Connections Newsletter

The Connections Newsletter, published several times per year, offers news, trends, case studies, plus strategies and tips for engaging and inspiring audiences at your events. If you'd like to receive this free newsletter, please sign up now!

Current Issue: Summer 2008
In this Issue:

Inspiration Fuels Motivation

Plan Faster, Manage Easier with Attend-eSource

Inspiring your attendees with meaningful messages

The Great Wheelchair Challenge

Visiting church organs makes for a moving experience

New Summer Tour: Margaritas on Lake Minnetonka

Featured Venue: Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate

Inspiration Fuels Motivation

Striving for outstanding customer service
During a recent conference, all of our divisions teamed up to provide the Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) with an experience they’d never forget. Conference Services, Event Production and Transportation joined forces and set the standard for future SAME conferences. I’d like to share with you a few words from Jim Mosner, President of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Post and the SAME planning committee

The best I have seen in my 20 years of attending these conferences.” “Such attention to detail.” “The perfect venue.” “Great atmosphere.” We heard all of these and more complimentary remarks from the attendees of this year’s SAME National Conference, JETC 08. The credit for this success goes to all of you who worked so hard to make this a memorable event. Whether a member of the military, or a member of the volunteer work force, or a member of the SAME staff, or one of our contract team members, everyone gave their best and it showed. We have set the bar high for future conferences and in the process provided this year’s attendees a true “Up North Experience” sprinkled with a liberal amount of “Midwest Nice.” We all have a great deal to be proud of. Thanks to everyone."

Sam Thompson
President, metroConnections

Plan Faster, Manage Easier with Attend-eSource

metroConnections offers a suite of Web-based solutions for meeting planners
Meeting and Event Planners have their work cut out for them and no one knows that better than metroConnections. That’s why the Conference Services team gathered a variety of solutions for the planner and packaged them as Attend-eSource™.

Attend-eSource™ is a suite of Web-based solutions that can be used to plan faster and manage logistics easier. The suite is a buffet of sorts. The planner can pick and choose the solution or solutions that work best for them. When a planner uses Attend-eSource™, they can feel confident knowing that every detail of their program is in place. In addition to the Web-based solutions, metroConnections has assembled a team of experts to support this one-of-a-kind service.

New demo on www.metroconnections.com Get to know Attend-eSource™ by visiting www.metroconnections.com. On the home page, click the “play demo” banner for a demonstration that includes a short video overview and an interactive explanation of each solution. Learn the benefits to the planner and attendee as well.

The Attend-eSource™ solution includes:

Custom Web Sites Your customer Web site can offer event registration, personalized session agendas, travel, “real-time” housing and destination information – all in one place.

Email Marketing Streamline your communications with fast and efficient custom-branded graphical emails from “save the date” invitations to post-event follow-up and surveys.

Online Registration Whether your meeting is a single event or a multi-day, multi-track conference, we support key components of the meeting planning process across your audiences and program types.

Session Scheduler As the newest addition to Attend-eSource™, Session Scheduler is your online version of your session catalog, with the added benefit of allowing attendees to create their own session calendar before arriving at the event. This solution uses the ScheduleFlex™ technology created by Cardinal Communication and metroConnections.

Session Tracking This easy-to-use mobile scanning technology gives you reliable session access control, capacity management and immediate Web reporting on attendance.

Lead Retrieval This state-of-the-art wireless mobile scanning technology simply eliminates the exchange of business cards between attendees and exhibitors and the post-event database management for the exhibitor.

Interactive Messaging Center Create an on-site communications center for attendees with easy-to-use computer kiosks that provide electronic event information, updates, Web and email access, and interevent/attendee message boards.

Web-based Surveys Create a Web-based survey that will be waiting for your attendees when they return to the office. Upon completion, survey results are immediately available, relieving you of the data gathering that comes with paper surveys.

Are you inspired by these solutions created by meeting planners for meeting planners? Call us for a free Attend-eSource™ consultation.

