Business Instrument

Archive for September, 2010

How To Leverage Surveys In Event Planning

A common mistake that many event planners make is neglecting the needs of their audience. It’s easy to become immersed in the details of venue negotiations catering options transportation and lodging and other minutiae. However in the end your audience’s level of satisfaction plays a key role in your continuing success. This is the main value of using surveys before during and after any event you plan.

Today I’ll describe the advantages of surveying your audience at each stage. I’ll explain why their feedback is important and the types of information you can gain access to. By the end you’ll understand the reason some of the top planning experts are using surveys to pave the road for their future success.

Surveying Your Registrants Before The Event

Every one of your attendees arrives with a set of expectations. They can include the speakers from whom they’re about to hear the breadth of sessions planned during the day and even the food. Whether you’re planning a meeting industry conference or a fundraiser survey your registrants beforehand. Ask them about the subject matter they’re most interested in hearing about. You can even ask them to suggest speakers; you may be surprised how often doing so can uncover a great speaker about whom you were unaware.

It’s also worth asking about the type of lodging your registrants prefer whether they plan to attend every session or not and the number of days for a multiday affair they plan to stay. If you’re able to identify registrants who have decided not to attend find out the reasons why. This can be valuable information for future events.

Using Surveys During The Event

Once your meeting or conference starts your attendees will begin drowning in new information product specifications and other details. It’s not uncommon for them to lose their excitement about being there. And once that happens they’ll stop participating. You can design short surveys to inject a measure of excitement back into your guests. The key is getting them involved; provide the opportunity for your guests to give their opinions on the topics being discussed.

If the format of your event allows share the results from the previous sessions at the beginning of the following sessions. Not only does this provide you the planner with insight about your attendees’ perspectives but it also encourages them to interact with other guests. Another benefit is that you can share the information with upcoming speakers so they can tailor their presentations to the audience.

Encouraging PostEvent Feedback

After your conference you might think it turned out perfectly. But your audience may have a completely different opinion. The only way to know for certain is to ask. Surveying your attendees after the final session can provide a wealth of valuable insight regarding the content how it was delivered and their feelings about their overall experience. Ask them to provide their thoughts about the format speakers content and even the sponsors. Did they enjoy the venue? Was the audiovisual equipment sufficient? And of course would they attend a future event?

By surveying your audience you’ll gain access to valuable feedback that will help you design future meetings conferences and other affairs that cater specifically to their needs.

Planning For The Future

The key advantage surveying your guests is that it provides the platform for them to communicate with you. They can describe what they hope to achieve by attending; they can explain any concerns they might have; and afterward they can provide feedback that will help you understand how best to meet and even exceed their expectations in the future. Ultimately by surveying your audience you can increase the likelihood that they’ll attend your events in the future.

About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;www.productcreationinnovation.comwww.instantvideosuite.com

How To Evaluate The Impact Of Management Training And Development

In 1959 Kirkpatrick first outlined four levels of training evaluation:

Reactions liking or feelings for a programme.
Learning principles facts etc absorbed by the participants.
Behaviour using learning on the job.
Results increased production reduced costs etc.

Clearly an organisation would not invest in a new product or service if management thought that it would be a flop!

Any evaluation must therefore start at the design stage of a programme.

What is the purpose of the management training?
What issues is the organisation struggling to resolve?
What does the organisation wish to see differently from its people?

For example does the organisation wish to:

Increase productivity of staff?
Reduced mistakes/quality problems?
Increased sales or market share?
Have more effective and productive working relationships between managers/functions?
Improve motivation and reduce staff turnover.

Once the outcomes of a management training and development programme are clear it makes the task of evaluation much easier.

Building on the principles of Kirkpatricks model of training evaluation the impact a programme has on individual managers their teams and ultimately the organisation can be assessed in a number of ways.

Individual The impact the management training and development has had on the individuals performance and behaviour can be measured via achievement of personal targets e.g. cost reductions sales increases etc as well as observations from their manager or via 360 feedback appraisals.
Team The impact the programme has had on the managers team can be measured via achievement of team targets and performance measures e.g. customer satisfaction absence rates etc as well as observations on team behaviour from external/internal feedback surveys.
Organisation Ultimately the impact a management training and development programme has on the organisation can be assessed via the organisations own metrics profitability sales growth market share etc as well as internal employee satisfaction and motivation surveys.

It is vital that organisations assess the impact their management training and development programmes have to ensure that the investment they make pays off. To achieve this the purpose and outcomes of the programme must be clearly defined and methods of monitoring set up to collect the relevant data at an individual team and organisational level.

About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;Mark Evenden Devwloping People
www.developingpeople.co.uk

How The High Cost Of Gas Can Be An Opportunity To The Restaurant Owner

As people scuttle their plans to travel far this summer due to the high cost of transportation whether it be by car train or plane these same people will spend their savings on other things close to home. They will not necessarily bank the savings but spend it on local attractions backyard barbeques and their local eateries. I have never heard of a vacationer who did not want to spend money. It is just what they want to spend their money on that is important. Gas or food ? Let us think about what they will choose.

So now that pretty much all of us have decided food is more fun to spend your money on this is an opportunity for the local eatery to advertise like never before to people within their community to come at eat their delicious selections from the menu. Instead of cutting back and fearing the surge in commodities it is time now to put the hammer down and offer great selections great service and get involved locally as never before. The competition is going to be fierce to gain the local’s favour but if the restaurant owner can embrace the fear and overcome negative thoughts about the future they can be a big winner and withstand any downturn in the economy.

The days of the long road trip by car and the month long trips internationally by air are coming to an end. People will vacation in the future closer to home just because of their belt tightening they have had to do just to meet the bills each month.

As a Food and Beverage Waiter what I have noticed is any decrease in people that have come into the restaurant on a nightly basis has been offset by the higher check average. What this probably means is rather than go away and spend their vacation pay on transportation they are choosing to stay home and sightsee locally and go out to eat more often nearby. The good restaurant’s bottom line has not been affected. Even if a slight increase is passed onto the customer people are willing to still pay for good value. I mean no one feels like an increase in gas prices means a more enjoyable ride so why pay more. The dining experience is perceived differently than a drive.

This means that an owner that knows what their market is and can sell it to the locals can still turn a handsome profit. In addition an excellent waiter or bartender will still bring home substantial tips each night.

In conclusion the current slowdown and uncertainty in the economy will not so much affect the restaurant industry but as with any slowdown separate the men from the boys. If you are an owner go out and locally advertise your superior dining experience and if you are a waiter or bartender be more attentive than ever so that you can insure those people will come back.
As with any difficulty and hard time there always is a window of opportunity. Here is our chance in the Hospitality Industry to seize it!

About the writer:  His motivational speakingengagements are both funny and informative.Find out more about Steve Nicolle at his website which is at http://www.stevetalks.ca