Years ago, a particularly creative ad campaign assured skeptical car buyers, “It’s not your grandfather’s Oldsmobile.” Fast-forward to 2015 and hotel managers are assuring hesitant luxury meeting and incentive program planners, “It’s not your grandfather (or grandmother’s) extended-stay hotel.”

Through the 1990s and 2000s, planners working in the luxury field would have been perfectly correct in assuming this type of lodging product (focusing on stays of five nights or longer) wasn’t for them. The hotels were typically midscale and cookie cutter with modest finishes, little or no meeting space, no full-service restaurant and—worst of all—mostly in suburban, highway and office park locations.

No longer. Paralleling a move into downtown urban locations, formerly “upscale” brands like Residence Inn by Marriott, Homewood Suites by Hilton and Element from Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, among others, are increasingly resembling luxury product.

In the past few years, for example, Marriott has opened enhanced Residence Inns in downtown Los Angeles and Midtown West in Manhattan, both new builds. Last week, the brand added another property to this part of its portfolio, opening a 381-suite hotel on South LaSalle St. in the Windy City’s financial district. The largest hotel in the chain, the Residence Inn Chicago Downtown/Loop is a sophisticated, $130 million-plus adaptive reuse of an historic, 100-year-old landmarked office building.

The developer, The Prime Group, developed the flat-out luxury J.W. Marriott hotel two blocks away (also an adaptive reuse of an historic building) and compares the Residence Inn’s finishes and facilities favorably.

At the same time, certain luxury amenities planners may take for granted—room service, turndown service, full-service spa, active concierge service—are just not part of the package here.

Yet for luxury planners who unexpectedly find themselves under budget constraints, downtown extended-stay room rates—while high for the chain—are still at a considerable discount to luxury properties in the market. Plus an upgraded buffet breakfast is complimentary as is basic Wi-Fi.

Unheard-of for suburban/highway extended-stay, the new Chicago property offers 6,700 sq. ft. of meeting space, divided into 11 boardroom, general session and breakout rooms. A full-service bar is already in place; a fine-dining restaurant is coming in the spring. Lounges and other public spaces can also be used for private receptions, lunches and so on.

With the J.W. (or any luxury full-service property) nearby, the extended-stay option can always serve as backup for overflow (both guest rooms and meeting space). There might also be situations where planners are faced with privacy, confidentiality or even security issues and need a discreet setting for certain high-level sessions away from the main meeting venue.

Lastly, if the truth be known, extended-stay hotels never turned away short transient stays, despite their longer-stay positioning. But with the current spike in downtown inventory, these brands are more actively encouraging stays of a night or two or three (along with “true” extended stay bookings that can last weeks or even months).

Photo credits: Courtesy of Residence Inn Chicago Downtown/Loop

Total fees and surcharges collected by U.S. hotels are forecast to increase to a record $2.47 billion in 2015, up from $2.35 billion in 2014. Included are both first time fees and surcharges for certain services as well as increases in charges levied in previous years, according to respected lodging industry authority Bjorn Hanson, currently clinical professor at New York University’s Tisch Center for Hospitality and Tourism and former head of the hospitality practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Fees run the gamut from resort or amenity fees, early departure fees, Internet fees and mini-bar restocking fees to charges for in-room safes, unattended parking, overnight package delivery and holding fees for stored luggage.

New surcharges Hanson is starting to see more often include charging for early check-in (popular in Las Vegas) and for guaranteeing a specific room type (king rooms especially).

Charges aimed squarely at groups are also on the rise. These include charges for bartenders and other staff at events, special fees for set-up and breakdown of meeting rooms and even administrative fees for providing master folio billing.

Unless planners ask during negotiations—or require that such surcharges be spelled out in the RFP process—they may not even realize such fees exist or that their cost is going up. Attendees are even likelier to be in the dark regarding fees that target guests, at least until checkout.

