In a Feb. 3 article, Forbes.com explained the virtues of visiting Scottsdale. According to the article, “For a city that gets more than 300 days of sunshine a year, it doesn’t take much to lure travelers to Scottsdale, Arizona. But with new places to stay and play, eat and explore – not to mention wintertime temperatures hovering in the mid-70s – there’s plenty of incentive to visit this desert oasis now.” The article details places to stay, such as the newly opened Saguaro, and places to play, including the inaugural Spring Training Festival, McDowell Mountain Golf Club, and Spa at Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale at Troon North. Scottsdale visitors are encouraged to wine and dine at Citizen Public House, Casablanca Lounge, and Lee’s Cream Liqueur. Phoenix Art Museum and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West also are listed as must-see stops. View the complete article, “Why You Should Visit Scottsdale Now,” online.
February 6, 2012HOTELS INVITED TO PARTICIPATE IN SOAP DRIVE TO BENEFIT IMPOVERISHED PEOPLEThe Scottsdale Community College Hospitality Club and Collegiate DECA students have teamed up with Clean the World, an organization that collects donations of new and used soap, to host a soap drive from now through April 30. Local hotels and resorts are invited to participate. Participating properties instruct their housekeeping staff to save the used hotel guest soap and set it aside in either boxes or bags. An SCC student will pick up the soap either upon request or every two weeks. Clean the World recycles discarded hotel soap using a hygienically safe process and distributes it to impoverished countries to help stop the spread of disease and death. According to the World Health Organization, one-third of the diseases that kill children under the age of 5 could be prevented by simple hand washing with bar soap. Several Scottsdale-area hotels – including Hotel Valley Ho, Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale at Troon North, and Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain Resort and Spa – partner with Clean the World year-round to provide their used soap to support the organization’s efforts. To learn more about the soap drive and sign up to participate, contact Janelle Hoffman at Janelle.hoffman@sccmail.maricopa.edu or 480-423-6260. To learn more about Clean the World, visit www.CleantheWorld.org. FOOD & WINE NAMES SCOTTSDALE ONE OF AMERICA’S HEALTHIEST CITIES TO VISITFood & Wine magazine included Scottsdale on a list of America’s Healthiest Cities to Visit. According to the magazine, “Surrounded by the Sonoran Desert and the Camelback Mountains, arid Scottsdale is a great spot for hiking, biking and golf. For every canasta-playing retiree, there’s a vacationing spa-goer.” The article highlights two CVB members, including The Boulders Resort where “guests can golf at the championship course surrounded by mountains, or take classes in rock climbing, mountain biking or desert hiking.” FnB Restaurant also is featured as the place to eat “veggie-driven small plates, like eggplant with sun gold tomatoes, peppers and currants; and baby bok choy with miso and hazelnuts.” See the complete list of healthy cities online. ISES Arizona for HALO Animal RescueBlanket, Towel & Linen Drive For Animals in Need Dear Arizona Hospitality friends, Many animal shelters receive food and toy donations for their animals. What many do not donate enough of are blankets, towels and linens. During the chilly winter weather, many of the kennels are able to provide minimal blankets, towels or linens to keep the animals warm due to the shortage of donations they receive. And while many of the animal shelters are heat controlled, providing more warmth and comfort to the animals will help them better adjust to their circumstance. ISES Arizona, is an organization dedicated to educate and deliver creative excellence and professionalism in special events, has teamed up with HALO Animal Rescue and we need your help! Halo Animal Rescue (http://www.halorescue.org) is a no-kill animal shelter a 501 ( c ) 3 and committed to providing a safe haven for animals who might otherwise be destroyed at local animal shelters. We are hoping you are able to donate unwanted (and useable) blankets, towels and linens. With your contribution we expect to achieve great success from this drive. Please contact Joe Gill at 602.438.9916 or jgill@questdrape.com for questions or arrangements for pickup. “The purity of a person’s heart can be quickly measured by how they regard animals” ~ Anonymous Don’t you get all your money from adoption fees? Adoption fees make up 26% of HALO’s income. The dogs and cats cost more to care for than could be charged for adoption fees. If HALO relied completely on adoption fees, the fees would have to be $300-$400 for every animal, which very few adopters would be willing or able to pay. Over half of HALO’s income comes from people like you who are generous individuals who care about anim January 23, 2012Meetings a Waste of Time? 6 Smart Ways to Fix ThemMeetings are energy and time vampires. Sales people estimate they spend up to 40 percent of their time in internal meetings. Internal meetings! That means they are not prospecting, networking, presenting, writing proposals, closing or serving customers. Of course internal meetings are necessary–but just how necessary? If you want to drive up productivity in your business, follow these simple guidelines when you have your internal meetings: 1. Value the Meeting At the start of every internal meeting multiply the number of people in the room by a set amount of money per person and the length of the meeting and then write the amount on the board: “This is a $XXXX meeting.” If the average employee’s productivity (not wage) for a company is $100/hour, then the math is easy. People forget that there is a large opportunity cost to every meeting. The point is that meetings are an investment: know how much and everyone may be more cautious about the investment. 