Business Practices: How to Be A Listener

Every now and then, we like to write about best business practices that we feel are important in maintaining business-to-business relationships. This month, our HR Director, Kris, is giving tips on how to be a listener. In working with clients, we know that we cannot provide our best possible service without listening to their concerns, ideas, and needs first. We also understand how important listening is internally in a business. This month, we’re taking notes and learning how to be better listeners among our coworkers and clients!

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Mobile Apps for Events: Q&A with Bill Finn

You hear it again and again: “You need an app for your ______” (event, conference, meeting, etc…). The statement sticks with you during the planning process, but you are never quite sure how to include mobile apps for events. The digital world moves at the speed of light and can seem like a frightening place, but today we are teaming up with industry leader Bill Finn of BoothTag to help answer some basic questions about apps and how they can significantly benefit your meeting or event.

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PEC Meetings Company Plans | Trendy Tailgate

In early June, PEC Meetings Company was fortunate enough to work with one of our clients to bring an indoor trendy tailgate to life. While our team knew planning an indoor tailgate would come with its share of obstacles, we suggested a strong focus on food trucks, string lighting, pick-up truck tailgates, canopies, umbrella and picnic tables, and rustic bars. The venue began as a blank slate of sorts, with plain walls, high ceilings, and concrete floors. PEC Meetings Company was tasked with the process of turning a plain space into a casual yet sophisticated environment.

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New Hire Announcement

We have a new hire announcement! PEC Meetings Company is thrilled to welcome two new hires to our team this May! Brittany D’Alessio joins our staff as a New Business Development Associate. Emily Bonneau joins the team this May as a New Business Development Intern. PEC Meetings Company’s New Business Development (NBD) department is the go-to team for all your information needs and status updates. Our NBD team puts the client first and works hard to develop a trusting relationship with each individual we work with. The NBD team works to understand how clients want to receive communications. They ensure that PEC Meetings Company not only meets the client expectations, but exceeds them!

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PEC Meetings Company

In March of 2013, Professional Events and Consulting (PEC) celebrated 10 years in business. While the anniversary brought much excitement internally, it also brought about a time of reflection and critical thinking about where the company has been, how it has evolved, and what it will be in the future. After one long discussion in a staff meeting over branding confusion, it was clear to us that there was more to this brand confusion than what was realized internally; we understood that our marketing and branding initiatives no longer matched what we were capable of and did for our clients. We knew it was time for a change, and that change has taken full shape through a rebrand of the company. Our rebrand will reflect the larger, more diverse and sophisticated company that we have become. In the past, we were PEC, or Professional Events and Consulting. Today, we are PEC Meetings Company.

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Fort Worth Familiarization Tour

In April, I was afforded the opportunity to visit Texas with the Fort Worth CVB on a Fort Worth familiarization tour. I was treated as a city VIP, and saw all the wonderful venues, attractions, and accommodations Fort Worth has to offer.

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How to Be Positive at Work

It’s the end of a long winter. A winter which drained us all emotionally and left us feeling less than enthusiastic to pop out of bed each morning. And while we do our best to avoid it, the dead of winter has left us feeling a little on-edge in our everyday lives – particularly at work. While employee incentives and other employee recognition ideas are generally part of performance management efforts by employers to perk spirits, are you wondering what YOU can do, as an employee, to learn how to be positive at work?

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Meeting and Event Security

As meeting planners, the recent events in Boston have us thinking smarter and harder about meeting and event security. The devastating bombings happened to occur on the first day of a large customer conference that PEC had sourced and assisted in planning. A few hours before we were to depart from our downtown hotels for one of Chicago’s most popular tourist attractions, the V.P. of Marketing asked me point blank what the hotel and evening off-site venue were doing to step up security and safety measures in light of the bombing in Boston. The country was at threat and the potential for additional threats was certainly looming in the mind of our client and his customers. In the past several years, Americans have experienced unthinkable disasters resulting from terrorist activity. Up until this point, I will admit we have not taken threats too serious and really have not changed the way we plan meetings because of increased threats.

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Finding Work-Life Balance

Finding work-life balance. Ask anyone what strong desire they have in their professional life and this is often a popular answer. We all want the blooming career at the same time we want a loving, close-knit family at the same time we want a generous network of friends to spend happy hours and weekends with. As meeting and event professionals, our job descriptions almost always state “must be available nights and weekends“. Is it just me, or is anyone else asking when we do we get to rest? To have a game night with our family? To clean our homes? Or even to workout? I found the solution: make time for it all. But how? I have a few ideas for you.

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2013 Food and Beverage Trends

What’s hot in 2013 Food and Beverage Trends? We did our research, found the best of the best, and are looking to incorporate these ideas into our client’s meetings and events! There’s no doubt that outstanding events encompass great tasting and visually appealing food and beverage. And every year, the planner du jour seeks to create an appealing color palate filled with edible art. Here are just a few morsels of ideas…

Eggs – They’re not just for breakfast anymore! Duck eggs are the new Chicken Eggs and these golden beauties can be fried, scrambled, poached, boiled, baked and steamed.  They can be served as is, in baked goods or part of a main dish.  Eggs are a natural complete protein and can be locally produced.

Tearific Teas – Complete with equipment, techniques and tons of varieties, tea is a creative, tasty and economical way to please your guests.  White, green, oolong, black, fermented, tisanes, even though all tea comes from the same plant, there are hundreds of kinds of teas unique with their own appearance, taste and aroma.

SmokingAnd we don’t mean tobacco.  Smokers are all the rage providing everything from smoked meats and fish (including crab and lobster) to nuts, spices and rubs.  Combinations of woods, juices, vanilla beans and herbs can turn simple cuts of meat from ordinary to extraordinary.

And for the next course – Bread. That’s right, bread has always been a part of the overall program, but we’re talking bread so good that it has it’s own course.  Nut and seed coated caramel wheat rolls, warm sourdough buns served with garlic butter, rosemary bread and dipping oil.  The dinner roll has grown up and they’re ridiculously good.

Blondies are the new Brownies!  Otherwise known as simply a lighter brownie, today the Blondie is a dessert snob’s number one choice, and chef’s have made them their own…the dirty blonde with peanut butter and toffee, the slutty blonde that includes a layer of golden Oreo’s, even the nutty blonde with pecans and frosting.

What would you add to this list of 2013 Food and Beverage trends?