Importance of Partnerships

MICEport recently undertook a FAM trip to Scotland with some fantastic MICE buyers from North America. This was MICEport’s first FAM trip with our Scottish DMC partner Hello Scotland.

The FAM was absolutely fantastic and I know that everyone in the group saw a different and unique side of Scotland thanks to the creativity of Hello Scotland.  We flew into Edinburgh from Newark Liberty International on our airline partner, United Airlines and returned via Glasgow on the amazing daily service. United’s flat bed BusinessFirst service really was phenomenal!

Our hotel partners on the FAM were The Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh which was a fantastic 5 star property in the center of Edinburgh and Cameron House, another 5 star property, just outside Glasgow, which offered us a totally different luxurious experience.  This program enabled us to have a twin city program experience, which is ideal for the North American MICE market (You will be seeing more about these two great properties in the coming weeks).

Aside from the great experiences, which we will be writing about in the coming weeks, the key thing that came through from this FAM trip was the importance of great partnerships.  MICEport’s DMC in Scotland, Hello Scotland, has such strong relationships with all of the fantastic suppliers in Scotland that the FAM was a true success for everyone involved. It was clear to me that the importance of this great partnership between DMC and supplier is so crucial to make an incentive or meeting a success for the end client.

You will see more from our FAM trip in the coming weeks but in the meantime, have a look at our short video presentation.

Thank you once again to all the partners involved in this FAM trip but especially, Hello Scotland, United Airlines, The Balmoral Hotel and Cameron House.

 

WTF – What The FAM!

Last week an incentive planner friend asked me whether I felt that meeting or incentive FAMs/educational/hosted buyer programs (whatever you want to call them nowadays!) really work.  WTF – What the FAM I thought.  It was an interesting question and we had good debate about this.  When you think about it,  hotels, airlines, destinations, DMCs put a lot of time, effort and money into FAMs but does it produce the results we all need? I would be interested to see what your opinion is as a supplier or a buyer.

I have been lucky enough to be on both the buyer and supplier side and my view is that FAMs really do have a place in the marketing mix; however with one note – the FAM has to have very specific goals and objectives.

I think from a:

• Buyers point of view, it is essential that there is an understanding of the destination, supplier quality and creativity.
• Suppliers point of view, I feel that suppliers need to ensure that the correct person is coming on the FAM and that creativity and knowledge of the clients needs are a priority.

The days have gone where it is just a trip without specific goals on both sides and an opportunity to just see a destination – we just don’t have the time.

What are your feelings on this?  Please put your thoughts on the poll attached and please share what FAM ideas have worked for you in the comments section, I would really appreciate your feedback both from a supplier and an incentive/meeting buyer point of view.