Extravagant vs. Essential

Scenario 1: You all know the drill. You are in your office and you notice you are late for the strategic planning meeting. You rush in, not quite ready, with everyone else in the room in the same disarray. The meeting is interrupted by urgent calls, requests for approvals, signatures and the omnipresent iphones and blackberries. The meeting ends with nothing accomplished. Strategic planning gets pushed to another day.

Scenario 2: You drive 45 minutes to an inspiring location where you check into a serene room that overlooks the ocean. You open the door and listen to the pounding surf and feel the fresh breeze on your face. You go to sleep comfortable after a delicious meal. You wake in the morning, have a nutritious breakfast and enter the conference room with all your materials to find everyone else in the same state of mind. You get to work. Discussions are free. Ideas are developed. No phones. No interruptions. Just inspiration. By the end of the day a new strategic plan is finalized.

Now here is the question: Which scenario is most expensive?

You can’t watch the news or read a paper these days without reading about corporate excesses, and indeed there have been a number of documented abuses. The problem is that such news often convinces corporate directors to curtail legitimate uses of conference centers at an important business cost that is well above what would have been the cost of the meeting.

The Pacific Rim Conference Center at Turtle Bay Resort allows businesses to conduct meetings in a professional yet affordable environment. The Pacific Rim Conference Center offers a total of 31,000 square feet of meeting space and accommodations for up to 600 attendees making the venue the ideal location for executive conferences, banquets and receptions. Experienced conference services staff are there to assist with your program needs from catering to audiovisual services to team-building programs, ensuring a seamless and productive event.

The Pacific Rim Conference Center and Turtle Bay Resort are both managed by Benchmark Hospitality International. Benchmark’s Chairman and CEO, Burt Cabañas, was recently featured in a cover story article in Corporate & Incentive Travel magazine. This article addresses the importance of conference centers in maximizing business investment results. Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International recently published results of a survey of Fortune 1000 Chief Marketing Officers, which stated in part that “…meetings and events (have) the highest return on investment of any marketing channel or initiative”. These two articles along with other helpful information is located on Benchmark’s website and can be accessed through the link at the bottom of this post.