Any single fee may not break the bank. Taken cumulatively, however, planners could be looking at thousands of dollars in unexpected costs, depending on the size of the group, length of the event, and so on. It’s a scenario particularly hard to swallow in a year when guest room rates and airfares are going up as well and they’re increasingly under budget pressure.

Hotel sales managers are able to waive or limit some fees and surcharges. Like any negotiation, much depends on the give-and-take. The more flexible a planner can be (on dates, arrival patterns, must-haves, additional revenue streams, etc.), the better. Certainly coming to the table fully-armed with hard numbers as to how competing hotels in the market stack up on these issues will help.

Hanson marks the start of the current escalation in the number and amount of fees to the widespread introduction of energy surcharges in the early-2000s. Over the years, certain charges hotels had grown accustomed to (such as in-room telephone and television movie rental charges) shrank dramatically with changes in technology, forcing them to search farther afield for replacements.

But charges for early check-in when the room is ready? Or for providing a master folio for billing? Seriously?

Photo credits: Shutterstock

Below are some tips to consider when you are packing for your next trip.

Carry-On Items:

• Overhead bins are only so big, and each aircraft has different space allotments. If you can manage to carry-on a small bag and personal item that together will fit under the seat in front of you, you will save yourself the hassle of having to reach high to move your bag in and out of the bin.
• Your carry-on should include any must-have items. Medication, travel credentials, identification, money, and some of your favorite snacks should be easily accessible throughout your travels.
• If you travel with a laptop, tablet, or other device, be sure to pack the charging cables with them in your carry-on. Work-related documents should be kept accessible as well – digital formats are great when you’re on the road, but if you must have a hard copy plan to keep it in your carry-on for easy reference.
• Avoid carrying-on items of an odd shape or size that may not fit in the aircraft as easily as you imagine. Instead, consider shipping those items to your destination to avoid frustration and worry when the airline attendants ask you to gate check your fragile or unique belongings.

Checked Luggage:

• Keep your checked luggage to a minimum so you can easily manage all of your belongings on your own. It can be extra stressful when you’re pulling too many bags and one tips over or you drop items before you even make it inside the airport.
• Be sure to pack appropriately for your events. Consider whether they are outdoors, if you need closed-toed shoes, layers, sunscreen, a bathing suit, or other specific items. Check the local weather before you pack so you are fully prepared. If laundry options are on site, you can pack even less and clean outfits as needed.
• Always tag your bags with your contact information, and also include your contact information in a front pocket. If your bag tag comes off or your bag gets lost during your travels, the airlines will be able to find it more easily.

Shipments:

• Consider shipping your excess luggage to your destination instead of trying to manage it at the airport. It may be more beneficial to ship it in advance of your arrival and not have to worry about fitting it in your taxi or small rental car.
• If you like to have event essentials on-hand when you land (your standard office supplies, extra personal hygiene supplies, etc.), ship them in advance so you can track their arrival and not risk losing them if your luggage doesn’t make your connections.
• Ship any special items that you cannot fit under the seat in front of you and you do not want to gate check. Even if the item is the appropriate carry-on size, you may be asked to gate check if it doesn’t fit properly, or if there is not enough space left when you board the aircraft.

When you’re packing, be sure to specifically include items that will make your trip more enjoyable. A good book, your favorite snacks, a light jacket, and some headphones can all add to your comfort during your travels. As planners, by nature we are so focused on others and their experiences that we sometimes forget to take care of ourselves. Flights can provide great uninterrupted time to check-in with yourself, and appreciate your experience, relax and recharge, even if just in your airplane seat. Pack accordingly to get the most benefit from relaxed, care-free travels!

Message to planners: as you ready RFPs for 2016, expect a sellers’ market. Translation: there’s not going to be much leeway on rate increases.

What’s a planner to do? No matter how bleak the situation, there are always negotiating strategies. Here’s a key one. It won’t work for every planner because it’s based on the assumption that the planner’s company or enterprise also negotiates with hotels for individual business travel as well as possibly incentive travel programs. But if it does apply to your situation, it’s your best bet for bringing leverage on your hotel suppliers through the RFP process.

