the other departments to do their jobs well out of the gate, and I would have been ready to book more business.
After 20 years in the business, I have learned that what’s most important is not what went wrong with your meeting, but how the hotel steps up to make it right. In the effort to increase business and outdo their competition, every hotel chain is spending countless time, effort, and money to reinvent the sales process — hours and hours spent discussing tactics and techniques with expensive outside consultants, to give them insight that they could be get- ting from the meeting planners in the trenches. Have they lost sight of the fact that for the client, the process doesn’t end with sales? That is only the begin- ning. It is the entire experience, right up through getting the bill paid, that dictates whether or not I am a satisfied customer, willing to rebook.
Once we have a great experience, we want to come back. And that makes everyone’s job easier and saves time and money. The whole courtship between sales and planner becomes unnecessary — we’ve been through the negotiating process together already, and we can use the same contract language from previous meetings.
Meeting planners like me who are in it for the long haul want to feel that our salesperson is there for us, too. While all meeting planners understand that after the contract is signed, we are going to get handed off, not all salespeople under- stand the importance of stopping by the registration desk on the first day of the event to say hello and thank us for our business. The more, the merrier — and if the GM himself comes by, we feel like Brad Pitt came and shook our hand!
Living Walls, The City Speaks Conference Launched two years ago, this annual conference held in Atlanta promotes street art while building “a platform for much- needed dialogue in the city.” This year’s conference, held on Aug. 15–19, was billed as the world’s first all-female street art conference, and showcased the work of 26 artists.
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1 Mexican street artist Neuzz lets her art speak for her culture.
2 Street artists decide to take their work to the streets — literally.
3 Artists and activists gather to form the Panelists on Public Art.
4 Attendees were surrounded by living walls at the opening reception.
5 Memphis artist Molly Freeman puts her all into her art.