Florida MPI Board Retreat in Cancun, Mexico 2009

The Florida chapter's of MPI (Meeting Professional's International) held their annual joint retreat in Cancun, Mexico. What a great idea to not only give the MPI Board members a chance to visit a new location but to also give the Cancun Hotels an opportunity to showcase their venue's.

Although faced with extreme weather conditions, the MPI Board Retreat was a success! We not only had an opportunity to discuss new and fresh ideas to bring to our MPI members but also a chance to talk with our counterparts from the different chapters in Florida. What a great way to exchange ideas and understand new ways to do things.

We were also able to experience different venue's. Our host hotel ME Melia provided our sleeping rooms as a welcome reception. In leu of the storm, they were also able to offer us breakfast in their Salt Restaurant. Their breakfast buffet was a various selection of breakfast items including action stations for burrito's, omlette's and pancakes. We were also given tours of the suites, including the one used on MTV's "The Real World". The hotel even offers a cyber cafe available complimentary to guest of ME.

On day two the group visited the Cancun Palace Hotel. The hotel provided us with meeting space, breakfast and lunch as well as tours of thier hotel and sleeping rooms. The food was delicious as was the hospitality. We dined in thier restaurant where we were served a four course meal accompanied by wine flights. In addition, this hotel had great amenities to offer guests as well as an entertainent area where guests could go to for planned activities and fun. One special note was that their pools looked fantastic!! This hotel is an all-inclusive resort.

For dinner the group went to The Moon Palace. Then hotel provided us with a welcome reception and mini trade show (with local Cancun vendors) and dinner. It was great to be able to talk with some local vendors so when bringing a group back we would have some points of contact. We were also able to take a tour of the hotel and some sleeping rooms. This hotel is very large and very spread out. If hosting a meeting here, the size of this facility should be taken into account. Although it would be a great place for an incentive trip as it is all-inclusive!

On day three the group went to the Cancun Center. This convention center is located in the center of downtown Cancun. The facilities are quite substancial and offer easy access for large set ups. They Center provided us with meeting space as well as lunch. To all of our surprise, it was probably one of the best meals we had in Cancun! The food quality was excellent as was the service!

For dinner we went to OMNI Cancun Hotel & Villas. The hotel provided us with a tour of their meeting facilities and sleeping rooms as well they provided us dinner. This, by far, was the best dinner we had on our trip! The food was wonderful, the service was outstanding and the decor in the room was fabulous! This hotel really went above and beyond in thier hospitality! We all truly enjoyed our experience here!!

This was the official conclusion of our MPI Board Retreat. It really was a great experience and the host venues were great!! We all feel very thankful that we were able to visit these place and recommend them to anyone looking for a great destination.

Some of us were able to spend a few extra days taking in the sights. While there we checked out Senor Frogs, Carlos & Charlies, Hard Rock and Coco Bongo's. I highly recommend going to Coco Bongo Show and Disco. This is a once in a lifetime experience. It is not just a night club bar, there are on-going shows. You will see impersonation shows from Elvis, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Beyonce, Gun's & Roses ect. All the acts have background dancer and sings that perform to the songs. There are also ariel acts as well as Cirque-type acts happening. You never know what act you're going to see. It is high energy and truly captivating. We all left the venue in true amazement!! We still can't stop talking out that place!
I highly recommend Cancun for a meeting or incentive trip. The venues were hospitable, the food was great, service outstanding and there was minimal if no language barrior. The people there are very service oriented and friendly. There are also several off-site venue opportunities for small as well as large groups. If you need more information, feel free to contact me.

Benefits of Joining a Committee in a Professional Organization

It's a fact that the meetings industry has been affected by the economy. This is a time when a lot of corporate and independent company owners are trying to justify memberships to such groups as MPI, ISES, NACE and ABC. It is hard to see a benefit of belonging to these organizations when the return on investment (ROI) may not be there. But there is a way to guarantee not only a ROI but an opportunity to learn skills that can take you company to the next level. Get involved in your chosen organization.

Professional organization will only benefit you if you get involved. You get out of it what you put into it. Even if you only have a few hours a month, I'm sure there is something you can do to get involved. Organizations break down their committee's so you can see what they handle and make a decision on whether or not that group interests you. Choose one you are interested in and passionate about and you'll be surprised at how quickly you will see the benefit.

To demonstrate the value and benefit I will use GOAMPI chapter as I am the VP, Marketing & Communications.

