There will be a record number of destination management professionals preparing to take the DMCP exam in New Orleans on Thursday, 20 February 2008. One of these candidates, Tara Thomas, has previously successfully completed her CMP designation. In preparing for that exam, Tara found the best way to do so was to write her own sample test questions and share with other candidates (without the answers, of course!)
So, if you're preparing to take the DMCP exam, and you're interested in participating in an e-mail study group, Tara has agreed to coordinate the assignments for the areas of body of knowledge for the DMCP exam. You can contact her by emailing directly and she'll be in contact with you.
Good luck to all of the DMCP candidates.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Friday, November 9, 2007
Can Destination Management Companies Make a Change in the Carbon Footprint?
One doesn't often think of DMCs being closely aligned with environmental concerns. In fact, visitors are notorious for not thinking as much about the environment as they might do at home.
Here are two DMC initiatives that are addressing this issue...
Team members from PRA Destination Management’s 19 franchise offices recently spent three days in Phoenix, Arizona for its 2007 National Sales Meeting, where this year’s theme for the event was “Green Meetings”. In an effort to be more environmentally responsible, during the meeting PRA Destination Management made a commitment to developing and providing socially responsible programs and practices in each of its destinations to assist clients in achieving their green meeting goals and objectives. PRA is not only committed to providing green options to its clients, but has also committed itself to incorporating environmental considerations in its own daily business practices.
“In the world we live in today, individuals and businesses alike are being challenged to evaluate how environmentally responsible we truly are and steps each of us can take in combating climate change,” explained Laura Rednour, president of PRA Destination Management, Inc. “These ‘green-friendly’ practices are something we as a company are committed to applying and are pleased to extend that same commitment to our clients, who too, are interested in making environmentally-friendly activities a priority in destination programs and events.”
As part of the environmentally-friendly meeting, PRA performance team members took part in a green-themed teambuilding activity, during the annual sales meeting, entitled “Go GREEN!” The activity called on participants to create solar cars from kits provided using recyclable products such as plastic, paper, and cardboard. Teams had to ensure their solar cars worked properly with a test run in the bright Arizona sun. Meanwhile, the teams’ recycled cars were put to the ultimate test with a round robin drag-race tournament to determine the fastest and best-built car. The cars, built by PRA team members, were then donated to the Thomas J. Pappas School in Phoenix along with brand new solar car kits and classroom curriculum.
In response to an environmental initiative by the grassroots organization CHANGE THE MARGINS, Christopher Lee, DMCP, CEO of ACCESS Destination Services announced today that ACCESS will CHANGE THE MARGINS on all applicable documents companywide. CHANGE THE MARGINS, a green issues campaign, is saving trees! By encouraging the adoption of narrower printing margins companies can save approximately 19% on their paper use. Goals of CHANGE THE MARGINS include convincing Microsoft to change the default margin settings to .75 on all sides, challenging five universities to adopt narrower margin settings as the standard for their students and faculty and persuading five corporations to officially sanction narrower margins for all company documents.
ACCESS Destination Services is credited as the first company to officially adopt CHANGE THE MARGINS in the workplace by Tamara Krinsky, founder of CHANGE THE MARGINS. ACCESS CEO, Christopher Lee states, “By initiating this within our business, we can bring awareness to this issue and hopefully influence our clients (some of the largest companies in the world) to adopt similar policies. If you extrapolate it out, and someone has, this could save billions of dollars and millions of trees world-wide, each year!” For more information, visit the following websites and make a difference by signing the petition “Dear Microsoft: Change the Margins.” (link below)
Click HERE to visit the Change the Margins website
Click HERE to sign petition to Microsoft to CHANGE THE MARGINS
This is an easy bandwagon for DMCs to step onto... what is your DMC doing to help our environment?
Here are two DMC initiatives that are addressing this issue...
Team members from PRA Destination Management’s 19 franchise offices recently spent three days in Phoenix, Arizona for its 2007 National Sales Meeting, where this year’s theme for the event was “Green Meetings”. In an effort to be more environmentally responsible, during the meeting PRA Destination Management made a commitment to developing and providing socially responsible programs and practices in each of its destinations to assist clients in achieving their green meeting goals and objectives. PRA is not only committed to providing green options to its clients, but has also committed itself to incorporating environmental considerations in its own daily business practices.
