Monday, September 24, 2012

Are you hosting a Special Event in Fort Collins?

Conventions are not cheap. They can make a huge impression and detailed planning is important. Not only are theconventions expensive for the host, but also for the participants. Participants and companies are not easily separated with their money and they want to be guaranteed and reassured that they have expended their time and funds well. Post examinations show that modest details make a big difference. Throwing a conference or convention together without consideration to the smallest details can spell calamity. So the steps to take as a promoter and host for the conference/convention are to find a great venue. Knowing your potential attendees is important whether you choose a location that is a limited distance for them to drive or choosing a great getaway for companies to see and experience a new city. thanks a million gift basketCheck out the cost of the building and ask for details. Do not select busy times of the year for holidays, family vacations or a busy time for the businesses focused. For example, as retailers do their buying for summer sports equipment, late spring and early summer or not the time to entice them. They are busy and they have already acquired their items for the year. Next you must evaluate the schedule to be sure the timing is good. If you overbook they may not have leisure time to enjoy themselves. If you do not offer sufficient workshops or variable schedules of interest, they will not feel they gained anything from the conference or convention. Try to get a keynote speaker or two to draw a crowd. Promote early to get them to lock into your event first on their calendars. It even works to offer a discount inducement for early signup. Do assign an professional to offer all information the convention goer will need from airport transportation to hotel registration and maps. Of course your important concern will be the conference content itself. So plan to keep it going, keep it efficient, keep it exciting. It is better to have more brief sessions with question/answer free time to chat and interact than to have participants leaving lengthy sessions because they are tired or feel they are hearing repetitive information and facts. The first impression will make a enormous difference. Efficiency and getting info to help airport/hotel/conference center logistics run smoothly will set off the tone of the convention. It is also important that when they arrive there are lots of welcome folks available to set that upbeat favorable tone and answer questions. The registration table should include all the information they will need. And you always must be willing to put out the money for freebies. Our company attended a conference in a small city in a mid-western town. It was obvious they were trying to save money and got the conference center and food cheap. We paid a bundle for a rental car to drive the 2 hours to the locations and stay in a small 2 star hotel/motel conference center. The pretzels and vats of bad coffee set the tone for a long two days ahead. The next year we chose to go to the Denver Convention Center and what a difference. Flying into DIA was so impressive with those gorgeous mountains as a backdrop. Our hotel was attached to center and there were all kinds of restaurants, night life, shopping nearby. We found a cool Thanks A Million Gift Basket from a local basket company in Aurora. It was a box with all sorts of Colorado snacks. That convention rocked and we will go again next year.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Special baby gift

Excellent tip for sending a unique, cute, adorable and unusual baby gift is to order a baby girl or baby boy welcome wagon. The cute little red wagons hold lots of baby gift items that are pragmatic for newly born children. Knowing that it is always fun to send something unusual for the new baby is a difficult task. Usually people call the medical center gift shop for the same, boring gifts they have. They have the usual blue and pink floral arrangements which are nice but do not last and are tricky to carry home. That type of baby gift is soon forgotten. They also have baby gift baskets but you may find that the parents have already gotten at least one or more from the hospital gift shop. Asking the gift shop worker does not ensure you that visitors have popped into the gift shop and picked up the same gift. I was embarrassed to stop in and order a cute basket and went up to her room to see two similar baskets from other people. That meant I had to go back down and switch it for something really ordinary in the gift shop. The most terrible part was that it definitely took the enjoyment of my gift giving away. They were apologetic as was I apologetic and embarrassed. When the the gift shop individual just rolled her eyes about wanting to exchange it, I had just had it and told her I wanted a refund. In the parking lot of the Fort Collings Hospital I met a man and lady carrying in these adorable pink baby girl and blue baby boy gift red wagons. That is exactly what I had wanted to walk in with something that caused the couple to ooh and aah about. I just flat out stopped them and asked where they got them. They had ordered them from a basket store near the Fort Collins Hospital called Baskets by Rita. Baby Girl Welcome Wagon Gift BasketCute little welcome baby wagon that were the perfect birth gift. They were definitely different baby gifts and practical and enjoyable. They told me Baskets by Rita also has a big brother/sister line of baskets that they gave one time. I got on my iphone and immediately called Baskets by Rita and ordered one of the little red wagon as a baby welcome gift for the newborn baby. It was effortless to arrange to have it delivered to their house when they got home from the hospital. When they got home with the new baby and got the baby welcome wagon, they immediately called me and said I just had to come over to see the new baby and the adorable wagon. So from now on the hospital gift shop will not be my first choice for sending gifts or flowers.

