Selecting a site for a convention, or part of the committee in charge of meeting site selection?

MeetingSource.com (http://www.meetingsource.com) can help. Long known for helping planners find meeting facilities, it has now developed a unique survey that provides quick answers from available online resources.

It’s a criteria-based system of analysis, and it helps meeting planners narrow down their choices among 1000 convention destinations. Five criteria are taken into account: flight times, number of hotel rooms available, whether or not the site has a convention center, off-site event opportunities, and the average price for room rates.

Each request produces a list of the closest matches, ranked according to their fit with the meetings’ needs and preferences. After that each factor can be weighed, automatically tallied and summarized. Once the results are in, the application prompts you go beyond its technology and get put you in touch with trusted providers with a few clicks.

In most areas, this means working with a CVB (Convention & Visitors Bureau). CVBs offer substantial means to further narrow down a list of meeting facilities, because of their knowledge of:

- Room and function space availabilities that may change with the season
- Maps of the Convention Center and its relation to hotels and other attractions
- Special considerations: the EPA, for example, factors in environmental achievement along with price and past performance when selecting meeting places.

Finally, a CVB has tools to help drive attendance if ultimately selected.
Click here to see the Site Selection Optimizer in action, visit, and see MeetingSource.com’s new meeting planning tool in the fall of 2008.

Resource Box: MeetingSource.com (http://www.MeetingSource.com) helps meeting planners find meeting facilities for corporate meetings, conventions and events. Started as a print publisher in 1989 for the six New England states, the company grew nationwide in 1995. Its tools provide compelling information and transaction facilitation for more than 8000 hotels and destinations in the USA.