MICE (Meeting, Incentive, Convetion, Exhibition)

If you’re uncertain about what to include in your RFP or simply want to make sure you’re covering all the bases review the four steps necessary for writing a detailed request for proposal.

STEP ONE

Begin by giving the selected vendors basic information about your meeting or group:

Organization name

Name of meeting

Your name, address, telephone and fax numbers, and
e-mail address

Location of meeting (city and facility or facilities)

Headquarters hotel, if applicable

Dates of meeting. Be sure to point out if any of the dates are a holiday. Even if your organization doesn’t celebrate a certain holiday, a union might . . . and overtime and double-time can have a huge impact on your budget. It’s equally essential to check for holidays when planning meetings outside the United States.

Number of attendees

Attendee profile. The attendee profile is extremely important when putting together an RFP for services such as tours, entertainment, and theme parties. Knowing the degree to which your delegates have “been there, done that” will help the vendor come up with the most appropriate events for your group.

Previous locations (city and facility)

Deadline for proposals. Allow vendors at least 10 business days to help ensure that the proposals you receive will be as complete as possible.

STEP TWO

List the items for which you require pricing, and remember to be as specific as possible. Let the vendors know, for example, if you would like the audio-visual equipment priced a particular way (a la carte vs. package price per meeting room). We suggest that you provide a template for the suppliers to make their job, and yours, easier. A simple spreadsheet document will help keep all bids in a common format, enabling you to make comparisons more efficiently.

The following is a rundown of major items to include in your RFP:

Airport Transportation

Major arrival date

Major departure date

Number of attendees

Specify whether you require individual pick-ups or group pick-ups upon arrival or departure.

Do you want the meet and greet staff stationed at the gate or in the baggage claim area?

Type of vehicle requested (van vs. sedan)

Is a restroom on the bus required?

Age and capacity of buses

Do you want driver gratuities included in the price?

Do the vehicles meet ADA standards?

Specify the maximum “wait time” for any individual. The shorter the wait, the higher the price since this usually requires more vehicles.

Do you require a dispatcher at both the airport and the staging area?

Where will the company stage the transportation?

Tours/Entertainment

Date and time frame available for tours. Are some days unavailable for tours due to meeting activities? Do you want full-day or half-day tours on specific days during the conference?

Profile of attendees for any specific tour or all tours (spouses or companions only, children, couples, age, etc.)

Specific thoughts or preferences on tour options. Have museum tours been very successful with your group in the past? Do your attendees prefer more physical activities like biking or snorkeling or even city walking tours?

Provide actual attendance figures from previous tours to illustrate the type of activities that generally do and don’t go over well with your delegates.

Minimum number of attendees required to conduct a tour. If you want a lower minimum than most destination management companies normally require, specify this in your RFP. It will increase your per-person cost, but it may spare you from canceling a tour at the last minute due to lower participation.

Maximum number of attendees allowed on tour

Lunch, dinner, or snacks to be provided during tour

What type of transportation will be provided?

If buses, do they have restrooms?

Specify whether you want all taxes and gratuities included in the pricing.

Indicate the types of themes and entertainment you have used in recent years so that history is not repeated.

Audio-Visual

Provide the entire conference program including:

1. Number and location of concurrent sessions. Indicate whether you have a 24-hour hold on any or all of these rooms since setup and teardown could have a major impact on your labor costs.

2. General session. Include move in, move out, and actual session times.

3. Equipment needs. If you already know your needs for this year, spell them out. If you’re going out to bid before knowing your exact requirements, however, you could use last year’s equipment list (just be sure to alert the suppliers that this is the case) or estimate what you will require this year. The latter strategy works well if you provide the same equipment in each breakout room such as an LCD projector, screen, and lavalier microphone.

4. The cost of tear-down and setup time required to move equipment from one room to another.

5. Are projectionists required?

6. Exhibitor rentals. If your conference includes a trade show and the AV vendor will have an opportunity to provide equipment to exhibitors and generate additional revenue, your overall piece of business becomes more attractive, which could result in a deeper discount. So be certain to include some history on exhibitor rentals from previous years.

7. Obtain standard printed price sheets and explanations of the discount you will receive.

General Service Contractor

Number of booths

Size of booths or booth packages

“Extras” about your show such as the size aisles you desire, number and location of any lounge areas, etc.

A copy of last year’s floor plan may prove helpful.

Number of registration counters

Signage needs. This includes not only signs inside the exhibit hall, but also any other signs you may require for meeting rooms, sponsor acknowledgements, banners, etc.

Drayage requirements. General service contractors (GSC) make most of their money from drayage. As a result, if you know how heavy your show is, you may be able to negotiate more complimentary items such as moving freight from the dock to the registration area, entrance units, etc.

Labor requirements

Exhibitor revenue. Specify how much revenue your exhibitors generated for the GSC in previous years. If the GSC can’t provide you with exact amounts, ask for usage figures on items such as carpet, tables and chairs, upgraded furniture, prefabricated booths, assisted labor, etc. Armed with this information, you may be able to negotiate a deeper discount or additional complimentary items.

