Successful Home Officing

Joan Eisenstodt, chief strategist, Eisenstodt Associates, and meetings industry maven, shared with Convene some of her secrets for operating a successful home office.

Her business started in 1981 in the corner of an efficiency apartment. She had a desk, a two-drawer file cabinet, and an IBM Selectric typewriter.

As her business grew and others joined the company, she added desks; ditched the typewriter for computers, printers, copiers, and fax machines.

Every home-based business owner has his or her own style and practices, she said. "Determine how you work best and what you need to provide the services promised in a manner consistent with your style and comfort level and your clients' expectations. Know yourself. I'm a strong introvert on Myers-Briggs. Working from home is well-suited to my style. I am also disciplined in my work habits and need no prodding to get things done. My style and work habits dictate that I:

1. Get up at a consistent time each day, shower, and dress. Although there are many who prefer working in their "jammies," I've found being dressed (albeit sometimes in very casual clothes) makes me feel more professional.
2. Maintain work versus home boundaries. I confess to never having been tempted to do housework while working! Setting boundaries, especially if you are in a marriage or partnership, confirms that you are at work and not available to do errands, housework, etc. Caveat: you can create a more flexible schedule and make time for errands that arise.
3. Use separate phone and voice mail systems for business and home. "Press 1 for Taylor, 2 for Robbie, 3 for the entire family, and 4 for Jean's business" is not encouraging to prospective and current clients. 
4. Ensure quiet while on calls. If you have animals and/or children, keep them at bay.
5. Meet with prospective or current clients in their offices or in public places. In today's world of increasing home-based businesses and telecommuters, it is common practice to meet at a local coffee outlet. 
6. Update technology fairly frequently to work well remotely.
7. Develop and maintain a strong support network of colleagues. Participating in an idea exchange with another home-based colleague or listserv gives you a brain boost.
8. Hire or contract with good people: an attorney familiar with small business issues and the meetings industry or two separate attorneys; a CPA; and for permanent or temporary workers, those who complement your style and skills.

"There is no longer a stigma, as there was in 1981, to home-officing. You will find yourself the envy of many. You will manage the process and the business if you first think through your plan and practice," she concluded. Do you too work from a home office? Are there any tips you can share? Drop us a line at adoyle@pcma.org. See page 73 for tips on managing telecommuting staff.

The Advantages of All Inclusive Resorts

Simplifying meetings from a strategic and budgetary standpoint is what Palace Resorts is all about. A leader in the all-inclusive meetings market with resorts throughout Mexico, Palace is aware that cost may be the determining factor in site selection. All-inclusive resorts offer choices not available through traditional European Plan (EP) hotel venues. The savings to be realized is evidenced in the table below:

European Plan Hotels

RATE: Rates at many EP hotels may be discounted through wholesale outlets and affect the association's ability to fulfill room block commitments, thus causing a shortage and/or a difference in pricing between attendees.

ATTRITION: Guests can register at the hotel of their choice and still participate in all events simply by paying a registration fee. This fee provides no economic incentives for participants to help the association fulfill its contractual obligations to the host property.

FUNCTION SPACE RENTAL FEES: The function space rental fee is complimentary when food and beverages are purchased from the hotel, but, only when they are in conjunction with the use of the space.

FOOD & BEVERAGE: At EP hotels, food & beverages are provided for attendees only at functions. Outside of the scheduled events, meals and entertainment are at the attendees' own expense.

COMPLIMENTARY ROOMS: At EP hotels, a complimentary room only refers to the room rate. Food and beverage is not included.

All-Inclusive Palace Resorts

RATE: An all-inclusive rate is discounted by the number of functions sponsored by the association, exhibitors, and/or other supply partners that take place within the event. This special rate is available exclusively through the association and guarantees that all attendees pay the same price.

ATTRITION: Since the all-inclusive rate or split-rate is lower than any individual or group rate that is offered for the same time period as the conference and is only available to registered individuals, it motivates members to book through the association's room block, thus contributing to the association's contractual obligations to the host property.

