 Disney’s Magical Express service makes stress vanish from the get-go by shuttling attendees from the airport directly to their Walt Disney World Resort Hotel and handling luggage straight from the plane to the room.
Photo courtesy of Walt Disney World Resort |
By Diana Rowe
First impressions are everything. Before attendees even set foot in their meeting hotel or resort, it’s how they got there that sets the tone for the entire meeting. If the people-moving piece of the event puzzle is frustrating, inconvenient and confusing, it tends to cast the upcoming meeting in the same light. If it’s efficient and hassle-free, attendees arrive with a positive attitude that extends beyond the bus. So what can planners do to achieve seamless connections — and even integrate event themes — in their transportation plans?
To, From And In-Between
“Transportation is another item that really needs to be considered and acted on from the initial planning stages,” said Mark Frye, senior consultant, conferences, meetings and events for Dallas, TX-based Texas Instruments’ Exhibits & Events Group, Education Technology. “Yet transportation isn’t limited to just the airport transfers. It also extends to transporting attendees to offsite venues.”
Frye’s initial site or destination search includes running through a checklist of logistical questions. “What’s the distance from the airport to the location where we are transferring the group? How can we best transfer the group and what is the most cost-efficient method? We want to get them to the venues with the most 
comfort and expediency. Where can we pick them up to minimize the distance guests must walk to the transportation point of departure? From arrival to departure as it relates to transportation, I think through all possible scenarios, and try my best to make it the most time- and cost-efficient.”
Frye’s destination selection begins by examining the availability of public transportation. “When that’s not possible, the destination must have professional transportation companies whose business is to transport groups. This way I know I’m getting a reputable and competent service that is experienced in transporting groups to and from venues throughout their city. When I feel confident in the transportation service, then that frees me up so that I can concentrate more on other priorities I have as an event manager.”
Do your homework when researching a vendor for your transportation needs, Frye advised. Ask for references, and never be reluctant to ask questions. The more details you are given, the more responses to your questions, the more confident you can feel about the delivery of transportation.
“We contracted with Baskow & Associates, a (Las Vegas) destination management company, to handle many details of our visit to Las Vegas, including our transportation,” said Frye. “Baskow’s staff is onsite to greet our guests and to make sure all folks on the manifest have arrived. If not, they will make efforts to find people to make sure no one is left behind. Because of their reputation, I can always be assured that Baskow is securing the finest and quality transportation services available.
Keeping Event Themes Rolling
“I also try to incorporate our event theme even into the transportation,” Frye added. “Recently we had a ’60s themed event, so we decorated the vans with ’60s icons like flowers and peace signs, on the outside. Once inside, colorful velour fringe continued the mood while ’60s music played on the stereo to perpetuate the mood. Our drivers even dressed up in ’60s attire to contribute to the fun.
“Just be sure to find a quality company who is very familiar with their city,” cautioned Frye. “Confirm that the transportation company has a clean and well-maintained fleet of vehicles and that all of their drivers are insured and certified. Have fun and try to incorporate your event or catering theme into the décor of the vehicle. Your attendees will love it, and the drivers enjoy something new and different once in awhile.”
Planners have so many other line items to negotiate and work through that time is a valuable commodity, said Joshua M. Jones, senior vice president for Baskow & Associates. “The business of DMCs is assisting planners with the management of their meeting. We are our city’s ambassador, and DMCs do have their fingers on the pulse of the city. Most planners are happy to ask us to locate and negotiate the contract for the hotel and/or offsite venues, but many overlook the other services we provide at little or no additional cost, like transportation.”
Jones continued, “From our perspective, the biggest challenge is justifying to clients the advantages of using a DMC for their transportation, too. Unfortunately, yet understandably, budget-conscious planners may often only look at the bottom line. Reviewing transportation bids can be a complicated vendor process,
Taking their event theme on the road were 70 people from Las Vegas’ leading destination management companies who used the Las Vegas Monorail to participate in a “Spy Game.” The themed activity challenged them to follow a trail of clues to sniff out actors portraying real, live spies.
Photo courtesy of Las Vegas Monorail |
and there are 30 to 35 in Las Vegas alone. How many planners really have the time to sift through all these quotes? Furthermore, how many planners know what to look for and what to avoid?”
Although Jones admits there may be a minimal cost savings by booking independently, he asks planners to consider several possible worst-case scenarios. “Balance your cost savings with the possible headaches you might encounter and have to resolve on your own. What if your car doesn’t show up on time for an important executive or client? What if the car isn’t in good condition or perhaps the driver is shoddily dressed? Or what if you need a last-minute sedan for a VIP? When a planner is not personally familiar with an area or a company, it’s like rolling the dice, and can you really afford to take a chance on your first impression?”
Buying Power
According to Jones, Baskow & Associates offers planners their buying power. Baskow can negotiate with area vendors and obtain a volume discount based on all their clients, not just one meeting. “We’ve cultivated relationships with local transportation companies, and relationships buy power.”
