Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Authentic Experiences

Authentic experiences. Transparent information. What matters to you? In the last couple of years we have seen a shift in what matters to our clients and our guests. When I first started in the industry, we still had a telex number, and the focus was “education and networking”. When travel became tighter, we heard that videoconferencing would be the new wave. While this is an option, as human beings, we are experience seekers, and we want to talk face to face with others, and build relationships with people, so fortunately meetings and events continued to flourish. Through the late 1990’s it was all flash and excitement, a fun time to be on the technology and entertainment side of the event planning business! In the early part of this century, a global concern with the environment was all around us, and it was all about “green” meetings, which always mattered to us and is now simply the way we do things across all aspects internally and with our events. During the boom times, the focus shifted to corporate social responsibility, as organizations continued to give back, but also began to publicize how they were giving back, and to build CSR programming into their events. With the advent of the internet, how organization delivered messages internally and externally has shifted exponentially, with blogs from senior executives becoming nearly a norm, for example. With social networking, including blogging, live journals, MySpace, Facebook and Twitter-ing, the world has gone from six degrees of separation to almost none, with information accessible with the click of a mouse on any subject imaginable, from anywhere in the world, from anyone who chooses to share it. What does this mean when you are planning an event? To us it means beginning with what happens in the workplace to create the need for a meeting or incentive reward trip – how does your organization measure value? When you come to us looking to take care of your guests and enhance your meeting and event experience, we are going to find ways to be your best partner to do this. We want you to talk to us, tell us your needs and your challenges, and together we will create the best solutions for you. We understand the changing optics of perception, and ultimately we want to create events and environments that will inspire your guests and deliver memorable experiences, but that can also stand up to the scrutiny of our current times. We know that people still need to meet and share knowledge, that travel rewards still remain a top motivator, and that building relationships within your organization, with clients and prospective clients face-to-face, has a validity and value that can’t be fully measured. We feel fortunate that Western Canada is known for its ability to deliver natural, authentic, high-quality experiences in a setting that is unmatched, and that we get to share it with so many!