Wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday season from all of us at Miller Tanner Associates!
Meet MTA: Annalisa Battistini, Global Event Specialist
The Miller Tanner difference is our people. That’s why we want to introduce you to our team of superstars that brings our corporate meetings and events to life for our clients. Today, we introduce you to Annalisa Battistini, our European-based global event specialist, who brings her attention to detail and excellent customer service to our Miller Tanner Events Team. Continue reading “Meet MTA: Annalisa Battistini, Global Event Specialist”
What Medical Event Attendees Want from Your Investigator Meeting
With over 20 years of experience planning investigator meetings, Miller Tanner Associates has learned a lot about what makes a successful medical meeting for both the host and the attendees. We survey every participant so that we can give our clients specific direction as to what attendees really desire from an investigator meeting. Here are a few ways you can deliver an exceptional meeting to your medical professional attendees. Continue reading “What Medical Event Attendees Want from Your Investigator Meeting”
5 Advantages of Partnering with a Certified Women-Owned Business
For over 15 years, Miller Tanner has proudly maintained a Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE) Certification through the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), the nation’s largest third-party certifier of the businesses owned and operated by women in the U.S. Nationally recognized by thousands of major U.S. corporations and federal, state and local government entities, this certification is no small feat. The process is a lengthy and intensive one. To achieve WBENC certification, women-owned businesses complete formal documentation and a site visit process which is administered by one of WBENC’s 14 Regional Partner Organizations.
Continue reading “5 Advantages of Partnering with a Certified Women-Owned Business”6 Reasons On-Demand Training Should Be Part of Your 2018 Training Strategy
The ways in which companies can use on-demand training are virtually endless. If you want to expand your training capabilities in 2018, on-demand training is a cost-effective tool that can help accomplish all of your training goals. If you’ve not tried on-demand training or a learning management system as a way to streamline your training, here are six compelling reasons why you should:
1). Engagement with content over time makes training more effective.
One meeting over a few days may not be enough for knowledge retention among your audience. The most effective training is one that engages your audience over time beyond the initial face-to-face meeting. One of the easiest ways to do this is through on-demand training, where you can provide continual learning through pre- and post- testing, videos, support documents and more.
“Instead of having your event be one big data dump, space the learning out. Chunk it up into a series of webinars, blogs, videos, social media posts, podcasts, pre and post event tests—bolster what you want them to learn on site with multiple other learning options before and after the actual event,” according to Kristi Casey Sanders, CMP, CMM, DES, HMCC, director of the MPI Academy at Meeting Professionals International who recently led a session at the IMEX 2017 conference.¹
2). Ongoing training improves knowledge retention.
“Without any extra effort or reinforcement, more than 50% of what we learn at a conference is forgotten within an hour, and 80% by the end of the month.”² according to the research behind the Forgetting Curve, developed by German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus.
If you want your training attendees to get the greatest return from their training event, it’s essential to provide ongoing educational opportunities that reinforce key learning concepts long after the training. Offering on-demand training is a simple solution that significantly impacts knowledge retention.
3). Offers a training solution for staff turnover.
Make onboarding a breeze when training new staff by using on-demand training. It’s the easiest way to disseminate your company’s standard operating procedures as needed for newly hired staff or build out individual customized learning plans for each department or staff personnel.
4). Improves consistency in your message and training.
Consistency in training and message is crucial to a company’s success. By using on-demand training, you can keep your message fully intact and avoid second party interpretations for consistency across the board. Content can be repurposed and used well into the future.
5). Supports ongoing learning for any industry to enhance required training.
Online, on-demand learning has become a more effective training tool for businesses of all industries thanks to the convenience of technology and the variety of options for a diverse set of learning styles, whether using a slideshow, video presentation, or handouts.
One benefit is the ability to enhance learning, as it can be used to facilitate training before a live event, or used as a refresher course or continuing education. “E-learning is also a great tool to enhance the traditional learning experience, a method known as blended learning.”³
6). Supports continuous training for remote sites.
Whether you have a franchise or a medical research business, on-demand training is an excellent method for keeping all remote sites and personnel up to speed with operational procedures. And when policy changes, on-demand training can quickly update those sites saving you time and money.
