A MONTHLY DIGEST TO INFORM AND ENLIGHTEN MEETING AND EVENT PLANNERS July-August 2006 Edition
VOL. 4 ISSUE 6
Yield/revenue management helps make better decisions BY AMANDA JOINER CMP, CMM
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• Helpful in identifying problematic situations or opportunities in advance • A way of guiding the hotel to create a profitable market mix
s a planner, you’ve probably heard rumblings about the In a nutshell, revenue arrival of the age of yield or management is a process for revenue management within making better business deciCanadian hotels, or been sions within hotels, based on faced with the task of dealing the economic premise of supwith that new breed of hoteply and demand. When the lier – the ‘revenue manager.’ supply of available hotel While most meeting and rooms is scarce relative to event planners know that demand (for example during yield management is a new the Toronto International trend affecting their industry, Yield/revenue management is now commonplace in hotels. Film Festival, the Calgary most don’t have a clear Stampede or the Montreal understanding of how it Grand Prix), hotel room rates will tend to increase. Conversely, works – or how they can make it work for them! Before we delve into the deep, dark world of yield management, a surplus of supply compared to demand will cause hotel rates to fall. The optimum price point for sellers and buyers (hotelet’s debunk the myths and clear up some stereotypes that exist. liers and planners) — is the point where supply and demand intersect (where hotels charge a price that planners are willing Yield/revenue management is not… to pay, resulting in most hotel rooms being fully booked). • A process to squeeze planners for higher rates every time Knowing in advance (based on historical data and computer • Inflexible and based ONLY on the numbers modeling) when these times of high and low occupancy are • Reliant on hotel competitors directly sharing information likely to occur – and adjusting room rates accordingly – is what • Run by a person who doesn’t understand customer service or yield management is all about. ongoing business relationships The airlines have been utilizing sophisticated yield manage• The worst concept to come along since shag carpeting! ment techniques for years (thus the constantly changing rates that fluctuate minute by minute based on available occupancy on individual planes). Now, these same tools are becoming So then, what IS yield/revenue management? It is… • A hotel management process based on mathematics and ‘business as usual’ for the Canadian hotel industry as well. Sounds complicated, doesn’t it? It doesn’t have to be. Think of trends • An approach that allows hotels to predict future trends from revenue management as similar to a game of Tetris: The object is to get all of the puzzle pieces to fit into the right spots. historical data Planners and hoteliers hold these pieces (groups and the • Based on data that is extracted from the marketplace via a facilities to house them), and can benefit based on where they third party • Typically administered by a committee of hotel management fit best. that includes key department heads, including sales and CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 convention/event services
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Successfully respond to new dynamics CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
What are peak and low seasons for the hotels you are considering? Do they have varying occupancy patterns on different days of the week or on weekends that you could benefit from? Do they have ‘holes’ created by other business that they have already booked at higher rates, that will allow them to offer you better ones? When are citywide conferences and events going to drive up the demand for hotel space and can you avoid meeting over these peak dates? Yield management systems have much more accurately allowed hotels to understand and analyze their patterns of high and low demand and predict what rates they will be able to charge in the future. As a planner, successfully responding to the new dynamics that yield management presents will mean that we will all have to get used to asking more questions, and to collecting and analyzing market information in a more structured and methodical way. Sexy it ain’t, but a firm grasp of some revenue management basics could allow you to yield great results for your next meeting budget!
Leveraging occupancy from peak nights to shoulder nights, for example, yields a good fit for the supplier. Willingness to shift a group’s arrival from a peak night to an off-peak night yields a value-added benefit to the planner. That benefit could be a better rate, or you might negotiate additional food and beverage discounts, upgrades or premium audiovisual services for the meeting. Hence, another game piece finds its niche. The game’s ultimate objective is a situation where all of the meetings and the facilities fit with the least number of gaps present. Then, both sides win.
Most hotels are more than willing to share information with you...
Understanding the process To best leverage our meeting budgets, it makes sense for planners to understand the process of yield management and educate ourselves on a facilities low-demand periods. This is where the best meeting values can be realized. Most hotels are more than willing to share information with you about how their yield management systems work – but you have to ask!
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••• Amanda Joiner is the President of Canadian Conference & Event Management, a full service meeting management firm based in Toronto. Amanda can be reached at ccem@sympatico.ca.
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In this issue
ED. NOTE
A lifelong process
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This month, we give you tips on healthier eating to help prevent diabetics and look at pregnancy and air travel. We also give you signs to discover if you fly too much.
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t The Planner, our goal is to inform you and encourage you to pursue learning. When we were young schoolkids, the reasons for learning seemed somewhat distant and untangible – to go to college and then get a good job. But what about learning as adults? What are the tangible benefits for acquiring knowledge in our twenties, thirties, forties or beyond? The answer is simple: To earn more you must learn more. What your employer is willing to pay you will be determined by the what you know: The value you add. The more you know, the more valuable you become. The idea is to become so knowledgeable and competent that you become indispensable to your company. When you realize what you need to do, you can choose the path that is best for you. The more knowledge you have about your current situation and how to improve it, the better choices you will make to improve upon your current state of affairs. This in turn will lead to better results in the future. I can hear planners across the land saying “But I don’t have time!” And they’re probably right. They will only have time if they make a commitment to themselves to start learning again, with the goal of being the very best planner in the business. Do you feel like you are missing trends in the industry? Then start subscribing to newsletters and magazines that follow the latest happenings in the industry. Perhaps you think learning another language would help you develop more business? Then maybe it’s time to buy some language CDs or take a course. Whatever you do, make a commitment to learning – for life.
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The Planner uses 30% recycled post-consumer paper Poste-publication No. 40934013
Empowered? How much teamwork is too much? And what happens to managers when teams do well? Peter De Jager examines the issue.
Cost-saving tips As an exhibitor, you’re always trying to find ways to save a penny. Barry Siskind provides several ways to stretch your buck.
Published by:
The Planner is a monthly publication distributed to professional meeting and event planners across Canada and the U.S.
Do you know your DMCs? Destination Management Companies can make your job a lot easier. Jyl Ashton Cunningham takes an in-depth look at this rapidly growing industry sector.
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Editor: Leo Gervais – lgervais@theplanner.ca Associate Editor: Camille Lay – clay@theplanner.ca Associate Editor: Jyl Ashton Cunningham – jashton@theplanner.ca Sales: James Paulson – jpaulson@theplanner.ca Administration: Patrick Galvin, Julie Boisvert, Tania Joanis, Patricia Lemus Proofreader: Keith Motton Contributors: Mike Auctor, Anne Biarritz, Peter De Jager, Amanda Joiner, Allison Martens, Jeff Mowatt, Don Murray, Matt Riopel, Barry Siskind, Harriet Wezena, Louise Villemaire
Multi-tasking Forget about walking and chewing gum at the same time, how about dealing with suppliers, employees, technicians and your family at the same time? Editor Leo Gervais provides some insight on a skill everyone needs these days. And Harriet Wezena looks at the book CrazyBusy that aims to show you how to better shoulder your load and bring balance back into your life.
– Leo Gervais
2105 rue de la Montagne, suite 100 • Montreal, Quebec • H3G 1Z8 Telephone: (514) 849-6841 ext. 333 • Fax: (514) 284-2282 WE WELCOME YOUR COMMENTS: info@theplanner.ca
F.Y.I.
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Planner survey We polled planners on whether the strong Canadian dollar will make them consider holding more meetings outside the country.
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Cruising The cruise industry has seen a bit of a decline this year. That means there are deals galore for the interested planner.
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Jet charters Do you think domestic carriers are the only way to fly? Read this article and you might be booking a charter flight a lot sooner than you think.
INFLUENCE WITH EASE Creating a Customer Feeding Frenzy 4 tools that make you simply irresistible By Jeff Mowatt because the employee told me about his personal experience in test-riding a similar buy anything as I walked into the carpet bike. He described his experience with such factory in Deli, India. The only reason I exuberance that I couldn’t help but get was entering at all was because I was part of caught-up in his enthusiasm. I ended up a tour group and this was the last stop. By buying two bikes – the second for a friend the time I left the factory however, our who I knew would love it. No brochure can busload of worn-out tourists had been create real life excitement that stimulates an transformed. We were energized, laughing emotional buying demand the way personal and most importantly, laden with purchases. stories can. I, having sworn to myself that I wouldn’t That doesn’t mean that you, the buy anything, walked out with carpet in salesperson, had to actually have the hand and had spent over six hundred dollars. experience yourself. The experience could The salesman in the factory had successfully have happened to another customer or cocreated a customer feeding frenzy. worker. The key is that you know the other When I speak at conventions and person personally and they told you about for organizations on how to boost sales, I their experience themselves. That gives you often find that customer contact employees the “inside information” that enhances your lose potential business because of one major credibility. factor. They spend too much time trying to sell and not enough time stimulating the “Employees spend too customer’s natural urge to buy. Customers hate to be sold to but they love to buy. Like much time trying to sell and the salesperson in the Delhi carpet factory, you can spark a buying frenzy when you use not enough time stimulating the right approach. the customer’s natural urge Emotions are the key. You must to buy.” stimulate an emotional need for your products or services. Even a customer who’s buying a cheap car is making an emotional 2. Emphasize the Benefits decision. Though the low cost makes it The only reason people buy seem like they’re making a logical decision, anything is because of what the purchase in fact, it’s an emotional one. Perhaps will do for them – in other words, its they’re buying it so they can have money benefits. Benefits refer to what the features left over to go to school. In this case, their or characteristics of a product or service will passion for further education makes this do for the customer. Features are purchase an emotional decision. Buying meaningless to the customer unless they are this inexpensive car helps them pursue that translated into benefits. An easy way to do passion. The sooner you can tap into that this is utter 6 magic words to the customer: emotional need, the easier it will be to create “What that mean’s to you is…” a buying frenzy. Consider an example of an Four ways to stimulate this automatic garage door opener. The features emotional demand are through personal of this door opener are that you can push a stories, benefits, demonstration, and tapping button and the garage door opens and the into fear. light turns on. The benefits are, in other
I swore to myself that I would not
1. Share Personal Stories Stories about your personal experiences with your products or services give you tremendous credibility. When I bought a mountain bike at Ridley’s Cycle in Calgary, it wasn’t because of a brochure that described the bicycle’s features. It was
words, “What this means to you is - you don’t have to get out of you car to open the door, so you stay warm, safe, and comfortable.” Too often, salespeople try to sell features. Instead, they should allow the customer to buy benefits.
