What's Floating Around Cloud 9? August 2019

Welcome to August and this seems like the perfect month to talk Famtastic! Even more so with the article that appeared in M&IT Magazine by the always entertaining deputy editor Paul Harvey, which we have blatantly copied for your information: 

Shouting about fam trips – to capitalise or not to capitalise? 

Everyone in the industry knows what fam trips are – but not everyone can agree on how the word fam should be spelt. M&IT deputy editor Paul Harvey has a capital idea. I’ve been writing about the world of meetings and events for a while now, during which time I like to think I’ve got to grips with most of the industry’s little idiosyncrasies. 

However, there is one thing that I still fail to understand: fam trips. Or more specifically, FAM trips. 

As I understand it, the term “fam trip” is simply a shortened version of “familiarisation trip”. Yet almost every email that lands in my inbox that uses the term, capitalises it as “FAM trip”. And this doesn’t make any sense. Whatsoever. 

In its capitalised form, “FAM trip” suggests the letters stand for something. Which they don’t, as far as I know. I would love nothing more than to discover FAM stands for “familiarisation and marketing” or something, but I’m fairly sure it doesn’t. 

Imagine if we capitalised every word that was a shortened version of a longer one. PHONE! BIKE! RHINO! FLU! The world would be a much shoutier place. So why should “fam” be any different? 

I suspect people like to capitalise fam trip in an effort to make it seem more important. I have no time for such pomposity and take great joy in cutting it down to size whenever I can. It would be nice if we could have some consistency across the industry on this – if only for my own sanity.  So next time you go on a fam trip – I’m begging you – leave the caps lock key at home. 

So, a great article yes, and leads nicely to Famtastic which is continuing to go from strength to strength. Originally intended just as an online listing for industry events, our lunch programmes are going well, and are, pretty Famtastic – and yes, we are using a capital F. 

They came about as we gave up our office last year and interacting with suppliers outside of this environment became a bit of a pain as we had to keep popping to our local pub! And as we tend to meet fellow Alliance members or local agents and do joint appointments we came up with a really nice format and its working really well. 

Having done an initial one in Nottingham which went great, we then moved to Birmingham which went even better, and so inspired have we become, that we are now planning a whole series of events. 

With just 10 agents and 10 suppliers over two hours, you can have a really productive lunch, and engage in great conversation with like-minded #eventprofs in a great environment. 

So, head over to Famtastic.Rocks and we hope to see you at a Famtastic Rocks Lunch event soon.

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? July 2019

Wow it's been a warm one - and even though it was a little short lived, it shows that we can occasionally enjoy some amazing weather in this country. With record sales of BBQ items and Beer, a little sunshine is certainly good for the economy along with everything else you associate with summer. The big brands are probably rubbing their hands together in glee and who can blame them!

So whilst this might be somewhat of a tenuous link, it does bring to mind a story we heard recently involving three of the big brands in the event industry and their interesting history.  So if you have ever wondered why only Pepsi is available at Marriott and Starwood Hotels #EventProfs, then read on!

Loyalty clearly is the foundation of this story, and it starts with a senior executive from Coca-Cola Co who stated the soft-drink company lost a big contract with Marriott after Coca-Cola refused to lend Marriott around $100 million despite the brand being stocked in all of their hotels for over 20 years. 

Marriott were in a little trouble financially and turned to their suppliers to help and whilst the numbers might seem staggering here, someone somewhere at the Coca-Cola company must be kicking themselves today. 

Marriott’s switch to Pepsi followed Coke’s refusal to lend Marriott somewhere in the region of $50 million to $100 million in loans and although the brand is not a bank,  someone at Pepsi stepped in to the breach and helped out the hotel chain during their rocky patch. Subsequently all of the hotels in their portfolio now stock Pepsi products rather than Coke.

When Marriott took over Starwood in 2016, any stocked Coke products started to slowly be replaced around their global portfolio and as the big hotel chains continue to expand, they are certainly not being left behind and made record organic room signings in Europe in 2018.

The US hospitality giant ended the year with a portfolio of more than 6,900 properties and more than 1.3 million rooms in 130 countries worldwide, and their plan is to add an additional 1700 hotels to that portfolio in the next three years. We are not economists here at Cloud 9 but let's, with a really really really low estimated guess, look at a single sale of a pepsi drink a day in each of those hotels - 6,900 x 365 days - that's an awful lot of sales to Pepsi...

