The new condensed and concentrated format to be introduced for the Small Market Meetings Summit is a strategy many meeting planners have been requesting, according to Joe Cappuzzello, CEO of Group Travel Family, which is creating the event. For example, there will be no one-on-one meetings. Instead, pods of three representatives from each city or destination site will meet with each planner, and the appointments will be longer than they are at other meeting planner events.
Having three people in front of them selling the city at the same time helps meeting planners get more answers to questions and aids them in sorting out the myriad details they must handle in organizing an important meeting.
“It will give the meeting planner a much better understanding and more information about that city and what it has to offer,” said Cappuzzello. “The demand for this is out there. The theme of the summit is all of these second- and third-tier cities. Meeting planners are looking for them for their companies or associations to meet in. Case in point: If you meet in a small to midsize city, you likely will be treated differently, extra specially, than you would in one of the big cities where you would be a small fish in a big pond, almost swallowed up.”
