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Fedra Meetings & Events

Eco-minded Planning

Posted on 5 Agosto 201618 Luglio 2017 by Fedra

Sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) are terms that continue to generate thought in the events industry. If you’re still not sure what those terms mean or how they impact the way you plan, here are the definitions:

Sustainability is a method of using a resource so that the resource is not depleted.

Corporate social responsibility is an organization’s sense of responsibility towards the community and environment. The hospitality industry might express this through their waste and pollution reduction processes, or contributing to educational and social programs.

How can you plan with greener practices in place? How can you work better with hoteliers and vendors to make sure they are using the best practices? Here are some ideas:

Interactive technologies like tablets, video walls, and kiosks allow you to communicate your messages electronically on a real-time basis, saving on both paper and printing.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle by offering recycling bins, and/or partnering with sustainable organizations that help keep materials out of landfills and allows them to be re-purposed instead. Let guests know of your efforts so they can participate—and feel good about doing it.

Transportation contributes to your carbon footprint, of course, so be conscious of that when considering your transportation options. To green up your transportation:

1. Understand the most efficient ways your guests can get to your hotel or destination. Promote those ways on your website for meetings when transportation is not being covered.
2. Utilize bus shuttle service instead of individual sedans to get groups to/from the airport versus.
3. If individual sedans are necessary, work with companies that offer hybrid or electric cars.
4. Consider destinations with a high ‘walkability’ score.
5. Encourage attendees to walk to local restaurants and attractions and/or share a cab when they have free time.

What are you doing to be eco-friendly?

Outdoor meetings: some practical considerations

Posted on 3 Agosto 201618 Luglio 2017 by Fedra

Outdoor meetings are the perfect opportunity to take participants out of their routine, stimulate brainstorming and foster out-of-the-box thinking.

But planning outdoor meetings is not exactly the same as planning outdoor events.While some of the same best practices apply, there are other considerations as participants will be outside longer, and they will need to focus and get work done despite some distractions.

Site Inspections

Sometimes, clients are tempted to skip site inspections to save money. If an outdoor meeting is on the horizon, site inspections are a must, not a nice-to-do. Audiovisual and lighting suppliers must also conduct site inspections.

Sensible Schedules

Some of the considerations for outdoor meetings include:

providing shade cover for hot periods of the day and cooling units if necessary
if shade cover is not possible, start early (e.g. 8 am) take a break at 11 am and resume the meeting at 3:00 in the sunbelt (e.g. Dubai, Oman, Singapore, the Caribbean)
if you must meet during hot times of the day at hot destinations, move the lunch and early afternoon portion of the meeting into a marquee or pop-up event venue
carving out some downtime for participants who will look forward to some R&R after spending time outdoors

Seating

Unlike strictly social or recreational corporate events, chairs for business meetings must have backs that provide good support and enough comfort for longer periods of seating. Portable tables with firm surfaces will be needed for work.

Mikes May be a Must

Even for small to medium groups, if participants are seated at more than one table, microphones and sound systems may be needed to counteract background noise. If some participants are soft spoken, it will be important to punch up the volume.

For small meetings, save on audiovisual costs by sending out the presentations in advance for participants to load on laptops and tablets.

Plan B: Always Have a Back-up Weather Plan

You will need a flexible agenda in the Caribbean and Mexico during rainy season (May and October). However, rain isn’t the only weather-related concern. In the Middle East, sandstorms are cause for concern in some destinations; in Canada and Europe, watch for unseasonable drops in temperature.

Set-up Fees

There will often be special set-up fees for outdoor meetings. It’s important to check what they are and determine if they will still apply if the event must be pulled indoors due to weather or other considerations. At some destinations, resorts are located on beaches that are government owned and a fee must be paid to hold an event or meeting on the beach. Sometimes, this has to be paid a week prior to the event and there are no refunds if the meeting is rained out.

Dress Codes: Brief Attendees on What to Wear

Opt for a casual dress code. Send out a packing list a few weeks in advance and a reminder before the event. Remind the group again during orientation. Despite reminders, I have seen participants show up without boots in areas where there has recently been rain, in sandals and high heels for horse riding, and without head coverings for meetings in the desert.

Be prepared. Pick up extra, sun hats, umbrellas and rain ponchos at a “dollar store.” $20 – $25 will cover it and it may make the difference between participant comfort and discomfort.

What are some other practical considerations for outdoor meetings?

Furniture for your event: rent, build or buy

Posted on 27 Luglio 201618 Luglio 2017 by Fedra

The right furniture can set the mood – as well as provide comfort for the attendees.

The key is to create an environment that enhances the event. It’s not just about renting furniture, it is about creating the right ambiance.

For example, it’s trending now to provide open space seating at meetings, instead of just rows of chairs. People are different sizes, they sit in different ways, yet there is a tendency to make all chairs alike. With open space seating you try not to furnish any room with chairs that are identically the same.

Choose a variety of different chairs, some big, some small, some softer than others, some with rockers, some with arms, some wicker, some wood, some cloth. Put some highboys in the back of the room for people that prefer to stand. Have some tables, for those that prefer table seating.

A furniture rental company can help you plan the space. Most cities that host a lot of conventions have one or more furniture rental companies. From these, you can rent all types of furniture suitable for indoor and outdoor events.

You can even buy their furniture. At least once a year, most furniture rental companies have liquidation sales to reduce their inventory so they can bring in new and fresh designs.

This is a perfect time to refurbish your office or home with a new look by adding new sofas or easy chairs. Contact furniture rental companies in your area and get put on their mailing list to be notified when the liquidation sales will occur.

