Plan your week in 30 minutes

Experts say that you need only 30 minutes to plan your entire week. How to do it? Follow the OATS formula:
O -- Objectives: what results do you want see by the end of the week? Write them down and rank them.
A -- Activities: what do you have to do to achieve your goals? List the necessary activities and put them in sequence.
T -- Time: how much time will each activity require? To plan realistically, allow yourself more time than you think you will actually need. This gives you flexibility if unexpected problems develop.
S -- Schedule: look at your calendar and decide when you can do each activity. Most people underestimate the power of a schedule, but you won't get anything accomplished if you don't schedule time to do it.

Source: Adapted from President's Newsletter, The Manager's Intelligence Report

CVB Trends

According to Meeting Focus Magazine, the top trendsetting CVBs are setting a new standard of service for meeting planners by helping with:
Attendance-building
Social networking
RFP and site-selection streamlining
Offering micro sites

The Columbus CVB has made these a priority as part of its one-stop-shop management. During last year's Governor's Conference on Tourism, the Columbus CVB won a marketing award for its Success Meetings Campaign, which encompasses the "one call, gets it all" approach of servicing its customers.

Group Demand is Back

Group Demand is Back, according to Jan Freitag, SR Vice President, Global Development at Smith travel Research.

The news is positive. The U.S. hotel industry posted a 5.3% increase in occupancy for the first quarter of 2011, compared to 2010. And for both hoteliers and meeting planners, the hot findings was that much of the growth is from group-based business where group-based occupancy was up 7.8% (year over year). U.S. hotels are also reporting that group based RevPAR was up 10.3%.

What this means is that meeting are coming back. According to Freitag, there is strong demand for hotels from groups as well as leisure travelers.

A note of caution though, meeting planners are booking later, short-term or in the quarter for the quarter. Another trend reported is that companies are meeting differently. Rather than having one big meeting, many companies are have three smaller and shorter meetings in regional destinations. This is good for second tier markets.

Source: Convention South Magazine