FUNCTION SPACE RENTAL FEES: There is never a rental fee at Palace Resorts. Nor do you pay surcharges for private functions.

FOOD & BEVERAGE: All food and beverages are included in the room rate.

COMPLIMENTARY ROOMS: At any Palace Resorts property, a complimentary room includes the room rate, taxes, service charges, food & beverage and gratuities.

A Site Visit With a Spin

When representatives from the American Wind Energy Association arrived at the Hyatt Regency Columbus, they were "blown away." The group was in town searching for a site for the Windpower 2009 Conference and Exhibition that brings together the industry's leading wind energy professionals. There in the hotel's three-story atrium lobby was a 30-foot high and 20-foot wide working windmill, built practically to scale by the hotel's engineering team.

The association reps were totally taken aback, said Joe Bocherer, director of sales for the hotel. "They said engineers tried to construct windmills that were complete disasters in some of the past cities they had met in. Ours was perfect, rotating in the right direction. The reps met with David Basham, our engineer, who built it to find out how he did it."

Although Minneapolis was chosen to host the 2009 conference, the association will not soon forget the effort the Hyatt Regency Columbus made - especially since they have a reminder. The hotel donated the windmill to the association. The 631-room hotel is looking forward to when the association next blows into town. Columbus has been asked to rebid for the association's 2013 conference.

Remote But Not Removed: Tips for Managing Telecommuting Staff

Manny Avramidis, American Management Association's (AMA) senior vice president for global human resources, is keen on telecommuting: "From an organizational perspective, telecommuters are valuable to organizations. With the tightening labor market and low unemployment rates, many companies are going to have no choice, especially as the demographics change and boomers retire. They will be forced to exercise these kinds of alternative means of employment. The other reality is they'll save the money on the office space, they'll increase their candidate pool, and they'll have employees (who are working from home by choice) who are extremely loyal and highly motivated, and able to enjoy a nice work-life balance."

According to Avramidis, one of the most significant advantages to having telecommuters on staff is that "you are able to expand your talent pool because now you can hire anywhere - it doesn't have to be within an immediate distance to your office," he said. "Secondly, you can hire within geographies that you are servicing." As an example, AMA holds about 500 meetings a year, and in addition to its meeting planners in AMA's New York City headquarters office, the association employs planners and facilitators at its meeting locations.

Based on AMA's research and his own experience, Avramidis said people in positions of leadership often have difficulty managing a telecommuting situation. "What is most critical is that the leader who is accountable for the success of the group is comfortable with and capable of managing a remote group. And if they're not, they should be educated how to," he said. Since many of the informal and even formal conversations that take place in an office can be spontaneous, there can be the danger that the remote worker who is out of sight becomes out of mind. Avramidis said there are ways to avoid this pitfall and ensure a successful telecommuting arrangement for managers:

• Establish absolutely clear communications with telecommuters. Pay particular attention to a structure in which you have weekly or biweekly meetings, and make sure there are standard formats of communication.
• Set in place clear policies, clear procedures, clear expectations, clear measurements of productivity. Among the biggest challenges in leadership and management - for on-site as well as off-site staff - is employee engagement and alignment with goals, according to Avramidis. Spell out expectations and goals to make sure everyone is on the same page.
• Make sure the communication isn't just between the manager and the employee, but between peers or other people that remote staff will benefit from communicating with. "People in the office pick up tidbits and learn from the environment," Avramidis said. "Telecommuters don't have that advantage. We call it a great void in knowledge transfer, particularly in learning the intangibles that are gained from observation."
• Managers must manage with a reasonable level of trust. "A lot of leaders are simply not good managers," he said. "Telecommuting must be managed well and when it's mismanaged, it's often more the manager's fault than the employee's fault."

Is Every All-inclusive Resort Alike?

