Tag: "FastTrak"

October 27th, 2010

A San Francisco Treat at FastTrak

As MC² continues to sponsor the FastTrak education program for Exhibitor Magazine, I continue to share my experiences hosting FastTrak and planning our Tuesday night special event. I hope you find this information useful for your events. Please post any questions and I will try to answer them.
The 2010 San Francisco FastTrak was held from September 28 – September 30. As the FastTrak sponsor, MC² arranges for the seminar location and hotel accommodations. We also organize a Tuesday night special event to bring everyone together to network in an informal setting. Here are the highlights of my experiences planning the San Francisco event.
Hotel/Meeting Planning
We’ve traditionally held the San Francisco FastTrak at the Marriott Fisherman’s Wharf, which has always been a pleasant experience – from location to service. But earlier this year, we were approached by the Hyatt Regency to host the conference. To moderate our costs, we decided to move the event from the Marriott at Fisherman’s Wharf to the Hyatt in Burlingame, near the San Francisco airport.
The change resulted in significant savings. As the event sponsor, MC² saw a 25% decrease in costs to run the event. But better yet, the attendees saw a 50% decrease in their room rate. On top of that, we were able to offer additional perks such as free WiFi in hotel rooms and free airport shuttle transfer (there was about a $50 taxi fee to the Wharf).
Making a change in venue and working with a new hotel staff for an annual event can certainly create challenges. Anthony, our contact at the Hyatt, and his team were exceptional to work with. They helped us decrease costs, but still delivered a high-quality experience.
Open Mic Forum
Recently MC² and Exhibitor Magazine has started hosting an Open Mic forum or Town Hall session to give attendees an opportunity to discuss issues affecting their work and careers. This time, we decided to tackle what digital media means for our industry. We had a great discussion on how exhibit professionals are approaching virtual trade shows and social media. The group gave us great feedback on our FastTrak Twitter account including the kind of tweets they’d like to see. (More on this in a future post.)
Hosted Evening Event
As I mentioned earlier, we like to plan a special event for Tuesday night that has a local flair. I also like to give attendees an opportunity to get to know MC² better. San Francisco’s Tuesday night event was dinner at the Broadway Grill, which is a local favorite for great American food and exceptional live music. One of our friends – and a FastTrak speaker – Glenda Brungardt, Tradeshow/Event Manager from HP gave us the recommendation for the Broadway Grill. Thanks from everyone, Glenda!
Our contact from Broadway Grill was Gary Gueits. He went above and beyond the ordinary by suggesting we have an exclusive wine tasting from the Trinchero winery in Napa.
Chris Siconolfi from Trinchero Family Estates came with a great selection of excellent Trinchero Family brand wines. While we tasted, he gave an engaging presentation about wine basics and easy-to-remember tips for pairing food and wine. One tip in particular has really stuck with me: When wine pairing, you do not need to always follow the rule of white goes with white meat and red with red meat. Think about the other ingredients in your meal and choose a wine flavor that compliments all those tastes. I realize that this can also holds true for event planning – don’t be afraid to try mix and match new things and change up your events. While we tried a new approach to this year’s San Francisco FastTrak by moving outside of the city proper to a new hotel, the core elements were never compromised – a high-quality educational platform and a fun, local experience!
We had a great time. The food and service were impeccable at the Broadway Grill. Chris’s presentation was not only informative, but entertaining as well. And he made wine pairing less intimidating. The event was a great success and a true San Francisco experience!
I hope you found all of this helpful. Below please find the contact information for the Hyatt, Broadway Grill and Trinchero Family Estates. They were all excellent to work with and we hope to work with them again soon!
Hotel:
Anthony Woodley – Catering Convention Services Manager (Planning contact)
Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport
1333 Bayshore Highway
Burlingame, CA 94010
650-696-3032
Anthony.woodley@hyatt.com
Event:
Gary Gueits
Broadway Grill
1400 Broadway Ave.
Burlingame, CA 94010
650-343-9333
www.bwgrill.com
Chris Siconolfi
Senior Regional Sales Manager, California
1168 Cervantes Way
Pacifica, CA 94044
650-557-2070
csiconolfi@tfewines.com
Thoughts, suggestions, comments? Drop me a line at jbodenmann@mc-2.com or comment below!