Meet New People
The Marketing & Communications committee interacts with all other committee's within the organization. That means committee members have multiple opportunities to interact with others within the organization. It increases their chances of getting their company information out there to other members. It also give your company visibility within the organization. You never know if one of these other members could be a potential client!

Learn New Skills
Within my committee there is constant learning as we are trying to stay cutting edge in these very competitive times! We have gotten involved with Social Networking tools such as Twitter, Facebook. Linked In and You Tube. These are all constantly changing and evolving and we try to keep up with these changes. Working together with a committee that shares ideas and best practices to help each other catapult MPI to the next level is a HUGE benefit to anybody and any company!!! The information shared about these social networking outlets and the best ways to use them not only benefits the GOAMPI chapter, but also all of our personal and company businesses. This is the way of the new economy and what better place to learn about these tools than at a professional organization that you already have a membership with! Most people pay to learn these skills, but within my committee we have so many different experiences that we are able to work together and learn from each other.

Become a Leader
Opportunities are there for you to become a leader within the organization. By associating yourself with a professional organization appears to other industry folks as if you are investing in your future. Most companies can be selective when choosing a planner of Supplier and the hope is that most companies will tend to go towards people who are involved with professional organizations that hold high standards. As a leader in the organization you also have the opportunity to utilize all your great ideas and make a difference within the organization. This give a great opportunity to stay involved and keep others involved as well!

The benefits of joining a committee within a professional organization are endless. People get involved for many reasons. Most importantly however, is the fact that you feel good about being able to make a difference within your industry. So when you choose which professional organization you are going to be a member of, be sure and get involved and reap all the benefits the membership can offer! You can make a difference!!

Choosing the right bars for the Bus Tour

It may seem as if we just threw a couple buses, some random bars, beer on the bus, made up some drink specials at the bars and ordered some t-shirts but believe it or not, there is a lot that goes into creating one of our Bus Tours. One of the largest and most important element is what bars to go to!

How to select a bar is so important because it can make or break the fun of the trip. if you get to a bar that is run down, mismanaged or overall not fun, people will be begging to get back on the bus and leave! This will impact them not to go on another Bus Tour!!

Start with a List - When we are in the pre-planning stages of the bus tour the first thing we do is start listing all the possible places we could go to. We take into account past places and feedback we receive. We also ask around and see if anyone has a person experience with a place they think might work for us.

Visit the Bars - Once we have our list of about 10 places we venture to see them personally. You wouldn't believe how many places we went to and decided it just wouldn't fit our group, the place was too small, there wasn't enough bartenders or there just wasn't anything to entertain the group there! Another element taking into consideration is the locations. We don't want to bring a bunch of crazy partiers into an establishment with a bunch of kids or families. Awkward!!

Bar Distance - Once we have about 5 possible options we try and map out a bus route. We are merely making sure people are sitting on the bus longer than 1/2 hour in between stops. If you get more than that, people start getting anxious and wanting to get off.

Bar Negotiations - Another important element to out Bus Tours is making sure that once the tour fee is paid, there isn't a lot of other expenses. This is where we negotiate with the bars to see what they can offer the group. Whether it be food & drink specials, visits by alcohol brand girls, free drinks... whatever. If a bar is unwilling to negotiate with us, we move on to another one as there are a lot that will. Believe it or not, the "specials" or "free drinks" at the bars do make a difference to the group! They do remember the times that they received a free shot or that the manager came out and mingled with them and gave some drinks at the table and so on...

Once all the above elements fall into place, we can choose the bars we feel fit our group the best! In the past we have used several bars that may be fun to hang out at, just not for a group of this size. If we let a bar know we are bringing 55 - 110 people to the bar at a specific time then the bar staff better be ready! If not, we know not to go back there again!

Upcoming Bus Tour
The upcoming "Off The Beatin' Path" bus tour features Wall Street Cantina, Hagan O'Reilly's, Lakeside Bar & Grill (formerly Benchwarmer's) and Trotter's. All of the bars were great to work with and are very excited to have our group come visit! We have created a perfect mix of things to do and great people together to make this bus tour even better than the last two were!! We hope to sell out two buses and give everyone an experience to remember as well as a trip worth the money they spend on it!

If you are interested in going on the Off The Beatin' Path Bus Tour, sign up by Sunday, October 11 to get your official t-shirt ordered: http://bit.ly/yx9Bo The tour is on Saturday, October 24th at 3:00 PM meeting at Wall Street in Orlando, FL.

