MeetingSource.com’s Site Selection Optimizer Helps Meeting Planners do the Work of Convention Site Selection

Please Login or Register

MeetingSource.com’s Site Selection Optimizer Helps Meeting Planners do the Work of Convention Site Selection

by: nwfbroker
Total views: 29
Word Count: 350

Selecting a site for a convention, or part of the committee in charge of site selection?
It’s always best to start with what you know. For example, do you need to move your convention around the country to satisfy everyone in different regions? If so, you’ll need to zero in on those regions that have not been used recently.
After that, breaking down the site selection process in analytical steps, and using available resources, will let you ultimately select and contact your optimal choices.
That's where MeetingSource.com (http://www.meetingsource.com ) and its new Site Selection Optimizer comes in.
Much of the other information you’ll need, like travel time to and from headquarters, average room rates and function space availabilities, even cultural indexes, are available online.
MeetingSource has developed a unique survey that provides quick answers in order to have a consistent and efficient means to choose locations. It’s a criteria-based system of analysis, and it helps meeting planners narrow down their choices among 1000 convention destinations.
Five criteria are taken into account: flight times, number of hotel rooms available, whether or not the site has a convention center, off-site event opportunities, and the average price for room rates.
Each request produces a list of the closest matches, ranked according to their fit with the meetings’ needs and preferences.
After that each factor can be weighed, automatically tallied and summarized. Once the results are in, the application prompts you go beyond its technology and get put you in touch with trusted providers with a few clicks.
In most areas, this means working with a CVB (Convention & Visitors Bureau). CVBs offer substantial means to further narrow down a list of meeting facilities, because of their knowledge of:
- Room and function space availabilities that may change with the season
- Maps of the Convention Center and its relation to hotels and other attractions
- Special considerations: the EPA, for example, factors in environmental achievement along with price and past performance when selecting meeting places.
Finally, a CVB has tools to help drive attendance if ultimately selected.
To see the Site Selection Optimizer in action, visit http://www.MeetingSource.com/meeting_planning_articles.htm this fall.