Jamie Edwards
Hiring and Training Staff for the Conference Season
Author: Jen Neilands, Front Desk Manager, Conferences and Accommodations, University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus UBCO Conferences and Accommodation aspires to be an outstanding service provider to all visitors by embodying the spirit and warmth of the Okanagan. Everything comes back to our vision statement. We demand a lot of our staff: we have a
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A Week in the Life of a Conference Manager
Author: Sara Tuck, Manager, Conference and Event Services, Georgian College I was stuck on what to write about for my upcoming blog when it dawned on me that for my own sanity I needed to recap and regroup after our extremely busy Reading Week. As I am sure you can all appreciate, the week started
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Top 10 Reasons Why we Love our Job
Authors: Martha Wallace, Residence & Conference Centre – Kitchener-Waterloo (located on Conestoga College Campus) Susan MacKenzie, Wilfrid Laurier University Conference Services Susanne Keppler, University of Waterloo – Conference Services As we meet over lunch just after another snow-filled weekend, we decided as a group to come up with the top 10 reasons why we love
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Classroom Management & Conference Planning
Author: Leah Wotherspoon, Special Events Assistant, Meetings & Special Events, University of Calgary Managing non-academic classroom bookings on campus has its share of challenges at the best of times, but as the academic off-season approaches, preparation for the flurry of spring and summer activities is in full-swing. A university has a wide variety of priorities,
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On-Line Reviews
Author: David Carroll, Sales Manager-RCC at Sheridan Brampton and Oakville, ON In this day and age of web travel, an on-line review can be the difference of a group staying with you or the property down the street. As we all know, sometimes the reviews may not be accurate, and/or over exaggerated…but regardless, a negative
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January a Perfect Time to Devote to Business Development
Author: Erin Walton, Manager, Conference and Event Services, MacEwan University For some of you, January can be a quiet season in the office if you only have conference space during the summer months. This is precious time you can be devoting to business development, service enhancement and diversification. Have you been thinking about adding Online
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Let’s Talk About Blogging
Author: Caitlyn Dixon, Conference Coordinator, Dalhousie University Faculty of Agriculture Let’s talk about blogging, shall we? Last year at our regional meeting in February, as I passed around the sign-up sheet for the blog, I was met with a little apprehension. People were unsure what the blog was all about and I was met with
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“What do you do the rest of the year?”
Author: Katelyn Narain, Group Sales & Services Coordinator, Simon Fraser University “What do you do the rest of the year?” is a question I receive A LOT (and I’m sure fellow CUCCOA members can relate). While it is fairly easy for clients, partners, and co-workers to understand what we do during conference season, it is
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Your Local Hospitality Partners
Author: Janet Gates-Robart, Business Development Manager, Conference Services, Saint Mary’s University Don’t forget to market your university to your local hospitality partners! Firstly, you can’t afford not to be a member of your local tourism bureau, for us it is Destination Halifax. If you don’t have a specific bureau in your area then I would
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Kicking off a New Year to a New Season!
Author: Debbie Harding, Manager, Conferences and Accommodation, University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus Happy New Year! As we begin the New Year, it becomes crystal clear very early on that things are already kicking off for the conference season, only a few short months away. You may think that it’s way too early to start
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Food Will Make or Break the Client Experience
Author: Melani Lane, Manager, Residence/Conference Operations, Dalhousie Agricultrual Campus After many years of experience and thousands of clients later, I still maintain that no matter how organized and efficient we are, if the food service is poor, the client will say the overall experience was bad. An old residence room and a fantastic buffet breakfast,
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Do you EXCEED your client’s expectations? What are some of the “extras” you do for your clients?
Author: Michelle Walker, Manager, Conference Services, Nipissing University, North Bay, Ontario Day in and day out we fulfill our client requests. They need 3 break-out rooms we give them 3 breakout rooms. Clients ask for a working lunch menu, we give them a working lunch menu. They need 5000 sq ft of trade show space, we
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Identity Crisis
Author: Wendy Brost, Summer & Group Accommodations, MacEwan University Residence Does it ever feel like your property is having an identity crisis? What are we? Are we a hotel? Are we a hostel? Are we an apartment building? When you have thousands of people coming through the doors all expecting and wanting different things, can
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Remember to Keep Learning and Developing
Author: Maaike Ammerlaan, Conference Sales and Services Manager, University of British Columbia, Okanagan campus It is that time of year again where we look back at our summer season and make plans for the next year. And sometimes it is hard to come up with new ideas and initiatives to grow our business. Hard to
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Killing with Kindness
Author: Rebecca Eyers, Manager, Residence Life & Conference Services, Nipissing University, Muskoka Residence Complex A phrase we use around our office often is “kill them with kindness”, although I feel blessed that we have many incredible clients, staff, as well as campus and community partners, I think we can all agree that we have days
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