The Perfect Agenda

Posted on 4 Luglio 201618 Luglio 2017 by Fedra

Agendas can greatly improve the efficiency and productivity of any decision process.

One good agenda can cut the number of meetings needed to complete a project in half and greatly reduce the tendency for meetings to branch off into discussions that are not useful to goal achievement.

The goal of an agenda is to facilitate the decision-making process among group members.

This may be for a technology upgrade or a budget discussion.

The agenda helps to keep meeting attendees focused on the final decision.

Agendas also make it easier to evaluate the success of the meeting by providing a checklist for follow-up and accountability.

The Role of an Agenda

The first line of the agenda should state the goal and purpose of the meeting.

Some agenda formats prefer to state the goal along with sub-goals after each agenda item. Both formats establish a framework for discussion. Agendas can vary from simple to complex.

They can include attachments and reading material or the agenda from the previous meeting.

The type of format used is generally established by the formality and length of the meeting.

A good rule of thumb is that the format should match the dress of the meeting participants; that is, a meeting full of sandals and shorts can get by with an informal agenda while a room full of suits may require a formal agenda.

Formats

The short or informal meeting can be subsumed into an email or a meeting reminder.

It might contain one line for the goal of the meeting and then three to five short discussion points.

The long agenda is usually a full page, which includes a title, meeting location, date and time, goals and topics or points of discussion. Long meetings should also include times for each discussion topic and the name of the presenter.

Both agenda formats should end with a section for “Next Steps” for follow-up. These “Next Steps” will become the basis for agenda topics at the next meeting.

Check the infographic below for some agenda format examples:

7 Tips for better sleep on the road

Posted on 29 Giugno 201619 Luglio 2017 by Fedra

If there’s one thing planners need, it’s a good night’s sleep. But it’s not always easy to do when there are hundreds of event details swirling through your brain at 2 a.m.

Head out on the road, add an unfamiliar bed, a few time zone changes and an over-stuffed schedule, and sleep can become even more elusive. So what’s the solution?

Plan to sleep, as in, put the pieces in place, prep your mind and body and set the stage for sleep success, no matter where in the world you lay your head. Here’s how:

1. Pick your room wisely

Ask for a room that’s a long way from typical hotel noise-makers like guest elevators, room service/housekeeping elevators, ice machines, vending machines or laundry areas. Also steer clear of guestrooms near function rooms, lobby bars or outdoor pools, particularly in ‘party towns’ like Miami, New Orleans, Vegas, etc., where events can be loud, long and impossible to sleep through. In bustling cities, rooms on higher floors will put a bit more distance between you and the din of nearby highways and early morning garbage truck pickups.

2. Embrace the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign – and the security latch

Whether you’re dealing with jet-lag or just need a 20-minute nap, you’ll sleep a lot better if you embrace the power of the Do Not Disturb sign – it’s your first line of defense against the well-intentioned but sleep-disruptive knocks from hotel staff. The second line of defense: flipping the door lock and security latch to prevent intrusions.

3. Wear your sunglasses…at night?

Though it may sound a bit strange, and look a bit odd to the room service guy, wearing ‘blue blockers’ or a pair of sunglasses with amber lenses at night can help you fall asleep more easily, particularly if you go to bed clutching a smartphone or tablet. Why? Because screens blast blue light into your eyes, which the brain interprets as daylight. All that light suppresses the release of our fall-asleep chemicals and triggers the release of daytime-alertness-chemicals, right at the time when we’re trying to drift off.

Don’t have amber shades? Then improvise with your usual sunglasses to reduce the ‘screen-shine’ and always remember to dim screen(s) to the max to prevent those middle of the night texts from lighting up your room and waking your brain.

4. Put the brakes on your brain

You’ll sleep better if you put the brakes on the brainwave activity that can keep you over-revved at night. Start by shutting down the laptop, TV and smartphone at least an hour before you plan to go to sleep. Next, strap on the headphones and tune into a sleep-inducing play list or guided meditation to help you drift off.

You can also try Brainwave Power Music which utilizes ‘binaural beats,’ a therapeutic collection of meditative sound patterns designed to help encourage deep, restful sleep.

5. Wind down your body

The simplest way to prep your body for sleep is with a hot bath. Some tub time will help open the blood vessels and relax muscles, making sleep come more easily. To boost the sleep-promoting effects, some lavender essential oil added to the bath or spritzed around the room can help cut anxiety and insomnia according to a recent British study from the University of Southampton.

6. Deprive your senses

When you’re sleepless in Seattle or wide-awake in Wellington, black-out curtains, earplugs and eyeshades are essential to getting a good night’s rest. Forget to pack the plugs and shades? Then improvise. Try sleeping with a hand towel or spare t-shirt across your eyes to block out light and put bed pillows over your ears to tamp down extraneous noise.

Also—never sleep with the TV on. The constantly flickering light, subtle as it may seem when your eyes are closed, will trick your brain into thinking it’s daytime, making falling asleep and staying asleep more difficult.

7. Ring them bells

When you have an early event to manage or a pre-dawn flight to catch, concerns about sleeping through the alarm can keep you awake and undermine the quality of your sleep once you do finally drift off. Instead of tossing and turning, my strategy is to make it virtually impossible to oversleep – thus the multiple alarm technique, no ‘snooze’ button necessary:
·      Start by setting the alarm on your iPhone and your iPad, placing both well out of arm’s reach.
·      Add to that a wake up call, plus a follow-up call.
·      Top it off with a scheduled-the-night-before room service breakfast delivery, and you’ll be ready for action.
·      Need a bit more backup? Then re-purpose your old, decommissioned Blackberry and use it as an alarm clock. It’s loud, can go for days without charging and never fails.