Where to Take Your Incentive Groups in 2019

When meeting planners educate and pitch their first-hand experiences of off-the-radar destinations to their clients, companies become more risk-adverse and more adventurous.

As an experiential marketer and meeting planner, I love introducing off-the-beaten-path destinations to my clients. My distributed model clients particularly demand undiscovered hidden gems for their company retreats. Their employees are based around the world, so it makes sense to look beyond those first-tier cities and help them discover something new.

Beach destinations are always a hit—especially in the beginning of the year when it’s freezing in most of the northern hemisphere. Culturally-rich destinations are also a draw as they allow the teams to learn in different ways and incorporate local customs into their bonding time. Not to mention, attendees will walk away from these destinations more worldly, and you can bet they will always remember the event.

Here are my four off-the-beaten-path destinations that should be on your radar for incentive groups in 2019:

Cartagena, Colombia

You may be thinking “Narcos,” but you should be thinking safe, cultural, beach, with unlimited unique meeting space. In Cartagena, you have both city life and the beach all within a few blocks. The old, walled city is a must for dinners and even a scavenger hunt during the day. Coffee is king, and I highly suggest a coffee tasting class for team building. Cartagena also has ample infrastructure to host meetings of all sizes—and it’s affordable!

Anchorage, Alaska

While this is not exactly a warm destination, it’s certainly one your attendees will never forget. It isn’t called the “Last Frontier” for nothing! Plan your incentive around the Iditarod (March 2 this year), and let your attendees meet and greet the mushers and dogs. With more than 8,000 sleeping rooms and two convention centers, Anchorage is a beautiful destination that’s also affordable—and did I mention there’s no sales tax? Oh, and your attendees may even see the Northern Lights.

Panama City, Panama

Panama City has modern infrastructure, easy air access, and a wealth of cultural and natural attractions for team building. Of course, it’s home to the Panama Canal, which is a bucket list item for many people. Plus, it’s home to various indigenous tribes that welcome visitors into their villages for a day of cultural learning. Panama City is just plain easy: English is predominantly spoken, no U.S. currency-exchange is needed, and it’s safe. There are more than 15,000 sleeping rooms from boutiques to big-box chains. Choose a beach destination, a rainforest destination or the city. You can’t go wrong.

Asheville, N.C.

Who knew this little mountain town—known for its bohemian flair—had so much to offer? With the second-growing airport in the U.S., it’s easy to access. Plus, new boutique properties are popping up left and right. And the food: Top-notch cuisine is available all around, coupled with craft breweries. With more than 8,000 sleeping rooms, this walkable destination offers unique team-building activities galore. An added bonus: The CVB staff is one of the best in the country.

This article was first published in Prevue Meetings on January 29th. https://www.prevuemeetings.com/spark-blog/flip-the-script/take-incentive-groups-2019/

Seven Tips for Curating a Memorable Company Retreat

This article was originally published in the May 2018 Group Travel Leader Magazine.

http://smallmarketmeetings.com/articles/seven-tips-planning-memorable-company-retreat/

More companies, especially distributed ones, are implementing company retreats into their budgets. It’s a smart move as it allows employees to bond in a more relaxed, open environment and for leadership to receive candid real-time feedback. It’s also a great way to kick off the year and set goals. As with any event, all the elements are a big puzzle—that you the planner—need to fit together. Andrea Cannistraci, CMM, President & Founder of andgreat, a marketing, branding , and events agency, shares seven tips to ensure a successful and memorable company retreat.

1. Send a pre-planning survey
Survey your attendees before the company retreat. Find out what destinations interest them, what topics they would like to discuss, what goals they hope to achieve from attending, and what activities interest them. Getting attendees onboard at the planning stage will ensure better participation, excitement, and a much more focused and successful event.

2. Develop a strong team of suppliers
Reach out to the local CVB of your chosen destination. They are the experts on the area and will be essential to helping you navigate the area and source the best caterers, AV, entertainment, restaurants, transportation, off site venues, and team building activities.

3. Conduct a site inspection

It’s imperative that you know the area and your way around. Meet personally with all the suppliers you’ve received quotes, experience the activities, restaurants, venues, entertainment. Start to build the relationships. Take copious notes. Know where the closest hospital, pharmacy, Kinkos, and grocery store are located.

4. Schedule free time
One of the biggest mistakes you can make is not building free time into your agenda.  Give attendees an hour each later afternoon before dinner to check-in with family, refresh, relax, or hit the gym. Often, you’ll see the attendees will want to continue the day’s conversions at the bar, or around the pool. Those unstructured moments where employees bond on their own can create the most insight—and best memories.

