More than 1,300 meeting and incentive planners as well as 1,200 hoteliers, CVB personnel and other industry suppliers descended upon Las Vegas from June 19 to 22 for Meeting Professionals International’s World Education Congress. I spent some time both in the learning sessions and on the show floor, and the atmosphere was very motivating—there was so much energy even with the outside temperature being nearly 115 degrees.
Read MoreI just read a very interesting article in the June issue of Incentive magazine, about what today’s employees want from their jobs that will keep them not just productive but also loyal over the long term. In a nutshell, it is this simple: Most employees want to do work that matters, and they want recognition for doing that work well. While that might be simple to state, it is not nearly as simple to make that happen.
Read MoreThe good news in the meetings and incentives marketplace right now is that the majority of planners are
seeing at least a slight bump in their budget allocations for upcoming programs. According to Meeting
Professionals International’s 2017 spring outlook, 59 percent of responding planners said that they have
“favorable conditions”—in the form of more money to spend—as they coordinate their programs over
the next 12 to 18 months. Only 14 percent reported a decrease in their budgets, a low figure historically.
Read MoreIn early May, employee-search firm Peak Sales Recruiting released a compensation study it conducted among more than 600 leading sales reps in different industries. From the study’s findings, the overarching conclusion was that for a sales compensation plan to be effective in retaining “A-level” talent, it must be considered by reps to be above market average, as well as easy to understand and timely.
Read MoreThis week, U.S. President Donald Trump is receiving critiques of his first 100 days in office from just about every corner of the news media. But if those reviews even remotely resemble the ones we are getting for our newest all-inclusive property, UNICO 20°87° Hotel Riviera Maya, then President Trump would be very happy. Opened […]
Read MoreIt’s been a week of deep introspection in the hospitality industry, after much of the world saw a video of an airline passenger on an overbooked flight being forcefully removed from a seat he paid for. Obviously, no customer should ever have an experience like that. The fact that the situation got to where the airline had to remove a customer already on the plane revealed a huge failure by its employees to follow their company’s customer-service procedures. The situation should have been resolved before anyone got on the plane, and in a way such that displaced customers received an apology plus compensation that made them feel valued.
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