3. Prove with Demonstration Live demonstrations stimulate excitement and feelings of trust (the emotions associated with buying). Customers love to be entertained and they generally believe what they see - especially if they’re involved in the demonstration. Before you demonstrate your product or service to your customer, first ask them if they’d like to see it in action. When they customer agrees, it’s no longer a case of you selling to them, but of them buying from you. ‘Nuff said.
4. Tap into Fear Fear is another powerful emotion that can result in a feeding frenzy. Tap into the customer’s fears by pointing out the risks associated with not buying the particular product or service. A customer, for example, who is considering investing in a specific car repair, should be made aware of the negative consequences of not fixing the problem. Use this tactic sparingly and ethically, however, or it will backfire.
Combine Techniques The carpet salesman in Delhi talked about the families he knew who took months to make each carpet (personal stories). He pointed out the investment value of carpets (benefits). He asked if we wanted to see his favorite carpet, and then he made a show of it (demonstration). He explained that with current exchange rates his carpets were the best deal in the world (fear). With these irresistible persuasion tools being used – it’s no wonder so many of us joined into the buying blitz. The good news is, with just a little professional training, you and your employees can create the same feeding frenzy for your business. Bon Appetite!
Jeff Mowatt, CSP is an international speaker and corporate trainer. His focus is, “The Art of Client Service… Influence with Ease.”® For tips, self-study kits, and information about booking Jeff visit www.jeffmowatt.com or call 1-800-jmowatt (566-9288)..
F.Y.I. Can flying endanger a fetus?
Signs you fly too much
For decades some scientists have speculated that frequent flying can heighten the risk of complications during pregnancy. Some argue that low levels of oxygen, increased exposure to radiation and other conditions aboard some aircraft may harm a developing fetus. No study has ever confirmed these claims. One study, published in 1999, examined the medical records and work activity of 1,751 pregnant flight attendants between 1973 and 1994. The study, published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, did not find high rates of complications. It did find that the flight attendants who worked during the early stages of pregnancy had a slightly higher risk of miscarriage than their peers who took time off, but it was unclear whether stress or other factors were to blame. In 2001, after reviewing years of research, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists released a report stating that healthy women could safely fly any time before the 36th week of pregnancy. After that, they risk going into labour during a flight.
• You can mime along with the safety announcement • As far as you’re concerned, more than five peanuts at a time is just plain indulgent • Jet lag is your normal state • You think drinks only come in single serving-sized bottles and are mystified about the ‘oversized’ bottles at the supermarket • You are surprised at the cinema when you don’t have to use headphones or crane your neck 45 degrees to see the screen. • You are continually amazed when there is no line-up for the bathroom when you are at home. • You find metal cutlery too heavy and slightly unnerving when it doesn’t take 20 minutes to saw through a piece of meat • You know the duty-free catalogue off by heart • You have enough mini tubes of toothpste to last you for the rest of your life. SOURCE: THE TRAVELLER’S COMPANION/ROBSON BOOKS
If you keep saying ‘yes’ to everyone else you are saying no to yourself.
A helping hand to control weight
Anonymous
More than two million Canadians have diabetes. By the end of the decade, this number is expected to rise to three million. Type 1 diabetes, usually diagnosed in children and adolescents, occurs when the pancreas is unable to produce insulin. Insulin is a hormone that ensures body energy needs are met. Approximately 10 per cent of people with diabetes have type 1 diabetes. Ninety per cent have type 2 diabetes , which occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or when the body does not effectively use the insulin that is produced. Type 2 diabetes usually develops in adulthood, although increasing numbers of children in high-risk populations are being diagnosed. One of the key tools in battling diabetes is education – knowing your carbohydrates and understanding how much you should eat. The Canadian Diabetes Association suggests using your hands to estimate appropriate portions when planning a meal. Here a few of their recommendations: • Grains, starches and fruits: Choose an amount up to the size of your fist • Meats and alternatives: Choose an amount the size of the palm of your hand and the thickness of your little finger • Vegetables: Choose as much as you can hold in both hands. Also, choose vegetables low in carbohydrates, such as green or yellow beans, broccoli or lettuce • Fat: Limit fat to an amount the size of the tip of your thumb • Milk and alternatives: Drink up to 250 mL (8 oz.) of lowfat milk with a meal On the Web: www.diabetes.ca
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Multitasking: Is it productive or BY LEO GERVAIS
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ou’re writing a report when the phone rings. You answer it. Then, your buddy Rob appears in your MSN Messenger window, asking you to go to a show tonight. A familiar sound comes from your computer – “You’ve got mail!” You’re now readN ing, writing, talking on MS g n i t t and chatting – yes, Cha you’re multitasking. But is it making you more efficient? Probably not, according to a study of 1,000 office workers commissioned by Hewlett-Packard Co., which found the distraction of checking e-mail or text messaging while doing another task can cause someone’s IQ to drop between 5 and 15 per cent. Several experts say the biggest downfall of multitasking is the difficulty of resuming work after a distraction. Without a plan for recalling what you’ve done, you’ll likely end up wasting a lot of time and effort retracing your steps to get back on track.
Another study followed 36 corporate technology and finance employees in Southern California through typical office work days, and the results showed that workers seldom go more than 11 minutes before being interrupted by a phone call, urgent e-mail or discussion with a co-worker they tried to handle at the same time. But once the focus was shifted, it took them an average of 25 minutes to get back on track with the original task. Managers the W r i t i n g a report world over try to sell the idea of multitasking as “productivity.” But as we all know, being busy and being productive are not the same thing. It would be much more efficient for an employee to focus on one task, and managers would be wise to encourage and promote doing one task at a time well instead of multitasking.
Staying focused Here are some ways to eliminate the common habit of trying to do too many things at once and getting little done in the end. • Use the inchworm technique: Divide large projects in to smaller pieces and do a few pieces each day, inching along but always making progress. • Keep tabs of the progress: Outline all the steps you need to complete a project, and tick them off as you do them. This will give you satisfaction and a scorecard you (or your boss) can view to see the progress. It’s amazing the satisifaction you’ll get from completing items. • Lose the clutter: Most of the papers you have on your desk can be thrown out. Use this method: When you look at a piece of paper or an e-mail, decide if anyone else has it. If someone else does, pitch it unless it pertains directly to your job. If it is important and needs action, perform the action right away or file it, but note it on your To Do list.