Reasons To Help Others

I am asked all the time why I involve myself with other people and organizations. They just can't understand why someone would want to keep so busy helping out others. Especially when I am trying to promote and get my own business. Well the answer is simple... it makes me feel good!

I have gone through life doing things the hard way! Turns out that it isn't such a bad thing. Because of this, I was forced to learn as much as possible on certain subjects so I could make good, well-thought out decisions. So for others I am able to offer up ideas, suggestions and opinions so they don't have to go through what I did. When I see people successfully moving forward using what I suggested, it makes me feel good!

When I started my Meeting Planning company it was scary and I didn't know what to do. But now that I have been through the process and see what it takes, I can help others adapt more easily. I can reassure them about doubts, show them good websites to check out and maybe even throw in some DO NOT's that should definitely help get them started. I have seen results of those I have helped and I fee good about the fact that I was able to make it less stressful for them!!

The big business tool now is Social Networking using Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and You Tube. Well I have gone through a lot, read a lot, attended educational classes and am constantly learning ways to use these tools better so I can network my business. All this effort will be put to good use for not only myself, but others. Since I understand the ideas behind it as well as how it works, I am able to share this knowledge with others and make them more comfortable with it. I have been able to get countless people on Facebook & Twitter simply by taking time and explaining to people how it can work to their advantage and giving them basic knowledge on what they need to get started. I feel good to see people actually using these applications and feeling good about doing it.

It truly does make me feel good to be able to help others learn. I feel as if they appreciate it and I can see the stress melt away in their eyes when they start understanding something. I wish there were more people like me out there to take the time and help others simply because it gives you a good feeling! I will continue to help others where I can and some day it may come back around to me and someone will do the same for me!

How to meet new people when your shy...

One of the most common questions I am asked is how do I know so many people! The answer is simple... because I truly enjoy getting to know people and the experiences they have been through. I feel like I can learn from people and that helps me grow as a person. I don't consider myself outgoing, in fact I can be quite shy. But I put myself out to get to know people because it makes them feel good as much as it makes me feel good!

But how is this done when your shy and uncomfortable meeting new people? It truly is a frame of mind. If you are afraid you won't have anything to say or people won't want to talk to you... get rid of that mind set!! Put your mind set in a place that says... I'm a great person and I have a lot of good stuff to say! Remember how "fun" you are to be around and you want to share that with others! If you give off those vibes, people WILL want to be around you. Most people would rather be around someone with a great personality than a bump on a log!

Another thing to remember is that most people LOVE to talk about themselves. If you find yourself with worrying you won't have anything to say to someone, DON'T! Just ask them questions about themselves and figure out something you have in common. If you are at a networking event ask someone to tell you about their business and what they do. Once they start talking about their business you will come up with lots of other questions. If you're out at a bar maybe watching sports, ask questions about the sport. Just take the environment you're in use it to your advantage. If you look around there are a lot of great ideas to talk about. Most important, keep it real. Speak from the heart and take time to actually listen to people. People will go out of their way to respond as it makes them feel like you are looking to them for their opinion.

The most important thing to do is make people feel special! If you can figure out a way to make people feel special you've made a connection. Whether it is make a special point to going over and saying good-bye from an event, acknowledging them out at another event, or simply making them laugh. Find something personal that makes an impact and it will make them feel special.

Remember, meeting people shouldn't be a scary thing! It should be an exciting adventure to expand your horizon's! If you remember to keep it real and speak from the heart, you will be amazed at how comfortable you will feel meeting people. You can never know enough people and someday you never know whether or not you and that new friend can help each other out!

Best Buddies of Central Florida

One non--profit organization that is near and dear to me is Best Buddies International. http://bit.ly/Best_Buddies

Best Buddies is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to establishing a global volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment and leadership development for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

I have volunteered with Best Buddies for 5 years organizing and helping them with several of thier events including thier monthly fundraiser "Business Buddies". Business Buddies is a social and networking opportunity for the Orlando business community. The purpose is to provide an opportunity for professionals to come together, network, socialize, and have fun for a good cause. http://bit.ly/Business_Buddies.

