Industry Events | PlannerWire

Time2Cabo FAM Trip

September 28, 2011 By Keith Johnston 1 Comment

Image: Visit Los Cabos

Last week I mentioned that I am still on my Mexico kick and wanted to share some great upcoming FAMS for meeting and event planners that have programs that might be suited for Mexico. Before you look into any of these programs, remember, you must be qualified.

The latest FAM that I would like to share even has cool name and a logo (they must have read this post):

The Los Cabos Convention & Visitors Bureau cordially invites you to our MEETING PLANNER VIP SUMMIT

TIME2CABO

OCTOBER 30- NOVEMBER 2, 2011

Experience First-hand why Los Cabos is recognized as one of the world’s most outstanding resort destinations for meetings and incentive programs.

Get together with the destination’s key players in the meetings industry for 4 days and 3 nights of networking, education and fun in the sun.

Space is limited to 50 qualified meeting planners so sign up right away and contact us for the registration form.
An airfare credit of $250 USD will be provided and reimbursed to your credit card upon completion of the program through Destination Ventures.
More details on participating airlines will be forthcoming.

Your complimentary registration includes:

3 nights accommodations in single occupancy at a 4 or 5 star resort
Buffet Breakfast daily
Airport-Hotel-Airport transfers
One 30 minute relaxing massage in your host hotel (gratuity not included)
One recreational activity on Monday afternoon
All transfers and program of activities
Special rates for early arrivals and late departures 2 days pre and post

If you would like to take part, here is the contact information:

RSVP: Adrian G. Schjetnan
Director of Sales & Marketing
Los Cabos Convention & Visitors Bureau
adrian.schjetnan@loscaboscvb.com
www.visitloscabos.travel

Filed Under: Industry Events Tagged With: fam trip

Join Me – PYM Live Chicago

September 27, 2011 By Keith Johnston Leave a Comment

OK, I am calling out all you “Functionistas” (thanks Trish) to come and join me and my friends at Plan Your Meetings’ PYM Live Chicago on October 19th. I will be the speaker and you can be the 100% interactive audience (because no one likes a boring speaker).

The theme for the event: “Next Stop Innovation”.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Event Planning, Industry Events Tagged With: Plan Your Meetings, PYM Live

Look at my Cool Watch – The Site Chicago Annual Auction

September 26, 2011 By Keith Johnston Leave a Comment

Everyone who knows me, knows that I am a pretty quirky dude (I said quirky, not weird). This is a picture of the Mickey Mouse watch that I got at one of the Site Chicago Auctions about 4 or 5 years ago that I still wear to this day…..great conversation starter in a client meeting.

So, why am I showing you my wrist bling?

Because! It is that time of year again and you should be registered for the Annual Site Chicago Auction and Networking Event.

Incentive or meeting planner, industry hotelier or destination, you should make plans to come and mingle with your colleagues and friends at the same time bidding on some amazing hotel packages and items (like my cool watch) that will make you jump for joy….OK, maybe not jump, but you will quietly be doing some fist pumps when you realize that you have just scored a weekend for two while helping Site Chicago and our designated charity, The Skinner West Classical School.

Here is the link, look forward to seeing you there!

Hoteliers and Destinations!

Hoteliers and destinations! Interested in having a meeting or incentive professional come and spend a couple of days at your place? Donate to the auction and it can happen. Many amazing destinations have the opportunity to score programs simply by having a meeting or incentive professional come and “test drive” the goods. Think about it, it is cheaper than a fam and more realistic than that pay-per-click crap you are doing now!

Find out more about donating to the auction!

Filed Under: Industry Events

Meeting Planner Music Club – Danger Zone and Air Show Pictures!

August 21, 2011 By Keith Johnston Leave a Comment

Spent a great day at the Chicago Air and Water Show with the fine folks from Hyatt….

The annual event is one of Chicago’s greatest attractions hosting almost 2 million visitors!

The Hyatt Tent

The Army Golden Knights

Great Action!

The Boeing Tent

The Thunderbirds.... Enough Said

In honor of a great day, here is the greatest “fly song” of recent memory, Kenny Loggins – Danger Zone

Filed Under: Industry Events, Music Tagged With: Hyatt

Effective Strategies to Secure and Win RFPs for Hotels and Destinations

August 5, 2011 By Keith Johnston 1 Comment

This is the presentation I gave to the audience at the XVIII Congreso Nacional de Turismo de Reuniones in Queretaro, Mexico. For those of you not familiar with the story of my experience, I will guide you to this post from earlier this week. Getting there (or not) was an adventure and delivering the presentation was not without its trials.