5. Use natural meeting space

If your company retreat is in a warm climate, definitely take advantage of outdoor meetings places for casual breakouts and meals. There’s nothing worse than being in an awesome destination but stuck inside four walls all day. Let your attendees see the sun and feel the breeze! A simple U-shape of chairs under a tree, or a few cabanas at the pool are excellent non-traditional meeting spaces for breakouts. Many conference rooms have patios—use those for breakfasts and lunches. Trust me, your attendees will thank you.  (And the Instagram pics will be the envy of all.)

6. Consider meeting floor plans
The setup of the meeting room matters.  Know how many attendees you are expecting and plan accordingly. Your General Session should be configured so that everyone can see everyone. A flat oval shape works well.  Will attendees be taking notes on their laptops? If so, they’ll need a bit more space.  The last thing you want is a room full of sardines.  A good rule to follow is two people per six foot table. And make sure the room has windows—preferably doors that open to a patio (see #4.)

7. Plan an unforgettable group activity
Almost every company retreat has at least one group activity incorporated.  This is a great opportunity to make your company retreat memorable. Look at your destination. Look at your demographics.  Keep it local. If you’re at a beach, consider SUP or surfing lessons, or chartering a boat for a dinner cruise. If you’re in wine country, schedule dinner in a wine cave or a biking wine tour with lunch. If you’re in New Orleans, plan a hands-on Creole cooking class for dinner or a scavenger hunt through the Garden District.

Curating Memorable Experiences: An Interview with Prevue Magazine

I was recently interviewed by Jessie Fetterling with Prevue Magazine for the professional development section of their website and newsletters related to the same topic.  Prevue provides meeting and incentive planners with insightful, experiential destination coverage to help them imagine and create exceptional group events. Prevue publishes its exclusive content across numerous platforms including a bi-monthly print edition (reaching 35,000 meeting and incentive planners), a digital edition, www.prevuemeetings.com and Prevue Extra (its monthly e-newsletter).

http://prevuemeetings.com/spark-blog/the-shakedown/how-one-planner-curates-memorable-experiences-for-corporate-retreats/

What do you define as a "memorable" experience?

A memorable experience is one that attendees will recall with a smile on their faces and continue to talk about weeks and months after the experience. Most often this is achieved y conducting a short pre-event survey. Find out more about the attendees--what do they want to learn, to see, eat? Allowing attendees to be involved in the process, ensures they have a great experience. A memorable experience involves getting out of the ballroom, outside the four hotel walls--it means hosting breakout sessions in a circle outside on the lawn, in a vineyard, on the beach. It means breaking away from your typical boring F&B options and customizing. Swap out the traditional "continental breakfast" for an avocado toast bar, for example. Lastly, I always try to use boutique properties that have lots of outdoor space and windows. If people are going to fly to across the country to a retreat--let them be reminded every minute where they are. Don't hold them hostage in a big box hotel conference room that could be anywhere in the world.

What tends to be the biggest hurdles to achieving "memorable" experiences at events?

Budget, time, and travel. The company must build in a budget for an experience, they must be willing to carve out time in their agenda, and be willing to have their employees travel to a destination that is often not a single flight away. 

What are three ways you have curated "memorable" experiences at corporate retreats?
1. Reserved a wine cave dinner in Sonoma County with fun photo photo props. The F&B was all local and seasonal and of course the wine was all estate wine. A real farm to table experience. I don't think one person in that group had ever dined in a wine cave. They had so many questions ahead of the dinner. They were excited, some were anxious. It was memorable and they are still talking about it a year later.

2. Arranged a Baja Truck driving experience in Colorado. The son of the resort owner is a well known Baja 500 driver and had a track and trucks on property with a driving school. I had the trucks wrapped with the company logo and they just loved it. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience. 

3. Hired a corporate leadership facilitator to administer a DISC profile--a tool used for discussion of people's behavioral differences. Attendees completed the profile and received tips related to working with people of other styles. The exercise increased self-knowledge and attendees were better able to understand how they respond to conflict, what motivates them, what causes them to stress, and how they solve problems. It not only helped facilitate better teamwork, it helped the leadership team, to manage more effectively by understanding the dispositions and priorities of employees and team members.Now when the company needs to make company-wide decisions, they ask, "How will the D's react to this? Do we need to be concerned about the S's?" Overall, a fun exercise that truly made a difference to the company and it's employees.

What are three ways you have curated "memorable" experiences at off-the-beaten-path destinations?

