Create a jaw-dropping welcome.
with the event-specific perks you’re offering. Is golf a big part of your event? Set up a putting green by the registration table and include prizes from an onsite golf shop, plus a chance to win a bigger prize. Are you in- cluding a teambuilding element? Perhaps your group will be engaging in a team culinary challenge. Consider an action station featuring a signature drink or the resort’s specialty finger foods. “Many of our events involve a welcome table,” Frank says. “Registration items may be found at the larger events, such as sales trainings, broker trainings, high- profiles, and incentives. The items can be as simple as an agenda and goodie bag with [a] program-related gift of some sort. For the incentives, we feel the welcome table is especially important. It allows us to welcome new attendees and reconnect with those who have attended in previous years. It helps to enhance the excitement level by creating a buzz for the program with an opening ‘wow’ factor.” For the Wisconsin Dental Association, Becker has also taken a practical approach to
O
make things easier for guests. At the annual meeting, for instance, attendees pick up welcome materials in the exhibit hall, including conference bags.
“When they go someplace like the Kalahari [Resort in Wisconsin Dells], they will do more of a beach bag - something that can be taken to the waterpark and it won’t matter if it gets wet on the outside,” Becker explains. “They’ve also done other more practical gifts, such as wallet badge holders, so when they go to the resort-type places, they can use them to [carry] their room keys, a little cash, cell phones, and even business cards when they go to the pool and don’t have pockets.”
Another way to make a “wow” at the welcome: free up the parents in your group to enjoy opening activities worry-free, and keep the kids happy, too. “When we are at a place that attracts children, we will sometimes have babysitting during an evening social event,” Becker says. “Then we’ll make up our own coloring books and have crayons in a stick with our logo on them for the kids that are there.”
60 MIDWEST MEETINGS SPRING 2012
nce you have a theme, carry it through to your welcome table - a crucial element in making a memorable impression. Use the amenities the resort is known for, and intertwine them
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122