2015 has been one the strongest years for hotels in history. Until…2016 comes. If you are booking meetings into next year you are most likely seeing that the hotels are calling the shots. You can reference my last blog about this to navigate more effectively but what else can you do to drive ROI?
Number one answer…Hybrid Meetings. What are hybrid meetings? It is the use of streaming or web based collaboration s
ervices in conjunction with a face-to-face meeting.
Lets say the cost of one attendee for a two-day meeting is:
Hotel per night: $200
Flight: $400
F&B inclusive of tax and service fees: $320
Transportation and other: $200
Total: $1,360.00
You have recognized that a core 20 people need to be at this meeting BUT the CEO would really like to speak to the entire company of 200 people for a quick update of what’s happening. What do you do?
There are 5 options as I see it…
Option #1: Fly them out and spend an additional $1360.00 per person to have them there. Your budget is blown and the ROI is most likely out the window.
Option #2: Conduct a conference call via phone and spend a nominal per minute charge. Your budget is intact but having a conference call doesn’t really deliver the impact you wanted. As a result the ROI suffers.
Option #3: Use a collaboration web conferencing platform like Adobe, WebEx, Global Meet, Unified Meeting or something else. This may seem slightly better than a conference call and the cost would essentially be the same but we are inviting technical issues by making this choice – 200 people is a big web conference. Providers say they can accommodate this but web conferencing is best for 150 people or less. For a town hall delivery this is a weak step forward. Budget is still intact but ROI is in question. This is coming from your CEO and the delivery needs to be polished.
Option #4: Leave it alone…and don’t do it. Tell the CEO it’s too difficult and give him options 1,2, and 3 knowing he will shut it down. Besides, technology is a burden to manage, you would need to pick out menu options and tie up logistics for 20 people.
Option #5: Engage a company that specializes in streaming. Streaming is similar to webcasting but specifically meant for larger groups over 150. It can deliver high definition videos, customizable layouts to suit your presentation, easy to use presenter tools, and the easiest access for your participants. The typical cost of a well-done webcast with live video will cost somewhere between 5K-10K per event. It can be as low as 2k per event in some cases. Essentially it is the cost of 5 more attendees coming to the two-day meeting however, the reach is your whole company of 200 people.
Also, hotels are great venues for making this happen. Hotels give you the opportunity to get more bang for your buck. Most hotels have meeting room facilities and will not charge you rental fee since you are al
eady staying there. Essentially you are hitting “two birds with one stone.” and looking like a hero doing it.
The result of picking option #5 is the CEO has now delivered an impactful town hall meeting, your company is more connected with the direction you are going, and your ROI has just gone up considerably because you have effectively engaged 220 people for the cost of 25.
But why haven’t you done this? Keep an eye out for part 2 on this blog.
If you are interested in learning more on how to have successful hybrid meetings please contact TEAMINGS.
Written by Courtney Muehlmeier
Courtney spent 14 years in hotels and resorts prior to co-founding TEAMINGS which creates truly successful meetings across all median– web, voice, video, and
off-site venues.