The strategy can be summed up in one word: consolidation. By consolidating your company’s meetings and events spend with its transient travel program, you and your travel manager counterparts at the company are delivering more volume to your preferred hotel suppliers. More volume means more revenue and greater market share, two benefits highly valued by hotel owners and managers.

Many planners and other travel buyers are already consolidating. In fact, roughly half of the respondents in a poll conducted this spring by the research arm of the Global Business Travel Association said their companies had already created—or were in the process of creating—a consolidated program in anticipation of having added clout at the negotiating table. The poll surveyed 120 planners/travel managers in North America and another 95 in Europe.

The more specific and detailed a consolidated RFP, the better. Gathering sufficient information to make any RFP persuasive is always a challenge, even more so when you’re collecting data from group meetings and events as well as transient travel. For the planner, the underlying assumption is that to the degree possible you’ll direct meetings to the same hotels in the same destinations the travel managers are using in their preferred hotel program. This will be less problematic if there are meetings you plan a year or more out. But it can be more of a challenge, if doable at all, if meetings you’re responsible for are booked in a shorter booking window.

Travel managers negotiate based on a projected number of transient room nights they expect to have in their top cities. The more room nights, the better the negotiated rate.

Depending on the size of the preferred transient hotel program, there may be multiple hotel options in a given city. Not all may be suitable in terms of size and facilities for the type meetings you’re planning, but with more options in a city, there’ll be more flexibility.

Alternately, some companies have national account status with a hotel company, where a negotiated rate applies for transient bookings at any of that hotel company’s properties. Typically in these deals, however, the discounted rate is less generous.

See also: RFP Season: Why You Should Know Lodging Taxes

Photos: Shutterstock

With RFP season to determine group hotel rates for 2016 really getting underway in September, this is a good time to “test the waters” to see what kind of negotiating climate planners can expect to find in the coming weeks.

As a general rule, the better the hotel business is doing, the less willing hotel sales managers will be to negotiate serious discounts. There are exceptions, depending on the market, but overall the hotel business is booming.

According to Smith Travel Research, an authoritative source of lodging industry metrics, in the month of June, U.S. hotels had the highest June occupancy (73.1%) since tracking began in 1988, the highest demand for rooms (109 million) and the highest annualized occupancy (65.2%).

More good news/bad news, depending on which side of the negotiating table you’re sitting on: PFK-Hospitality Research, another source of industry data, expects lodging demand growth to continue to exceed new supply growth through at least 2016.

Fewer new hotels translates into less competition on the part of existing hotels, which in turn again means less incentive for hotels to get serious about negotiations.

As they enter the 2016 RFP season, the major hotel companies are feeling quite confident—justifiably. Hyatt Hotels is a typical example. Both its Grand Hyatt and Hyatt Regency brands target large group meetings, while its Park Hyatt brand tends to host smaller, more senior-level meetings.

Group room revenue at the company’s U.S. full-service hotels jumped 10.1% in the second quarter, compared to the same period in 2014. Group room nights increased 2.7%, but the real bonanza for Hyatt came in group ADR, which jumped 7.2% in the period, compared to prior year.

“Group rooms performed better in each category than transient rooms,” Hyatt Hotels Corp. president & CEO Mark Hoplimazian commented in his quarterly earnings report.

Therefore, with 2016 shaping up to be a sellers’ market, just what kind of rate increases are planners looking at? The Global Business Travel Association, for one, expects negotiated hotel rates in North America, including group rates, to jump an average 4.3%.

Smith Travel notes that group business accounted for 43% of all room nights sold in the U.S. in 2005. That percentage had fallen dramatically by 2014. Last year, only 35% of all room nights were group. It’s a disturbing trend for planners, if it continues.

Should hotel companies cut back on their group volume, the crucial negotiating issue may well turn out to be availability (i.e. planners getting the room nights they need in their top volume cities on the peak weekday nights they need them). Stay tuned.