"We couldn’t be more impressed with the Attend-eSource™ solution, and with Katie and her team. Not only do you customize the Web sites for our meetings, but you make sure every detail of our online registration and name badges are perfect. And we cannot thank you enough for printing our certificates for the lab seminars and shipping them out for us. Now that’s service!" Cindy Sullivan | Senior Meeting and Event Specialist | Boston Scientific

For more information, visit www.metroconnections.com | 800-747-8687
Tom McCulloch | tmcculloch@metroconnections.com

Please visit http://www.metroconnections.com/video/aes-demo.html

Inspiring your attendees with meaningful messages

Choosing the right speakers and entertainers to convey your conference message
Conferences are successful when your attendees are educated and inspired by your company’s message. In order to accomplish that task, meeting planners need to find powerful speakers or entertainers whose messages coincide with that of the company’s message. Let metroConnections help you in that process.

The National Youth Leadership Council (NYLC) held its annual National Service-Learning Conference this past spring at the Minneapolis Convention Center. The mission of the conference and the theme “Youth for a Change” was to highlight ideas with local and global implications: social justice, academic achievement, and the environment. Plenary addresses, featured forums, workshops, on- and off-site projects, and networking opportunities brought the issues to life.

Based on NYLC’s objectives, Senior Vice President-Event Production David Graves recommended a program filled with motivational and inspirational speakers and talent. California Drum Café set the tone for the Awards Ceremony. This group believes that “music has the power to transform, inspire, move and motivate us both as individuals and groups.” They drummed their way into the souls of the 2,600 attendees from 24 countries. The evening came to a close with a dynamic stage show performed by Soul Asylum, an inspirational alternative rock group with Minneapolis roots. Day two of the conference opened with a keynote address by 1984 Nobel Peace Prize Winner Desmond Tutu. He spoke to the young people in the audience and gave them a call to action to get involved and make a change in the world. He told his personal story and inspired everyone with humor and love.

Let metroConnections work with your event team to find the speakers and entertainment that will best suit your program. We’ll even manage every detail of their appearance for you. From motivational to humorous, we have access to speakers that your audience will find both entertaining and inspirational.

Recommended speakers and entertainers that were recently managed by metroConnections:

SPEAKERS
Dr. Robert Ballard, General Barry R. McCaffrey (Ret), Madeleine Albright, Jim Abbott

ENTERTAINERS
Soul Asylum, Twin Cities Community Gospel Choir, California Drum Cafe, Billy McLaughlin, String Theory

“Your entire staff should be commended for their endless hours, assistance, cooperation, and professionalism, which subsequently resulted in an unforgettable event. "Youth for a Change" was spectacular; and, in the opinion of many of our attendees, staff and Board members, it was our best NYLC event ever. The production staff handled on-siteduring- production changes to our awards presentation with such professionalism. Their entertainment selection and stage design received raves from every one in attendance. metroConnections is an amazing enhancement to our conference team. I couldn’t imagine doing the conference without them.”

Amy Meuers | Conference and Events Director | National Youth Leadership Council

For more information, visit Production Services | 800-747-8687

David Graves | dgraves@metroconnections.com

The Great Wheelchair Challenge

Taking Garage Wars, a metroConnections team building event, to a whole new level

A roar of excitement was heard throughout the Nicollet Island Pavilion when the folks from Universal Hospital Services, Inc. learned they had gathered together in the spirit of giving. Edina, Minnesota-based Universal Hospital Services Inc. held their annual conference in Minneapolis this past spring. As part of their conference, metroConnections transported the 300 attendees to the historic Nicollet Island Pavilion for a team building event called Garage Wars.

Upon entering, guests were given a unique bandana, which later indicated the teams for the activity. When it was time to begin, the attendees learned that they would be participating in a series of fun team challenges. The goal for each team was to earn parts and tools to assemble wheelchairs, quite fitting as this was a medical equipment management company. Cheers erupted when everyone learned the wheelchairs would be donated to Hope for the City, an organization in St. Louis Park, Minn. that collects products from top retailers, medical companies, and food distributors nationwide and donates the items to people in need locally and around the world.