August 13th, 2009

High atop a roof in Chicago!
Chicago FastTrak, August 4-6, 2009

Hi everyone and welcome to my latest edition to our blog. We just finished our second FastTrak for 2009 in Chicago‚ A city that never lets us down.
Hotel/Meeting Planning:
This was our 2nd year at the James Hotel in Chicago, which was voted #29 of the Top 100 Hotels in the US by Travel + Leisure Magazine. The James in located right off of Rush Street and Michigan Ave and offers the amenities of today‚ from free wireless internet throughout the hotel to a free 24hr business center off of the lobby, to a hotel room that has a cozy home feel.
The meeting rooms are the perfect size and the hotel staff was extremely helpful and attentive at all times and as always the catering was excellent. We were also fortunate to have the same hotel staff as the year before, which is always nice to see in the hotel business.
Hosted Evening Event:
For our Tuesday-night hosted event, I worked with Christina Foster out of our Chicago office. We wanted to do something with a smaller budget, but also get a Chicago specific experience.
Christina was able to round up some local contacts for a rooftop experience. Most of the places we found were willing to get us the space free of charge but the F&B minimums were really high and increased depending on the hours of your event. We finally settled on the rooftop terrace at the Conrad Hotel. Partly because it was only a block walk from the James so we did not have to worry about transportation, but also because the rooftop experience at the Conrad looked really nice.
The event turned out great (Thank you Christina). The weather was warm with clear skies which made a beautiful backdrop when the sun set behind the building. We had also hired a magician, Dennis DeBondt, a friend of Christina’s to come and work the crowd. He was great and very entertaining. Now if we could just figure out how he turned our $1 dollar bills into $100′s we would be all set! Our wait staff at the event was great, however we were not as impressed with the restaurant management. There seemed to be a lack of communication among them but as any event planner knows, you make it work!
Lesson learned: Though we had a great experience at our event we did learn that rooftop doesn’t actually mean highest rooftop on the building. It can also be deceiving when a location has more than one rooftop.
I hope you found all of this helpful. Below please find the contact information for The James hotel and Dennis DeBondt. They were all excellent to work with and we hope to work with them again soon!
Kari Skulstad
Senior Sales Manager
The James
55 East Ontario Street
Chicago, IL 60611
P: 312.660.7146
F: 312.660.7187
kskulstad@jameshotels.com
www.jameshotels.com
~ or ~
Jillian Ceithaml
Sr. Conference Service Manager, Conferences
The James
55 East Ontario Street
Chicago, IL 60611
P: 312.660.7145
jceithaml@jameshotels.com
www.jameshotels.com
Dennis DeBondt
Magic Presentations
5231 West Warner Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60641
P: 773-545-0545
F: 773-545-5656
Thoughts, suggestions, comments? Drop me a line!
www.jbodenmann@mc-2.com

June 25th, 2009

FastTrak Hits A Grand Slam In Boston!