See also: RFP Season: Why You Should Know Lodging Taxes

Photos: Shutterstock

easy as 1-2-3!

If your next event has flexible dates and you are looking for a way to lower your event budget, SpeedRFP Network now allows planners to easily search for top deals at select hotels.

For more information, view this quick tutorial that takes you step-by-step through this process:

For help submitting your RFP or if you have any additional questions, contact our Planner Communications team by phone: 805-879-4479 or via email at: info@speedrfp.com

When organizations face challenges, it’s important to tap into the creativity of all team members to generate innovative solutions. When it’s time to stretch your team beyond habitual boundaries, shake things up by taking them to an environment fosters innovation, or by engaging them in an activity that stretches their creative muscles.

Take time to debrief the experience together, and then participate in brainstorming exercises that apply creative thinking skills in resolving specific organizational challenges.

1. Play music.
It can be background music or a music video or teams coming together to create company related lyrics to a musical score. Music is sure to relax participants and spark creativity.

2.  Try an art project.
Team members don’t need to have any special talent to try pottery, colouring, or social painting.

3. Take your meeting outdoors.
Even if you can’t travel for a specific meeting, there are many options, even in the city. Try a terrace, rooftop patio, a park, or the quiet corner of an urban beach. In the winter, greenhouses, atriums, glass houses, indoor beaches, and venues with large picture windows work well.

4. Meet at a museum or art gallery.
Many of them have meeting facilities or conference rooms. Take a break, view the collections and return to the meeting with renewed energy. 

5. Surround them with color and light.
Color and light stimulate the rods and cones of the eyes and, in so doing, can stimulate the brain.

6. Head to the beach to spark your creativity. 
A relaxing setting that is very different from a traditional meeting room can invigorate teams and give them the energy to come up with new solutions.

7. Participate in an improv workshop together.
Improv requires actors to respond on the fly and come up with a range of options. Team members will have gain similar benefits from improv.

8. Send team members out to interview representatives from companies with a reputation for innovation.
For one of my company’s clients, in addition to the usual challenges that were just for fun, each team was assigned a different experience. They popped in at a luxury car dealership, upscale retailer, luxury hotel, and an airline. Everything was a arranged in advance and they were given a format to share their findings through a mini-performance. After a debriefing, teams were re-configured and they applied what they had learned through the interviews to their own organizational challenges.

What meeting environments and activities have you used to spark creativity during meetings?

Photo Credit: Andrew Shafer Visuals

Originally appeared on Cvent by Anne Thornley-Brown August 3, 2015

During the summer, it’s always best to lighten things up. Fortunately, this can also help guests relax and help trim the budget. Start with a theme to pull everything together, then add these 15 light touches.

Venues

1. Whether it’s a beach, lakeside retreat, a clearing in the woods or garden, take it outdoors if you can. No decor can improve on nature. If the event is going to continue into the night, try to pick a location that already has lighting to keep costs down.
2. If you can’t take it outdoors, provide a view of nature. Large picture windows, solariums, greenhouses, glasshouses, or skylights will do the trick.
3. Provide a view of water. A waterfall, the ocean, sea, pond, or a lake will project a light and fresh atmosphere during the day and an electrifying effect at night.

Decor

4. Keep decor to a minimum to preserve a clean, uncluttered environment. Less is more during the summer.
5. If you’ve picked a venue where nature is visible, use a minimalist tablescape.
   Small flowering plants or floral arrangements are the only touches needed to dress up a table.
6. Bring in the summer though color. It doesn’t take much. A solid wood finish and colorful placemats or crisp white table cloths with napkins in bold, bright summer colors will have maximum impact.

Beverages

7. Replace soft drinks with light punches, juice, and, for daytime events, even lemonade or iced tea. Champagne punch or martinis are also a great choice for summer. For a touch of fun at outdoor events, serve beverages in glasses fashioned from ice.
8. Replace some of the heavy liquor on the bar with wine spritzers and rum punch.
9. Serve colorful cocktails and mocktails.