Age is a high price to pay for maturity. Tom Stoppard
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BOOK REVIEW
CrazyBusy by Edward M. Hallowell, M.D. BY HARRIET WEZENA
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re you on the go, all the time? Don’t even have time to eat your lunch? Are you in over your head and never have time to do the things that really matter most to you? If it is any consolation to you, know that you are not alone in this “crazybusy” world. In fact, it is the defining feature of our society today. Edward M. Hallowell M.D. tackles “this modern phenomenon of brain overload” by presenting us with different life situations that keeps us entrapped in what he describes as the crazybusy. He offers us guidance toward a solution and how you can turn stress into a positive force in his useful book, CrazybusyOverstretched, Overbooked and About to Snap! Strategies for Coping in a World Gone ADD. The book is divided into two parts: “Overbooked and about to snap” and “Creating a system that works for you.” Part one is devoted to discussing the factors that make today’s society such a speed-driven place. Some of the apt headings include, “The Rush, the Gush, the Worry, and the Blather”, “The Myth of Multitasking”, and “Finding Hope When You’re Down.” The greatest damage that results from
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being too busy, Hallowell says, is that people are prevented from setting their own rhythm and controlling their own lives. It increases toxic stress, instances of illness, accidents and errors, rudeness and a general reduction in the level of happiness of the population. He argues that emotion and rhythm are two elements that have been shoved to the background, yet are instrumental in order to take control of our lives. We need to reconnect positively to those around us in our business and social lives, he asserts. While acknowledging the importance of technology, he points out the mysteriously addictive spell Blackberries, laptops, and cell phones have over us. He cautions, “…watch out. It is marvelous only as long as you remain in charge instead of letting the technology take charge of you.” But what makes us so busy? Dr. Hallowell writes that we are busy because we can be, must be and imagine that we must be. He refers to speed as “…the modern natural high,” the feeling you get from going fast. We make excuses in order to stay busy... and go fast. In section two, “Creating a System that Works for You,” Dr. Hallowell stresses the primary step towards getting con-
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trol over your crazybusy world is to accept your limits. Spend your time wisely, devoted to the things that matter most to you while keeping in mind that the way you spend your time is a reflection of who you are. This requires prioritizing and a systematic assessment of your use of time, including the value received from the time invested in your various activities. Another simple thing you can do to prevent being a slave to this high-speed world is to find your rhythm. Allow your brain to go on autopilot for much of the day, so that the creative thinking part of your brain can attend to what it is uniquely qualified to do. When you are in rhythm, according to Hallowell, it has been proven that your state of mind elevates all that you do to its highest level. As Dr. Hallowell argues, being crazybusy can also be an opportunity, so the impulse to be busy can be turned to our advantage once we get in touch with our needs and take charge of how we really want to spend our time. The book is an enlightening read for all busy people and anyone who doesn’t want to be a victim of modern society’s crazybusy bug. ••• Book: Crazybusy – Overstretched, Overbooked, and About to Snap! Strategies for Coping in a World Gone ADD Author: Edward M. Hallowell, M.D. Publisher: Ballantine Books, New York Pages: 229 ISBN: 0-345-48243-3 Price: $23.41 on www.chapters.ca
Planners need information on this industry segment
Do you know your DMCs? BY JYL ASHTON CUNNINGHAM, CMP There are many advantages to using a Destination Management Company (DMC), especially if the planner is unfamiliar with the destination under consideration. Nevertheless, several important points need to be considered before committing client dollars to any DMC service.
Advantages A good DMC knows their destination inside out. They have access to all the best suppliers and can save a meeting or incentive event enough money in favourable negotiations to more than justify their fee. They also know the pitfalls of working in uncharted territory. Because they are locally based, they will be respected and highly recommended by Convention and Visitor Bureaus, top hotels and restaurants, and reliable transportation companies in the area. Many clients are loathe to have more than one site inspection prior to an event,
mainly for budgetary reasons. Securing the services of a reputable DMC in the initial planning stages can save time, money and the frustration of trying to deal with ‘sight unseen’ circumstances. A DMC will often be able to negotiate free or greatly reduced-cost site inspections, and will ensure that the best transfer from the airport, upgraded hotel rooms and fabulous meals are all part of the experience. One of the key employees of a DMC will likely be very visible during the site inspection, with a fabulous and full itinerary, planned to the last detail. In short, they showcase their city or resort to its best advantage and are able to speak at ease on any related topic and answer questions promptly. DMCs can be invaluable when working with the local workforce, especially if the first language is not English. Dealing with teamsters and city unions, strikes, local customs (for example, knowing when siestas or religious holidays/prayer hours are taken, or when to tip appropriately) and client/worker relationships are all part
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of a day’s work for a reputable DMC. Working in Quebec can have its challenges, and a ‘one-stop shopping’ service provided by a company such as JPdL is a definite asset to the busy planner. JPdL also has offices in Toronto, Quebec City, Ottawa, Charlevoix and Mont Tremblant, all popular destinations for meetings, incentives and conventions. Visit them online at www.jpdl.com.
Points to be aware of Once a DMC has been asked to assist with your event, make sure you have a solid understanding in place from the beginning. Ask for a full disclosure of supplier contacts, and don’t be afraid to ask hotels and venues outside the DMC’s contact list for a reference. Send a request out to other planners (IMPAC has an excellent member benefit – On Line Member Assistance) to find out about their DMC experiences in a country that you are not familiar with. For more info, visit www.impaccanada.com. Where possible, use DMCs who are MPI members. By joining, they have undertaken to adhere to that association’s Principles of Professionalism: Maintaining Professional Integrity, Utilizing Professional Business Practices and Respecting Diversity. To find out more, go to www.mpitoronto.org. SITE is another reputable source for DMC recommendations. Like MPI, it has an international membership database for easy reference. Go to www.site-intl.org. A DMC will typically charge a 15 - 20 per cent management fee to the planner on any services they ultimately provide. However they may also be receiving a commission from the venue or supplier, which should be disclosed. A DMC will generally work on a pre-estimated cost per head, which may be over-inflated. A savvy planner will have an understanding of how much meals, alcohol, entertainment and other products and services actually cost in the destination, as the client may well do his or her own research and any discrepancies will soon be discovered.
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Going it alone requires site visits and a lot of knowledge The planner must take care to retain ownership of the program. Because a DMC is knowledgeable about their product, an unscrupulous client may decide to forego planner services after the site inspection and deal directly with a DMC. A signed letter of intent between planner and client, as well as one between planner/DMC, ensures that everyone understands their commitment. It is also essential to have the DMC named as a co-insured on any insurance policy taken out by the planner and/or client, and vice versa. Likewise, having engaged a DMC in the initial planning process, it is important to honour any agreement. If a planner receives a full proposal with supplier recommendations, followed by a DMC assisted site inspection, it is unethical to then go ahead and manage the logistics independently (unless that was always the arrangement). It could also result in some unpleasant surprises when you reach your destination, as some suppliers may have an allegiance to the DMC, or may just not take orders well from a foreigner.
With a new and dynamic President with years of international industry experience at the helm in Toronto, they are a definite contender as a recognized DMC. Sunquest have packages to the Caribbean, Cuba, Mexico, Italy, Britain and Ireland. You can pay them a visit online at www.sunquest.ca. The planner who decides to go solo and manage the entire program without a DMC and who is not familiar with the destination should make at least two visits there. These scouting expeditions should last about three days each, ideally during the same season the event is supposed to take place. Spend the first visit on site inspections and the second on venue and supplier negotiations and contract signing. For large groups or expensive resort destinations, the costs incurred on such trips may be no greater than hiring a DMC.
Making the Decision There is no right or wrong answer on whether to add the services of a DMC to a meeting or incentive program. Having examined the pros and cons, the planner must make a decision based on budget, venue choice, level of venue service, trust level of suppliers and personal expertise in managing overseas events. However, for destinations in politically controversial regions, it is recommended always to have a DMC.
Alternatives Many travel agents are able to offer similar recommendations and services to that of a DMC, at no charge to the planner, as they receive a commission from the suppliers. They may also send an experienced trip director with you, to deal with any unforeseen circumstances, such as illness or hotel over-bookings. Sunquest Vacations is an excellent example of travel agencies that are evolving into meeting and incentive planners.
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••• Jyl Ashton Cunningham, CMP is President of JAAC Events in Oakville, Ontario, and an associate editor of The Planner. She can be reached at info@jaacevents.com.
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Words, thoughts and deeds Pt. II Ed. Note: This is the second of two parts in a series of articles.
These and other opinions such as those on the role of the sexes are fundamentally political because the images created by language will loom up in our minds when one or the other of these groups makes a bid for a recognition of rights or draws attention to some point of discrimination against them. For the most part, our prejudices are unconscious; they are conditioned by words we use so frequently that they have become second nature. Consciously or not, we are unlikely to be very sympathetic or fair to people we have been talking about in pejorative language all our lives. One of the things children learn to do in their pre-school years is to "call names" at those who are different from them and their playmates. If they are on the receiving end of the name-calling, they learn to taunt back: "Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me!" No saying could be further from the truth. First of all, words can hurt us emotionally, with an effect deeper and more lasting than a physical injury. Secondly, the declaration that words can do no physical harm is fallacious. It is words that cause mobs to pick up sticks and stones to break the bones of the people they have learned to look upon with repugnance or hatred. Words have been responsible for some of the most horrible crimes of humanity. Naziism got its start by calling names. The Nazis were masters of propaganda, which consists largely of rhetoric. Among the definitions of rhetoric is "language designed to persuade or impress (often with implication of its insincerity, exaggeration, etc.)" In prison after the abortive Munich putsch, Adolf Hitler developed the principles of how to rule men's minds with artful language. He set about becoming a master orator in the full knowledge that, as the English writer Joseph Chatfield said, "Oratory is the power to talk people out of their sober and natural opinions." Hitler knew how to pick the "right" words for his purposes and to arrange them in slogans which, repeated over and over, could utterly overwhelm non-conformity with party doctrine. He further knew how slogans could obviate public scrutiny of policy and anaesthetize the conscience, wiping out every human consideration in the interests of "the master race."
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here is a long tradition of using euphemisms to cover up the real horrors of war. An official dispatch from a battlefront might read: "Elements of the Fourth Division repulsed attacks from the enemy Sixth Army supported by aerial and artillery bombardment. Casualties on both sides were heavy." This says nothing of the hundreds of men who had their stomachs blasted open or their arms, legs or heads blown off. In a similar vein, an American general in Europe once referred to civilian casualties as "collateral damage." An "interdictional nonsuccumber" was how the U.S. Defense Department described a person in Vietnam who had survived bombing attacks. Short of war, euphemisms have always been used in politics to candy-coat unpalatable realities. While the words in the mouths of the parties in power are "smoother than butter," as Shakespeare wrote, the language of opposition parties is unadulterated vinegar. The discerning voter will make allowances for the motives behind the words when the government says that a proposed policy will lead to broad new uplands of progress and the opposition says of the same policy that it will bring the ruination of the nation and "the democratic way of life." Politics, however, is not confined to parliamentary chambers. We think in political terms constantly without being aware of doing so . The power of language starts to influence our political opinions in early childhood. We are all imbued with the prejudices of the particular social group into which we were born, and we receive this indoctrination from the language we hear. If early in life we "learn" to associate a certain word like the name of an ethnic group with something objectionable to our group, the negative associations are likely to stick in our minds when we reach adulthood. No matter what objective evidence we encounter to the contrary, members of such-and-such a nationality or religion will always be dirty or lazy, drunken or greedy, stingy or crooked, depending on which stereotype we apply to which particular group.