Boston FastTrak, June 23-25, 2009
Hi everyone! We just wrapped up our first FastTrak for 2009 and it was one to remember. Please read on to see why it’s always safe to have a back-up plan‚ or two‚ for your next event!
Hotel/Meeting Planning:
This was our third year at the Battery March Conference Center located on the 2nd floor of the Hilton Boston/Financial District.
We have continued to return to this location because of the reasonable cost and excellent staff. We have been fortunate to continue to work with the same Conference & Event Planning Manager the past three years.
We house our attendees in the Hilton because of the accessibility to the conference center and its location in the city. We are only a few blocks from Faneuil Hall Market Place and within walking distance to the North End.
Hosted Evening Event:
For our Tuesday-night hosted event, we wanted to do something a little different. I worked with MC²’s Boston office to secure a tour of Fenway Park, use of the batting cages and possibly wrap up the tour with dinner and drinks at the Bleacher Bar (which is a traditional Fenway Park bar/restaurant that looks over the field). It sounded like the perfect Boston experience.
But then things got interesting…
The day we were to receive a contract from the Bleacher Bar, we were told a larger event had been booked and they would no longer be able to accommodate us. So with the knowledge and help from our Boston office, we developed a Plan B. We secured Game On! restaurant and bar that also had access to the batting cages and could provide us with dinner. Plus, we could book the batting cages for less through Game On! rather than directly through Fenway Park. Yay!
About two weeks prior to the event, Game On! told us that Fenway would not allow them to use the batting cages the night of our event. A bummer for sure, but what can you do? Since we had already developed a fun baseball-themed game for the attendees to play to get to know us, missing out on the batting cages wasn’t all that much of a setback.
Our RSVP date was the Thursday before the conference and I dutifully sent my headcount to the venues. But on Friday, just before leaving for Boston, the phone rings. It’s my contact at Fenway Park informing me that something has come up and he is going to have to cancel our event!!! The Vice President of the United States Joe Biden would be at Fenway and we would not be allowed into the park due to security. I start to laugh (he is joking, right?), but he informs me that a contract is not binding when the USVP is involved.
Luckily, after telling him there is absolutely no way we can reschedule for another date, we were able to work out a tour to start after our guests had some food and drinks and Biden had left the park. Though this is not what we wanted to do, it was the best option for our guests in such a limited time frame.
Believe it or not, despite cold weather, working around secret service agents and dodging some protestors outside of Fenway, we had a wonderful evening! The food was great and staff at Game On! were a pleasure to work with and very accommodating to our change in plans. The tour guides we had at Fenway Park were excellent and made the tour very informative, fun and comical (mainly by picking on us Yankee fans)!
Well I hope that you found the above information both helpful. I know I certainly learned a lot from the event. Below is contact info for the Hilton Boston, Game On! and our favorite Boston transportation company Beantown Trolley. If you would like any additional information please contact me.
Maureen Meany
Senior Sales Manager
Hilton Boston
89 Broad Street
Boston, MA
P: 617-348-1222
F: 617-348-1444
maureen_meany@hilton.com
www.hilton.com
Emily Gould
Manager
Game On!
82 Lansdowne St.
Boston, MA 02215
P: 617-351-7001
F: 617-351-7011
egould@lyonsgroup.com
http://gameonboston.com
Mike/Joe
Beantown Trolley
435 High Street
Boston, MA 02368
P: 800-343-1328
F: 781-986-0167
info@brushhilltours.com
www.beantowntrolley.com
Thoughts, suggestions, comments? Drop me a line!
jbodenmann@mc-2.com

November 15th, 2008

A Toast To Atlanta FastTrak

The perfect location for a FastTrak event

October 06th, 2008

Getting FastTrak San Francisco Afloat!