Cuisine

10. Keep menus light and fresh by reducing portion sizes, grilling or baking instead of frying, cutting down on starches, and avoiding heavy sauces. In fact, you can eliminate or cut down on rice, potatoes, and pasta and serve meat or fish on a colorful bed of fresh, seasonal vegetables (this definitely says summer).

11. Be sure that presentation is clean, colorful, and simple.

12. Serve desserts that aren’t overly sweet or heavy and incorporate fresh, local fruit or berries.

Entertainment

13. Keep the music light, summery, and tropical. For outdoor galas try flute, harp, or piano solos. Opt for a live band if the budget allows it otherwise, a DJ will be fine. Mix it up with reggae, Calypso, soca, and summer dance favorites. Appeal to all ages with a mix of Magic! Drake, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Shawn Mendes, Samantha J, The Beach Boys, Miami Sound Machine, Sergio Mendes, Brazil 66, and The Bee Gees.
14. Throw open the dance floor. There is something about a summer event that makes people want to get up and dance, especially if it’s an outdoor event.
15. Don’t forget the element of surprise. Whether it’s a flash mob in the pool or on the beach; fireworks, Cirque de Soleil style entertainment, or fire-eaters, it will be the wow factor that makes the event memorable.

For more summer event inspiration, also consult 8 Elegant Event Themes for Summer Events, 6 Tips for Creating a Tropical Event Ambiance, 10 Tips for Creating Caribbean Corporate Events, and Inspiration for Event Planners: Enhancing Events with Flowers

What light and easy touches have you been adding to summer events?

Originally posted on Cvent by Anne Thornley-Brown July 13, 2015

Photo Credits: Shutterstock, The Chanler at Cliff Walk, darryl mitchell, ProFlowers (2), ulterior epicure, jpellgen,

Indian Creek Home. Rene Gonzalez, architect

While it surely would have earned me a failing grade in architecture class, I’ve informally come to separate Miami architecture into two distinct periods: Art Deco and Miami Vice.

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of strolling the vintage pastel palaces along Ocean Drive, you’ll agree that South Beach’s historic Art Deco District is the world’s foremost living museum of the Art Deco period.

On my first visit years ago, the porches fronting these 800-plus structures, built between 1923 and 1943, were made even more vibrant by the glint of the green and lavender sun visors worn by luxuriating seniors of the post-Depression era. Today, the first 20th century neighborhood to be enshrined in the National Register of Historic Places is a boutique hotel wonderland for well-to-do bohemians.

In other words, it’s the kind of place Sonny Crockett and his sidekick Rico Tubbs would have avoided at all costs. Way too predictable; way too pretentious. I mean, Crockett lived on a boat with a pet alligator named Elvis, for heaven’s sake!

For me, the Miami Vice period is the wild child of its Art Deco parents: edgy, unpredictable, fabulously scaled – the epitome of Florida mai tai modern.

Want to stake out some architectural fun with Sonny and Tubbs? Check out these six marvelous Miami moderns (jet ski not included):

Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, 2005. Rene Gonzalez, architect

Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO): If you see no other building in downtown Miami, do – not – miss this nonprofit art museum founded by Ella Fontanals-Cisneros in 2002 to promote emerging contemporary artists from Latin America. The façade, covered with over one million multicolored Bisazza glass tiles, is the vision of Cuban-born local architect Rene Gonzalez.

Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA): Gonzalez’s lovely 2006 latticework lobby renovation to MOCA provides the perfect tropical entryway to this modern North Miami landmark.

Ilona: Chad Oppenheim’s graceful 27,000-square-foot Miami Beach condominium features soaring lower terraces enclosed by aluminum screens and cantilevered from the main structure to form intimate outdoor hammock alcoves aligned with the sun’s path from the Atlantic Ocean to Biscayne Bay.

Ilona Bay, 2006. Chad Oppenheim, architect.

Ilona Bay: Like its older cousin, this Oppenheim-designed, 22,000-square-foot Miami Beach condo complex flirts endlessly with the South Florida sunlight, thanks to its mesmerizing mix of frame protrusions and playful voids.

