chocolate Challenges, and even designing mini-golf course holes as a competition with the proceeds going to a charity in need.
Round Table Topic - Effective RFPs with Table Leader Dianna Fuller, HelmsBriscoe |
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History of past events is very important: room block, Food and Beverage spend, AV, ancillary spend, etc.
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Attach this information: agenda (past or present), diagrams of room set up
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Include: meeting objective, bandwidth needed, prioritized concession
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Provide realistic expectations of required square footage
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Flexibility with pattern can be helpful
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Round Table Topic - Unique Themes with Table Leader Nikki McLain, Royal Foundry
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Group #1
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Group #2:
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One planner had a meeting in Las Vegas where they created an indoor park, they had food trucks, food stations, dance floor, graffiti/bodega, face painting, photo booth
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Twirl Events held an outdoor concert on the lake with Lynard Skynyrd, camper photo booth, cigars, hair braiding and more
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People ask to use the Crown Plaza Northstar outdoor space in the winter time, heated igloo tents
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Staff wearing jerseys during NCAA, or during an anime convention, wearing comic book costumes
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Coffee cart
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Donut cart with frosting and toppings
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Having a venue with white walls allow the use of balloons, projections of logos or decals @ Hutton House
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Toro Company did a gypsy scarves event, fedoras, chocolate cigars with logos, hanging scarves for décor
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Tiffany & Co, how to make the most of your incentive event, making gift giving special, experiences with gifting, blue martini, Tiffany blue cookies
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Super Bowl trophies are made of sterling silver
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Historic Home in Wayzata, did a cake decorating event, family activity learn how to decorate a cake
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Mixology classes
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Make it memorable
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Arial artistry at Royal Foundry Craft Spirits
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Activation at events
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Duluth event for 1200 people, glow lights, light color changes, glow party, light tables, evening event
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Breakout event with AV, screen, headphones, that was the group’s breakout, similar to a silent disco, it was a silent breakout, dual purpose, using less space might have saved cost, not sure how much the headphones cost
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Knowledge of the budget is key
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You can do unique things with glass cylinders, logo, lights
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NCAA events cut a basketball in half put in flowers for centerpieces
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Room set options – using square or rectangle tables vs. rounds
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Asking the hotel to use lobby furniture to create networking sets
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Hotels can offer games to help save money, so you can spend money on other things
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Figure out how to spend the money wisely
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One event theme was Discover Your Paradise, branding the event by making it unique, didn’t use the company brand it in, could be repurposed over again
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Backdrop a stage, better use of budget
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Hanging floral, make a bigger focal piece vs. floral centerpieces – 1 piece is the focal point
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String café lights for galas @ Earle Brown Heritage Center
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Creating uniqueness with food
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Cauliflower carving station @ Marriott City Center
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Keep people moving
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Weddings moving to hors d’oeuvres stations, not plated meals
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Candy stations, lots of selections, flavored sodas
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Heirloom tomato tasting, mushrooms, local cheese, using apples made by U of MN at the Campus Club
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Chow girls once did a chandelier food display with mini desserts
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Group #3:
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Food and Beverage
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East Coast progressive dining becoming a trend with social events, weddings, corporate dinners. Serve 1st course, then a presentation, course 2, then music, course 3, then entertainment. Fun to experience, but difficult to time out with the banquet staff. Is someone emceeing this? Usually to help keep the flow going.
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Murder mystery dinners, figuring out the timing with the banquet staff
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Murder on the Mississippi dinner
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Creative staff at Radisson Blu MOA
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Donut or bagel wall – donut gowns at WEC last year
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Chef challenges, as a breakout activity, the attendees make the appetizers, dinner and dessert for their meal.
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Honey I Shrunk the Food Theme – mini food, very fun idea
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A law firm planned a wine and junk food event – Doritos, chips, Twizzlers etc.
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Wine pairings with Girl Scout cookies, Halloween candy
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Seeing new containers for food, people are becoming more creative and ordering fun containers from Etsy. Mason Jars have been around a while, picnic baskets, not just Chinese takeout containers anymore.
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Whose Line is it Anyway?
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Audience participation is key
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Family Feud Show
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Performers interacting with the attendees
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Moving away from a traditional trade show format
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Furniture sets, moving towards non-traditional lounge comfy furniture, event sets
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Brain box menu, protein and healthy meal options for breaks
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If money was no object what would you like to do for an event:
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Yacht boating events with the hotel in Wayzata, creating packages, resort type activities
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MN Themed food tastings
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The Greatest Showman theme, circus with animals, LOL!
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A Middle Age Person’s NYE Party it would include, quieter music, where you could still hear, elegant attire, would end by 10 pm, home by 11 pm, soft comfy seating, parking, or option to stay somewhere overnight
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London NYE Party
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