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 News 2010
In this Issue:

Want to energize? Customize!

Teambuilding takes the cake

Want to ENERGIZE your next national conference? CUSTOMIZE your event web site!

Holding events as planned

Want to ENERGIZE your staff or attendees? CUSTOMIZE an event and pay it forward!

Profile 1: Volunteer Time for Charity

Profile 2: Holiday Shopping Extravaganza

Profile 3: Military Care Package Pack-Up

ART in Education

Want to ENERGIZE your general session? CUSTOMIZE with an exciting look!

Will CUSTOMIZING cost you more?

Want to ENERGIZE your guests for a special event? CUSTOMIZE THE RIDE!

In the News - DMC Network

New Hires & Staff Promotions

Favorite Summertime Venues: City & Regional Parks

Want to energize? Customize!

Since 1994, our employees have gathered each fall for what we call “Summit.” In the infancy of Summit, this employee meeting consisted of a few of us around a campfire, hashing out the business plan for the next year. Last fall, Summit was more than just a few of us around a campfire. Instead, there were scores of us in a boardroom.

While our employee meeting has changed over the years, one thing has remained the same: we strive to energize our team.

In April 2009, Texas Roadhouse CEO G.J. Hart was on NBC News defending his yearly managers’ meeting and talked about investing in his people. He said, “We are all about our people and our culture – and our people are the biggest asset that we’ve got. And this investment in our people will yield us great returns. We have a philosophy in our company that if we take care of our people, they’ll take care of our guests – and that’s exactly why this event is important in times like this.”

Last fall, we continued to invest in Summit and our staff with a “give back extravaganza” like no other. In all the years of Summit, nothing energized the employees like this teambuilding event did. We’re sharing the story with you in this issue of our newsletter.

Would you like to energize your group? Customize! By customizing your attendee experience, it will energize them in supporting the mission you’ve worked so hard to set.

Teambuilding takes the cake

CLIENT: The Knot
EVENT: Project Wedding Cake
LOCATION: Graves 601 Hotel

Want to ENERGIZE your business?
CUSTOMIZE with a special event!
It seemed only fitting. The Knot, a very popular online wedding planning tool and publisher of books and magazines, wrapped up their sales meeting in Minneapolis with a whimsical cake decorating challenge called Project Wedding Cake. The Knot hired metroConnections to create this teambuilding event that tied in with their business and helped them grow as a group. The meeting planners agreed it was challenging and exciting to work with real cakes!

Want to ENERGIZE your next national conference? CUSTOMIZE your event web site!

MEETING: 2010 National Conference
CLIENT: Tastefully Simple

Founded in 1995, Tastefully Simple is the original national home taste-testing company. With over 60 easy-to-prepare foods and gifts, the company has become a $100 million-plus enterprise in the Inc. 500 Hall of Fame. And the woman at the helm of it all? Founder & CEO Jill Blashack Strahan – one of the nation’s leading women entrepreneurs. Since 2003, metroConnections’ Attend-eSource Services department has been customizing websites for Tastefully Simple’s events, invigorating and exciting conference attendees with online registration, and helping to create record-setting attendance.

“Branding your conference web site allows you to drive home the overall quality and message of your event while integrating with other branded conference elements (email invites, conference agendas, stage design). Whether it’s your company brand or your conference brand, it energizes your attendees and creates a perceived value in the overall conference product.” Tom McCulloch, Vice President — Conference Services & Marketing

Holding events as planned

A strong 88% of survey respondents report that their companies are holding their scheduled events – 66% say that they will hold their events as planned, while 12% will scale back slightly.

Want to ENERGIZE your staff or attendees? CUSTOMIZE an event and pay it forward!

metroConnections jumps into the act of summertime festivals and announces its headliner GIVE-BACKAPALOOZA. Join us as we review our recent favorite Give Back events, customized for our clients and their well-deserved teams (ranked in no particular order).

Profile 1: Volunteer Time for Charity

CLIENT: Life Time Fitness
CHARITY: Hope for the City

Leaders and managers from across the nation came and volunteered in the warehouse of the relief organization Hope for the City, then attended a beautiful dinner.

It was waiting for them in the next aisle!

Profile 2: Holiday Shopping Extravaganza

CLIENT: metroConnections
CHARITY: Second Harvest Heartland

Employees of metroConnections teamed up for a shopping competition to fill shelves at Second Harvest Heartland food bank. First, staffers loaded up carts at the store with home supplies and groceries, then packed everything into boxes and loaded them onto a Second Harvest Heartland truck.

Profile 3: Military Care Package Pack-Up

CLIENT: Scantron Corporation
CHARITY: U.S. Armed Forces

Scantron employees created care packages for armed service members overseas during their corporate teambuilding event. Teams enjoyed challenges such as the Latrine Toss, Footlocker Fill and Mess Hall Relay. At the end of the challenges, teams used the PX Bucks they earned to purchase the supplies needed to complete five care packages per team.

ART in Education

Want to ENERGIZE your general session? CUSTOMIZE with an exciting look!

EVENT: Scantron Annual Sales Meeting
CLIENT: Scantron Corporation

The metroConnections meeting planning team for Scantron went beyond a standard stage and screen presentation and incorporated backlit plexiglass panels and two side screens into their general session. This simple and streamlined option allowed Scantron to light the panels with their meeting theme colors, as well as project their presentations in an exciting way.

“This is a simple and cost-effective way to add a splash to a meeting. It gives attendees the impression that something great is about to happen.” David Graves, President

Will CUSTOMIZING cost you more?

Want to ENERGIZE your guests for a special event? CUSTOMIZE THE RIDE!

CUSTOM TRANSPORTATION: ESPN “Homecoming with Rick Reilly” Event
CLIENT: ESPN

Whether you’re heading across town or across the country, metroConnections gets you there in vehicles suited for your event. This past January, metroConnections handled the transportation for an event called “Homecoming with Rick Reilly,” which featured Minnesota Twins’ hometown hero Joe Mauer. metroConnections shuttled 2,000 guests in buses to Mauer’s alma mater Cretin Derham Hall and designed the ingress/egress plan that efficiently and quickly moved everyone in below-zero weather.

In the News - DMC Network

New Hires & Staff Promotions

Favorite Summertime Venues: City & Regional Parks

We asked our resident expert on summer interactive and teambuilding events, Pete Gnoza, to comment on his favorite venue for the season.

CONNECTIONS NEWS (CN): What is your favorite summertime venue, and why?

Pete Gnoza (PG): I like city and regional parks, especially those with a pavilion or shelter. Usually the pavilions can seat and shelter 300 people if sun or rain are a factor. Plus, there are large, flat grassy areas around the pavilions which are perfect for our interactives.

CN: What kind of “interactives” do you hold in these parks?

PG: Just about any interactive event can take place outdoors, but specifically I like doing chili cook-offs or salsa-making contests outside. Garage Wars, the massive bike build-offs we offer, are also great outdoors.

CN: Has weather ever been a factor? What did you do?

PG: One year, a customer asked for a game show interactive at a regional park. Sure enough, it rained. Holding the event outside with the equipment and props wasn’t an option. So we just set up the event under the pavilion. Pavilions are excellent back-up venues for your already-reserved park space.

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