Jones added, “We know our destination. We’ve already interviewed all the area’s transportation services. We know which ones are insured and bonded, and how much liability insurance each carries. We know the company that provides the most reliable service, and the range and model of buses and/or cars in their fleet. Drivers, managers and employees at each transportation company are required to sign off on our code of conduct, and they’ve attended meetings with our senior operations managers to be coached on our expectations and required service levels. We’ve even taken the time to interview drivers, so we can provide a pool of senior drivers who provide a higher quality of service for VIPs.”
Elvis At The Airport
Jones is always willing to incorporate a theme or business objective into all aspects of the meeting, including transportation. “At our disposal, we have a large number of vehicles, limo buses and party buses — some even including hot tubs. We can customize greetings at the airport by sending Elvis or Marilyn Monroe look-alikes to welcome your group. We can do champagne on the bus while a Tom Jones impersonator serenades attendees all the way to their hotel.”
Transportation during the event can also be over-the-top, said Jones. “Don’t limit yourself to the same old boring ride to and from the airport and/or offsite venues. You have a captive audience, so why not keep the excitement going and offer cool transportation?”
With select, larger city-wide conventions, Baskow partners with the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority and the Las Vegas Monorail to create an “EnterTrainment” experience. Entertainers ranging from impersonators to musicians can welcome attendees at each of the Monorail’s stops. Jones said, “Creating an interactive experience can make it fun. Besides convenient access to/from the east side of Sahara to the MGM, the Monorail provides a perfect setting for a teambuilding scavenger hunt.”
Jones also recommended checking out new transportation options, such as the new triple-decker bus. “Call it the Celebrity Bus and fill it with look-alikes, and change your ho-hum drive across town into a Vegas experience.
“No matter how perfect the rest of your program is,” continued Jones, “if there are errors on arrival, that’s what attendees will remember. You only have one opportunity to wow your attendees and make a 
difference. A DMC can help you create an over-the-top experience that includes transportation. The meeting experience starts with that first impression.”
Rick Forman, vice president of sales and marketing for Las Vegas-based AWG Destination Services said, “Planners don’t treat transportation as a critical component of their core responsibility for planning meetings. Even if a third party is hired to manage the meeting, a planner is derelict if she does not include a site inspection of the transportation yard. I’m not saying you shouldn’t trust your third-party team, but when the meeting dust has settled, the planner is the one left to bask in the success or pick up the pieces.”
Forman advised, “Go to the transportation yard, see the safety procedures, ask questions and request documentation for appropriate safety procedures, licensing and driver background checks.”
Headquartered in Chicago, GO Airport Shuttle is the world’s largest door-to-door airport shuttle company, servicing more than 100 airports in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Scotland, England, France and Italy. The company consists of 40 independent transportation companies. GO boasts a fleet of 3,765 vehicles, carrying almost 29 million passengers annually.
Single Source
Lauren Fahrer, GO’s director of sales and marketing, notes there are three areas covered by their company: convention shuttles, charter department, and shared-ride ground transfers with multiple stops. “The GO concept responds to a growing demand in the market for a single-source ground transportation company. Corporate travel managers, convention managers and travel companies tell us they want to do business with one safe, reliable source for all their destinations. Now, since we cover major international destinations, we can make a planner’s job less stressful by offering a single phone number and billing system.
“GO’s network dramatically increases the possibilities and competitiveness of the transportation industry,” noted Fahrer. “Before GO’s arrival, planners might create a great relationship with a transportation company in Denver, but then they would have to start their search over when their meeting destination changed. Now, GO is able to offer a competitive partnership and work with multiple destinations.”
To form the best possible partnership, Fahrer explained, “My job is to ask planners the right questions in order to place them in the right category, and the planner’s job is to ask me as many questions as they can, too. For example, is a planner looking for simply airport transfers, or is dine-around transportation another component to transportation? Do the demographics of their attendees allow an older model bus, or are they executives requiring a shiny new 55-passenger vehicle? Sharing as much as possible will result in a successful program.”
As an example, Fahrer cited a recent international meeting. “We moved 1,400 delegates from the airport to downtown. We printed custom tickets for the clients, and then went to work on the transportation schedule. Since we have the ability to blend vans and buses, we grouped as many as possible on the buses along with an amazing amount of luggage. For those that didn’t fit into time slots, we put them in vans, so no one had to wait more than five minutes. There’s nothing more disconcerting to an already stressed traveler than arriving at the airport and having to wait for a pick-up.”
According to Fahrer, last-minute transportation requests are becoming more common. “Recently, we received a request to arrange airport transfers, convention shuttles and offsite transportation for 500 delegates — with less than two weeks notice. With our network, we were able to meet and exceed expectations, and the planner relayed that we did it successfully.” Fahrer said that their largest client convention takes place in Chicago with 70,000 attendees utilizing up to 123 buses.
“In today’s diverse business environment,” she added, “planners must anticipate all potential problems. With the ever-increasing global nature of destinations and attendees, the GO Network also offers multilingual guides.”
