Our newest addition!

We're welcoming Max Draves to the RTP family!

Congratulations Dawn and Wayne!

The Flavor of Seattle Culinary Arts Tour

Eight new culinary tours are being offered this summer by Gray Line of Seattle tour company. Each four-hour tour features a visit with a chef from a popular Seattle restaurant, shopping for ingredients at the local market (such as Pike Place Market), and a cooking demonstration at the chef’s restaurant. The restaurants participating are Crush, Troiani Ristorante Italiano, El Gaucho, Sky City at the Space Needle, Chandler’s Crabhouse on Lake Union, Daniel’s Broiler at Lake Union, Waterfront Grill and Palisade. The tours have already started operations and cost about $100 per person. More information is available by calling 800.426.7532 or www.graylineofseattle.com.

Enjoy!

Jeanne Berry, Principal

Social Networking Site for all you Road Warriors

If you are a MySpace-er or a Facebook-ie your next social networking frontier may just be Placely.com.

Placely is a web service providing travelers the ability to stay better connected to everything travel. The Company was started by social, leisure and business travelers, living all over the world. They knew a better tool existed to share their travel plans and experiences.

With Placely, you share your past, present, and future itineraries, along with your experiences. Traditionally, you would call your friends on the phone to tell them about an upcoming trip, get advice about a destination, or rave about an awesome trip you just came back from. Placely handles all that for you, but in a much more fun and efficient way!

Placely.com's TripKit lets you aggregate all the information you'll need for your trip in one convenient spot. Just enter your travel itinerary and from there you'll have a page with maps from Google, a five-day weather forecast courtesy of the Weather Channel and user generated content from Yelp.com.

This is first and foremost a social networking site for business travelers. You can see who in your network of friends and colleagues will be in the city you're traveling to when you are there, and whether they live there or are just visiting (although if they are your real friends, you'd probably know that part - I hope).

This is still in the Beta phase, but functionality additions coming are concerts, sporting events and shows that will be displayed. But right now you can post an upcoming trip and anyone in your network can synch their schedule to yours. Meet you in ............

My Vacation Has A Spreadsheet – in E-X-C-E-L!

There are laid-back vacations where preparation takes little more than making the reservation and packing your bathing suit. Then there are distant land vacations where you probably should brush up on your language skills, research the country and customs a bit, and do a little bit more prep before departing.



Then there’s the Disney vacation.



Planning an enjoyable (keyword: enjoyable) trip to Walt DisneyWorld (WDW) in Orlando, FL can be a bit labor intensive for a variety of reasons. First of all, the square footage is twice the size of Manhattan so transportation is an issue. WDW is comprised of four different parks: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Disney Studios (formerly Disney-MGM Studios). Fortunately, many of the Disney parks and resorts have at least two free modes of transportation as alternatives to driving yourself (and paying for parking): the internal bus system and either a monorail or boat option.


Neurotic Disney Planner (NDP) note: Animal Kingdom is the only park that only has the bus option, and no busses run from resort to resort. You'll need to transfer at a park or Downtown Disney.


Besides transportation, there’s the question of where and when you’re going to eat. Certain on-site restaurants book up quickly, especially those that include character interaction. One of the most difficult reservations to book is breakfast in Cinderella’s castle in the Magic Kingdom. Seasoned Disney travelers book all their ADR’s (Advanced Dining Reservations in Disney speak) as soon as they can (6 months out) and then tweak them here and there as their plans change. The thought is that it’s better to have the reservation and cancel it than to not have one and get stuck eating hot dogs and popcorn for dinner.


Additionally, good time slots for dining have become harder to secure during Disney's “free dining" promotions. Disney has had a dining plan for quite some time, where you pay a flat fee per day and get x-amount of meal credits to be used throughout your trip. “Free dining” is a concept that Disney has introduced to drive park attendance during slower times (read HOT – August and September) by offering guests the same food credits for no additional charge. When free dining is offered, many visitors take advantage and book restaurants they would never visit if they were paying out of pocket.


NDP note: Dining plan options (free or paid for) can be used at most restaurants but not all and do have certain restrictions so you’ll need to familiarize yourself with the dining plan before you book your ADR’s.


