Planners' 'Walkie Talkie' Diminishes Disruptive Delays

<B> Planners' 'Walkie Talkie' Diminishes Disruptive Delays</B>

By Chris Davis

A new hand-held electronic signaling device, designed specifically for the meetings industry, will allow planners to summon hotel staff during a meeting without leaving the room or picking up a telephone.

The Meeting Monitor, developed by HH Technologies Inc. of Palmyra, N.J., was designed to allow hotel or conference center personnel to respond quickly, at the planner's push of a button, to problems occurring during a meeting.

"We believe we have solved the long-time dilemma for both planners and facility operators of how to request help quickly without causing a major disruption of the meeting," said HH Technologies president and co-inventor of the device Steve Hilliard.

The system consists of an annunciator and display panel, which can be installed at the hotel's front desk or sales office, up to 64 hand-held transmitters and a variable number of signal receivers. Each battery-operated transmitter is about the size of a pager.

Each transmitter is labeled with an identification code. When the planner presses the button, a radio-wave signal is emitted through the signal receivers, sending a message to the annunciator and generating an audible tone. The annunciator displays the identification code of the transmitter that emitted the request for help so hotel personnel know which meeting planner is calling them.

The Meeting Monitor is being marketed in three packages: The $1,999 small meetings package includes two transmitters and can handle a maximum of five concurrent meetings; the $2,999 conference center package includes six transmitters and has a capacity for 14 simultaneous events; and the $3,999 convention center package includes two signal receivers and 10 transmitters, and can handle 64 concurrent meetings.

Additional transmitters cost $89 each and additional receivers are priced at $499 each.

Angela Barnes, banquet manager at the Radisson Hotel Philadelphia Northeast and one of Hilliard's first customers, said the Meeting Monitor has impressed planners and increased meeting sales.

"There's less than two minutes response time from our staff, which our customers think is the greatest thing in the world," she said. "It's a selling tool for our sales office, and it has worked. It's been absolutely worth it for us. Radisson is a large company, and for them, (the price) is nothing. But if we didn't have it, we could sacrifice a group."

Barnes said her hotel, which has about 10,000 square feet of banquet space, is using the small meetings package.

Hilliard noted that because the system uses radio waves, some properties may need more than one receiver, depending on their size and configuration and the number of simultaneous meetings. "The radio waves will travel from 300 to 500 feet," she said. "Anything that cuts down on the signal, like thick walls of concrete or meetings on multiple floors, is a concern. But the beauty of it is, you can simply add receivers."

Other hotels that have purchased the system include The Park Hotel in Charlotte, N.C., the Crowne Plaza in Dayton, Ohio, and the Radisson Hotel Roberts in Muncie, Ind., Hilliard said.