Chauffeur Training
Headquartered in New York City, Valera Global. is a worldwide provider of luxury transportation for business travelers. The company is known for its one-of-a-kind chauffeur training program that stresses safety, attention to detail and customer service.
Robert Mackasek, chief executive officer, said the company’s reputation is based on their extensive evaluations of affiliates. “When a transportation company simply farms out to a third party, there is no assurance of quality. All our affiliates are visited and evaluated, and we have ghost-ride programs and spot checks. We rely on our affiliates to provide the resident knowledge of their city.”
To confirm the local expertise of any transportation company, Mackasek advised, “Quiz the company about their contingencies. For example, we run 215 vehicles out of our headquarters (in New York), and we have the local knowledge to advise our planners not to arrange an event at the Rainbow Room at the same time as the tree-lighting ceremony, since traffic is impossible. Planners should be able to trust their providers to know basic traffic patterns around a site or venue. Every destination has its own unique traffic characteristics, and planners should be able to rely on their transportation company to point those out.”
Lippe Taylor Public Relations recently contracted Valera to handle the transportation needs of their client Curvation, a women’s apparel company. The client was in New York City for their Curvation Project Confidence Awards.
Said Nicholas T. Pattakos Sr., senior vice president of finance for Lippe Taylor, “It is my responsibility to contract with all vendors to ensure a standard level of service at a fair price for us and our clients. We select the destination that best suits our client’s needs and visions. Once a date is set, we research other activities in the city that would either complement or hurt the event as it relates to transportation. Events at places like The Jacob J. Javits Convention Center, Madison Square Garden, Central Park and the United Nations can turn an event into a logistical nightmare.”
Pattakos handed Valera the responsibility for transporting all Curvation attendees to and from a variety of locations around and outside the city, including the three major airports. Their responsibility included ensuring the timely arrival of all guests participating at the awards event at the Mandarin Oriental, New York.
“The process was flawless due to the collaboration of our support staff and Valera,” reported Pattakos. “Even when guests arrived at the event, Valera provided an onsite dispatcher to handle and coordinate the transportation needs during and after the event, too. Having that onsite dispatcher gave our team the comfort of knowing that transportation needs were handled, so we could concentrate on the hundreds of other details necessary in putting on a very successful event.”
Pattakos added, “Valera also placed event favors in each of the cars working the event. This was a nice touch, as it kept the thought of the event alive for the guests as they were transported to their final destinations. If attention to details is part of your event planning, don’t stop when it comes to transportation. It may seem insignificant to some, but if the company you use is not professional, courteous and knowledgeable, and their cars are not clean, it can and most likely will detract from the overall success of the event. Valera gives me piece of mind, and together, we create a successful event.”
Catherine Chaulet, CMP, senior vice president of events for BostonCoach, a global provider of transportation services, said the key to creating a successful event is to realize that no two meetings are the same. “We partner with planners to build transportation programs that best fit their needs. We acknowledge that each meeting is different. Different sizes, different locations and different attendees all combine to require different types of transportation.
“We want to set the tone of the meeting at the first pick-up,” said Chaulet, “and end that on a high note. The transportation aspect might not be the sexiest part of the event, but it can be the most critical. Our goal is to make the first and last impression, and everything in between, an extraordinary experience. In order to do so, we partner closely with planners as early as possible.”
However, Chaulet acknowledged an increasing trend toward last-minute events. “This dramatic trend may be related to pharmaceutical companies receiving last-minute approvals, which triggers a product-release event. Others might simply be due to budget restrictions being lifted or budgets approved. Regardless of the reason, the result is a last-minute meeting, and a highly stressed planner.”
Incorporating the theme into the transportation segment is always a plus, Chaulet said. She cited a recent golf event as an example. “We carried the theme to the vehicles with signage, golf-uniformed staffing and DVDs on the bus explaining the details of the golf course and tournament. We took advantage of incorporating the entire golf experience at the moment of entering transportation. Client surveys revealed that out of all the event services, ground transportation was rated as the number-one experience.”
Environmental Concerns
Mackasek noted that because corporations are becoming more sensitive to sustainability and social responsibility, “Planners are asking more globally conscious questions about their transportation company. Unfortunately, the automobile industry hasn’t created the right vehicle.” Muckasek said. Valera has made application with the Chicago Climate Exchange to be the first luxury ground transportation company to offset vehicle greenhouse gas emissions. The Chicago Climate Exchange is the world’s only global system for emissions trading based on all six greenhouse gases.
Said Chaulet. “Going beyond traditional hybrid vehicles, we also recommend that planners use mini-buses or motor coaches with fuel efficiencies. We also go into ground transportation management suggesting that perhaps conference shuttles run every 20 to 30 minutes, rather than every 10 minutes, thus saving fuel.”
The bottom line is that planners are tasked with creating a great meeting experience from start to finish. Transportation can be the key to starting and ending that experience on a positive note. C&IT