Now, where did we leave our ice, it's time for a fizzy drink?! Have a great week...

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? June 2019

Welcome, and we can't quite believe we are in June already #eventprofs. In addition to our usual busy schedule we are also gearing up for The Meetings Show which takes place towards the end of the month.

Whilst an incredibly useful Trade Event to attend, it can be tricky taking a few days out of the office when so much is going on, but the Meetings Show, a little like CHS which we attended at the end of April, does allow you to make connections and re-establish existing working relationships. 

In today's world it's difficult to commit to even a day away from the office, but being placed within an industry that demands face-to-face interaction, the show offers an opportunity to connect with over 3,000 meetings industry professionals to source new suppliers, learn about the latest innovations and grow your network - all in one go. It features more than 700 of the finest destinations, hotels, venues, DMCs and technology providers exhibiting on the show floor. All looking to meet with premium-level MICE buyers under one roof. Exhibiting provides the opportunity to get ahead of your competition and put yourselves in the minds of the buyers looking to place business with new suppliers at the show.

Over 3,000 meetings industry professionals visit the show to take advantage of the new connections, networking opportunities and education programme we offer across the three days of the show. Visiting companies typically feature event management companies, agencies, corporates, associations, charities and not-for-profits, PAs and EAs and many more. 

The show features over 80 free-to-attend educational sessions in ten dedicated content streams delivered by the most creative thinkers in the industry. Visitors, hosted buyers and exhibitors alike can attend the sessions most relevant to them and learn more about the latest trends & innovations affecting their sector right now. 

As a team we're particularly invested in some of the educational sessions and we'll be enjoying the show as hosted buyers with our own AIEA Group - and staying at the new Hard Rock Hotel.

Hope to see you there! 

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? May 2019

Welcome to another week and its another manic one here at Cloud 9 Towers, with all manner of client events on the go, and Janet out of action having broken her wrist!

Our Famtastic MICE lunches are starting to get booked up and our Fresh Adventures progranme is expanding as well. What with the script for CHS Awards and AIEA activity, it's a bit crackers to say the least! 

With event management,  venue finding, new business meetings, websites to update, social media and the endless stream of emails, it can be tricky to squeeze everything in.

So we could use this week's blog to wax lyrical about time management and also to save a bit of time  - we could just blatantly pinch the online offering of some training company. But instead and to keep it personal, we thought we would share our tips for keeping all of those plates spinning! 

Our first rule here is about the deluge of emails. There was life before emails and electronic communication which our younger team don't seem to fully appreciate, but we spoke to people, we telephoned them, we visited them and if needs be, we then wrote to them afterwards to confirm exactly what we had spoken about. This process could have taken a couple of days and factor in postage and weekends and sometimes it could be almost a week. Whilst we appreciate we live in a society where everyone, including clients, wants everything now, but the world really won't end if you leave your emails a little while. 

That first half an hour in a morning allows you to focus on what you need to do that day and catch up on anything you may have missed. We also use this time to look at our social media and make sure everything that should be up to date, is up to date. If anything really is that urgent, then call us. Or text us, tweet us, What's App, or message us. Just don't email us unless you really need to, and whatever you do, don't fax us. We're not sure how the fax even works any more!

Next up is sharing. No matter how experienced or knowledgeable you think you are, it's important to remember that you are still always continually learning and whatever you think you know, there is probably someone else who knows as much if not more. It doesn't matter if you have always done something in the same way for years and years. Getting a fresh perspective on how to work differently and more efficiently can be a really useful thing especially when you have a lot on. It may be sound obvious, but it's something that many managers often forget, especially when it comes to how they manage their time. In fact, some of our biggest time management mistakes are simply caused because you don't know any better and don't welcome outside ideas.

Also sharing skills can be a massive help. Assign tasks to those who are pretty good at that particular aspect of a project and ensure those that need some help with certain tasks or some additional training in that area, understand why things are done in certain ways.

That way everyone benefits...and even though every project at Cloud 9 has someone to lead it, every project, event and client we have are collectively discussed to make sure we are using each of our own particular skill set. Communication is also vital and it doesn't matter how great your external communication is with clients, if people don't understand what is happening internally, then you have no or little excuse when things go wrong.