According to Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative, “Research sites must value and support training for study personnel. Targeted training specific to clinical research must include all staff involved in clinical research activities, not solely the investigator. Participation is paramount and can be achieved through online training courses, professionally provided training, on-site mentoring, and participation in professional organizations.” 4
You can make your 2018 training more effective and more efficient by incorporating on-demand training into your strategy. Let Miller Tanner Associates introduce you to our On-Demand Trainer/Learning Management System and help you meet your training goals in the new year.
Sources:
1 http://www.meetingsnet.com/event-design-ideas/5-ways-make-learning-stick
2 http://www.eventmanagerblog.com/create-an-afterlife-for-your-conference
3 https://www.yourerc.com/blog/post/4-rising-training-trends-of-2017
4 Ways We Protect Your Event Spend
4 Ways Miller Tanner Associates Protects Your Event Spend
One of the many ways that Miller Tanner Associates makes the event planning process easier is by protecting your event spend. We aim to ensure that all financial details of your event are rigorously reviewed and audited for you at the completion of your event. We keep your budget on track and accounted for down to the last penny with a detailed paper trail to match. How do we do this?
1. Reimbursements
Miller Tanner Associates processes and audits the reimbursement of expenses for event attendees. All reimbursements are audited and reviewed to ensure that each aligns with your event’s expense reimbursement directives.
2. Transparency
We continually seek knowledge to stay informed of the changing transparency spend regulations. We have the ability to provide transparency reporting in both the standard template but also in client-specific templates as well.
3. Expense Review
We work across multiple departments to review all meeting-related expenses and perform multiple levels of review to ensure the services were appropriately billed based on the services that were contracted and received. We work diligently to protect the client spend amounts.
4. Billing Portfolios
We provide a complete package at the finalization of a meeting including the supporting documentation for all charges and reimbursements. This comprehensive billing portfolio provides details and support for all event-related expenses and is indexed for your convenience providing easy access to documentation for any charge related to the particular event.
You can rest assured that your event budget is managed and monitored thoroughly and accurately throughout all phases of your event by our outstanding Miller Tanner Finance Team. Need help with your event budget? Contact us today!
Unique Corporate Event Experiences for Your Teams
Over the past 20 years, we’ve expanded our service offerings to provide unique corporate event planning for teams of all industries.
Whether you need to plan a memorable, elaborate incentive trip for your top producers, an intensive global sales event, a product launch, or a celebratory company milestone with your internal teams, Miller Tanner Associates can make it happen.
Using our vast experience and knowledge of the event industry, we can create a logistically-flawless event that is customized to your particular needs, perfectly executed, and on budget.
Our team of top-notch event professionals is located across the globe ready to bring the best in corporate event planning by helping you craft a truly unique corporate event experience! Experience event excellence the Miller Tanner way!
2018 is just around the corner. Start planning next year’s event today!
Enhancing Global Event Experiences
Here at MTA, we pride ourselves on enhancing global event experiences and ensuring all our events and client experiences are unique and memorable. That requires always having new ideas, new locations to pitch, and strong relationships around the world.
Think about all the things we do personally to further advance our careers. We may take an Excel class, we might expand our social and professional networks, or even take on extra projects in our current role to explore new opportunities.
MTA practices a similar philosophy, where our employees’ own personal development helps enhance our clients’ experiences. That’s one of the main reasons we recently attended IMEX America.
IMEX America happens once a year, and it is America’s worldwide exhibition for incentive travel, meetings, and events. There are 4,000 exhibitors representing 150 countries, and the show encourages all buyers, including MTA, to schedule as many 30-minute meeting slots with these exhibitors that one can fit in over a four-day period.
Exhibitors range from all top hotel brands, tourist bureaus, event specialists, gifting suppliers, airlines, ground transportation companies, technology suppliers and many more. As strong buyers in the industry, MTA was generously hosted by four different brands – Accor Hotels, Marriott, Carlson Redzigar Hotel Group and Melia Hotels International.
At IMEX, we make sure to get the most out of our time there, whether it’s meeting new suppliers and vendors, or nurturing our existing strong relationships. There is also an educational element to the conference that provides inspirational seminars, workshops, and forums run by leading experts and supporting industry trade associations.