1. I use a remote property in Western Colorado often as I can do a buy-out, and produce a truly memorable experience. It's a pain to get to, but once you're there, you forget about the travel. It's two hours from anything really, so everything must be done onsite. They have an Auto Museum on property and I produced a "Dinner through the Ages" Welcome Reception. The museum contains cars from the early 1800's up to 1989. I worked closely with Chef to choose small bites and a cocktail from each time period. That "Dinner through the Ages" is now a part of their menu--a huge compliment!

2. Chartered a boat to a private island off the coast of Southern Belize for attendees to enjoy the day as they pleased. Simply building a few hours into the agenda for attendees to explore the destination on their own and with whom they want can be memorable. Often Corporate Retreats are structured so much that there is no free time. 

3. Scheduled a hands on cooking class with an award winning James Beard Chef and author in Santa Fe. Everyone divided up into teams: appetizers, salads, main course, desserts. The experience was very interactive and the cuisine was all local fare and allowed for collaboration across different cross-functionally teams. Some people had never cooked before, others were "at home" in the kitchen. It was great to see everyone working together toward an end goal: a memorable, and delicious lunch. I made sure the recipes were all printed out so everyone could try cooking the meal back home. And, as a bonus, everyone was able to keep their branded apron as a reminder of their experience.

What tends to be the attendee feedback in regard to these experiences?Attendees love the free time. Again, often agendas are jammed packed, run over, and there is no time to even breathe. Building in an hour every day--right before dinner--is always appreciated. It gives attendees a chance to checkin with family, clients, workout, rest and refresh. Some attendees don't mind the travel time to reach the memorable destinations, and some do. It just depends on the personalities of your group. They definitely enjoy experiencing the local food, culture, and activities. They especially enjoy the time away form he office and getting to know colleagues on a different level. The partnerships and bonds that are created during these retreats strengthen the work relationships and often translate into higher revenues and ROI. 

Life's too short to give boring swag

As a marketer first, and meeting planner second, bad swag is one of my biggest pet peeves.  What constitutes BAD swag?

1. Cheap (and it’s going to reflect on your brand as being cheap!)
2. Doesn’t align with your brand

3. Logistically isn’t easy to transport (yeah fancy wine opener-I’m talking to you and TSA)

4. Very forgettable (pen, stress ball, notebook)

5. Useless (the kids or dog will end up playing with and /or breaking it—or you’ll see it piled in the trash—not a good look)

6. Over-branded (love the Patagonia beanie—wish your logo wasn’t in 72 point font on it)

Clients always ask me, “What should we do for swag?”  My response is to share the three pieces of swag I have received that changed my life, meaning:  A. I still use the product, or B. I still remember the experience (because giving an experience can be considered swag.)

My favorite product (higher end)
As a constant jet-setter, I am used to living out of a pre-packed, ready–to-go-at-all-times carry-on. I even had an old Target plastic bag that I kept in my carry-on for dirty clothes. That is, until a hotel partner gave me the most USEFUL piece of swag—a linen laundry bag with their logo and MY name, hand embroidered! You better believe I keep this thing in my carry-on, and use it every.single.time I travel. You’ll note the supplier logo is subtle—love that. Bye bye Target bag.

My favorite product (lower end)

Memorable, useful swag doesn’t need to break the bank. Point in turn, this handy dandy “sticker pocket” that I received on a FAM. I wanted to be polite when I received it, so I placed it on my phone case and then stuck a biz card inside it. Honestly, I have a really nice Bosca leather business card holder—why would I use an inexpensive plastic rubber whatever-it-is-made-of sticker for my cards? Convenience! Sadly, we are rarely without our phones these days. And I found when I’m at a networking function, holding my phone, I can easily present a biz card without digging through my Mom-purse looking for my “proper” business card holder. Love it!  In fact, the sticker outlasted my case, so I had to ask for another one when I bought a new case.

My favorite experience
Imagine my surprise when I arrive back home from the gym at 8:30am to find this box on my door step. #Panic. OMG there are ALIVE in there!  Geez—do I need to cancel all my morning calls and make sure they are ok? I don’t know what to do with live lobsters! How do I cook them? Do I have to cook them now? Will they last until 5pm? As a friend told me later that day, “Only you would be stressed out by free live lobsters.” Yes, it was a stressful day—but guess what? My two year old daughter had her first live lobster meal that night. #memorable.  Why were they sent? To get my attention and to entice me to register for a conference. Of course the promoters could have sent me a luggage tag, or a Starbucks card. But #this, sure did get my attention and will soon not be forgotten. #nicetry #AforEffort

Bonus Tips:
1. Have a trusted supplier.
2. Order well in advance as to not incur rush production or shipping charges.
3. And speaking of shipping, don’t forget to include shipping (and hotel/venue receiving fees) in your budget.
What's your favorite piece of swag? Worse?  Would love to hear!