Hi everyone and welcome to another addition to my blog. The purpose of this space is to share my experiences and information I develop as we continue to sponsor the FastTrak program for Exhibitor Magazine. Once again I hope you to find this information useful for your events and please contact me with any questions you may have. San Francisco FastTrak was September 29 – October 1, 2008 and we had another successful event hosting dinner on the only man-made floating island in the world.
Hotel/Meeting Planning: This was our second year at the San Francisco Marriott at Fisherman’s Wharf (www.marriottfishermanswharf.com). We returned to this location for many reasons; the staff at this hotel is amazing… they always go above and beyond. They are so responsive and observant to our needs that most of the time they solve an issue before we have to ask. Besides great customer service, the location is perfect and the room rate is competitive for hotels in San Francisco. We hope to return to this hotel in 2009.
MC² Hosted Evening Event: Every Tuesday night of our FastTrak conference, we host an evening event for our attendees. This year we wanted to take advantage of our location at the wharf and do something unique as well. Luckily I was able to reach out to our Las Vegas division Marketing Director, Sheri Posey, for some help planning our event.
Sheri loves to plan events and San Francisco is a great city in which to do that. She wanted this event to give our FastTrak guests a unique experience of this diverse city, and what it has to offer.
To start the process, she did a google search on unique venues in San Francisco. Sheri told me, “I was led in several different directions and one of those was Pier 39.”
Pier 39 is San Francisco’s Premier Bay Attraction, a festival marketplace with more than 110 stores, 12 Bay view restaurants, and a variety of fun-filled attractions for all ages including world-renowned sea lions, street performers and live daily entertainment. Pier 39 was located within walking distance of our hotel, so this fit well into the overall logistics.
“There was one venue, which caught my interest,” Sheri said. “Forbes Island Restaurant (www.forbesisland.com).
“Forbes Island is the only man-made floating island in the world. Right in the heart of San Francisco Bay, it is the perfect destination for a truly memorable event and dining experience. Imagine a 40 ft. lighthouse, giant lush palm trees, spectacular views, white sand patios, sunset views, an underwater dining room, Tahiti bamboo lounge and neighboring sea lions all on a floating island.”
It is one of the most fascinating, unique and original places in all of San Francisco both above and below the water. We had the city as our backdrop and the soothing sounds of the sea lions to entertain us.
Sheri added, “Ok, maybe you might not consider the sea lions soothing, but they are definitely entertaining!”
Sheri checked the venue out on several different travel websites like frommers.com (www.frommers.com) and tripadvisor.com (www.tripadvisor.com) to get real reviews by customers. Overall, Forbes Island received great reviews. Then she contacted Pierre Bleuse, the island’s general manager. He was very courteous and helped work out the outline for the event so our guests would have a memorable experience. She completed the arrangements with Erick Hendricks, event manager.
Sheri puts it this way. “When the guests arrived the event, they were totally surprised by the venue. By the end of the evening, we were getting rave reviews. I believe the key to its success was having the island all to ourselves because we booked it on an evening when it was closed to the public. Our guests could roam freely or take a guided tour to hear the history of the island or speak to Mr. Forbes himself. He was also our boat charter captain for the evening and he entertained everyone with stories of the island while driving the water taxi. It was an excellent evening and everyone told us they had a really memorable experience!”
-Thanks Sheri!
I hope you found all of this helpful. Below please find all of the contact information for each of our venues. They were all excellent to work with and we hope to work with them again soon!
Elaine Wallace
Senior Sales Manager
San Francisco Marriott Fisherman’s Wharf
1250 Columbus Ave
San Francisco, CA 60611
P: 415.447.1506
F: 415.771.9076
www.marriottfishermanswharf.com
Erick J. Hendricks
Event Manager
Forbes Island Restaurant
Pier 39, #205
San Francisco, CA 94133
Reservations 415.951.4900
Events 415.235.7488
www.forbesisland.com
Thoughts, suggestions, comments? Drop me a line!
www.jbodenmann@mc-2.com