I have also been involved helping organize and support thier annual fundraiser Orlando's Toast & Taste. All proceeds from Orlando's Toast and Taste support programs for Best Buddies Orlando 25 local programs seving our 2,000 + participants in Central Florida. http://bit.ly/Toast_and_Taste. This year's fundraiser is on Friday, October 16th 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM at Stirling Sotheby's Global Gallery in downtown Orlando. The event features an array of fine wines and scrumptious cuisine. For collectors, travelers and wine connoisseurs, this year's event includes silent and live auctions featuring autographed memorabilia, vacation packages and rare bottles of wine.

For additional information on these great events or how you can help Best Buddies of Central Florida please contact:
Michelle Tano - Area Director
407-898-0787 ext. 107
michelletano@bestbuddies.org

Outward Sign Food Pantry

We found a new food pantry in Clermont, FL that is in dire need of food donations. The Outward Sign Food Pantry, located in the My Little Thrift Store Building and next to the Progress Energy Building, has just recently opened and is actively looking for food donations. They have a long list of needy families that need your help!

This would be a great opportunity for a group or company project! It is Christmas time and many groups are looking for an organization to donate to. Well this one would be perfect! They accept non-expired canned goods, dry foods and any food that doesn't need to refrigerated. See their information on the United Way website: http://bit.ly/Outward_Sign

If you or anyone you know is able to help, please contact Don Morrissey at 352-250-8449.

Outward Sign Food Pantry
415 Citrus Tower Boulevard
Clermont, FL 34711
Hours: Monday, Wednesday & Friday 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM

Locations for Networking

It seems as if all people are talking about is how slow the meetings industry is today. If that is still the case, then why are so many restaurants and venue's unwilling to make deals with organizations such as Meeting Professionals International (MPI) on hosting a luncheons or networking events, even for a minimal fee? If their business is going to sit empty, wouldn't they prefer to have people in there and at least get some revenue? Not to mention that they would be showcasing their business to an entire industry of people that could possibly bring clientele or at least recommend clientele to go there.

I for one would not send a client to a business or even recommend a business unless I have experienced it myself. It wouldn't be smart for a meeting planner to send a group somewhere if they didn't know what kind of experience their group would have. We wouldn't want unhappy clients as it would make us look bad. So it would be to the advantage of restaurants and venue's to host events so that meeting planners, such as myself, could experience their business.

It would be my hope that restaurants and venues would start seeing the positives in hosting events and keep in mind the following statement: You have to spend a little to make a little. Look at it as a form of investment and advertising. I personally would rather go experience the business than receive constant cold calls from venues begging me for business. Why not bring everyone over at the same time to experience your business! It save the business time and money (think about all the lunches and dinners you have potential planners over to experience your business) by having everyone together and you can sell your business to 80-100 people at one time rather than one or two here and there on the phone.

Here's to everyone working smarter in these tough times!

DOWN SYNDROME ASSOCIATION OF CENTRAL FLORIDA – BUDDY WALK

Looking for a great organization to support, we suggest the Down Syndrome Association of Central Florida. They have such strong community support and education offered to help create awareness and opportunities. On October 17th they will be hosting their annual fundraiser Buddy Walk. It is open to everyone and we highly recommend getting involved by volunteering and/or attending the Buddy Walk event. What a great uplifting event!!

For more information: http://bit.ly/Buddy_Walk


TOP TEN REASONS TO SUPPORT THE DSA BUDDY WALK
From Pat Webb, Development Director with DSACF http://www.dsacf.org/

1. The funds help us raise awareness about the AWESOME ABILITIES of Individuals with Down syndrome.
2. Lauren and Travis Frosch would tell you it's for the Kids....
3. Tom Warner would tell you to reach deep in your pocket and pull out those greenbacks and give till it hurts (and then he would call you on the phone to make sure you actually did it!).
4. We cosponsor, with Howard Phillips Center for Children & Families, a FREE annual medical clinic for children and adults with Down syndrome
5. As part of the NDSS’ national Buddy Walk campaign, monies collected from around the country will go toward the NDSS Policy Center in Washington DC
6. IDEA reauthorization will start again next year so if your IEP is important, support DSACF and national advocacy efforts
7. We are hosting the 39th Annual National Down Syndrome Congress Convention July 16-18 in Orlando
8. DSACF provides more than 300 hours of FREE IEP/school support each year to families
9. DSACF provides new parent packets to all the central Florida hospitals and ob/gyn offices
10. Down Syndrome Association of Central Florida needs the money (this is our #1 fundraiser to support all of our local programs all year long)