Conferon EXPRESS It’s launched! We’ve added a department to answer a question that we’ve been hearing for years... “What about my small meetings?” While Conferon EXPRESS is not designed for all small meetings, it will solve most planner’s small meetings headaches. The service will include the following; Needs evaluation. Our Conferon EXPRESS team will review each client’s needs, including desired location, space requirements, room rate preference, concessions desired and other pertinent deciding factors. Site research. With the economy on a roll, finding space has never been more difficult. Conferon is continuing to expand our database to include even more small meeting properties. This will enable us to better identify more viable alternatives in each area. Site presentation. Once all the potential sites are researched, each client will receive a brief description of the property, date availability, cost information and a “heads-up” on any issues that may impact the use of that hotel. Contract review. All contracts will be reviewed by our contracts department. This is not to replace a review by your legal counsel. Rather, it is an overview of acceptable industry conditions. Conferon is breaking new ground in this area. Hyatt, Marriott, Sheraton, Westin and other hotel chains are currently working with us to develop “Conferon Standardized Contracts” which will reflect Conferon’s buying power and track record with these hotel chains and quicken the contract process on all sides. Speed is one of the major goals of this department because smaller meetings usually have a short lead time. We are designing this office to focus on a ‘5 day or less’ research and presentation period. With the special “small meetings” contracts described above, the contract turn around time should be greatly reduced. We will be incorporating a ‘small meetings’ form on our Internet site (www.Conferon.com) so that our clients can easily and quickly get their meetings to us for research. Currently, one of our clients has put a similar form on their intranet site so that their internal divisions can quickly get the research process started. What qualifies as a small meeting? Not all small meetings will qualify for this service. Meetings that have a large disparity between meeting space required and guest rooms required, for example, would not qualify as a Conferon EXPRESS meeting. Meetings that are ideal for Conferon EXPRESS are; Meetings that do not require planning or on-site help, regardless of the number of rooms on peak night. Meetings of 70 total room nights or less may incur a small administration fee. (Since our source of compensation is commission, we must be able to receive a minimum amount in order to provide this service). Bill MacDonald has been hired to head up this department. His previous experience in hotel sales and convention services makes him capable of understanding the challenges involved in both negotiations and meeting planning. Kimberly Schaefer will join Bill and bring with her a great knowledge of hotels, and years of experience from Conferon’s Research department. Together they have all the skills and know-how to provide “Conferon Quality” service to our clients in the small meetings market. So now it’s our clients’ turn. Call your Account Executive and turn those small meetings over to the Conferon EXPRESS Team.