Whilst we all might complain about the sheer number of emails we all get everyday, BCC has become our friend here at Cloud 9. Forget Blind Carbon Copy the original glossary of BCC, as here it stands for Better Clouds Connected. On a large proportion of our daily emails we BCC in at least another person or a couple of people in the team.

The couple of seconds it takes to do this, and to briefly scan an email that's been sent out, can firstly stop having to have unnecessary meetings but also means that if one of the team is suddenly kidnapped by aliens or worse still, run over by the No.47 bus, then as sad as we would be, at least one other person on the team has a fighting chance of picking up a project to ensures its successful continuation!

So knowledge is power and sharing key. We're also list maniacs here. One a week which we are collectively responsible for. It's amazing what you can do with the power of a few bodies all pitching in and a central reserve or platform like SLACK is a god send! 

 

Just ask any of our clients! So, have a great week, see you soon!

What's Floating Around? 8 April 2019

Welcome to another week,  #eventprofs and we are still a bit miffed that our top tip for the Grand National on Saturday, fell at the first fence! How could we not pick Vintage Cloud as our horse, and it sadly fell at the first fence, and luckily with no real damage to horse of rider. 

Love it or hate it, the National is one of those events that really gets under the skin of the entire nation and although we have no idea which other event professionals backed a particular horse, we like to think that most of them opted for a name - which is our tried and tested method rather than looking at the actual odds or form. 

So Cloud 9 and Vintage Cloud was a natural choice which got us to wonder who else picked a name based on the affinity between brand and bobo! 

General Principle which fell at the 19th was probably a pick for those at Principle Hotels and Jury Duty which also fell at the same fence for Jury's Hotels?

The Hotel Minella & Leisure Centre in Clonmel in Ireland probably picked Minella Rocca - which pulled up at the 21st Fence, and Lake View Lad which pulled up at the 27th Fence, was probably a pick for the Lake View Hotel team in Snowdon. 

There are slightly random others which would work with a little imagination but its clear with the results on Saturday, that event professionals should stick to what they know - running events and booking venues rather than trying to be horse racing tipsters! 

Have a great week...!

What's Floating Around? 1 April 2019

Welcome to another week everyone and as it's April Fools Day, we thought we would take a quick look at some of the best Hotel Pranks.

A couple of years ago, at a Travelodge in Australia, they announced the launch of a  new Whiff & Wake Service. This was said to entail the smell of frying bacon being blown into guests’ rooms to help them wake up. The hotel chain said the new service was in response to an increasing number of guests reporting to struggle with snoozing through their alarm clocks in the morning. 

Back in 2009, the agency TTG Digital said it was going to open the world’s first ‘Hover Hotel’ in Dubai and that the 20-room boutique hotel, was apparently going to hover approximately a kilometre off the ground.

But perhaps our favourite story was in 2015 when the The Telegraph reported that Italian authorities were planning to turn the Leaning Tower of Pisa into a hotel called 3.99 Degrees. The newspaper claimed to have learned about the plans from a leaked document, which stated the hotel rooms would cost more than £14,000 per night. The article even stated a local carpenter had offered to make special beds with legs of differing lengths, so guests didn’t have to sleep at an angle. 

Stay sharp today and have a great week! 

What's Floating Around? 25 March 2019

Welcome to another week and it occurs to us sometimes (and we do check the stats) that some weeks we get very few hits, views or even visitors to our little blog site. 

Now, we could take this very personally here at Cloud 9 Towers, as we have been blogging since 2011 and we average about 49-50 blogs a year, which in itself is a pretty impressive number, as that equates to over 400 blogs.

But the time it takes to find suitable content and look up relevant information to include cannot be ignored and we reckon, with around 400 blogs, an each one taking around half an hour or so to write, and then put online, comes to at least 200 hours - and that is probably a pretty low estimate.

Just think what we could have done with all of that time?!

Blogging for us has never been about a vanity project or a chance to blow off steam about any particular subject, it's been basically to try and help our SEO and by bloggging externally and then changing some of the key words and content on our own website, trying to improve our rankings a little - and get some new business. 

We like to think we are fairly well informed and know our stuff, but we must be doing something wrong as we are just not getting an audience of any note. If however, you do check in with us often then thank you! 

Clearly, our blogs are not bringing in the bacon so to speak and as Albert Einstein is credited with saying, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” 

So, to anyone who is still reading - and again, we thank you, this will be our last hurrah! No more blogs externally - not unless we get in to triple figures!