Meeting planners often have a difficult decision to make when choosing a location and destination for their meetings. Some of the key considerations taken into account while planning are convenience, amenities, and audience satisfaction. Through our industry experience and client success, below are some of the key focuses we’ve learned planners lean on while researching the perfect destination for a meeting:
- What are the main goals of the meeting/conference?
Does the destination fit the conference/meeting personality? Has this destination facilitated successful meetings like the one that is being planned in the past? The way most planners measure success, namely by attendee satisfaction and cost, can be seen in the attributes they highly value in a destination. Among the top priorities are; geographic location, hotel quality, meeting facilities space, safety, popularity and amenities, as well as hotel rates / the overall cost of holding a meeting in the destination.
- What support can the destination provide to ensure a successful meeting?
Chances are, this is not the first meeting or event being held at a destination and often DMOs can be a great tool for a stress-free planning experience. Planners want to partner with a destination as they generally have insights and local partnerships (hotels, restaurants, attractions) that can be taped into to provide the best planning experience.
- What desirable outside activities for attendees and their families?
Research continues to show that many meeting attendees are extending trips to take a more “bleisure” approach to their travel. It’s a common trend to bring significant others or their entire family with them to their meeting’s destination, often resulting in extended hotel stays and more heads in beds for mid-week or weekend bookings. It’s important that these extended travel groups have plenty of activities to engage in that match their interests.
DMOs need to take into consideration these factors when marketing a destination in the meetings space. Orange142 likes to take a similar bleisure approach when creating a strategy to target meeting planners with our proprietary database, allowing us to strategically target the exact planner with messaging that makes sense for their event(s). We work with countless DMOs of all different sizes across the country to develop out a message strategy and full digital media approach.
Reach out to Orange142 today to learn more about our capabilities targeting meeting planners utilizing our proprietary data!