“In the world we live in today, individuals and businesses alike are being challenged to evaluate how environmentally responsible we truly are and steps each of us can take in combating climate change,” explained Laura Rednour, president of PRA Destination Management, Inc. “These ‘green-friendly’ practices are something we as a company are committed to applying and are pleased to extend that same commitment to our clients, who too, are interested in making environmentally-friendly activities a priority in destination programs and events.”
As part of the environmentally-friendly meeting, PRA performance team members took part in a green-themed teambuilding activity, during the annual sales meeting, entitled “Go GREEN!” The activity called on participants to create solar cars from kits provided using recyclable products such as plastic, paper, and cardboard. Teams had to ensure their solar cars worked properly with a test run in the bright Arizona sun. Meanwhile, the teams’ recycled cars were put to the ultimate test with a round robin drag-race tournament to determine the fastest and best-built car. The cars, built by PRA team members, were then donated to the Thomas J. Pappas School in Phoenix along with brand new solar car kits and classroom curriculum.
In response to an environmental initiative by the grassroots organization CHANGE THE MARGINS, Christopher Lee, DMCP, CEO of ACCESS Destination Services announced today that ACCESS will CHANGE THE MARGINS on all applicable documents companywide. CHANGE THE MARGINS, a green issues campaign, is saving trees! By encouraging the adoption of narrower printing margins companies can save approximately 19% on their paper use. Goals of CHANGE THE MARGINS include convincing Microsoft to change the default margin settings to .75 on all sides, challenging five universities to adopt narrower margin settings as the standard for their students and faculty and persuading five corporations to officially sanction narrower margins for all company documents.
ACCESS Destination Services is credited as the first company to officially adopt CHANGE THE MARGINS in the workplace by Tamara Krinsky, founder of CHANGE THE MARGINS. ACCESS CEO, Christopher Lee states, “By initiating this within our business, we can bring awareness to this issue and hopefully influence our clients (some of the largest companies in the world) to adopt similar policies. If you extrapolate it out, and someone has, this could save billions of dollars and millions of trees world-wide, each year!” For more information, visit the following websites and make a difference by signing the petition “Dear Microsoft: Change the Margins.” (link below)
Click HERE to visit the Change the Margins website
Click HERE to sign petition to Microsoft to CHANGE THE MARGINS
This is an easy bandwagon for DMCs to step onto... what is your DMC doing to help our environment?
Monday, November 5, 2007
DMC Clients
According to a survey of ADME members earlier this year, corporations account for more than half of the aggregate DMC client base. The breakdown is:
Corporate - 96.9%
Incentive - 20.8%
Association - 16.7%
Tour and Travel - 4.2%
In the other category (1.4%) is a wide range of clientele, including award shows, charities, clubs, churches, colleges, local, non-meeting events, private, prom, social, non-profit, trade shows and weddings.
Clients come from a wide range of sources. In fact, the range is so wide that 47% claimed "Other"! Hotel referrals was the largest specific source at 15% and then repeat business at 12.8% Referrals (closely related to repeat business) is 6.1%.
CVBs generated 5.5% of DMC leads with internet at 4.4%. Prospecting yielded 4.0%
How does your marketing fit into this mix?
Corporate - 96.9%
Incentive - 20.8%
Association - 16.7%
Tour and Travel - 4.2%
In the other category (1.4%) is a wide range of clientele, including award shows, charities, clubs, churches, colleges, local, non-meeting events, private, prom, social, non-profit, trade shows and weddings.
Clients come from a wide range of sources. In fact, the range is so wide that 47% claimed "Other"! Hotel referrals was the largest specific source at 15% and then repeat business at 12.8% Referrals (closely related to repeat business) is 6.1%.
CVBs generated 5.5% of DMC leads with internet at 4.4%. Prospecting yielded 4.0%
How does your marketing fit into this mix?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