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Independent-minded individuals should look for “wordfacts” Of course, propaganda (the Latin-based word stems from the propagation of the Roman Catholic faith) was practiced long before Hitler came on the scene in the 1920s. What was different from his time on was that propagandists could use mass media such as radio, film and wire services to reach around the world. Everyone everywhere became a potential candidate for what was later known as brain-washing. Then came television, and with it the witch- hunting U. S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, who managed to turn the word "Communist" into a terrifying scourge. Because it slings words at its listeners with such disconcerting speed, and because the visual images it presents further blur the perceptions, television has heightened the need to be careful not to take words at face value. Not that anybody does so entirely; everyone knows that television commercials, like all other advertising, make fulsome use of exaggeration. But while we allow for a degree of hyperbole in advertising, we are perhaps less rigorous in discounting the more subtle but no less contrived exaggerations we hear in news and public affairs programs. Exaggeration is a natural part of language. We all blow words out of proportion to their original meaning, and sometimes depart from their meaning entirely. A good meal isn't literally marvellous, which the dictionary defines as "astonishing" or "extremely improbable." Nor is a bad meal literally terrible – "awful, dreadful , formidable, very great or bad." Words are often used in a less than literal way to plant desirable ideas. The British Royal Navy, for instance, has traditionally given its ships names like Invincible and Indomitable, though the Lords of the Admiralty are well aware that no war ship could actually be invincible or indomitable. Presumably they hoped that the sailors aboard them would conduct themselves as if the names proclaimed a simple fact. These are cases of words meaning not only what people want them to mean, but what people hope they will mean. Thus a young man will call a girl his sweetheart in the hope, and with the suggestion , that she will come to fit that description. In black magic, spells are cast and curses made with words the speaker fiercely hopes will become reality. "The old idea that words possess magical powers is false," Aldous Huxley wrote, "but its falsity is the distortion of a very important truth. Words do have a magical effect - but not in the ways that the magicians supposed, and not on the objects that they are trying to influence. Words are magical in the way they affect the minds of those who use them." It is to tap into this magic that sloganeers try to plant words in the public mind which produce reflexive generalizations. "A good catch word," the American politician Wendell Wilkie once said, "can obscure analysis for 50 years." Cleverly-chosen language has the effect of simplifying ideas, to the relief of those who are intellectually lazy. Life is rarely as
simple as the language we use to describe it. Still, we all generalize, and by doing so we fall into the trap of believing that all things in a certain category are the same: All pigs are dirty, all professors are wise, all women are bad drivers. By attaching generalized labels to the pictures that crop up in our minds, we do an injustice not only to others, but to our better selves. According to the prophet of general semantics, Alfred Korzybski, the IndoEuropean language structure, with its strong emphasis on " is" and "is not," tends to make for generalizations and snap judgments. We talk of right and wrong, good and bad, etc., taking little or no notice of the gradations between these extreme states. Such verbal polarization militates against reasonable solutions to problems. Anyone who suggests a middle way between opposites is likely to come under fire from both sides. The first rule of semantics is that words are nothing but the symbols of things and ideas. To paraphrase Korzybski, language is to reality what the map is to the territory – "the map," he kept repeating, "is not the territory." It is when words are confused with the things they represent that we run into dangerous delusions. John Kenneth Galbraith called what results from the substitution of a word for a fact a "wordfact.” "It means," he wrote, "that to say something exists is a substitute for its existence. And to say that something will happen is as good as having it happen .... By bold use of the wordfact, we were able to convert South American dictators into bulwarks of the free world ." In this clamorous day and age, independent-minded individuals should be on the constant look-out for wordfacts and other calculated misuses of language. It is not too much for citizens to insist, at least in their own sovereign minds, that the words employed in political discourse mean what they are commonly understood to mean. If one group calls another "terrorists" or says that they are using "violence" or accuses them of "committing genocide," we should decide for ourselves, on the balance of evidence, whether terrorism or violence or genocide is actually being perpetrated. We should guard against attempts to hijack our thinking by slogans, catch-words, or rhetoric designed to inflame our opinions or turn us against enemies manufactured by "wordfact" techniques. And we should be ever-conscious of the insidious danger of using packaged words as substitutes for original ideas. We should not allow others, any more than we should allow ourselves, to confuse words with the reality they symbolize. Eternal vigilance as to the use of words is the price of freedom of thought and expression. In a democracy, the war against the misuse of words cannot be a purely public one. Each individual must stand on guard over his or her own mind. ••• Reprinted with permission from the Royal Bank of Canada. You can visit them on the Web at www.royalbank.com.
Packaged words can be substitutes for ideas.
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Do empowered teams equal disempowered management? how do we want them to achieve it. Our teams will decide how they meet their goals. How does this goal fit into the corporate strategy? Why is this goal important? How does it fit into the big picture? All of this information is important to the team, if they are to be instrumental in achieving the goal. The most basic questions we all share are ‘What’s in this for me? Why is this important to me?’
BY PETER DE JAGER
S
elf-directed work teams require more than just lip service to a popular quality concept. In order to have any hope of continued success, they require the opportunity to fail The concept of the self-directed work team rests upon an understanding of the term ‘empowerment.’ Empowerment is more than just delegating a task. It means that an employee has the power to act without needing to get permission (or asking forgiveness) from management. Well-meaning managers sometimes shy away from empowerment because it has a ‘dark’ side, one we’d rather avoid. If staff are empowered, then, by definition, management must be ‘disempowered.’ Disempowered? The very thought sends shivers up and down the neck of anyone who has striven to enter the hallowed halls of management. This is not what we signed up for! We became managers to make decisions. Empowerment and self directed work teams, when they work correctly, take decisions away from management. Or so it might seem at first glance. Managers manage people. They set goals in accordance with corporate objectives and employ people to meet those goals. There are more than enough decision making opportunities in these two activities to keep any competent manager happy and content. What then are the secrets to successful self-directed work teams? There are six. The first three are directly related to our skills as a manager. (See...we still have work to do, even though we will have fewer decisions to make!)
Monitor Progress Is the team moving towards the goal? If not, can they make course corrections themselves? Or, is management intervention called for? Every management intervention made reduces the learning and growth of the ‘self directed’ work team.
Provide Coaching Performance is either meeting a goal or it isn’t. When it is, recognition is called for. When it isn’t, then the strategy is ‘coaching’ not ‘punishment.’ The manager as a coach is a relatively new concept for many, but the tenet “The beatings will stop when morale improves” has never been productive as a strategy. The next three secrets focus on the whole issue of ‘disempowerment.’ They are contrary to the entire traditional concept of management. Before you dismiss them outright... at least consider how you might react to them if your manager practiced them.
Don’t get in the way Once we have initiated a team with good people, clear goals and competent skills, we stand back and let them loose. This requires faith in our people, and – in a roundabout way – in ourselves. Did we hire the best possible people we could find? If so, then they are the best people to achieve our goals. If not, why did we hire them?
Communicate Goals The question is what do we want our team to achieve, not
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How much learning are we willing to achieve? Don’t provide answers A self-directed work team should be able to find answers and solutions themselves. Sometimes they know the answers ,and are seeking verification from us that they’re doing the right thing. If our goal is to teach them to make good decisions ,then giving them the answers will thwart our long term objective.
Let them make mistakes This is the toughest strategy to follow. An empowered selfdirected team will make mistakes. The only way for them to grow is to learn from these mistakes. If we step in to avoid errors, then we have failed in our attempt to create a selfdirected work team. How big a mistake can we afford? How much learning are we willing to achieve? Finally, the real secret to self-directed teams is the realization that people are truly capable of managing themselves provided they have been given the right goals and the right training. ••• © 2005 Peter de Jager – Peter is a speaker, writer and consultant on Management Issues relating to Change. Read more of his work at www.technobility.com or contact him at pdejager@technobility.com.
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Join the ranks of the pros: www.mpiweb.org
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Cost saving tips for your next show glance, it may seem more expensive, but the official freight forwarder will likely guarantee on-time delivery because it understands the show and often gets priority at the loading docks. Whenever possible, avoid last-minute shipments because charges can be exorbitant. If your event does not have a designated freight forwarder, consider forming a group with other exhibitors from your area to negotiate better rates collectively. The cost of drayage – moving goods from the show’s receiving dock to your show floor space – is a reality in many exhibit facilities. Depending on the location, you may be able to move some things yourself, such as a booth that comes in a case on wheels. But before you move anything, check the local labour rules. Drayage is usually calculated on a cost per hundred weight basis (CWT). This means that if your shipment weighs 510 lbs (231 kg), you will be charged for 600 lbs (272 kg).
