Mailbag
Please click here to post a new
thread
Daniella Bikoulis of Kipling Events & Travel Ltd
10/03/2010
Re: your news item, Pharma congresses heading for three-star venues
Just three quick examples: 1) Anesthesia Conference, Cancun Mexico, March 27 - April 3 2010, Royal Resorts Cancun, 2) 2010 IARS Annual Meeting, Honolulu Hawaii, March 26 - 29 2010, 3) 18th European Urology Forum, Davos Switzerland, February 7 - 11 2010. Guys, who are you kidding? Perhaps better to focus on value-for-money, no-nonsense business properties irrespective of star rating (which is highly subjective anyway) and move away from senseless rules which are broken in any case when the powers that be deem it desirable.
Steve Cook of The CBS Group
03/03/2010
R.e. News Item: M&IT Industry Awards winners celebrate in style
Don't forget Expansion Team, the amazing Freestyle Footballers who also performed on the night! There are some photos and video here:
http://www.cbsgroup.co.uk/services/expansion-team-freestyle-football/
http://www.cbsgroup.co.uk/2010/02/24/expansion-team-freestyle-at-the-mit-awards/
Michael Sloan of Novotel London West
01/03/2010
Re. blog: Thanks to Novotel London West
On behalf of all the staff and management here at Novotel London West, we'd like to wish you the very best of luck at your new home for the M&IT Awards.
It has been an absolute pleasure to work with your and your team and, if in only a small way, to have participated in the magnificent contribution you have made to Save The Children.
Thank you, farewell and we hope to see you again soon,
Michael Sloan
General Manager, Novotel London West
George Angelis of Athens Convention Bureau
01/03/2010
Re. Don’t believe the media - Athens is safe, says DMC
We did not have any reports on cancelation of events, but certainly there was some disruption with events and meetings, mainly due to cancelled or delayed arrivals.
We do not think that this strike should cause long term damage, since it was a demonstration announced almost more than a month before taking place and most people affected had adequate time to adjust.
Nevertheless, I believe that strikes could be a problem for the whole European MICE market this year, since, lately, we see a rise in strikes and similar means of protest taking place in several European countries and cities.
To this extent and under these circumstances, Athens remains one of the best choices in Europe for staging events.
George Angelis
DIRECTOR
Athens Convention Bureau
Edward Moss of Maykit Marketing
01/03/2010
Say no to telephonic car-clamping
I do not suggest for one minute that I am the largest MICE man in the North East region. Bodily, perhaps, but on a financial level, I struggled last year to even manage enough international events to qualify for EIBTM as a hosted buyer - an event I sorely needed to attend, but in the end one I didn't qualify for.
However, with the blue violin now put away in its case, I can't help but notice that some of the esteemed advertisers within your equally-esteemed publication continue to do themselves considerable injustice.
As a small practitioner, I save the pennies wherever I can. One of these savings is a great Internet/Phone deal where I get 20meg broadband (OK, it rarely hovers above 8 or so), all-inclusive unlimited national calls and unlimited calls to 15 selected countries abroad (including my main contacts USA, Spain, France, Germany and Italy), all for £32 a month.
However, telling your readers about this wonderful all-inclusive telephone deal is not the purpose of this missive. It is that this all-inclusive telephone service does not include the Dick Turpin 087 numbers.
The bottom line is, that, research has shown 17%+ of 'passing trade' will not phone an 087 number when looking to buy something, with a further 14% thinking twice. They fail to see the point of paying over the odds to make an inquiry about paying for something.
My point is that I certainly will not phone an 087 sales or inquiry number. I know that there is the wonderful saynoto0870.com campaigning on our behalves to rid us of the telephonic car-clamping that is the 087 telephone number, but I fail to see why, if a company wants my business, the only way they will allow me to engage with them is through a premium rate telephone number or having to log onto the saynoto0870.com website to find an alternative 01/02 number. It's far simpler to phone someone with a normal STD number in the first place.
And the excuse about portability or anonymity of location doesn't hold water.
Either these people want a chance to have my (and others') business, or they want me to be one of the 31 out of every 100 who doesn't contact them because of their 087 telephone number (a loss of one-third of potential inquiries each and every day - fabulous in this economic climate that they can afford to lose this chunk of potential business)
To quote the famous meerkat, Aleksandr Orlov, "simples".
But then, some of them, of course, regardless of how 'simples', can't see the wood for the trees and will never learn.
Mike Symonds of interactive events
25/02/2010
Re: your blog, Team building is not child’s play
It depends entirely on what your objectives are for doing the activity.
If you want to strenghten communication you choose an activity that has that focus. If you want people to have a positive shared experience you do something fun. If you want people to improve their problem-solving skills you choose an activity that has that focus.
I own and run a team building company, I have designed and delivered activities that fall into a range of objectives and have experienced and witnessed first-hand the benefits of doing something fun as well as something on the more 'serious' side.
It is not the activity that fails, but management. Management (and even the team building company) can fail for not being clear on their reasons for doing the activity, not having it at the right 'time or place' to help reinforce those objectives and MOST IMPORTANTLY not communicating their reasons/objectives for running that particular activity.
There is real value in encouraging staff to be creative, innovative and expressive. In today's world 'knowledge' is NOT enough. The businesses that are succeeding are the ones that are different. This innovation can be fostered by providing staff with the opportunity to 'PLAY'. It is through this process you can discover new methods, new products, new skills, new relationships and new processes.
The bottom line is if you are going to do a fun team building activity, it has to be for the right reasons at the right time.
*<< << Page 1 of 29 >> >>*