Sarah Breymeier
Recently Ann and I have been scouting out sites for a meeting we’re helping to organize in November of this year. Obviously, a major part of this process is site selection.
BUT this is simply a very short and quick tip for all the meeting planners out there, whether you’ve done this for several years or are new to the game.
I know there are often not hotels that are available on your meetings specific dates that would make EVERYTHING you want possible… but one thing that I feel goes overlooked more times than not is the proximity from the lecture hall to the exhibit hall.
Often the meeting seems to accommodate fewer steps for the DPM from the lobby and hotel rooms to the lecture area vs. the exhibit hall I get it. You certainly want your attendees to have a great experience and walking one million miles is never fun. But I’m going to be brutally honest… the exhibitors need that space.
So many times, I walk to an exhibit hall, and it is extremely far from the lecture hall, or the DPMs don’t even need to pass the exhibit hall to get to the lecture hall. It’s hard enough to get DPMs to walk the exhibit hall, so let’s not make it even easier for them to avoid by placing them in an area that is unseen.
Make sure you take significant time to walk through your space and determine if the lecture hall is in an area that forces the DPMs to walk past the exhibit hall first.
The DPMs are going to get their CECHs… let’s make sure the vendors get their ROI.