A little planning can make a big difference in your vacation experience at WDW. Fortunately, it is not difficult to find publications that give terrific planning advice. One essential piece of information is historic park attendance so that you can zig while the masses zag. On any given day, one park is historically more crowded than the others. That’s the park you want to avoid. Big crowds mean long wait times for rides, crowded parade viewing, and general difficulty and frustration moving around and seeing everything there is to see. Once you’ve planned which days you’ll be where, it’s a good idea to make a note of park opening and closing times, as well as parade and fireworks schedules.


NDP note: Disney offers “Extra Magic Hours” (EMH) in the mornings and evenings that are additional hours only for Disney resort guests. You’ll want to take note of which days of your vacation have EMH because those parks are generally more crowded on those days. However, if you are a resort guest and can make a morning EMH right at opening, there’s a good chance that you’ll be able to hit the most popular rides with little crowds. It’s the folks behind that first wave who find the waits a little longer than normal.


Regardless of how much planning you’re willing to do, the best time to experience WDW is during off-peak times of the year: October, early November, January – March. The weather is mild and the crowds are lower. You can generally walk right on to rides and enjoy the parks without a throng of people at your back. Of course, the most crowded times are school holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas, and the summer months (when the temps and humidity are at their worst).


No matter when you choose to visit WDW, here are some planning sites worth checking out:
http://www.wdwinfo.com/
http://www.disboards.com/
http://www.tourguidemike.com/
http://www.passporter.com/wdw/


Enjoy your Disney trip!
~ Tiffany

Affordable Meetings West (Part Two)

Tales from the Ship…

Do you believe in Ghosts? I do. Well ok… so I have no proof, but I'm pretty sure they exist.

One of the highlights of the Affordable Meetings West Conference in Long Beach was getting to stay in the Queen Mary, historic ship-turned-hotel that's notoriously haunted. As you can imagine, the hotel was by no means fancy. My room had one round port-hole window and a tiny little shower, but the history and charm was the true appeal of staying here. You could visit the tourist shops inside the boat, have a drink and enjoy the view of Long Beach from the bar, eat at one of the three restaurants offered, or wander the multiple decks filled with historic exhibits. I myself was itching for a ghost sighting.

I didn't have time to take their Ghosts and Legends tour, which gives a guided tour of some of the most haunting places in the ship, but I did do my own exploring. A friend and I set out one night to explore the ship on our own, luckily running into and chatting with a friendly hotel staffer. He was happy to take us to the "Murder Suite" located on the “B” deck. We couldn't go inside, but we were able to peek through the peephole in hopes of seeing some paranormal movement while the staffer told us the tale of the murder that occurred inside. Apparently a man kept his daughter locked up in this room, then eventually killed her and took his own life. Periodically, witnesses have reported hearing the girl playing in the hallway, and strange noises coming from inside the room. There are multiple "murder rooms" the hotel is not allowed to sell to guests because of their gruesome history. He also told us about the swimming pool, which has been dry and unused for over 30 years. Witnesses have seen women in retro bathing suits frequenting the area, as well as wet footprints on the ground near the empty pool. A light "orb" has been seen dipping and "splashing" around in the again EMPTY pool! Sadly, I saw nothing supernatural, but the stories and dark hallways were enough to give me the heeby-jeebies later while I was left alone in my room.

A timeline of the Queen Mary:
War Service: March 1940 - September 1946
War History: Carried a total of 765,429 military personnel; sailed a total of 569,429 miles (916,407 km); carried up to 15,000 troops at one time; carried wounded returning to the United States; transported Winston Churchill three times to conferences; carried 12,886 G.I. brides and children.
Resumed Peacetime Passenger Service: July 31, 1947
Retired from Regular Passenger Service: September 19, 1967 (after completing 1,001 crossings of the Atlantic)
Departed on "Last Great Cruise": 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, October 31, 1967
Arrived in Long Beach, California: 10:00 a.m. Saturday, December 9, 1967
Change of Ownership: Removed from British registry and officially turned over ownership to the City of Long Beach at 10:00 a.m., Monday, December 11, 1967
*Information taken from http://www.queenmary.com/index.php?page=queenmarystats>

Read more fun facts about the Queen Mary on their website:
http://www.queenmary.com/index.php?page=factsandhistory

If you're looking for a fun, budget-friendly hotel in Long Beach, I would recommend visiting the Queen Mary for an interesting hotel experience. And guess what, they also have event space! What a great place to hold a Halloween party.