BY BARRY SISKIND
A
s an exhibit manager, you have a fiscal responsibility to allocate your resources properly and report results accurately to management. Without money, nothing will happen. W. Somerset Maugham wrote that “Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the five.” The bottom line for your entire exhibit program depends on harnessing the right amount of fiscal resources. However, we are in an age when marketers simply do not have unlimited budgets. Here are seven tips that will help trim a few dollars from your budget:
1. Display
3. Labor
First-time exhibitors may consider renting booth hardware before taking the plunge and committing to one system. Typical rental costs are about 20 per cent of the retail value of the hardware, excluding signs and graphics. Another consideration is refurbishing an older booth rather than replacing it. If the structure is in good shape, then re-facing it can be cost effective. First time exhibitors might also consider purchasing a used booth. Check with your display house for a good lead or look on one of the Internet resale sites such as www.eBay.com.
In certain jurisdictions you can provide your own labour, while in others you cannot. Be sure to read the show rules carefully. Labour charges can be minimized by ensuring that your display needs as little work as possible on-site. A pre-show checkup will eliminate a lot of last-minute structural problems.
4. Promotion Planning early for the entire year is an easy way to stretch your promotion budget. It gives you the cost advantage of multiple-unit purchasing of advertising space, lower per-unit costs on premiums and printed material, as well as an opportunity to work collectively with other exhibitors.
2. Transportation Generally, shows have an official freight forwarder. At first
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The media can be terrific promotional partners Ensure that your boothers limit the use of give-away items to serious visitors. Brochures, premiums and other trade show tools are wasted when exhibit staff give them away rather than pack them up and ship them home for the next show. Often exhibitors welcome the idea of cross-promotion. You can trade products in each other’s booth with a sign acknowledging where the attendee can learn more about a particular product. For example, if you sell computer hardware, find someone else at the show that sells computer furniture. If you sell flowers, find someone else who sells vases. You can also put links on each other’s Web sites, conduct joint advertising programs, and participate in collective promotional techniques such as the use of a passport at the event.
5. The Media If you cultivate your relationship carefully with members of the media, they can be terrific promotional partners. There is no guarantee that you will get what you want, but there is little cost and the potential reward, such as moving to the front of the line when it’s time for editorial coverage, is so high that it is worth the effort.
Landline telephones are expensive to install and often redundant since most of your staff have their own cell phones or PDAs. Unless you need the landline for an Internet connection, this is one expense you can avoid.
7. Booth Staff In some locations you can hire professional booth staff from a local agency rather than bringing your own. Often, the cost of travel, accommodation and the time away from the office makes bringing staff uneconomical. Small ideas like these can provide big results without having to break the bank to get them. Reprinted with kind permission from the author. Barry Siskind is North America’s foremost trade and consumer show expert, president of International Training and Management Company, and the author of several books. Visit his Web site: www.siskindtraining.com or e-mail him at: barry@siskindtraining.com.
If God invented marathons to keep people from doing anything more stupid, triathlon must have taken Him completely by surprise.
6. Show Services The cost difference between ordering services within the show deadlines and at the last minute is substantial. Read your show manual carefully and ensure that you have ordered everything on time.
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P.Z. Pearce, M.D.
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Wisdom from Andy Rooney Ed. Note: Andy Rooney is an American journalist and commentator. His “A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney” segment appears at the end of the weekly news program 60 Minutes.
Tips for Handling Telemarketers Three little words that work! 1. The three little words are: “Hold on, please...” Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off (instead of hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so much more timeconsuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt. Then, when you eventually hear the phone company's "beep-beep-beep" tone, you know it's time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficiently completed its task. These three little words will definitely help eliminate telephone soliciting.
No one on the line 2. Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other end? This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and records the time of day when a person answers the phone. This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a ‘real’ sales person to call back and get someone at home. What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there, is to immediately start hitting your # button
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on the phone, six or seven times, as quickly as possible This confuses the machine that dialed the call and it kicks your number out of their system. Gosh, what a shame not to have your name in their system any longer !
Junk mail help When you get ‘ads’ enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return these ‘ads’ with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own junk mail away. When you get those "pre-approved" letters in the mail for everything from credit cards to second mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw away the return envelope. Most of these come with postage-paid return envelopes, right? It costs them more than the regular 37 cents postage IF and when they receive them back. It costs them nothing if you throw them away! The postage was around 50 cents before the last increase and it is according to the weight. In that case, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these cool little, postage-paid return envelopes.
One final great idea Send an ad for your local chimney cleaner to American Express. Send a pizza coupon to Citibank. If you didn't get anything else that day, then just send them their blank application back! If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn't on anything you send them. ••• I didn't get old on purpose, it just happened. If you're lucky, it could happen to you. - Andy Rooney 19
A Planner Survey T
he results of the latest Planner survey reveal that despite the Canadian dollar’s strong showing against other currencies, especially the American dollar, many Canadian planners say they will not venture outside Canada for meetings. Only time will tell if the dollar’s continued rise will change their minds.
Do you anticipate organizing more meetings outside of the country now that the value of the dollar has risen? Total surveys sent via e-mail Responses Response rate
Do you anticipate organizing more meetings outside of the country now that the value of the dollar has risen?
8%
Yes No
92%
Total
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14 171 185
7811 185 2.37% 8% 92% 100%
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Cruises, Pt. III: Industry slows in 2006 but planners can benefit from it BY LEO GERVAIS
A
s investors have known for decades, fear drives the stock market – fear that a calamity will adversely affect the price of stocks. In a sense, fear also drives the cruise ship business. High profile problems like high seas, hurricanes, wars and terrorists have all contributed to a lacklustre 2006, the worst year in the cruising industry since 2003 when the situation in Iraq and post 9-11 woes hurt bookings. The Caribbean is the victim of most of the problems. It is both the busiest cruise area and the place where most first-time cruisers tend to sail. Cozumel, Mexico is still under repair after Hurricane Wilma, and some people are staying away due to fears of another hurricane. Onboard incidents in other areas worldwide – a passenger disappearance and a pirate attack – have also frightened away some potential cruisers. Overall, the numbers tell the tale: After two decades of eight per cent annual growth, 2006 will likely ring in at 4.5 per cent. Carnival Corp. reported fiscal first quarter earnings that showed signs of a slower Caribbean “wave season,” the first months of the year when the cruise industry sells the majority of its bookings. But the International Council of Cruise Lines, an industry group, points out the fact that 15 cruise lines reported that only
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206 passenger or crew submitted complaints between 2003 and 2005. During this period, the industry carried more than 30 million passengers – an impressive record to be sure. The upshot for planners is that prices have dropped for most cruises, especially those in the Caribbean. A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. Equity Research found that May and June prices for trips for less than seven days on Carnival cruises dropped by percentages in the single digits per day, and that Royal Caribbean was down by low double-digit percentages. For trips longer than seven days, the drops were slightly higher. So shop around if you plan on using a cruise for an event – you’re likely to find some great deals out there.
WiFi art thou, Romeo? Cruise ships are ramping up on technology to help connect their passengers to people back home. Internet cafés are common, and more cruise operators are rolling out wireless Internet access that reaches everywhere on the ship. Cruise lines are also buying equipment to provide wireless signals for cell phones. The falling price of equipment and customer demand are intersecting at the right time so it has become affordable for the cruise lines to make these upgrades expected from customers.
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How to Sudoku Sudoku (which loosely means “single number” in Japanese) is a deceptively simple yet addictive game of logic that consists of a nine-by-nine square grid, broken into three-by-three square cells. The object: Fill each square with a number from 1 to 9 so that every number appears only once in each row, column and cell.
LEVEL: EASY
Solution, page 38.
LEVEL: INTERMEDIATE
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Solution, page 38.
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Wilma was strong, Cancun is stronger BY DON MURRAY
T
o call Hurricane Wilma a blessing or even ‘Saint Wilma’ could cause confusion among those who did not live through it, but that is what many I spoke with and heard from are calling it. Within hours of its devastation last October there was a sense of not only surviving this disaster, but conquering it. Each day brings its own challenges, and time and time again we are told to focus on today for tomorrow will take care of itself. October 2005 changed Cancun, and what many thought to be a knock-out blow was in fact a rallying cry. Fear is something that, whether we like it or not, we all must face. For me, this – as with most people – is easier said then done. Rob “Waldo” Waldman from Your Wingman put it best when he broke fear down into two basic choices. You either forget everything and run, or you focus your energy and accept responsibility. Cancun and the Mayan Riviera rose up and accepted all that was dealt them with a focused and inspired determination. As homemade banners flung over devastated homes and businesses illustrated time and time again, there was a determination to rise above. Yes, Wilma was strong, but Cancun is stronger. It is sometimes hard to define that which binds a relationship together, the catalyst that brings a people together, what makes a group of diverse people a community. For Cancun and its surrounding regions, Wilma was the moment that I believe defined the new Cancun. You cannot buy pride, and you can not fabricate something as real as what I sensed under the Caribbean sky. Its people are united, rich or poor, native or immigrant: They are one. The Pride of Mexico’s tourism industry is also the pride of Mexico. Their people, both young and old, man and woman rose up to not only survive Wilma, but become better because of it. I was given the opportunity, while attending the Fifth Annual Mexico Showcase, to experience Cancun’s pride first hand, not found in its refurbished luxury hotels or enlarged beaches, but in its people. On behalf of but one guest, thank you for showing me it is possible that when the waters rise, to rise above: To become united under one banner, proud and ready to serve. And as the sun sets on another day, I am confident that when the sun rises on the next one, they will also rise to meet whatever the new day’s challenge brings.
