ASEAN

The Event Planner’s Survival Guide/Toolkit

Contingency planning and trustworthy hotel partners remain core for planners preparing to return to business

This article was originally found on Meetings & Conventions.

While the meeting experience as we know it will be considerably transformed, what will not change is the core skills that meeting planners need to navigate these new norms.

Planning for the myriad of contingencies is hardwired into the best event planners. As the industry awaits the return of travel and meetings, what’s most important now is to stay well and plan for better days ahead.

Here’s a quick guide for meeting planners to keep handy when business returns:

1. Be a Discerning Planner

Trusted hotel partners that demonstrate flexibility and transparency will be even more crucial as event planners work to regain attendees’ confidence in terms of safety and well-being.

Millennium Hotels & Resorts knows this, that is why it has rolled out a “We Clean. We Care. We Welcome” campaign across its portfolio of over 145 hotels in 80 locations to complement mandatory preventive measures by government authorities and hygiene accreditations.

To provide planners, clients and guests with a peace of mind, all properties will adhere to 10 key hallmarks, which include: obtaining local hygiene accreditations such as the SG Clean Quality Mark Certification; temperature checks for all guests; frequent sanitisation of high-contact points; providing disinfection kits to guests and employees; e-payments and contactless check-in/check-out; enhanced food safety protocols with individually served meals; and the deployment of hygiene ambassadors.

With safety and hygiene matters taken care of, planners can focus on maximising their event experience, which is now made easier with the chain’s Meet With More global meetings programme.

For a start, planners can choose from four unique hotel collections that each has their own personality and style, as well as myriad meeting solutions that can be tailored to any event.

From the elegant properties of its flagship Millennium Collection to the vibrant lifestyle feel of M Collection hotels, storied heritage properties under the Leng’s Collection to quality service and great value of its Copthorne Collection, planners have a broad base of options to host their next event.

2. Be a Budget Expert

Meeting planners will need to be discerning in reining in event spend on behalf of clients, and a good place to start would be working with hotel and venue partners that offer loyalty programmes that best fit your requirements.

Hotel meeting programmes that offer greater flexibility and ease of redemption will go a long way in meeting your event objectives. A clear menu of rewards is helpful for planners to understand how exactly they can accrue and redeem benefits for events.

Millennium’s corporate bookers programme, My Millennium Pro, does not just offer planners easy access to the group’s versatile and striking events spaces. Its Meet With More global meetings campaign is designed to offer planners a host of tangible and thoughtful benefits that can be used to instantly enhance their event experience or redeemed for other gifts and value-added benefits.

Planners can choose to tap on a toolkit of complimentary benefits that can be tailored to meet specific event needs.

These include perks such as room nights and upgrades to event rebates, discounts on F&B spent to coffee service and Wi-Fi. Corporate planners will have the opportunity to earn double points. Points earned are used to redeem over 100 gifts and vouchers and in-hotel perks like room upgrades and more.

3. Be a Curator and Storyteller

Beyond the meetings hardware and incentives, soft experiences that thread through the meeting experience are a key differentiating factor.

Planners can easily incorporate curated touches and experiences that showcase the authenticity and soul of a destination.

Think immersive culinary experiences from an in-room ‘Live Like a Local Survival Kit’ packed with traditional snacks and sweets at Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel Singapore to the spice-based welcome cocktails of Orchard Hotel Singapore, which pay tribute to the area’s rich plantation past.

At M Hotel Singapore, planners send delegates on a time-travelling culinary journey with a spread that features food from the 1960s to today’s modern fusion flavours. Located near heritage districts such as Chinatown, Duxton Hill and Ann Siang Hill, the modern skyscrapers of the Central Business District as well as modern attractions including Gardens by the Bay and Sentosa, the hotel allows visitors to experience Singapore’s past and present in a multi-sensory way.

Planners can engage their groups with immersive experiences at Copthorne King’s Hotel on Havelock. These include a tour to the vibrant Peranakan enclaves of Katong and Joo Chiat; sampling of exquisite Penang dishes at the hotel’s Princess Terrace Café – Authentic Penang Cuisine; or a hands-on farm-to-table experience where they get to pick a herb of their choice from the in-house herb garden and have it cooked by the hotel’s chef or made into infused oils or pillow sprays that make great souvenirs.