STEP THREE

When planning a meeting and requesting a proposal, compile a wish list. Let the suppliers know what complimentary or discounted items you would like to receive based on the value of your piece of business. You may not get everything you ask for the vendor has to turn a profit, after all but if you don’t ask, you may not get anything. An audio-visual vendor, for example, may be able to provide complimentary walkie-talkies, speaker ready room equipment, or even one microphone per day per room. A DMC may be able to supply complimentary tour desk staffing or site visit transportation. A general service contractor may be able to pick up the tab for all or some of your show management shipping needs or furniture or equipment for your show office. It’s almost always possible to obtain a discount off the full price. Be sure to find out how great a discount you will receive.

STEP FOUR

Finally, ask the vendor to provide a list of references… and be sure to check them before making your final decision.

Wanda Kovacs is a Meeting & Event Manager at Conferon Global Services, Inc. in Twinsburg, Ohio. Visit us at http://www.conferon.com for all your meeting planning needs.

Your team of doctors will make treatment recommendations based on the stage of your cancer. Your standard treatment options may include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and hormone therapy. If you have been diagnosed with DCIS or LCIS, your stage is the lowest and the road you will travel will be easier. For DCIS, your options may include breast-conserving surgery or mastectomy with or without radiation and hormone therapy.

LCIS treatments options are a bit different. They include observation to determine changes, hormone therapy to prevent cancer from developing, or bilateral prophylactic (preventive) mastectomies.

Things get more complicated when your cancer spreads beyond the ducts or lobes/lobules. Once your cancer has been staged, you can visit www.cancer.gov to determine your treatment options. They will typically include: surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and/or hormone therapy. For IBC, treatment options are similar to the other types of breast cancer, but they will always include chemotherapy because of its aggressiveness.

Surgery: Breast surgery can be either a lumpectomy, where the tumor is removed, or a partial or modified radical mastectomy. With a lumpectomy, it is typically followed by radiation. This way, you get to keep your breast and studies have shown no difference in survival rates between lumpectomy/radiation and mastectomy.

Note: Not too long ago, they used to perform radical mastectomies where the breast, all the lymph nodes, and the underlying muscle were cut away. Thankfully, medicine has discovered that’s not necessary. Now, a partial or modified radical mastectomy is performed, where either part of the breast tissue, or the entire breast, and possibly a portion of the lymph nodes, are removed. On the whole, a mastectomy isn’t too bad a surgery, although everyone is different. I found both of mine to be quite easy, but you will wake up with drain tubes, which you’ll typically have for at least a week.

Chemotherapy: Chemotherapy is defined by Wikipedia as “the use of chemical substances to treat disease. In its modern-day use, it refers primarily to cytotoxic drugs used to treat cancer.” This can be a frightening prospect for anyone. We’ve all heard horror stories about how very debilitating chemotherapy can be. However, much progress has been made in the management of chemo’s side effects, to the point that, once you have the right management tools, you can continue to enjoy the activities you typically do. Chemo is a means of treating your cancer systemically and is typically recommended for those whose tumor is larger than a certain size and/or the cancer has spread to your lymph nodes. The thinking is that if your cancer has had the opportunity to access the rest of your body, your treatment should be systemic as well.

Radiation: Radiation therapy is typically a localized treatment option, where rapidly dividing cells are damaged. Cancer cells are very rapid dividers, so radiation is an effective option. Typically, radiation therapy is given for about six weeks, five days a week. It’s very much like lying still for an x-ray, only instead of lasting a second or two, it lasts a couple of minutes. It can cause fatigue, toward the end and slightly after, and can cause a sunburn effect on your skin.

Hormone Therapy: Many breast cancers are hormone-dependent. In these cancers, there are receptors on the tumor that can be filled with estrogen. The thinking is that when estrogen fills these receptors, it causes the tumor to grow. This is called estrogen-receptor positive (ER). These cancers respond well to hormone therapy and the hormone therapy drug that will be recommended for you will depend on your menopausal status. These drugs are in pill form and you take them once a day. The most popular of these drugs, for pre-menopausal women, is Tamoxifen and, for post-menopausal women Femara or Arimidex. There is new evidence that suggests that taking Femara, after taking Tamoxifen for five years, increases survival rates.

Immunotherapy: There is a fourth modality of treatment on the horizon and it’s called Immunotherapy. This involves getting your immune system to fight your cancer and there is, and will be, a lot of research being done in this area.

Melissa Buhmeyer is a breast cancer survivor and has been so for seven years. She is also the founder of http://www.breastcancer-treatment.us, a site focusing on breast cancer treatment options, news, articles, and survivor experiences.

The Unconventionals
Manager – Louis Walsh
Odds – Eliminated

The Unconventionals, who had been together for just two months prior to auditioning for the X Factor, impressed the judges during their qualification to the final 12 but fell apart spectacularly on the first live show.