Ten Museum Park: This 50-story, Oppenheim-designed mixed-use high-rise, part of downtown Miami’s “Biscayne Wall” of skyscrapers, features spacious “living modules” that take full advantage of light play and the sweeping views of Biscayne Bay.

Indian Creek Home: (Top) This Gonzalez-designed private residence in Miami’s Indian Creek neighborhood features a virtual master’s class in how to bring the outside in. To get closer than this to Biscayne Bay, you’d have to live in Sonny Crockett’s dinghy.

To learn more about these architects – and enjoy more of these fabulous photos – pick up a copy of “Four Florida Moderns,” an ultra-cool coffee table book by Saxon Henry, available at W.W. Norton Books.

Photo credits: Courtesy of W.W. Norton Books. Cover image:  Key Biscayne House. Rene Gonzalez, architect

But a thrill of a much different sort often awaits the first-timer upon their return as bills and credit card statements begin to arrive that bear little resemblance to what they thought they spent. Between exchange rates and foreign transaction fees, paying the bills from your first trip abroad can truly seem disorienting – and not in a good way.

New York Times travel reporter Seth Kugel recently reviewed these 7 money steps to take, before, during and after your trip abroad to avoid that disappointing welcome home.

Credit cards: If you’ve never traveled abroad, you may not realize that many credit cards today add on a fee, often 2-3 percent, to convert the drachmas, centimes and francs you charged into U.S. dollars. There are cards out there that charge neither a foreign conversion nor annual fee, but some of them, such as Discover, may not be as widely accepted in foreign lands. If you can find one with no fees that offers 1 percent cash back rewards, Kugel recommends you to grab it.

ATM cards: Next, check the fine print on your ATM card. While using an ATM overseas can save you money over a cash exchange, banks often charge a conversion fee of up to 3 percent and even add a per-transaction flat fee that can run as high as $5. You may also be charged a fee by the foreign bank that owns the ATM.

Debit cards: While debit cards prove handy at home, they also often charge a per-transaction fee for foreign purchases that makes them an expensive option abroad.

Notify your bank: Before you embark, notify your bank of your travel plans, lest they receive foreign charges and block your card use for suspicious activity.

Cash up: It’s a good practice to pack $100 or more in cash for travel contingencies. If possible, also carry some of your destination’s currency, but be sure to shop around for the best exchange rate.

Once abroad, use your credit card: A no-fee credit card will be your thriftiest form of payment, with your cash reserve as a backup.

Pare down for your return: As your trip winds down, estimate the cash you’ll need prior to boarding and either spend down your local currency accordingly or acquire enough additional local cash in your final ATM draw to get you to the gate.

She published her first book, Signature Sasha: Magnificent Weddings by Design, in January 2010 and her second, Signature Sasha: Weddings and Celebrations to Inspire, in January 2015.

Just back from Japan—where she led seminars and transformed a commercial wedding venue for a Japanese company—Sasha agreed to share a few tricks of her trade with us. We asked about destination weddings, one of her specialties.

What do you look for in a hotel or resort that makes it particularly good for a wedding?
The right venue depends mainly on where it is, on what the client is looking for—beach, vineyard, whatever. Beyond that, we look for a venue that has flexibility to bring in the decor and that gives us the time to create a really striking event. Setup day before or overnight is not atypical, so it’s important that the property isn’t booked too tightly. It’s nice if the couple and guests can all stay on-site. But that’s not a key factor. As long as guests can stay within close proximity, they’ll be happy.

Any red flags that tell you a property might be wrong for a wedding?
Inflexibility or over promising, as that can lead to under delivering. When talking to the site managers in the beginning, if they always say, “This is how we do it,” then I know we’re most likely going to have a problem later on down the road. Further, if it’s in an area where the weather might require a plan B, the property needs to give us an idea of what that would be and reserve the spaces so we’re not scrambling at the last minute.