Spectacular sunsets are part of the lure of Cancun, Mexico.
SOME FACTS ABOUT CANCUN • Cancun means nest of serpents in the Mayan language • More than three million people visit Cancun every year • Cancun is responsible for 1/3 of Mexico’s tourism-generated revenues • Cancun is world-famous for its soft white sand beaches • Several archeological sites are located in the area, including El Meco
SOURCE:
Don Murray is the operations manager of Avtec Professional Audiovisual Services. He can be reached at dmurray@avtec.ca
THE 2006 MONTREAL VENUES GUIDE IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR $12.95. CALL (514) 849-6841 EXT. 331 FOR MORE INFORMATION. JULY-AUGUST ’06
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WWW.CANCUN.INFO
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Being there... with videoconferencing BY LEO GERVAIS
T
he high cost of travel prohibits a lot of face-to-face meetings, especially when you have to travel to the West Coast of North America or Europe. Indeed, bringing someone to Toronto from Vancouver for even an overnight trip and a meeting will cost a company more than $1,000 factoring in all the costs. This is where videoconferencing can become a superior alternative: For a lot less than $1,000, people can meet and discuss without ever having to physically occupy the same room. Videoconferencing is the transmission of synchronized image (video) and speech (audio) back and forth between two or more physically separate locations, simulating an exchange as if the participants were in the same physical conversation. This is accomplished through the use of a signal (phone or Internet), cameras, video displays, microphones and speakers. There are two general situations where videoconferencing is used: 1) Those where you are already able to communicate with someone who is not physically nearby, but you wish that communication could be richer (e.g. someone across the ocean in Europe being interviewed for a job), and 2) those where you wish to access or communicate to a location that may or may not be nearby but access to it is limited by situational or physical constraints (e.g. someone working in a laboratory or nuclear installation).
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“It can certainly save travel costs,” said Pat Galvin of Avtec Audio-Visual, which handles videoconferencing for clients at their downtown Montreal location. “For those who don’t want to travel because of the cost or fear of flying, it’s the logical alternative.” There are indeed savings to be had. An example: The cost to fly someone to London, in economy class, would be about $1,000, plus a hotel at $250 (for one day), plus meals, plus the time spent by the travellers themselves – it all adds up to well over $1,500.
A videoconferencing meeting is a ‘real meeting’ Most places that offer this service charge upwards of $300 for two hours, not including long distance charges. Though some videoconferencing retailers use the Internet to defray long distance charges, the signal is sometimes not broadcast quality and there are some security issues. And with most governments crying poor and looking to fill their own coffers, some government agency will probably find a way to charge you for the Internet, eventually. In videoconferencing, much of the experience at one end is affected by conditions at the other. Most videoconferencing clients include a ‘self-view’ window. This
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lets you see how you appear to the remote end — whether or not you are completely viewable on camera, if there are distractions in the background, whether you are looking straight forward at the remote caller and not ‘gazing down from above’ or peering up from below.’ Even if the self-view window is not going to be kept up during the call, it’s a good idea to preview your image in the window and adjust accordingly prior to the call. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work for adjusting audio since your local audio is almost always suppressed from ‘feeding back’ to you in local mode or even most test modes. In this case, testing and adjusting with a live call before a meeting begins is strongly recommended. Once a call is in progress, many people seem to tolerate poor audio or video conditions, not wanting to interrupt the conversational flow or simply because they figure it must be something ‘at their end.’ A short audio/video ‘rehearsal’ is well worth the time spent as it contributes to making the technology as transparent as possible and enables comfortable, effective and rich communication. In conclusion, a videoconferencing meeting is a ‘real’ meeting, so normal meeting etiquette and applies things like being on time and making sure all participants have the same reference materials are essential. If all participants perceive the technology that is connecting them as simply a communications tool, then productive meetings can happen just as they would in person.
!
Jargon Buster Techno babble demystified sponsored by Avtec Professional A/V Services
What is Skype?
Skype: Skype ( rhymes with “type”) is a proprietary peer-to-peer Internet telephony (VoIP) network, that lets you communicate with telephones and other computers. It has experienced rapid growth in both popular usage and software development since the launch of both of its free and paid services (for businesses). Each user must have the Skype software running on his or her computer. This software is currently available free of charge and can be downloaded from the company site (www.skype.com). The main difference between Skype and other VoIP clients is that Skype operates on a peer-to-peer model, rather than the more traditional server-client model. The Skype Group, acquired by eBay in October 2005, is headquartered in Luxembourg, with offices in London and Tallinn. Source: Wikipedia
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And at number 39... meeting planner? Meeting and convention planners have something to cheer about: They are in 39th position on Money magazine’s featured list of the Best 50 Jobs in America. This is a welcome surprise for some industry stakeholders, who lament the fact that many people do not even know of the existence of meeting planners since there is always the tendency to bury them in marketing or public relations. “People don’t understand what everything we do encompasses,” said Sandy Biback of Torontobased Imagination+ Meeting Planners. Money editors compiled the list with data from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and salary information from the compensation data and software Web site, salary.com, the magazine reported. The criteria included a letter-grading system of each profession’s level of stress, flexibility, creativity and difficulty for which meeting planners scored a D (highly stressful); a C (not very flexible); and Bs in the latter two categories respectively. According to Money, meeting planning is projected to grow 22.2 per cent over 10 years, from 42,954 jobs in 2004 to 52,495 in 2014, adding an average of about 1,890 jobs (including new and replacement positions) each year.
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Trends
Americans are developing a yen for Japanese sake The U.S is the target of more than 2,000 sake brewers in Japan who hope to sell their prizewinning bottles of sake, traditional rice wine, as more Japanese continue to dump it for beer, imported wine, and shochu, a distilled homegrown liquor. In the year ending March 30, 2005, sake consumption fell to 826 million liters, 7 per cent below the previous year, and half its
Sake is made from fermented rice postwar peak in 1976, according to Japan’s National Tax Agency. To capture an American market that is already flooded by industrial-size brewers selling cheap sake that is best drunk hot to cover its poor quality, small and mid-size brewers have a plan: They are emphasizing the labour-intensive, artisanal traditions of their jizake, or microbrews, and trotting out their finest bottles for Americans. Made from fermented rice, sake is slightly more potent than wine, with an alcohol content of 15 per cent to 18 per cent. The oldest breweries rely on techniques used over the centuries, such as mixing the rice koji (a special mold) by hand. Award-winning bottles have aromas as intricate as a Bordeaux or Burgundy, and aficionados describe them like wines using terms such as nutty, crisp, light and dry. Sake’s popularity is surging in San Francisco and New York, and it is even featured in some French and Italian restaurants. In 2005, sake exports to the U.S. amounted to a whopping $US 22 million, nearly double the level in 2002, and the average price per bottle has risen to around $US 13, up from half that a decade ago.
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Hotel News
A HOTEL WITH A TWIST You like the Fab Four? Do you like them enough to stay in a Beatles-inspired hotel in Liverpool, the hometown of John, Paul, George and Ringo? After 10 years of failed attempts, work has finally started on the US$31.3 million Hard Day’s Night hotel that will be located in a building adjacent to the famous Beatles hangout the Cavern Club, in Matthew Street. The four-star, 110-bedroom property will document the Beatles’ rise to fame through specially commissioned artworks in the public areas and bedrooms. Slated to open in Fall 2007, the hotel will also feature conference facilities and function rooms, a bar and restaurant. It is being funded by Liverpool City Council and a group of private investors, including Cavern Club owner Bill Heckle. On the Web: www.cavern-liverpool.co.uk
you need to know
FAIRMONT TO TAKE OVER SCOTTISH RESORT
A new peaceful environment to rejuvenate at the Westin Harbour Castle hotel
Canadian-based group Fairmont Hotels & Resorts has taken over the management of Scotland’s St. Andrew’s Bay Golf Resort & Spa. Fairmont started managing the 209-bedroom resort at the start of July under a long-term contract. The property will be rebranded as a Fairmont hotel in the Fall and will undergo US$18.43 million in renovations. General manager Stephen Carter said it was good news for the resort. “It’s a great opportunity to take the hotel forward and be part of a larger body which is renowned for service and high quality,” he said. “ Fairmont investing in Scotland underpins the country as the true home of golf.” The news comes as John Williams, Fairmont’s executive vice-president of operations, announced that the group plans to double the size of its Fairmont and Raffles brands from 55 properties to 120 in 20 countries within the next five years. On the Web: www.standrewsbay.com
WESTIN HARBOUR CASTLE GETS REVITALIZED The Westin Harbour Castle in Toronto now offers guests a relaxing way to rejuvenate with the newly-renovated north tower. With its serene rooms designed in neutral colours with amazing views, new carpeting and the latest technology (32 inch plasma screen TV, massaging shower jets), the hotel now provides visitors with a revitalizing environment. Chaise lounges and modern desks go along with the main feature of the rooms: The Heavenly Bed®, undeniably comfortable. All guestrooms renovation should be completed in May 2007. On the Web: www.westin.com/harbourcastle.
