 Looking for a great hotel or destination for your next meeting but not sure where to start? Well, you can start with your goals and objectives. This will usually drive where you should have your next meeting and we're gonna talk about that today. Hey, it's Leanne from conferencesource.net and Stephen and I have been helping meeting planners find the perfect hotel or destination for their meeting for over 12 years now. Some meeting planners know exactly where they want to go and some they're just not sure what part of the country or even what kind of hotel they want to have their program in and there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, that's one of the reasons that they use our services is to look at all the different options but it can sometimes lead to decision paralysis when the options just become overwhelming. So one of the tips that we give back to our meeting planner clients is to let's take a look at the goals and objectives of the event and that might start to pair down the options and really hone in on some destinations or types of hotels that would be a good fit for your program. So that's what I'm talking about today is what are some of the objectives that we typically have in our meetings and what kind of hotels would maybe even fit those objectives. Number one, if networking is a large objective of your program then a place outside of a major city center where you're not going to lose your delegation after hours can sometimes lead to great networking. You might also want to find a hotel that has a really nice and large lobby bar so those after hours networking opportunities can take place there. Number two, growing membership. So if you're trying to grow your membership in one part of the country having your meeting in a completely opposite part of the country probably won't lend itself to that. So you want to nurture those new local members or prospective local members by having a meeting in their neck of the woods and then you have the potential to take it to another part of the province or country in future meetings. Number three, business objectives. So if there's a certain destination that lends itself well to your particular industry you might want to have your meeting there and then you've got opportunity for different off-site venues or tours that you can tie into your meeting. So look at your industry and then look at the destinations coast to coast that would lend themselves well to that industry. Number four, pressed for time. So these are for those local board meetings where you need to bring everyone in for the day and then they need to get out of dodge and go back to the office. So usually hotels near the airport or near major highways are great for those meetings where you just got to get or done and get out. Number five, education. So if your program is very education based and there's some compulsory training having it in a place or a hotel with a ton of distractions is not going to lend itself well. So you might want to find more standard property that doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles so that people can focus on the on the education and get their training done without those distractions. Number six, increase attendance. So if this is your goal this is where the bells and whistles come out because people want to attend conferences in destinations and hotels that are hashtag bucket list. So if you want to increase your attendance you can start to look at those places. Now if you want to keep that attendance after hours again taking it out of a major center you might be better off doing that because then you won't lose that local delegation at night when they go home. Number seven, celebration. Again you might want to find a special destination or a special hotel if this is a benchmark program for your organization. Now if there's celebration built into the program itself that's when you can start to use off-site venues and I have some advice about off-site venues that you can find in previous videos and blog posts as well. Number eight, building revenue. So you need to look at this from a few different angles. It's not just if people are going to attend but if you're going to get exhibitors and sponsors to attend. So looking at the destinations and hotels that make it easy for exhibitors to attend, easy for sponsors to get to, and easy for your regular members and advocates to get to. They're the ones that are going to pay year over year so you want to make sure that they're happy. Have I missed any objectives? Let me know if there's any other objectives that you have for your meetings and then let us know what kinds of hotels and destinations would lend themselves well to those objectives. I hope these tips were helpful and if you like this video please click the like button and subscribe to my youtube channel. To learn more about Stephen and I's complimentary site selection services hop on over to conferencesource.net and visit us there. Thanks for watching this week's video. We'll see you soon. Bye for now.