2. Declare a Desired Outcome Before you get started, state explicitly: What is supposed to change at the end of the meeting? Are we taking action, hiring someone, firing a vendor, determining a strategy, agreeing to fund an initiative, modifying a policy? When you bring people together, it should be to change, develop, stop or start something. Informing, keeping in the loop and getting everyone on the same page are bad reasons for meetings. There are other tools for that communication. Meet to do something. 3. Limit Your Topics If you tighten the topic list–say, to no more than three items–you will tighten the attendee list, shorten the time frame and increase the potential for action. I have seen meetings that are laundry lists of reviews, discussions and feedback that do not lead to any real action. All of that can be handled digitally. If you are not doing something, don’t meet. If you are, then do it deep, get it done and move on. 4. Control the Clock In Robert’s Rules of Order, the touchstone of meeting protocols, time frames are carefully allotted by the chair of the meeting. There’s a reason for that: It controls the investment expense. When you set the topics, set the time you will allot for each item’s discussion. When the time is completed, either allot a defined amount of additional time as necessary, or make a decision based upon the discussion to that point. 5. Call Foul on Repeaters The best meeting leaders will stop a participant (or the entire meeting) and declare, “It seems that we have heard all of the ideas on this topic and we are now repeating ourselves. Does anyone have a new comment to make that is neither a repeat of a past idea nor a counter to one?” If the answer is none, the chair calls for a decision and you move on. 6. Wrap Up with Commitments & Time Frames This is easy enough to do if you set the outcome expectation at the beginning of the meeting. Review the decisions and changes made, remind those who made the commitments of their accountability and time frame, and declare the meeting ended. Meetings are very expensive. They should not be the regular form of communication, but one reserved for truly important matters. Read more:
Tom SearcyAuthor, speaker and consultant Tom Searcy is the foremost expert in large account sales. After taking four companies from under $15 million to as much as $200 million, each in less than 5 years, Tom founded Hunt Big Sales, a fast-growth consultancy; he’s helped clients land more than $5 billion in new sales with over 190 of the Fortune 500 companies, including 3M, Disney and Chase Bank. Tom has authored two books on his process for explosive growth and his expertise has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times UK and Inc Magazine. Click to get Tom’s weekly tips, or to learn more about Hunt Big Sales American Express Meetings & Events Announces 2012 ForecastAmerican Express Meetings & Events has announced the findings of a recent survey and in-depth interviews of meeting experts, including planners, buyers and hotel suppliers based around the world. Higher travel and meeting costs are anticipated, driving the need for companies to focus on striking the right balance of cost effectiveness and experience impact when selecting venues, according to the inaugural American Express Meetings & Events 2012 Meetings Forecast. Notably, companies are continuing to support meetings and are projected to increase overall meeting budgets, while the spending for individual meetings are expected to decrease or stay flat compared to 2011. According to the survey, one third (33%) of hoteliers surveyed expect decreasing budgets per individual meeting, while only 7% expect increases. The information used to develop this forecast was gathered from actual and planned meetings activity of American Express Meetings & Events and Maxvantage clients, multiple surveys of nearly 200 leading hotel suppliers and meeting professionals working in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America. Six Tips to Increase Attendance at Your Next Meeting or EventMark Dallman
Regional Vice President
HPN-Hospitality Performance Network
Be Sensitive of the Calendar and the Clock Location, Location, Location Give Them a Reason to Come Expand Your Attendee List Make Your Content Valuable Share the Message Mark Dallman, “A Meeting Planner’s Best Friend,” is the regional vice president for HPN-Hospitality Performance Network. He has been in the hotel business for more than 20 years and has worked at 14 hotels. January 20, 2012Further Insights on Where Business-to-Business Exhibitions Deliver ValueThe remaining fact sheets sharing key findings from the Changing Environment of Exhibitions Study were released at Expo! Expo! IAEE’s Annual Meeting & Exhibition. CEIR Research Director Nancy Drapeau, PRC notes, “The overall findings from this study indicate that business-to-business exhibitions are an integral part of a company’s marketing mix today and will continue to be so in the near term. We hope organizers use the results from this study to help in planning efforts aimed at assuring exhibitions are in line with what exhibitors are striving to achieve.” Drapeau presented key findings from this study and was joined by veteran exhibition organizer Chuck Schwartz, CEM, chairman of ConvExx and SEMA exhibitor, Scott Poncher, CEO and president of ReadyLift