Gone were melodious harmonies that had seen them through to the finals and instead the audience were exposed to a horrendous rendition of ‘Dancing in the Street’ which saw the group eliminated at the first time of asking.

The Unconventionals are as follows:

Nicola Dawn is 33 years old, from Cheshire and works in promotions. She lives with boyfriend and fellow Unconventional Tom Newman. Nicola has sang for 20 years and has appeared in numerous stage productions including ‘Cirque De Soleil’. She has trained in ballet, tap and jazz dancing and appeared in Barry Manilow’s choir for the song ‘One Voice’ at the age of 10.

Tom Newman is a 39 year old builder from Kent. He currently lives with fellow band member Nicola Dawn who he has dated for six years. Tom has appeared in a number of television commercials including a Ryder Cup promotion, an Observer newspaper advert and also on stage in the musical The Blues Brothers.

Andrew Newey is 38 years old and an usher from Hill. He currently works alongside band member Drew Jaymson at the London Palladium. He has sang for the past 31 years and between 1985-88 had group vocal training at the Italia Conti stage school.

Drew Jaymson is a 41 year old usher from Oxford and met band member Andrew Newey during work at the London Palladium. He has appeared in musical productions such as Grease, Mamma Mia and Taboo but feels at 41 years old, this is his last chance to succeed in show business.

Elizabeth Ewing is a 37 year old waitress from Scotland. She has 20 years singing experiences and has appeared on stage in productions of Grease and Les Miserables and on television in Taggart, Bob Martin and Gentleman’s Relish.

Lucy Newton is a 25 year old promotions assistance from Sussex but is vastly experienced on stage and screen. Lucy has appeared in numerous musicals including Fame, Footloose, Joseph, Les Miserables and Taboo and has also appeared in television adverts for the likes of Asda and British Gas.

The group all dreamed of succeeding in the music and musical theatre industry and despite an early exit from the X Factor, their profile may have risen significantly enough for them all to fulfil their ambitions.

David Walker runs The Unconventionals and free bets websites.

Like so many developments that we take for common on our computers the humble mouse had its origins in the innovative work done for more than two decades at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). The PARC mouse had two rollers for horizontal and vertical motion and a single button. The deucedly boxy shape was favored by many of developers at PARC and remarkably has persisted through many mouse (or mice) incarnations.

Firstly the Microsoft mouse design has had major impacts in the mice industry. Microsoft mice always had ergonomic design. The first Microsoft mouse had a broad teardrop shape with two buttons. The original green buttoned model had a steel ball that spawned an industry in foam mouse pads. The next iteration had larger buttons, a larger body, and a rubber coated ball.

When Microsoft decided that the mouse needed to be redesigned, it turned to the venerable firm Matrix Design of San Francisco. Microsoft routinely used and uses third parties to design and software develop many of the items and software that we take for granted today that Microsoft devoted alone . Mike Nuttal, one of Matrix Designs founders was intrigued by Microsoft’s project: reshaping the exterior without altering the internal mechanism.

Matrix did change one internal element: the position of the mouse ball. “Almost the first thing we tried was to move the ball forward”, Nuttal remarked later. In the old design the ball sat forward under the palm. A computer mouse user has a natural tendency to put their weight on the palms of their hands and thus on the ball. By moving the mouse ball forward the result was much greater accuracy of the mouse.

“We knew the buttons had to be larger “Nuttal as well said “We tried several button sizes and in the process of designing we ended up incorporating the buttons into the body of the mouse.” Another change was in the relative size of the buttons. It was felt that the left buttons should be larger than the right. The results were more than favorable especially with left handed users. By making the left button larger finger position no longer was a major factor therefore the index finger could curve form lower left to upper right ( vice versa in lefties ) . This is the position the index finger naturally favors. In addition the previous rubber-dome switches were replaced with micro switches that had a short travel depression and better tactile feedback.

It was not long before the firm Logitech responded to Microsoft’s mice innovations.
Logitech’s first mouse was truly one of the first examples of the upcoming international efforts in product development and design. A Swiss based Professor: Professor Niklaus Wirth spent a year on sabbatical at Xerox PARC in 1970 and returned to Europe to test mouse designs, working closely with Inria, a French design center for office automation products. In the end their final design was a round mouse with front mounted buttons.
Product development and testing ensued over the position of the buttons, and the front position won over the top.

However, Logitech soon found that the buttons on the front made the mouse jump backward slightly when clicked. The design was abandoned in favor of a wedge shape, which was followed by the rectangular shape that we today.

What is interesting about all of this is the effect of outside products on an item that we take for granted today – the humble mouse which so functional that we seldom give it second thought.

The rounded heel that fits so well in the palm of your hand, the large buttons, and the smooth edges all have roots in the most universal of electrical / electronic products.
Mr. Nuttal and Matrix Design’s area in great expertise was in the design and development of telephones.

Max Rubin
Ag Chemist Linux as well as vintage computing
badgerlinux@yahoo.com
www.vintagecomputermanuals.com
www.badgerlinux.net