the way you want it done

Services Offered

• Site Inspections
  • Corporate Meetings and Events
  • Association Meetings & Events
• Contract Review / Negotiation

Janet R. Pickover, CMP
Director

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Site Inspections Plus is a service offered by JR Associates, a fee for service company.

What Site Inspections Plus strives to do is to get as many of the Oh, by the ways eliminated during the site inspection/selection process.

Have you ever been in the position to hear these words "Oh by the way " when planning your events and programs? When I lecture and teach about meeting planning, I always say you create your meeting planning procedures to mitigate hearing this phrase. It does, however, rear its ugly head from time to time.

When you hear this phrase you know it means that something is about to change, be added, deleted, moved, rescheduled, etc. In the end, it’s impacting something that is already in place or about to happen for your event. How great an impact it has will depend on how you resolve the new situation. It is particularly frustrating if it is something with which you’re not familiar and when time is short and the pressure of putting the entire meeting details together are at its most demanding.

Even the most experienced planners can be thrown a curve from time to time in trying to resolve an “Oh, by the way” situation.

Read the rest of the article to find out my Oh, by the way, story...

What got me thinking about this was when two weeks prior to a meeting, my client asked me to find out if they could display a piece of equipment to the sales force and then he said “Oh by the way, it weighs a ton and needs a generator."

I looked at the process I use to gather information to get to a decision and realized that the questions I ask are really based on a journalism adage - who, what, where, when, why and how.

• Who can get it done; the hotel personnel, my company personnel, outside vendors, etc.?
• Who else will this affect?
• What is it we need to do?
• What impact it will have on the objective for the meeting if this thing or service does or doesn't take place? (ROI)
• Where will it get done?
• When will it get done; do I have a day, week, a month, etc. for finishing it?
• Why are we doing this and how important is it and to whom is it important?
• How is this all going to get done? Do I have the right resources, tools, information, and personnel?
• How much does it cost?

Meeting planning, many times, is about asking the right questions to move the process along to some result. Remember a process is an established series of steps to a desired result. So when the " Oh by the ways " get thrown at you, you can take that deep breath and say okay here's how to start.

Oh by the way, we did not ship the piece of equipment. The cost was too high to get it and keep it there and it was not necessary to the overall meeting objectives.