Teams went head to head with challenges such as “Stuff the Trunk,” “Mixed Nuts” and the very popular “Service Station Relay,” which entailed maneuvering giant tricycles. Upon completing a challenge, the teams were awarded money that would buy them wheelchair parts at Axel’s Garage. Once all of the challenges were completed, the shelves of Axel’s Garage were emptied and the wheelchairs were assembled.

“We were happy to make this connection with Hope for the City,” said David Lawson, Senior Vice President of Information & Strategic Resources, Universal Hospital Services, Inc. “Organizations like theirs make it easier for us to give globally.” Following the event, the metroConnections’ Event Production Team delivered the wheelchairs to Hope for the City, who will send the donated wheelchairs to Arabkir Joint Medical Center in Armenia on behalf of Universal Hospital Services, Inc.

If you’re inspired to incorporate giving into your next team building event, contact the Event Production office and start planning today.

“Thank you very much for being so accommodating and wonderful during our event. It was a huge success thanks to you. There have been many compliments regarding how this year's event was the best ever.” Melanie D. Vath | Executive Coordinator | Universal Hospital Services, Inc.

For decades, metroConnections has been turning team building events into inspirational giving activities for their clients. Let our team work with you to find a perfect fit with your charity. Anything is possible, but here are a few ideas.

Garage Wars The bicycles used for this challenge were purchased by the company, assembled during the event by their employees and then donated to Toys for Tots.

Game Show Challenge Teams were awarded points for correct answers. At the end of the event, the company converted the points to dollars and gave the “winnings” to the company’s favorite charity.

For more information, visit Team Building Events | 800-747-8687
Pete Gnoza | pgnoza@metroconnections.com

Visiting church organs makes for a moving experience

Bringing inspiration to 2,000 members of the American Guild of Organists
When the Twin Cities Chapter of The American Guild of Organists (TCAGO) decided to host the 2008 AGO National Convention in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, metroConnections became instrumental in getting the attendees where they needed to go.

“According to many, we ran smoother and tighter in terms of getting people from place to place than any other AGO convention in recent memory. The success of our complicated routing was astounding to many, as well. The real catalyst which made it happenwas working with a company like metroConnections where flexibility, professionalism, responsibility and trust are the order of the day. During the convention, I spoke with a number of transportation “czars” from past conventions. They all know what it takes to move hundreds of people… they readily acknowledged that we had hired a crew who knew the business better than any of us.” Randy Bourne | Transportation Chair | American Guild of Organists, Twin Cities Chapter

For more information, visit Transportation | 800-747-8687
Renee Splittgerber | rsplittgerber@metroconnections.com

New Summer Tour: Margaritas on Lake Minnetonka

Olé! In partnership with Al & Alma’s Charter Cruises, we bring you Margaritas on Lake Minnetonka. Join us as we relax aboard a luxurious yacht at sunset and glimpse into the backyards of Minnesota’s millionaires. The Marinated Chicken and Beef Fajita Bar,a complimentary margarita, assorted sodas and juices are included in the cost of the tour. Group tours are also available.

Make your reservation now | 800-747-TOUR

Featured Venue: Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate

Play where the champions play

With the assistance of metroConnections’ Conference Services Team, Pentair hosted a golf tournament at ChampionsGate Golf Club as part of their 2008 Global Leadership meeting at the Omni Orlando Resort. ChampionsGate is a Central Florida masterpiece that features two premier 18-hole championship golf courses designed by architect and golfer Greg Norman. The leaders of Pentair enjoyed this un-matched golf facility as well as the layout of the meeting space, sleeping rooms and the Omni Orlando Resort’s impeccable service. Contact metroConnections for more details including a new incentive. Confirm and actualize a new meeting by December 31, 2008 and the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate will offer your group incredible short-term incentives that will impact your organizations bottom line.

Let metroConnections coordinate, plan and execute your next meeting at the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate with ease and expertise.

For more information info@metroconnections.com | 800-747-8687

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