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Small Businesses Make a Big Impression: Use a Meeting and Conference Center to Connect with Clients
You've got a great business plan, a phenomenal product or
service, and the energy and drive to promote your business.
There's only one problem. You're running your entire company out
of a corner of your living room, or your garage; or you've
rented a hole in the wall office furnished with ancient office
furniture scrounged from anyplace you could find it, and you're
not really comfortable inviting high power prospective clients
to your location.
Your regional meeting and conference center may have the perfect
answer. These centers are springing up all over the country, and
offer a range of options for meetings, conferences, and
conventions. Designed to project a modern, professional
corporate image, they allow even small start ups to make a
dynamic impact on potential clients and management personnel.
Whether you need to schedule a ten o'clock meeting with a few
representatives from a major corporation you're targeting for
business, or you need to rent a room for an entire day to
interview a series of potential management hirees, an
attractive, functional meeting room will reflect your company's
professionalism.
When you're choosing a meeting and conference center, be sure to
research the availability of communications technology; the best
centers will offer the latest high
tech media equipment, so that if you have to project a
Powerpoint display, a CD-Rom, or a DVD presentation, you have
access to the equipment you need. A competently operated
business center will also provide high speed Internet access and
dial-up, as well as a number of business services including
secretarial and clerical support, photocopying services, and
FAXing capability. If you're going to be holding a lengthy
meeting, you also need to make arrangements for your clients to
have lunch or morning or afternoon food breaks, depending on the
timing of the meeting. If you hold annual meetings for your
employees, your partners or stockholders, or your board of
directors, you may want to splurge on an informational meeting
which includes a sumptuous catered meal.
If you're expecting potential clients or vendors to travel to
meet with you from out of town, you may want to pay special
attention to the meeting center's ease of access, both from
Interstate highways and from regional airports. Business people
who travel frequently want to get to a meeting quickly, have a
productive experience, and then get back on the road, to the
airport, or to their hotel room with as little fuss as possible.
Choosing your meeting's location to facilitate this will make a
positive impact on those you're meeting; putting them in a
position of getting snarled in city traffic will definitely not.
Of course, the best meeting and conference center in the world
is only as impressive as the presentation you make. Make sure
you're prepared, and have all the documentation you need at the
meeting, polished and organized. If you have a media
presentation to make, be sure it says what you want it to say,
and then communicate with the tech experts at the meeting center
to be absolutely certain you know how to operate the equipment.
If possible, troubleshoot the equipment, and practice the
presentation, well before your meeting so that you can make a
smooth, polished performance.
Even if you're operating a start-up company on a shoestring,
creative use of your regional meeting and conference center will
allow you to project a professional, successful image to your
business associates; and nothing sells like success.
About the author:
Aldene Fredenburg is a freelance writer living in southwestern
New Hampshire and frequently contributes to Tips and
Topics. She may be reached at amfredenburg@yahoo.com.