NBTA Releases Meetings RFP TemplatesThe National Business Travel Association's groups and meetings committee has deployed two meetings-related modules for the association's request-for-proposals templates, said committee co-chair Kari Knoll Kesler during a May 18 Webconference hosted by meetings technology provider OnVantage Inc. Kesler also is manager of meetings and events for Honeywell Inc. "We've finished two new modules and deployed them, which would enable companies for the first time to utilize the same process that's in place to put together a preferred meetings program for hotels," Kesler said. In addition, the committee is developing a request-for-proposals template for each designated "critical meeting component" in a series of white papers. "We're going back to finish the ones we've already completed and then add a request-for-proposal template to the new ones," she said. Previous critical meeting component papers covered air, ground and hotel expenditures and upcoming papers will address "venues, destination management companies, production and media, and then speakers," according to Kesler. This summer, members can expect to see another installment of the groups and meetings committee's "Framework for Success" series on leveraging group and transient volume with hoteliers. By the end of the year, the committee aims to publish a paper on the valuation of a strategic meetings management program, she said.
Starwood Expands Multi-Meeting DealStarwood Hotels & Resorts on May 22 announced it expanded its program for multi-year, multi-meeting corporate contracts
(Meetings Today, Feb. 7, 2005) to 26 Sheraton and Westin hotels and lowered the minimum required peak room nights to 500. Previously, 17 properties participated in the program and buyers were required to book at least 700 room nights. The program includes convention-style hotels and resorts and offers incentives for booking two or more meetings at any member hotels. The offer also emphasizes a single sales contact and standard contracts for all meetings, according to a company release. Incentives offered to buyers include up to 1 million reward points, credits to the master account, short and long-term attrition allowances, audiovisual discounts and food & beverage discounts. "In receiving feedback from our key customers, we are offering incentives that affect their bottom line and provide the cost savings that are important to them," said Carol Lynch, Starwood's vice president of global sales, in a company release. "By lowering the required room nights to 500, we have been able to expand participating Starwood Convention Collection hotels to include an additional nine distinctive properties to make it even easier and more financially rewarding to plan and contract multiple meetings at once—even across years, properties and geographies."
New Orleans CVB Launches Incentive AwardThe New Orleans Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau on May 24 announced a new incentive aimed to recognize groups that bring business back to the city after devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. The Champions of the Crescent City designation was first given to meetings and incentive travel management provider Maritz Inc., which recently moved its annual sales conference outside of its headquarters city of St. Louis for the first time in 11 years
(see story). The hospitality and tourism industry is the largest employer in the New Orleans area and the second largest industry in the state of Louisiana, said the CVB in a release. An average convention delegate generates $1,500 for the local economy during his or her stay. Stephen Perry, New Orleans Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau president and CEO, praised Maritz as a "billion-dollar organization with a conscience" and said the city would target more growth in corporate meetings over the previous focus on association conferences. Perry said he expects the Louis B. Armstrong International Airport to return to normal operations in six to eight months. The repair and renovation of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, which partially reopened on Feb. 17, will open another eight exhibit halls and associated meeting space this month.
Meetings Today Calls For Best PractitionersMeetings Today again this summer will name at least three corporate meeting buyers or managers as best practitioners in particular fields for initiatives begun or completed in 2005, including, but not limited to, air and hotel programs, internal consolidation, meeting policy construction and compliance, relationship with corporate transient programs and use of meetings technology. Please send nominations of corporate meeting buyers by June 9, 2006, along with a brief explanation of why they are deserving, to meetings management editor Corrie Dosh at
[email protected].