Not at all. Most all-inclusive resorts cater to vacationers. While many have made great inroads into group marketing with incentives and small meetings, they normally do not have the experience or the function space that Palace Resorts possesses to hold concurrent sessions, breakouts, exhibits, and meal functions. Questions to ask when booking a meeting at an all-inclusive resort:

• Does the resort charge for set-up or have a surcharge for private functions?
• Is the property willing to split the rate so your organization can take advantage of sponsorships while offering participants a completely tax deductible conference and deflect normal attrition concerns?
• How many a la carte versus buffet restaurants does the resort offer?
• Is the resort capable of providing an electronic link that allows participants to go from registering for the conference directly to reserving a room with a click of the mouse?
• Finally, as with any resort, ask for references. Be sure the resort's conference staff is skilled in running programs like yours. Most are very adept in managing incentives and small meetings, but lack the experience of larger and higher-level programs.

For more information please contact Palace Resorts' Association Specialist Vince Elorza at (800) 539-3313 ext 4.

Rebuilding Families One Home at a Time

ABC's Emmy Award-winning reality television show, "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," recently camped out in two New Jersey towns. Convene writer Andrea Doyle had the opportunity to personally see one of the home makeovers in progress, leaving her with a lasting impression.

When Beverly Turner was told she could never have children of her own, she looked into adoption. Now 54, she has been a single mother to 18 special needs children, including those who are autistic, blind, blind and confined to a wheelchair, and bipolar. Turner herself has myasthenia gravis, an autoimmune neuromuscular disease.

Last year, a space heater fell over, causing a fire that destroyed the family's Irvington, N.J., home. Luckily, Turner and her nine children who live with her escaped; unharmed, but left homeless. Turner's insurance policy only covered the mortgage on the house. She had no money left over to rebuild.

Enter "Extreme Makeover." Within 96 hours, a brand new six-bedroom, seven-bath home was built, with a jaw-dropping kitchen, carnival room, and kids' bedrooms with racecar, basketball, and boxing themes. At three stories tall, this new house is the biggest ever built by "Extreme Makeover." It is entirely handicapped accessible, with a glass elevator in the middle.

In order to successfully build the house in less than a week, a construction schedule was followed minute-by-minute, room-by-room. The second story was framed while plumbers and electricians worked on the first. A 3,000-member crew of volunteers donated their time.

High-tech Home Built in Less Than a Week

The "Extreme Makeover" crew then headed over to Bergenfield, N.J., where it took over a section of town while rebuilding another needy family's home. Roads were closed; hospitality tents were set up by corporate sponsors, and celebrities dropped by. Marlee Matlin, the Academy-Award winning actress who is deaf, was on hand because she will be hosting the episode when it airs. This home is inhabited by 42-year-old Vicente, who, blind due to a hereditary disease, came to the United States in 1997 in search of better medical care; his mother, who is also blind; his two daughters, who are going blind; his son, who is deaf due to German measles contracted by his mother during pregnancy; and his wife, who has thyroid cancer.

The old home was demolished and a new high-tech one built in less than a week. The crew installed the latest technology (worth approximately $100,000) designed to help those with vision and hearing problems. Among them: the NoteTeller 2, which enables a blind person to distinguish denominations of paper money up to $100, vibrating alarm clocks, and a computer that converts text to sign language.

The show featuring Turner's Irvington home aired in May. The "Extreme Makeover" Bergenfield edition was scheduled to run this summer at the time of this writing.

For more information about the show and these families' stories, visit www.extremehome-nj.com.

What CD is in My CD Player?

Lillian Barbari, meeting coordinator at the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA), who joined PCMA in 2002 as a student, says although it may be the age of the iPod, she still has CDs.

"I am currently listening to a five-disc series my boyfriend made for me. Many of the songs he chose relate to us in a personal way; they evoke a silly memory, a romantic mood. We got engaged a month ago."

Contact Information:

Vince Elorza
Regional Director of Sales, Association Market
Phone: (800) 539-3313 ext. 4
E-mail: velorza@palaceresorts.com
www.palaceresorts.com/groups