Suspensions, Inc., at an education session held at Expo! Expo! Schwartz and Poncher shared their insights as to what this research means to their organizations and what actions they plan to take moving forward in light of these trends. Schwartz says, “These findings affirm that business-to-business exhibitions continue to be a medium that is hard to beat when done well. Organizers can never rest on their laurels. To succeed, they need to work hard on each edition. They need to make sure they are bringing the right buyers and sellers to the show, keeping content fresh and investing in efforts to bring in new buyers and sellers every year.” He continues, “This study points to the fact that companies are using more marketing tactics than ever before. Companies have choices. Looking to the future, organizers need to hand-hold exhibitors, help them manage and control costs. We are no longer just in the business of bringing visitors to the door, we need to help exhibitors succeed in bringing visitors to their booths. We also need to integrate digital media that makes sense for our audiences for marketing, along with continued use of other conventional marketing tactics that make sense for our industries, such as print advertising or direct mail. ” Poncher says, “Exhibiting at SEMA is a major event for our company. We use this event to showcase our new products for the year and the opportunity to promote our brand to the industry. We invest in a highly professional booth that attendees can walk through, that enables them to touch and feel our product displays of automotive parts and speak with the technical staff behind the product line. We also use high profile celebrities to draw traffic to our booth. This approach meets company goals with substantial lead generation.” Further Insights on Where Business-to-Business Exhibitions Deliver Value Profile Characteristics on Exhibitors in General and Frequent Exhibitors Click here to access to all 10 fact sheets. Background on the Study Findings document the current and planned use of the full array of available marketing, communications and sales tactics; positioning of business-to-business exhibitions in this mix; current high priority marketing and sales objectives and perceived value of using business-to-business exhibitions to achieve them; as well as the factors that drive the decision to exhibit or pull out of an exhibition. CEIR’s online research library available at www.ceir.org offers industry professionals an array of tools to assist in the planning and marketing of exhibitions for organizers, exhibitors and suppliers. Industry trend data is also a trusted source for press, consultants and the financial community. This initiative is funded by grants from the Exhibition Industry Research and the MPI Foundation. Methodology: The data for this study was obtained from an online survey of marketing executives across industry sectors who are involved in marketing and promotions decisions, including deciding whether to exhibit at exhibitions. Target companies included those that exhibited in at least one business-to-business exhibition in the past two years. A total of 298 executives participated in this study. For more information on this report series, contact Nancy Drapeau, PRC, research director of CEIR at ndrapeau@ceir.org or +1 (207) 332-9839. Scottsdale resorts set for developmentScottsdale is poised for another wave of resort development with three properties that could add 1,000 rooms, villas and casitas over the next four years. The Reserve, Reata Ranch and Sereno Canyon all would be built north of the McDowell Mountains and adjacent to the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. “This will broaden and deepen the resort offerings for Scottsdale on the world stage,” said Taber Anderson, who is developing Reata Ranch on 220 acres southeast of 128th Street and Rio Verde Drive/Dynamite Boulevard. Scottsdale has not added a resort since 2000 when the Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale at Troon North opened, and the northeast Valley has not seen a surge in hotel rooms like this since 2002 when the JW Marriott Desert Ridge and Westin Kierland resorts opened nearly 1,700 rooms. The Sereno Canyon Spa & Resort is the latest resort to surface, with plans submitted last month to revise what had been conceived as a gated community of 128 homes on 350 acres. Only nine lots have been sold over the past four years, but no homes have been built. “We have seen the market for large-lot residential (homes) fall off the edge of the world,” said Steven Voss, president of LVA Urban Design Studio, who is involved in Sereno Canyon’s design. Crown Community Development, the property owner, is requesting rezoning to allow construction of the resort and spa on the central 222 acres. The property is southwest of 125th Place and Ranch Gate Road (Happy Valley Road alignment) and is about a mile from the Tom’s Thumb trailhead under construction in the preserve. Crown has invested $40million in roads, water and sewer lines, landscaping, a gatehouse and entry monuments for Sereno Canyon, Voss said. The company, which has links to the Little Nell Hotel, in Aspen, Colo., and the Ojai Valley Inn in California, envisions the Scottsdale resort resembling Sedona’s Enchantment Resort with its access to nearby trails and canyons. Sereno Canyon would feature 96 resort rooms, 108 casitas with two lodging units in one building, 102 single-unit villas and 44 estate homes. Voss said construction could start by early 2014 and would take about two years to complete. The Reserve could be the first of the resort trio to open its doors. Developer Lyle Anderson, known for his Desert