NEW HOTEL IN MISSISSAUGA The Four Points by Sheraton Mississauga Meadowvale is now open. The 205room hotel, formerly the Radisson Hotel Toronto Mississauga, is owned by Silver Hotel Group of Toronto and is flying the Four Points by Sheraton flag under a long-term franchise agreement. Located in the Mississauga Meadowvale Business Park, the Four Points by Sheraton Mississauga Meadowvale is well situated for both business and leisure travel, located 30 minutes from downtown Toronto. The property underwent a significant refurbishment and an expansion. On the Web: www.fourpoints.com/meadowvale.
WOULD A HOTEL BE AS SUITE BY ANY OTHER SMELL? So you’re going through the mail and amid the bills and flyers is a full-colour page ad from Westin Hotels. It features a picture of a giant leaf on one side and a whole plant on the other with the remains of a previous night’s rainfall on its luscious leaves – both look amazingly fresh and natural. At right on the plant side is a folded-over partition like a perfume sample waiting to be peeled back. In the middle of the page is written “White tea. The calming new scent of Westin.” You open the partition and are greeted with a beautiful but not overpowering scent – the new branding of Westin through smell. This is a new trend for hotels, creating a signature fragrance. Starwood’s Sheraton and Four Points brands, Omni Hotels and the Westin chain are among those are using the scents in hotel lobbies and rooms designed to evoke specific emotions in guests. Westin’s White Tea is supposed to diffuse stress while the Four Points uses cinnamon to make guests feel comfortable.
U.S. HOTEL PROFITS LOOK GOOD FOR 2006 Room demand is expected to increase three per cent and the hotel industry will open 75,000 new guest rooms this year, a 1.2 increase in supply as compared to a historical annual average of 2.1 per cent, says lodging industry tracker Smith Travel Research. This increased demand, primarily from group and transient business travelers, along with the lower supply of rooms will continue to fuel the industry’s boom, the company says. The U.S. hotel industry enjoyed its most profitable year ever in 2005 as measured in absolute dollars, US$22.6 billion. The record profit exceeded the industry’s previous best year, 2000, by about
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Make working lunches work for you ing to make decisions, people are grazing at the hot table. To remedy this, split the meeting: Allow everyone 20 or 30 minutes to eat and relax before getting down to business. This also helps avoid disruptions, like when Marty from accounting scrambles for a napkin after dropping his forkful of pasta into his lap for the third time. Avoid food malfunctions like this by skipping sloppy dressings, pastas or anything slurpable. Finger foods such as crudités, canapés and tea sandwiches are among the more easily consumable – and nutritious – offerings. Finally, insofar as possible, be sure to order a menu that can accommodate dietary requirements of those who are vegetarians, keep kosher or have severe food allergies. And don’t scrimp too much: Chances are, a satisfying dining experience will translate into a satisfying meeting.
BY ALLISON MARTENS Forget about the fabled three-martini lunches of yore. A working lunch is neither work nor lunch. Though once seen as an employee’s private time, the lunch break now provides another hour for planners or managers to shoehorn in essential meetings that they can’t squeeze into the other eight. People make hundreds of crucial decisions each day while they break bread. So how to turn your working lunch from hostage taking into a raging success? Plan ahead. Circulate a clearly defined agenda to attendees ahead of time. It must be realistic in its goals given the shortened time frame. What is the purpose of the meeting: Training? Brainstorming? To table and discuss a new proposal? Second, assign each attendee a duty or task they must complete before hand to involve them in the process. Perhaps most importantly, every meeting needs a leader, a Grand Poobah, to run it with dictatorial efficiency. This individual will head off ramblers at the pass, keep everyone on topic and the agenda moving forward. Now the meeting part is covered, what about the food? If you decide to meet at a restaurant, keep in mind that you will need a larger space to accommodate everyone’s notes and papers. There are now a plethora of catering companies who specialize in working lunches and will deliver to your doorstep. Many are buffet-style, which can be problematic when instead of help-
Words of wisdom Wisdom is the reward you receive for a lifetime of listening when you’d rather have been talking. Aristotle
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Websites of interest
DATEBOOK
Author your own travel guide www.tripadvisor.com
Upcoming Events
TripAdvisor is emulating the online encyclopedia Wikipedia’s successful formula; its 18 million monthly users can contribute to the site’s guides to destinations around the world. The travel-gossip site is a useful place to check out a myriad of review and opinions on pretty much any place on earth you’d like to visit.
August 7 – Civic Holiday in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick and Ontario August 4-8 International Association of Assembly Managers, Annual Conference & Tradeshow, Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, San Antonio, Tex. Contact: (972) 906-7441, www.iaam.org.
For fans of Agatha uk.agathachristie.com Have you ever wanted to solve a murder like Miss Marple or take a ride on the Orient Express with Hercule Poirot? Maybe the next best thing is a visit to this Web site for Agatha Christie, the world-famous mystery novelist who has sold more than three billion copies of her thrilling books, and counting.
August 19-22 American Society of Association Executives & the Center for Association Leadership, Annual Meeting & Exposition, Boston Convention & Exposition Center. Contact: (888) 950-2723, www.asaeannualmeeting.org.
Puzzling Web site www.aarp.org/fun/puzzles The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization for people age 50 and over. AARP is dedicated to enhancing quality of life for all as we age. Their Web site has a slew of useful information, but one of our favourite sections is the puzzles page, located in the Fun and Games area (click onto it from the home page). Lots of logic problems, crosswords and a other mind sharpening puzzles can be found there.
August 22-23 Incentive Works, Metro Toronto Convention Center, Toronto, Ont. Contact: www.meetingscanada.com. September 4 – Labour Day September 26-28 Incentive Travel & Meeting Executives, The Motivation Show, McCormick Place, Chicago, Ill. Contact: (630) 4347779, www.motivationshow,com. October 29-November 1 International Congress 7 Convention Association, Congress & Exhibition, Sofitel Capsis Palace Hotel & Convention Center, Rhodes, Greece. Contact: ICCA (011) 31-20-398-1901, www.iccaworld.com.
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••• Do you have a Web site you want to share with other planners? Email us at info@theplanner.ca. For more great Web sites, check out www.theplanner.ca
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iPod: A great tool in so many ways BY ALLISON MARTENS
Poding on the run
L
ast month we started a discussion about the multitidinous uses of iPods. If you haven’t yet succumbed to become one of the white earbud-sporting zombies who have invaded our malls, parks and public transport systems, Apple and other makers of iPod accessories continue to manufacture many reasons to do so.
Whether you’re jogging around your block at home or down the street in a crowded urban centre on a break from your latest event, there’s a new way to maximize your workouts. For poders on the move, Apple and Nike have created a wireless system that connects the iPod Nano to certain models of sneakers. The US$100 Air Zoom Moire is designed to carry a small sensor in its sole that lets runners record the calories burned, distance, time and pace of each session. With the Nike+Apple Sport Kit, runners view and enter workout data with a simple click of the wheel, using iPod’s menus. Audio prompts can also be programmed in to provide user-dictated info such as time or distance. And, when you’re done working up a sweat, you can upload your stats to a Nike Web site for analysis and to see how you stack up against fellow runners. The sensor and wireless receiver are sold separately from the shoes, and went on sale in early July for about US$29. Nike and Apple say this is just the beginning of an iPod-friendly line of athletics clothing and shoes they promise to unveil later this summer.
Stereo in style Though the market has been flooded with iPod compatible digital stereo systems, Apple has pulled out all the stops with its shoebox-sized speaker system that blasts away in glorious HiFi. Though critics say even casual listeners can pick out its aural defects, others say this sleek number, which retails for about CA$399.99, could send your clunky old CD system to the curb. Housed behind a black grill inside the classic white box are two 2.5” drivers and a 4” woofer that, compared to similar products, deliver superior quality sound. If you don’t have an iPod, it is compatible with other MP3 players, though you will have to shell out for a 3.5 mm audio cable to connect it (ditto if you are a iPod Shuffle owner). Due to its compact size, the system is highly portable and can also run on battery power: Making it ideal for the beach, but better yet, to grab the attention of those at your next meeting with its classic design and, of course, your latest custom playlist. Last but not least, it comes with a remote control with a 30foot range. Nice! To check it out, go to the Apple store at www. apple.ca, or visit your nearest Apple retailer.
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Trends Office moaners and whiners, your days are numbered! Are you a big time whiner at the office over the most trivial issues that don’t really require your energy? Well, no more of that because the “two moans and you’re out” policy is officially in full swing. Realizing the extent of the problem, German information technology specialist Nutzwerk has launched “anti-moaning” seminars to help handle the issue. Twenty-five companies have already signed up for the course and Nutzwerk has focused attention on the rest of Europe. The idea was borne out of the company’s decision to introduce a “two moans and you’re out” policy to clamp down on the negative energy some of its own employees were producing. “We had people in the team who were negative and would moan about everything. All this moaning made their work slow and also meant that their colleagues couldn’t work properly,” said Nutzwerk Vice-President Thomas Kuwatsch. Kuwatsch says the problem has been virtually eliminated since the introduction of the zero-tolerance policy and the antimoaning clause now sits at the top of all staff contracts stating that “moaning and whining” is forbidden except when accompanied by a constructive suggestion as to how to improve the situation.