Chicago FastTrak included a dinner cruise on the lake

September 11th, 2008

Getting FastTrak up and running:
Chicago, August, 2008

Hi, everyone and welcome to my blog. The purpose of this space is to share my experiences and information I develop as we continue to sponsor the FastTrak program for Exhibitor Magazine. I hope you find this information useful for your events. Please contact me with any questions you may have.
Hotel/Meeting Planning:
This was our first year in the James Hotel in Chicago. The two previous years were held at the Hard Rock Hotel. A nice hotel but not the best environment for our conference. We did however want to remain in a smaller boutique type hotel for our meeting. I started out by submitting an RFP on ChooseChicago.com.
Despite your best efforts this can be an overwhelming task of sorting through responses of availability vs. capabilities. Luckily Dee Silfies from Exhibitor Magazine was also looking for a boutique and hip hotel for housing Gravity Free, so we scheduled a site visit. Not only is the property gorgeous, it offers the amenities of todays travelers from free wireless internet throughout the hotel to a free 24-hr business center off of the lobby, to a hotel room that has a cozy home feel. The meeting rooms were the perfect size as well. When you are managing a group of 75-125 people its nice to find a hotel where you are their only onsite group.
The hotel was great, the staff was extremely helpful and attentive at all times and the catering was excellent.
MC² Hosted Evening Event:
Every Tuesday night of our FastTrak conference we host an evening event for our attendees. This year I wanted to do something where we could enjoy the sites of the city. We had previously taken an architectural bus tour, but I wanted to incorporate the water in some way. So I started my search on the website for Navy Pier http://www.navypier.com, tossing around the idea of a restaurant reception or dinner cruise on the lake. But neither of these sounded intimate enough. We want everyone to get to know each other. So I went back to the Navy Pier site and found a charter company that offered the private rental of their charter boat called Shoreline Charters. We reserved the Star of Chicago and used their preferred caterer Harry Caray’s Catering & Events, a division of Harry Caray’s legendary Italian Steakhouse for the food.
Shoreline cruises was so easy to work with, our contact Kathe was great! She provided me with a excel sheet where I plugged in the number of attendees and my package options that calculated tax and gratuity, so I knew exactly what we were paying for. She even took the extra step to find a caterer to supply a kosher meal for an attendee at no additional charge. Kathe met us at the dock and introduced us to our sailing/catering staff and off we went. Everything was perfect! The Captain, boat crew, our bartender Barbara and catering crew were so pleasant and fit right in with our group. We sailed up the river and out along the lake and got an awesome view of the city.
We docked after a two-hour cruise and I handed everyone a map so if they wanted to take the walk back to the hotel they could… otherwise they could stay at Navy Pier. Most everyone decided to walk and enjoy the evening.
Our bus service, Chicagoland Transportation Solutions, Inc. provided our transportation at a great price as well!
I hope you found all of this helpful. Below please find all of the contact information for each of our venues. They were all excellent to work with and we hope to work with them again soon!
Kari Skulstad
Senior Sales Manager
The James
55 East Ontario Street
Chicago, IL 60611
P: 312.660.7146
F: 312.660.7187
http://www.jameshotels.com
Kathe Elwell
Sales Manager
Shoreline Charters & Events
P: 312.373.7255
F: 312.321.0632
http://www.shorelinechartersandevents.com
Jennifer Ropski
Chicagoland Transportation Solutions, Inc.
2500 W. Higgins Road
Suite 935
Hoffman Estates, IL 60169-2089
P: 847.781.8811
F: 847.781.8813
http://www.chicagotransportsolutions.com
Thoughts, suggestions, comments? Drop me a line!
jbodenmann@mc-2.com

Tag: "FastTrak"

A San Francisco Treat at FastTrak

High atop a roof in Chicago!
Chicago FastTrak, August 4-6, 2009

FastTrak Hits A Grand Slam In Boston!

A Toast To Atlanta FastTrak

Getting FastTrak San Francisco Afloat!

Getting FastTrak up and running:
Chicago, August, 2008

The High Potential Trade Show Marketer

Metrics & More

City Spotlight

Green Tip

Complimentary White Paper

Publications

Associations

Tag: "FastTrak"

A San Francisco Treat at FastTrak

High atop a roof in Chicago!Chicago FastTrak, August 4-6, 2009

FastTrak Hits A Grand Slam In Boston!

A Toast To Atlanta FastTrak

Getting FastTrak San Francisco Afloat!

Getting FastTrak up and running:Chicago, August, 2008

The High Potential Trade Show Marketer

Metrics & More

City Spotlight

Green Tip

Complimentary White Paper

Publications

Associations

High atop a roof in Chicago!
Chicago FastTrak, August 4-6, 2009

Getting FastTrak up and running:
Chicago, August, 2008