It’s a whirlwind of a week, but we always leave rich with new contacts and inspired to get back to work with fresh ideas and perspective. We believe there is always room to grow and improve our business, and we at MTA are committed to constantly evolving to make sure we are the best in the business for our great clients!
Sincerely,
Molly Suggs, Global Event Executive
Meet MTA: Richard Chalmers, Production Manager
The Miller Tanner difference is our people. That’s why we want to introduce you to our team of superstars that brings our corporate meetings and events to life for our clients. Today, we introduce you to Production Manager Richard Chalmers, our associate based in Singapore. Richard brings a myriad of creative skills, AV expertise, and innovative solutions to Miller Tanner and to our clients.
Meet Richard Chalmers
Tell us about your current role with MTA. What are your primary responsibilities?
In a nutshell, my main responsibility is to provide MTA face-to-face events with a “Top-Gun” level of AV expertise on site and pre-event. I also provide support outside of this with my experience in video editing, graphics, photography, CAD skills (making layout plans) and willingness to help out. I can’t stand only having one solution to a problem, so I tend to get absorbed in looking for alternatives, challenging the status quo and looking for new things to bring to MTA events.
How long have you been with MTA? I will have completed 2 years around mid-November.
What led you to your career in media production?
I actually started on stage, mainly in musicals. But I started to be more interested in the backstage (namely the lighting) and ended up lighting my first show at 11-years-old. After school, I went on to the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and got a degree in ‘Theatre Practice – Lighting Design’. Back then there wasn’t much of a career in theatre, so I ended up doing corporate events, which were just as fun in many ways. Jumping forward, I moved to Singapore in 2012 to work in ‘experiential brand events’, followed by Universal Studios as their lead technical manager for all special events, mostly Halloween Horror Nights. Around that time, Chris Scott called “for a chat”. The rest is history.
You are currently based in Singapore. How long have you lived there? What are some of your favorite things to do or sites to see there? What do you enjoy most about where you live?
I’m based in Singapore and have been here since 2012. Time goes very quickly here as there are no seasons, no daylight savings and the weather, sunset, and sunrise is the same every day of the year. Eating is a big thing in Singapore, so I probably do too much of that. But travel is also amazing and cheap from Singapore. You can jump on a 1-hour plane journey from here and see places you only see pictures of in National Geographic – live volcanoes, orangutans in the wild, all different cultures and religious events.
What interests do you have outside of your professional pursuits?
I like gadgets. I find it really hard to pass up a good gadget that I probably don’t need. Other than that, I really like photography, and at MTA I get to do that while I’m working too, so it’s a win-win.
What’s been your most favorite location for a meeting and why?
I can’t really think of one place. Each location has something appealing to me, whether it’s in a place steeped in tradition like Japan, or familiar like Europe, or frantic and busy like Korea or even just somewhere where the weather isn’t 5000 degrees every day.
What makes Miller Tanner stand out as a meeting planning company in your opinion?
There’s a thing in Singapore called ‘Kampong Spirit’. I’d say it’s that. It basically means that we’re like a community with compromise and understanding amongst the team and social cohesion. Everyone knows everyone in MTA, so the communication channels can be easy to navigate, unlike a big corporation. For our clients, I feel that gives them a certain familiarity and puts them at ease that things are in good hands.
What’s your best advice that you would give to a client when it comes to planning their media needs?
Speak to your AV team or production manager about what you want to achieve. You don’t need to have all the answers or the know-how; that’s what we do.
Any trends in media production that you are noticing?
Things tend to go in cycles a bit. Each time something comes around, there’s some improvements and changes. Attendee devices (like voting pads) have been around for a while, and now everyone has a smartphone, it’s all about apps, engaging and aligning your audience better. If people can’t put their phone down, then might as well take advantage, right?
Since you travel a lot for your position, tell us some of your best travel tips.
Airport security makes you take your laptops and tablets out of your bags pretty much worldwide these days; however, if you have a lot of cables, wires, hard drives and so on, you can be asked to take all this out too. Keep everything in pouches or pencil cases so it’s quick to take it out of your bag and repack quickly.