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Nutzwerk’s new anti-moaning institute was formed in response to popular demand from various industry sectors, he noted, after they were approached by many people who asked them to come into their company and train staff on the issues. While they agree that consistent gripes can damage staff morale, some experts warn that the “two moans and you’re out” policy could be unfair and unsympathetic in regard to individual circumstances. However, Guy Guinan, an employment partner at national law firm Halliwells, stresses the need for a dividing line to made between someone with a genuine grievance and an employee who enjoys a playing the victim even when he or she is not.
Sorry Mom... gum is good for you! Remember when your mom told you to stop chewing gum because it was bad for you? Well, Wrigley’s, the 115-year-old and largest gum purveyor, is launching a multi-million dollar, multi-year effort to prove that gum can help keep your weight down, reduce stress and improve focus. Citing “emerging research,” Wrigley’s hopes the results – which won’t be known for another year or so – will give people a whole new reason to chew gum. The Chicago-based company states that the scientists remain independent and their work, which is being carried out at laboratories elsewhere and not at Wrigley’s new research centre, is to be published in peerreviewed journals.
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Private Jet Charters
Moving up in the world a vacation time share in a business jet). Aircraft Brokers: Brokers know how to find exactly what you need, when you need it and save you valuable research time surfing the internet, making calls or hunting down a jet. Timewise, it makes sense to engage the services of an aircraft broker, however there will be a commission involved. Before everyone runs for the aircraft hangar or starts reworking the annual sales meeting budget, let’s take a closer look at the rising popularity of executive class air service. Small planes can fly into smaller airports, such as Mont Tremblant, Quebec and Toronto Island, as they are quieter and can negotiate the shorter runways. As a result, overall travel time is shorter and more direct. Meeting and greeting clients at smaller airports becomes more efficient as a result, with less bureaucracy regarding ground transfers and more readily “claimable” delegates. By avoiding larger airports, especially in congested cities such as New York and Chicago, travel is less stressful and more streamlined. The traveller is ideally more productive as a result of a carefree trip, resulting in an improved return on employee investment for the company. Smaller corporate jet charters are also perfect for companies who need to get their top team to a destination at roughly the same time, but don’t want them all flying in the same plane for security (and succession) reasons.
BY JYL ASHTON CUNNINGHAM ust about everyone in the meeting planning industry has used an air charter at some time or another. It might have been a nine minute trip over Niagara Falls with Niagara Helicopters, landing at beautiful Peller Estates for lunch, or a quick escape route from the Montreal Grand Prix to catch a flight home while everybody else waits for the Concorde Bridge to open (often in the pouring rain). How many planners though, have considered the possibility of chartering an entire corporate jet for their next meeting?
J
There are several methods of contracting corporate flying companies Charter Operators: Companies such as Toronto based Cameron Air (www.cameronair.com) have private jets available for business and pleasure. With a large selection of float planes, Cessnas and larger corporate jets available for charter and their to ability take requests for quotes over the Internet, planners can efficiently cost and compare pricing. Fractional Jet Operators: These operators operate a charter service using planes owned by several shareholders (the equivalent of
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The level of crew service is high on charters Apart from knocking your head each time you stand, the smaller planes are generally very comfortable, with seats facing one another (perfect for on-board meetings) and large stow-away tables big enough for a laptop and files. It is worth remembering that if a plane is chartered, the whole plane is paid for, regardless of whether it carries two or 22 passengers. For example, a Canadair Challenger 604 rents for around CDN $8,000 per hour and holds up to 19 people, making it a very attractive and economical option when transferring large groups, as compared to the cost of scheduled airline business class tickets. One of the most appealing advantages of travelling by corporate jet is the level of service from the cabin crew. Only the cream of the crop are hired for these sought after and prestigious positions, with efficiency and courtesy being at the top of the list of staff attributes. Such qualities can have a huge effect on client experience, and once used to be the criteria for hiring all flight attendants. Catering is also generally of a higher standard, as private corporate jets tend not to be locked into unionized airport catering contracts and mass-produced cuisine. As well, union strike actions (as demonstrated last year with the British Airways catering staff walk out) can bring a huge airline corporation to its knees in a matter of hours, resulting in chaos, huge backlogs and client frustrations. An anecdote to the advantages of small plane travel was provided by a colleague who recently visited Salt Spring Island from Vancouver as a side trip during a conference. The flight by seaplane from Vancouver International Airport, via Seair (www.seair.com) took just 25 minutes and cost $84 taxes included. The journey by sea would have involved taking two ferries at a travel time of between three to five hours, at about the same cost. The colleague now considers Salt Spring Island to be a viable option for incentive travel, or perhaps as a spousal trip during a conference. On the downside to an otherwise very appealing travel alternative, there may eventually be a drawback to the rising popularity of corporate jet travel. Especially in the Western United States, small planes are fast becoming the airborne
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Corporate travel has become very popular in North America. equivalent of limousines or ‘air taxis’. With the potential of several thousand small aircraft commuting around North America, we could see greater delays in major airports, especially on the runways, as small planes vie for take-off and landing time slots. Congestion in the air, whilst a potential problem, is less of a safety hazard than might be expected however, since small corporate jets fly at a lower altitude. Using the smaller airports will certainly help congestion issues, and reclaiming land formerly used for other purposes, will mean less land used to build new airports. Mont Tremblant International Airport, for example, used to be known as La Macaza, a military base for Canada and the United States. Socially responsible, sustainable, efficient, courteous, financially economical and time saving. Who doesn’t love the concept of corporate jet travel yet? ••• Jyl Ashton Cunningham, CMP is President of JAAC Events in Oakville, Ontario, and an associate editor of The Planner. She can be reached at info@jaacevents.com.
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PowerPointization of the nation
BOOK EXCERPT
These studies formed the basis for modern textbooks with pictures, review questions and summaries and is also the underlying basis of PowerPoint.
Ed. note: This excerpt is from The Pocket Encyclopedia of Aggravation by Laura Lee.
G
ood afternoon. Oh, I said that. Anyway, today I’m here to talk about how the nation has become dependent on PowerPoint presentation software for business communications and lectures.
History of PowerPoint In 1985, a company called Forethought created PowerPoint for Apple’s Macintosh. Two years later, Microsoft bought the company for $14 million. By 1994 PowerPoint was the most commonly used presentation software.
Why is PowerPoint everywhere? • Bullet Points and Multi-modal communication and learning • History of PowerPoint • Ubiquity of Microsoft Office
What is so annoying about PowerPoint use? • Too much of good thing • Over dependence • Lack of creativity and eloquence
Bullet Points and Repetition: The creators of PowerPoint did not invent bullet points, colourful slides or repetitive speech. We can thank researchers of the 1960s and 1970s for that. They studied how to convey information for the best retention and concluded the most effective teaching method is to give a preview of what you’re about to say, present a question that you are going to answer in the text or speech, provide the information as briefly as possible, and then go back over what you just said. It helps if you use lots of visual aids.
Too Much of a Good Thing The reason colour slides worked as visual aids in the past was that they were sufficiently rare to command the viewer’s attention. When slides were a luxury, chances were they conveyed the important information. Today’s digitized color “slides” often display nothing but headers. When the presentation becomes routine, it is easy to ignore. Over dependence PowerPoint becomes annoying when users lose the ability to present their ideas in any other fashion. As venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson told USA Today: “I’ve seen people who get in a mental rut and are unable to write anything other than bullet point lists.” Lack of Creativity, Eloquence The result, many critics say, is a loss of the art of speaking. Peter Norvig of the NASA Ames Research Center illustrated this by putting Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address into PowerPoint form and posting it on the Web. “I started up PowerPoint and let the Autocontent Wizard help me create a new presentation,” he writes. “I selected the Company Meeting (Online) template and figured from there I’d be creative in adding bad design wherever possible. I was surprised that the Autocontent Wizard had anticipated my desires so well that I had to make very few changes.” If you’d like to see how the famous piece of oratory fares when reduced to bullet points visit the following Web site: www.norvig.com/Gettysburg/sld001.htm. In conclusion…Oh. It looks like my laptop spontaneously rebooted… ••• Reprinted with permission from The Pocket Encyclopedia of Aggravation by Laura Lee, originally published by Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers. On the Web: www.bdlev.com/ Price on www.amazon.com: US$10. 36
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Big decision to make? Fuhgeddaboutit! Thinking about finally buying that new Ford Mustang or $500,000 house? Forget about it, and let your unconscious mind figure it out, new research indicates. Researchers at the University of Amsterdam suggest it is not always advantageous to engage in thorough conscious deliberation before choosing. “Consciousness should be used to gather information, the unconscious to work on it,” said psychologist Ap
Dijksterhuis, a member of the Dutch research team. The researchers say people can consciously consider and weigh only a limited amount of information. The unconscious mind, they say, can integrate wider swaths of information. The process of “letting it sit” or “sleeping on it” is actually a valuable, productive way of drawing on cognitive processes that seem to really exist, they concluded.
ANSWER EASY SUDOKU FROM PAGE 22
ANSWER INTERMEDIATE SUDOKU FROM PAGE 22
Check out our revamped website! www.theplanner.ca
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