Happy haunting!

~Annie

Affordable Meetings West (Part One)

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend the HSMAI's Affordable Meetings West Conference in Long Beach, CA. AMW was a two-day, session-filled conference focused on overall meeting and event planning, including a 200 booth trade show. Being that it was "affordable" (free, actually), it was definitely bare bones and frill-free. But the content was great, and the speakers were excellent. Below are some nuggets from my favorite sessions.

Mastering Memory:

A good memory is something essential to us event planners, always running around juggling a million things at once. Did you know that you can actually improve your brain and memory function with simple training? We learned a few tricks from Scott Hagwood, author and four-time National Memory Champion. He proved himself by asking our names as we entered the room, and was able to recall all 40 or so names throughout the hour and a half session! Using his tips I can now count to 10 in Mandarin Chinese by memory, using the Roman Room technique. It's been almost two weeks, and I still remember 1 through 10! Check out the technique here:
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTIM_06.htm

I am not a master of memory, and tend to write everything down so I don't forget. Scott says if we continue to do this, it basically gives our brain permission to forget the information. In order to train your brain to retain more info, start relying on your memory more and write less down. Start small by memorizing you grocery list rather than jotting it on your usual post-it.

I'm sure this has happened to us all at some point: You meet someone, and five seconds later you forget their name. Consciously take a moment after they say their name to process it. Usually we're too busy thinking about what we're going to say next and the name just flies out of our brain. Take the time to process the name, and repeat it back to him/her. "It’s a pleasure to meet you, Sarah." Repeat her name two more times in the conversation, and you'll increase your chance of remembering it. Then, try to associate this person with someone you already know with the same name. Example: "Sarah has blonde hair, and so does my cousin Sarah." Picture both Sarah's together, and now every time you see this Sarah with her blonde hair, you'll remember she reminds you of cousin Sarah.

http://www.scotthagwood.com/

Green Meetings:

We've written about this before, but AMW held a great green meeting session, offering even more helpful green suggestions. One of their main points was communicating your intentions to your attendees! If they know they're not getting the usual paper hand-outs and bottled water because of environmental reasons, they're more likely to get on board. If you're using recycled materials in your notebooks and are reducing the number of pages, use symbols in your materials to show this.

AMW reduced their conference journal enough to result in 80% less fiber paper usage with over 900 lbs less paper used! Not only that, but they included a page in the front of the notebook showing their green efforts compared to last year, using actual quantifiers showing this change. They also used live reusable décor on the banquet tables rather than cut flowers. Sticks, moss, and potted plants can all be reused over and over. We weren't given any handouts other than the conference journal, and all PowerPoint slides and handouts were put on a CD in the back of the book. All great green efforts!

http://www.thinkoutsidethebottle.com/

Come back next week for more on the Affordable Meetings Conference.
~Annie

Audience Response Becomes Personal

All those great audience response systems we’ve told you about have one drawback: cost. At $80-100 per person, the cost scares off many would-be users. But zuku brings the cost down to just $2 per person (plus $300 set-up) by requiring each attendee to use their own cell phone for texting in their response. Normal carrier charges apply to the individual, so if an attendee does not have unlimited texting in their plan, or is from out of the country, they may chose not to participate. In that case, your event could offer them a reimbursement. But no special hardware or software is required. Just the mobile phones and the internet.

The company is still growing, and most of their event clients seem to be government and education meetings, but I walked thru a little demonstration the other day and it works pretty well. I’m not a texter, so it was a little unwieldy for me, having to type in a special code before each response. But there must be a way to keep that code on your screen and then type a response. A yes or no answer meant typing a 3 or 4 letter code, rather than hitting one button. For regular texters, this is probably cake, and for us tech dinosaurs, at least we leave the conference learning something!

The administrator can send any messages they want back to the responders individually or as a group. So conference planners could sell space on the responses to sponsors. The polling results interface that the audience sees is utilitarian, but zuku is working on a way to drop it into Powerpoint templates for a prettier presentation. Also if you wanted to display responses to the entire group, the only way to screen out responses is to read them one by one and delete the ones you don’t want seen. But I believe this is the way of the future for audience response. Check out www.zukuweb.com.

Thank you to Corbin Ball, meetings tech expert, for introducing me to zuku!