Highlands and Desert Mountain golf communities in Scottsdale, said he is putting together equity partners and investors in the project and hopes to break ground by the end of 2012. “Getting one of these projects going is a lot of work,” said Anderson, adding that he is talking with hotel-management companies for the property. The Reserve, positioned as an environmentally sensitive eco-resort, was approved by the Scottsdale City Council in November 2010. Anderson has acquired 5more acres that will be added to his 213-acre site if the city approves rezoning of the new parcel. The Reserve is adjacent to the preserve and the Golf Club Scottsdale. The resort is approved for 325 units that will be split between rooms, villas and estate homes, Anderson said. His son is Taber Anderson, who is developing Reata Ranch, which will tie in with the area’s equestrian roots. “We’re still defining what a 21st-century Scottsdale guest ranch is going to be,” Taber Anderson said. “Unfortunately, guest ranches have disappeared, and you have to go to Wickenburg or Tucson to find that now.” Under its rezoning request, Reata Ranch has asked to build 35 lodge units, 75 cabins, 120 casitas and 100 villas at the guest ranch. It would also include some stables for short-term horse boarding. The plan tentatively is set for review by the Scottsdale Planning Commission on Jan.25, Taber Anderson said. If approved by the commission and City Council, the project could get started by the middle of 2013, he said. Reata Ranch, like the other two planned resorts, will take advantage of its proximity to the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, which now includes 21,400 acres of mountain and Sonoran Desert terrain. Scottsdale taxpayer investment in the preserve will pay dividends, with increased visitation and spending in the city and at the new resorts, Taber Anderson said. “They’ve created their own version of the Grand Canyon,” he added. Tourism is a key Scottsdale industry, with 8million annual visitors filling 16,000 hotel rooms and contributing an estimated $3.6billion to the local economy. How to Get Your Business Involved in a CharityCSI loves to give back and do it at least once or twice a month..so check out this article and see how you can get involved and make a difference! You feel a nudge to have your business make a difference, leave a legacy or change the world. You’ve dismissed the idea of giving away your possessions and moving to a faraway place to serve the destitute. Your idea now is to connect with a charity in your hometown. If you’re not sure where to begin, here’s a roadmap for getting involved in a charity. Choose your charity Find and embrace a charity that means something to your business. The relationship ought to make sense in terms of one of these areas.
Selecting a charity because of personal interest may seem irrelevant. But the causes that mean the most to you often serve as the best platform for attracting and engaging people. Intuitive connections between your business and the charity are important, but they are less significant than the packaging and promotion of your company’s involvement. Promote your business’s tactics for getting attention and solving problems. For example, I wouldn’t naturally associate book publishing with the global effort to end malaria. Nevertheless, the publishing venture The Domino Project successfully created, published and sold the book End Malaria. It’s a compilation of essays that had nothing to do with the disease, its prevention or its treatment. The Domino Project donated $20 of each sale to Malaria No More. Consider ways to advance the cause After you have selected a charity, find ways to get involved. You’ll find two kinds of opportunities.
Depending on your choice, you or your business may do one or more things.
As a business owner, your charitable activities can involve rallying and organizing your employees, customers and community members to support the cause. For example, you may form a team of employees and customers for a charity walk. You might designate your business to serve as a drop-off site for donations from community members. Or, you could host a service project and solicit volunteers from your employees, customers, vendors and community members. Don’t pressure people to make sacrifices on your behalf. In other words, don’t ask employees to volunteer on their days off for your favorite cause. Encourage involvement and consider offering incentives for participation. Be creative Think creatively when you’re crafting a plan for your business’s involvement with a charity. Get inspired by what other small businesses are doing.
You can promote various events and activities on the business’s website and social-media pages, as well as through e-mail newsletters and traditional media outlets. Avoid pitfalls Getting involved in a charity, although admirable, has pitfalls. Being recognized as a community-minded business will make your company the focus of charitable requests. To make sure that charitable involvement positions your business favorably while protecting its profits, devise and execute a strategy for philanthropy.
Accept serendipity The approach I recommend involves both strategy and serendipity. You set the direction for charitable activity for the strategic component. The serendipitous aspect is a reminder that it’s not about ROI. Expecting a return on your investment will lead to disappointment, but pleasant surprises will most likely occur. Julie Rains is a senior writer at Wise Bread, a leading personal-finance community dedicated to helping people get the most out of their money. Get daily money tips by following Wise Bread on Facebook or Twitter. |
