Hi, and welcome to XXX Airport; have a nice flight!

Could it be... TSA employees will be happy to see you? Or at least act happy to see you?

Check out this MSNBC Story...

Why does "In-House" Hotel AV Cost So Much?

And why do so many people still use hotel AV?

Well, I guess it's the easiest thing to do; just pay the money and get through the event. And some hotels do have excellent staffing to ensure your event runs smoothly. Some...

But back to the cost. While this is surely not true in every case, most hotels have a formal contract with a single audio-visual agency. In order to get this contract, the AV agency needs to "pay back" the hotel for the opportunity. Usually, that means about 60% of what the AV agency charges you goes right into the hotel's pockets. I'd call that a sizeable mark-up.

I can pretty much beat hotel AV pricing 99 times out of 100. And when you then add technical experience into the mix, there are often better options that result in better events.

Presentation Creative

If part of your job involves working on, or delivering presentations, consider taking 10 minutes or so to take a look at this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_424YskAfew

The video was written and filmed by a NASA astronaut working at the Johnson Space Center.
In an effort to enhance innovation, senior-level management at NASA/JSC, tasked teams of employees to research and report on why new ideas within the organization were being blocked, ignored or discounted all together. The video is the presentation that Astronaut Andrew Thomas and his team submitted.

Can you imagine presenting the same content in a traditional PowerPoint presentation? Sure it could be done, but do you think the messages would have been as memorable or engaging?

What do you think?

Small Group? Pick a Small Hotel

I recently finished up an event for about 125 people. While we were at quite a nice property, unfortunately we were the "small fish" in the big ocean. And so (and as I expected), my client did not receive the attention they deserved as paying customers of the property.

It happens again and again. I cannot stress enough that the location you choose will have a huge impact on the quality of service you'll receive.

It affects other things too. The "convention hotel" I am speaking of charged me $110 to RECEIVE packages that were FEDEXed there. They charged me $119 to SEND packages via FEDEX. These were packages that were already labeled, and ready-to-go.

So keep that in mind next time you pick a location - Ask who else is "in-house," and check the venue's floorplan to see how many large meeting spaces they have. Better to know ahead of time, even if you DO end up being the small fish - at least you'll know what ocean you're swimming in!

The Standard Difference

Have you ever made a request for something "standard" only to discover that by your definition it wasn't?
Brainium recently had the pleasure of working with a new client on their annual gala. It was a great event at an upscale Boston property. "Winter" was the theme and the decor featured a beautiful color palette of icy blues, shimmering silvers and crisp white.
On one of the final site visits prior to the event, we met with our venue contact to go over some of the final details, one of which was the table linens. The contact was excited to show us their brand-new, upgraded linens which they were pleased to be able to offer us in time for the event.
They were certainly lovely, however the colors; copper, ivory and cranberry, would not work with our selected color palette.
I explained to our contact that while we agree that the new linens are beautiful, they don't match the color palette for the event and therefore we'd like to use standard white table cloths.
She looked at me sympathetically as she replied "well, our standard table linens are sage green."
The event was fantastic. Everything looked wonderful, including the standard white rental linens.
What about you? Care to share any standard stories?

Confused about extra costs on airlines?

Granted, it's a Southwest page, but this link shows you all the charges (as of 9/15/08) each U.S.-operating airline charges for fees, including checked baggage, curbside check-in, etc.:
http://www.southwest.com/travel_center/pod_chart.html

Keep Your Eye on the "Southwest Effect"

What an interesting airfare article from David M. Rowell, aka The Travel Insider:

The 'Southwest effect' is described as the two things that happen when Southwest starts flying into a new city. Airfares drop across the board as established carriers match Southwest's typically lower fares, and air travel increases in response.

Here's an interesting example of the other side of the Southwest effect. For reasons best known to itself and to no-one else, Southwest only publishes its schedules (and therefore fares) a little way into the future, unlike most airlines that will accept reservations up to 11 months in advance (and even further in advance for group type bookings).

So guess what happens on the particular day when Southwest's future bookings stop being available? Yes - airfares typically rise on other carriers. Here's a wonderful example of this in chart form, courtesy of farecompare.com - at present, you can book with Southwest through until 6 March 2009.

Look at the leap in fares on United that occurs on 7 March - from an average of about $385 up to an average of about $440.



If you're flying anywhere in the US, plainly it is best not to book further in advance than Southwest has its schedules published for.