Meeting plans: how to get started and where to turn for help.

• Author: Kapp, Jennifer
• Position: Meetings & Conventions

Forty years ago most hotels even in larger cities had fewer than 100 rooms. Conventions remained in cities like Las Vegas and Atlantic City or found their way to resorts such as French Lick Springs Resort as an alternative, notes Mark Mahoney, general manager for French Lick Springs Resort.

"Now you can find 500-room hotels in any of the bigger cities and, many times, in some of the smaller ones," he says. As exhibition and meeting space has multiplied across Indiana, the choices for where--and how--to host your next meeting or convention have multiplied.

THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT

Meeting planners and convention coordinators agree your first step needs to be figuring out what kind of meeting your company or organization wants to present. Gather as much information as possible about the event. Who will attend--customers, employees, vendors? How extensive. will the food and beverage needs be--coffee service and snacks, networking lunches or cocktails and a banquet? What presentation requirements do you expect--a microphone and podium or LCD screen?

It's important to know early in the planning stages if you will need to network 20 to 30 computers for a hands-on training program, according to Paul Page, general manager for the Fountains Banquet and Conference Center in Carmel. More and more meetings are calling for Internet hookups and faster download capabilities.

"Come with as much information as you can, even from the very first call you make, or you run into the danger of inappropriate space being recommended. If you plan for too much or too little space, the meeting objectives may not be met," says Jim Yarnelle, director of marketing for the Grand Wayne Convention Center in Fort Wayne.

Some meetings aim to capture the feeling of an intimate retreat for a small group of key managers. "For most of our meetings, we see 25 people or less," says Charles Dingus, general manager of the Columbus Inn Bed and Breakfast, where requests for food items are on the rise. "Food breaks keep (attendees) interested, I think, after you've been sitting in a meeting for 45 minutes to an hour and your mind starts to wander."

Another crucial fact to know is the event's budget. The question is, is this a budget-oriented group? Or, is money not the object but attendees need to leave this event motivated?" says Glenn Brooks, vice president for sales and marketing for General Hotels, which operates the Crowne Plaza hotel and conference center at Union Station in...