Why
hire a professional meeting planner to find and negotiate
a site (venue/location)? (Part
1)
By Allan
Stark
Vice President
Gershaw Conference Group, Inc
The
answer to this often asked question depends on the size
and scope of the meeting.
If you
are handling a small, simple meeting then the do-it-yourself
approach will work fine. Of course, we recommend that you
have some meeting planning experience or at minimum do
some basic research to learn what to look out for. Another
way to be successful at do-it-yourself site selection and
contract negotiations, is to hire a consultant. Usually
a quick discussion with an experienced meetings professional
can quickly put you on the path to selecting the right
site with the right terms. We offer consultations as
part of our services, and we can also refer you to one
of the 1,000 plus independent meeting planners who are
members of the GCG
Event Partners Network.
If your
meeting is large and/or complex, then we recommend that
you hire a professional meeting planner. More than likely,
a professional will save you more than the additional cost
of of their services. The experience of professional meeting
planner will yield a better site, with a better contract,
where the needs of the meeting are covered.
How
can meeting planners offer site selection for free or fee-waived?
Many
professional meeting planners offer site selection for
free or they waive the fee associated for the service in
many cases. They can do this because the venue, a hotel
in most cases, is paying a "site selection commission" to
the planner.
Does
this make the meeting planner biased?
In most
cases it shouldn't. The commission is fairly standard across
the industry, so the meeting planner should be getting "paid" about
the same no matter where the meeting is held and since
most professional meeting planners rely heavily on referrals
and their reputation to continue doing business, they're
going to work hard to earn your business and your respect.
Having a planner that is up front and honest about receiving
the commission is always a good sign. We perform
site selections and so does GCG
Event Partners, a network of over 1,000 independent
meeting planners. If you're interested in having us do
a site selection for you, just use our contact form,
call our offices at 1-800-378-6857, or
send us an email at
We're up front about commissions, have a reputation for
doing excellent work (since 1989), and will work hard to
make sure you rave about our services. We'll tell you if
we can waive the fee and if we can't we'll explain why.
What
if a meeting planner or meeting planning company is affiliated
with one hotel chain?
This
can work for you or against you...it really depends on
your needs. If a meeting planner is affiliated with a chain,
many times they have special pricing and can get better
terms, so if that chain has what you need, then you make
out well. However, the site search is going to biased,
it has to be because not all the prospective properties
are playing on an even field. In many cases, a truly independent
meeting planner with no affiliations is going to serve
your needs better. They can look at the whole market and
search based on your needs, not based on what their chain
has available. And if the independent is worth their salt,
they'll negotiate hard to get you a great deal to boot.
Professional Meeting Planners is not affiliated with any
hotel chains so that we can provide unbiased meeting site
selections and contract negotiations. With more than 1,000
independent meeting planners in the GCG
Event Partners Network, we probably have the planner
that has the right experience for you . Contact
us for more info.