A big thanks to Aran and his team from Mexico Meetings Network and the folks from Leon CVB as well, I truly wish I could have taken all the time in the world to visit your amazing destination (hey meeting planners, have a look at Leon).

We ended up using Skype for our means of putting me in front of the audience and I will say that while not perfect, we were able to get some of the presentation in and it was good to be able to see the audience, if only briefly.

I am posting it here for those folks in the audience that would like to see the slides again and for those that would like to have a look.

Over the weekend, I will be sitting down and actually adding the audio to the slides because frankly, it is much better with my commentary because I can be one funny guy when I set my mind to it!

The presentation is titled: Effective Strategies to Secure and Win RFPs for Hotels and Destinations

Effective strategies to win rfps for hotels and destinations

View more presentations from plannerwire

Filed Under: Industry Events Tagged With: cvb, destinations, hotels

Marriott International Customer Appreciation Event

July 26, 2011 By Keith Johnston Leave a Comment

This past weekend was a blur, due to the heavy rains in Chicago; it felt like we should start building an arc and gathering up the pets 2×2….. flooded everything in my little corner of Chicagoland. One of the worst things about all of this is that I am having to miss MPI WEC in Orlando where I was supposed to be a social media reporter and also involved with a session on Sunday.

Even dark clouds have a bright spot occasionally. I was able to pull myself away from the carpet pulling and box hauling to attend Marriott International’s customer appreciation event at the Jimmy Buffet concert at Toyota Park in Chicago (well, actually Bridgeview).

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Industry Events Tagged With: Industry Events

Meetings and Events In Mexico – What You Need to Know

May 23, 2011 By Keith Johnston 2 Comments

Opening Day, Site Chicago Event

The problem with Americans is that we are stupid … Really.

In the world we are laughed at because of our ignorance, it is both funny (in a sick way) and frustrating for those of us that try and be good world travelers and although I was just talking some big shit, I too sometimes fall victim to my inner American but at least I give it a go and eat local foods and try and speak the language without butchering it and I will go off the beaten path to see how the locals live, work and play.

One of the things that has been truly frustrating over the past couple of years is the American Media and their treatment of Mexico. If you were to believe everything that they are saying about Mexico, you would think that it is a lawless land with gunslingers, hangings in the square and 12 year old kids carrying AK-47s to school and diseased people staggering through the streets spreading swine flu on purpose.

This is simply not the truth, Mexico is safe.

Because of the bad press, meeting, event and incentive programs are not going to Mexico which is hurting their local economies, impacting people in their daily lives and actually could make the situation worse and yes, I am not an idiot, there is a “situation”.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Event Destinations, Event Planning, Industry Events, Places Tagged With: Guadalajara, Mexico, Site Inspection

My Best Experience in Guadalajara

May 18, 2011 By Keith Johnston Leave a Comment

Over the next couple of weeks, I plan to go in depth into my recent Site Chicago educational experience in the amazing city of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, those should be some great posts pointing out the good the bad and the ugly of the city and the experience. What I am pleased to announce is that the positives FAR outweigh the negatives and in fact, the bad things I will have to say are probably just my (sunburned) bitchy self and will have no impact on whether you do a program in this great metropolis (which you should).

I do however, have a best experience and it has nothing to do with the amenities, the venues, the transportation, the food or anything that would remotely affect your meetings or events. It really has to do with the people that we met, specifically the children and the people that take the time to educate them.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Green Meetings / CSR, Industry Events Tagged With: csr, Mexico, Site Chicago

Thanks to Everyone that Attended the Site Chicago Lunch

March 10, 2011 By Keith Johnston Leave a Comment

I just wanted to throw out a quick thanks to everyone that attended the Site Lunch today at the always amazing James Hotel in Chicago.

Noted author Christine Corelli was our featured luncheon keynote speaker and her presentation, “Business Not as Usual- What to Do?” was excellent.

Christine is one of the best speakers out there and she had some great insights into doing business in the “new” economy for not only meeting, event and incentive planners but for hoteliers and suppliers as well. For those of you that are looking for a timely, fun and smart as a whip speaker for your next event, I can HIGHLY recommend her. Check out her website to learn more. Please let her know that we thought she was fantastic! [Read more...]

Filed Under: Industry Events Tagged With: Christine Corelli, Incentive Industry, Industry Events, James Hotel, Meeting Industry Event, Site, Site Chicago