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Corbin's
Excel Meeting Planning Software Tools
(and other tools listed at the
bottom)
These worksheet tools have been developed and honed
over years of planning international, city-wide technology meetings. Although designed for
large, association meetings, many of them are applicable to many types and sizes of
meetings. All are fully functional Excel files -- just click on the hyperlink and save if
you wish to keep for your own use. They vary in size and will take 10 seconds to 2
minutes to load depending on your modem connection. (A 50Kb file should take about 12
seconds with a 56Kb modem.) Faster loading, non-interactive HTML versions have
been provided as well.
Downloading notes: On some browsers, a username and
password is requested. Simply hit "cancel" and the spreadsheet will
load. In order to save the document, click "File" and then
"Save As" and name and place the document on your hard drive
where desired.
 Attrition
Calculator (184Kb)
Provided by MeetingU.
Is your sleeping room pickup coming in short of the block? How bad is
it? With this worksheet you enter your historical pickup pattern, your room
block and your pickup up to date. It will automatically calculate the
variance and note a danger flag based on the amount of contracted slippage
is allowed.-
- Rack
Rate Discount Calculator (26Kb)
Provided by MeetingU.
This worksheet calculates discounts off of the rack sleeping room rate and
future years' inflation increases.
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- The Conference Matrix
Grid View (67Kb) QuickView HTML
version (non-interactive)
- This provides a one-page view of a large,
multi-session, multi-day meeting. This works especially well for meeting room assignments
and finding out at a glance what is happening where.
- Conference Resume (34Kb)
QuickView HTML version (non-interactive)
- Answer all the questions the hotel may have even before they have a
chance to ask them! Convention Services Managers (CSMs) will love you for providing this information before
they have to track it down. This document should be the opening pages of the
Specifications Document and it addresses most of the department of the hotel.
- Complete
Conference Specifications (127Kb) QuickView HTML version (non-interactive)
- This spreadsheet contains an example of the full
specifications that are sent to the hotel CSM. This should follow the Conference Resume
listed above. Included in this are numerous ideas on how to streamline and improve your
communication with the hotel. Many CSMs have mentioned that these have been the clearest
an easy-to-use specifications that they have every received! Check them out.
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- Catering Cost
Estimator Worksheet (54Kb) QuickView
HTML version (non-interactive)
- The handy spreadsheet will calculate daily and overall
catering costs, inclusive pricing, and event how many gallons of coffee, tea and decaf
should be served.
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- Hotel Pickup
Trackers (2 worksheets in the same document - 254Kb)
- This worksheet monitors the hotel sleeping room pickup for a single
hotel (the first worksheet tab) and multiple hotels (the second tab). They calculate
individual hotel and collective room totals, compares these totals to a percentage of the
room block, estimates total revenue and graphs it out on a weekly basis compared to the
block. The single hotel tracker will even calculate your comp credits.
- Registration Pickup
Tracker (40Kb)
- This document tracks and graphs registration totals by category over
years. The second graph looks at the registration pickup, and how it compares to the
previous year. Note color coding by year.
- Exhibitor Tracker
(51Kb)
- This worksheet graphs three important exhibit variables:
- 1. The total number of companies exhibiting at a particular show over
the years
2. The total net square footage sold over the years.
3. Exhibitor company registration pickup.
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- Meeting
Expense Tracking Workbook
(67Kb)
Provided by PlanSoft
- Meetings consolidation made easy. Track your
meeting budget, forecasts and actual meeting expenses over several meetings in
this easy-to-use, well
planned and documented spreadsheet.
- Temporary,
Security, or AV Staff Hours Worksheet (58Kb)
QuickView HTML
version
This worksheet will calculate hour worked, standard pay, overtime pay
for individuals and a total. It also servers as a bid sheet to send to temporary staff
agencies, security, AV firms, or any firm where you will be hiring staff on an hourly
basis.
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- AV Equipment Bid Worksheet
(35Kb) QuickView
HTML version (non-interactive)
This worksheet provides a bid sheet that can be emailed to AV
companies. It computes the total daily unit total for equipment from the day-by-day totals
entered. A unit cost can then be assigned by the AV company, and automatically calculating
a total cost per equipment type. The sheet provides cells for discounts to be inserted, as
well as for sales tax, labor, and delivery charges. The total cost is found at the bottom.
Sign List Worksheet
(93Kb)
Yes, even the sign list can be made in an Excel spread sheet. The idea
is that, using the multiple-tab worksheet feature, all of these documents can be combined
into one larger document, and kept in one place with all of the relevant data. Be
sure to scroll down to the bottom of this sheet, to find many tips on how signs should be
used in a conference setting. This document also demonstrates the multi-tab feature
-- look at the bottom for the tab for "Signs" as well as one for "Sign
Guide."
Packing List Worksheet
(45Kb) QuickView
HTML version (non-interactive)
The packing list is another item that naturally fits into a grid
format, and, therefore, a good candidate for an Excel spreadsheet. It is broken down into
areas (AV, Registration, etc). This location is marked on the address label, making it
easier to unpack on site. Each box is numbered as well. As the equipment is packed, the
box number is noted on the master packing sheet. Then it becomes easier to track onsite.
Conference Calendar and Timeline
(18 Kb) QuickView
HTML version (non-interactive)
This automated calendar allow you to enter a date and it will
automatically calculate the deadline dates leading up to it. Thanks to Lisa
Shimuzu,
Corporate Meeting Planner for Milliman & Roberston, Inc., who contributed this sheet.
- Site Selection Rating Sheet
(19Kb)
Submitted by Marcia
Neu.
- This decision-making aid for a site selection assists in
comparing multiple sites. It allows for the decision-making factors and the weighting to be tailored to a particular meeting's priorities and needs. Ideally, the weighting of factors is set before the property review, so that a personal bias for or against a particular property won't show up in the weighting. After reviewing properties in detail or doing site inspections, you assign each property a number and rate it on a Likert scale (probably of 1 to 5 or 1 to 7).
Other Web Tools:
Meeting
Space Calculator
(Courtesy of PlanSoft Corporation)
Tax
& Gratuity Calculator (Courtesy of PlanSoft
Corporation)
Meeting
Budget Calculator (Courtesy of Eventageous)
- Send
in your spreadsheets, checklists, database programs, or other cool tools:
- Send me your meeting planning spreadsheets, sample
database files, checklists, and any other tools you have developed using standard
off-the-shelf software. I will review and post the best ones here and include your
name as the author and other contact information if desired. Let's share from each others
experiences!
The list is added to
regularly.
If you would like to be
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