Do you take decorations with you, buy them there, or use the venue’s?
That all depends. We have traditionally done a little of all three—it’s good to have some local flair. But if we’re in a place where we can’t rely on the quality of the flowers, we ship them in. Same thing with decor and rental items.

If a client can splurge on only one thing, what gives the most bang for the buck?
You get the biggest bang for your buck from the things people touch, taste, and smell. Topnotch food is a huge one. For some reason, people still think that wedding food can’t be good, so it’s fairly easy to surprise and delight them. Then you have tabletop and flowers—those create ambience. You want people sitting at the table to touch the beautiful linens and smell the gorgeous flowers.

What’s the biggest challenge in organizing a destination wedding?
There are two things. The first is guest management—making sure everybody is where they need to be in an unfamiliar country or area, which means getting them to and from the wedding safely. The second is making sure we’re all clear with everything we’re bringing into the country so we can avoid issues with customs, fees, taxes, and/or confiscation.

What’s the most rewarding part?
I love the guest experience and hearing the guests tell the couple that it was the best wedding they had ever been to.

Any stories you can share to illustrate a point—or just for fun?
It’s hard to choose just one. But I often think back to one of my first destination weddings in Mexico. We came up with the idea of creating a 64-foot table with fire down the center. It was spectacular, and the guests thought it was the coolest thing ever. But what we didn’t anticipate was the guests drinking tequila—and blowing it into the fire to create big bursts of flames. We figured it was time to turn it off when the groom jumped up in his linen suit and ran down the table, as if he were fire walking, all while pounding his chest and then jumping off the end of the table.

Do you have any current or upcoming projects we should watch for?
Yes! Our latest book was released this January. You can find it at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and some independent bookstores. Plus, I just signed a two-book deal with my publisher to produce two more wedding/event-related books over the next two years. We’ll have the next one in January 2016. It’s a totally new concept—nothing like it exists right now—so that’s super exciting for us.

Photos credits: Opening image: (c) Sasha Souza Events and Damion Hamilton Photography; From top: (c) Sasha Souza Events and Luca Trovato; (c) Sasha Souza Events and Kurt Ackerman Photography

On the other hand, companies are well aware that their employees often have to travel on business where family members are not welcome. Why not take advantage of opportunities where the spouse and kids can come along?

Unfortunately for the hundreds of days that resorts in Florida, Hawaii and the Caribbean boast clear sunny days each year, there are bound to stretches of wet weather that can mar the event, especially for the children in the group looking forward to hours spent on the resort’s beaches, water slide and lazy river.

Veteran planners know to create contingency planning for alternate kids programming the same way they make sure there’s a back-up plan for moving the outdoor awards ceremony or closing-night banquet indoors in case the skies open unexpectedly.

Given the prospect of a rainy day, managers at the Atlantis Paradise Island mega-resort in The Bahamas, for example, are ready to meet the spike in demand at their Atlantis Kids Adventure (AKA). The facility maintains a list of qualified people who can come in on short notice to help out, explains Linkcoya Ferguson, game room manager.

Planners—working with parents’ wishes–can arrange to have children, ages three-to-12, left for an all-day, mid-day, afternoon or evening session. The 8,000 sq. ft. facility is divided into a series of cheerful, kid-friendly spaces, some devoted to structured activity, others to more “free play.”

Age appropriate options include cooking lessons, Lego construction, storytelling, crafts, board games, computer play and interactive gaming. Much of the content is tied into Atlantis’ overall focus on dolphins and aquatic life generally. Charges can be assigned directly to the conference’s master account.

Rather than a negative, a rainy day spent with a child’s peers in a fun, stimulating environment can turn out to be an unexpected positive. The attendee can attend the business sessions, knowing the child is occupied and happy. And the spouse gets a bit of a stress-free breather, despite the bad weather.

Because planners well know that when it comes to conferences with children involved, if it’s a win for the kids, it’s a win for the adults as well.

Photos: Shutterstock Daniel Korzeniewski, Shutterstock LuckyImages, Atlantis, Paradise Island