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Corbin's
Meetings Technology Newsletter - January 2000 Happy
New Year and millennium! Here
is the most recent issue of my newsletter with two new articles at my web site,
an updated favorites file, new course listings and more! If
you have questions, comments or suggestions about this issue or what you would
like to see in future issues, please let me know. NEW
ARTICLE: Online
Site Selection and RFPs Options – An Comprehensive Review of the Web’s
Meeting Facility Directory Web Sits Throw
out the meeting facility guides and dusty stacks of hotel brochures. Forget
about faxing or express mailing your RFPs (requests for proposals) to many
individual hotels. These
inefficient paper-based means of finding and booking meeting facilities are
falling way to web-based products that provide richer detail in faster, more
convenient, and, sometimes, completely new ways. The
first online RFP site appeared in January 1996 with the Radisson Miyako Hotel
San Francisco, offering a simple online meeting space request form. In short
four years, a plethora of Web sites have sprung up offering everything from
extensive, searchable meeting facility databases, automated RFP forms that can
send to multiple facilities with a click, Hot Dates, and, most recently, online
auctions. These sites vary
considerably in the size of their databases, the richness of meeting facility
detail, and how they generate revenue. This
article will help sort them out. It includes all of the major and some of the
minor sites with detailed information regarding database size/usefulness,
pricing models and special features, to help choose which will be the best one(s)
for you. http://www.corbinball.com/articles/art-rfps.html
NEW
ARTICLE: Convention & Visitors Bureau Sites with RFP OptionsCVBs
are also automating the meeting booking process with on-line RFPs. There are
numerous benefits to use a CVB, especially for citywide events. There are also
benefits in using some CVB sites. But where do you start? This article sorts out
the major CVB listings. CVB site benefitsNot
all RFP or site selection sites are created equal. The sites sponsored by
CVB-related organizations will sometimes have advantages over other general
meeting facility search web sites: ·
As
the sites are sponsored through membership funding, there is usually no
commission charged to the user or to the hotel properties – unlike most of the
other meeting facility search sites. ·
CVBs
know their destination better than a national organization and are closer to
their properties. Consequently, the data for value dates and other city
information can be the most current available. ·
Citywide
meetings and expositions requiring multiple hotel room blocks can often be done
most easily through the CVBs. This
article will help sort the variety of CVB directories and CVB resources on the
web, especially those with capabilities for RFPs: http://www.corbinball.com/articles/art-cvbrfps.html
CORBIN’S FAVORITES FILE UPDATED I
have just reorganized, updated and added dozens of new files to the Corbin’s
Favorites File. This web page
now contains nearly 1,200 categorized hot-links – conveniently cataloged, some
with comments, and all sites just a click away. One
of the best was to view is to simply start at the top with the hot-linked index
and either jump or scroll down. http://www.corbinball.com/tips.list.corbinslist.htm
Highlights: Meeting
Planning and Meeting Technology Corbin’s
Favorites includes the Web’s most extensive directory of meeting technology
and software links. It
also include links for air, travel, meeting industry related associations (66
links), CVBs, tradeshows, hotels, industry statistics, press, and industry
suppliers (AV, copy, decorators, employments, malls, speakers). If
the site deals with the meetings industry, you will probably find it just a
click away in this file. http://www.corbinball.com/tips.list.corbinslist.htm#p1
Corbin’s
Favorites
also contains a full range of links in the following areas: ·
Search
Engines
(the electronic card catalogs of the Web – the key to finding what you want on
the Web including people, businesses, email address, phone numbers an nearly any
topic you can think of!) http://www.corbinball.com/tips.list.corbinslist.htm#p5
·
Useful
Business and Utility Sites
(maps, shippers, reference, currency converters, address finders, calendars,
quotations, news, weather and much more!)
http://www.corbinball.com/tips.list.corbinslist.htm#p4
·
Web
and Computers
-- got a Web, email, computer, or Usenet question? You will likely be
able to find a site to answer it here! http://www.corbinball.com/tips.list.corbinslist.htm#p5
·
Legislative
Action –
The web has much to offer the voter about the issues, candidates, and how to get
involved. The top sites are listed here. http://www.corbinball.com/tips.list.corbinslist.htm#p6
·
Fun-Home-Health
-
Some of the top sites for movies, music, home, garden, auto, books, radio,
health, pets, food, beverage, and fun can be found here. http://www.corbinball.com/tips.list.corbinslist.htm#p7
NEW COURSE OFFERINGI have recently added a new course to my list of presentations and, as usual, keep updating my existing presentation content. The full course listings are at: http://www.corbinball.com/presentations.htm The new course is: Virtual
Meetings and Tradeshows - Improving Business Productivity You may need not to fly across
the country for future business meetings. Save time and travel costs by using
emerging means of on-line collaboration, teleconferencing, web conferencing, and
web broadcasting. This course will show you ways to improve business
communications, reduce "time to market," build customer relations,
extend the life of your meeting/tradeshow, and take a peek into the future of
how meetings will change by creative use of technology. This fast moving,
content-rich presentation will show some of latest technology available and what
is around the corner as well. Learner objectives: In this session you will:
BOOK
SALES ARE GOING WELL My
new book The Ultimate Meeting Professional’s Software Guide,
published by MPI (www.mpiweb.org) has been
selling well and will be going into its second printing shortly. A full revision (with about 40 new software products) will be
available for sale this summer. Retail price through the MPI Bookstore
(972-702-3044) is under $25US for MPI members and under $35US for non-members. The
book will be on special during the MPI Professional Education Conference in
Nashville at the end of January. I
will be around and happy to sign copies as well. Y2K
UPDATE As
I write this, we are on the brink of the Y2K turnover, and things in the US are
looking pretty good. Chances
are there will be very little or no disruptions due to Y2K. My advice still
holds: there is a chance, albeit small, of a significant disruption in the
supply chain due to Y2K. Prepare for a blizzard, hurricane, or earthquake
depending on your location. Have a supply of water, food, and basic first aid
equipment to prepare for any natural or unnatural disaster that may come your
way. Who
knows, you might receive the memo below: ;-) January 1, 2000 Re: Vacation Pay SPEAKING SCHEDULEMy speaking schedule is filling rapidly for 2000. In the first quarter, I have speaking engagements scheduled in Nashville, Myrtle Beach, Los Angeles, Victoria, Tempe, Hong Kong and several tentative engagements to be finalized. My most current confirmed schedule is listed at my web site: http://www.corbinball.com/presentations.calendar.htm CORBIN’S FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION (FAQ) FILEIf you ever wondered about the details of hiring me for a speaking presentation, I have included answers to a number of commonly asked questions (costs, guarantees, customization, AV requirements, handouts, referrals, and more) at my web site: http://www.corbinball.com/presentations.faq.htm TELL
A FRIEND - SUBSCRIBE & UNSUBSCRIBE If
you know of anyone that would benefit from my free electronic newsletter (sent
quarterly) containing the latest in meetings technology in clear language
designed specifically for the meeting professional, please forward this
newsletter on. Alternatively, one can simply send an email message with
“subscribe” in the subject line to corbin@corbinball.com.
If you ever wish to unsubscribe, just send me a message with
“unsubscribe” in the subject line. Until
the next time, Corbin Sign up for Corbin's fee TechTalk
Newsletter distributed via email every 2 months in the
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