Special baby gift

Excellent tip for sending a unique, cute, adorable and unusual baby gift is to order a baby girl or baby boy welcome wagon. The cute little red wagons hold lots of baby gift items that are pragmatic for newly born children. Knowing that it is always fun to send something unusual for the new baby is a difficult task. Usually people call the medical center gift shop for the same, boring gifts they have. They have the usual blue and pink floral arrangements which are nice but do not last and are tricky to carry home. That type of baby gift is soon forgotten. They also have baby gift baskets but you may find that the parents have already gotten at least one or more from the hospital gift shop. Asking the gift shop worker does not ensure you that visitors have popped into the gift shop and picked up the same gift. I was embarrassed to stop in and order a cute basket and went up to her room to see two similar baskets from other people. That meant I had to go back down and switch it for something really ordinary in the gift shop. The most terrible part was that it definitely took the enjoyment of my gift giving away. They were apologetic as was I apologetic and embarrassed. When the the gift shop individual just rolled her eyes about wanting to exchange it, I had just had it and told her I wanted a refund. In the parking lot of the Denver hospital I met a man and lady carrying in these adorable pink baby girl and blue baby boy gift red wagons. That is exactly what I had wanted to walk in with something that caused the couple to ooh and aah about. I just flat out stopped them and asked where they got them. They had ordered them from a basket store near the Fort Collins Hospital called Baskets by Rita. Baby Girl Welcome Wagon Gift BasketCute little welcome baby wagon that were the perfect birth gift. They were definitely different baby gifts and practical and enjoyable. They told me Baskets by Rita also has a big brother/sister line of baskets that they gave one time. I got on my iphone and immediately called Baskets by Rita and ordered one of the little red wagon as a baby welcome gift for the newborn baby. It was effortless to arrange to have it delivered to their house when they got home from the hospital. When they got home with the new baby and got the baby welcome wagon, they immediately called me and said I just had to come over to see the new baby and the adorable wagon. So from now on the hospital gift shop will not be my first choice for sending gifts or flowers.

Friday, September 21, 2012

An unusual birthday gift

All my friends know that they will get either beer, a bottle of wine or flowers I found on the way to see them. It worked for a while, but now it seems to be just too expected. Looking for a unique birthday gifts can take a lot of time. Today I went looking for my best buddy which should be easy. I know exactly what he will like so it should have been very easy. I ended up just going to a big box store and buying a gift card. They used to have small cool wooden crate type things to put the gift card in but not anymore. So that was alright but really mundane. Last Saturday my wife was out of town and asked me to go out and get items to put in a basket for her cousin who was bringing her daughter to Colorado to start college. My wife emailed me a list of all the wares to buy for the basket so I went to find it. Beer Basket GiftShe puts in mostly Colorado products like chocolates, potato chips, salsa, tortilla chips, nuts, Colorado water, tea, espresso, beef jerky, cheese, crackers, and honey sticks. First I could not find a basket in the supermarket and only a few of the products. I finally quit because it was taking forever to look and be sure I had Colorado made foods. My neighbor was also shopping and I shared my frustration when she suggested just going to our business district and going into the major kitchen specialty shop and having them help me. I did that and it was helpful but I was shocked at how much it expense, including the basket. They offered to help me put it all together in the basket and put on a nice big bow. It looked great and my wife was not shocked at the cost of buying the things there. She goes to 7 or 8 different places to buy all the items and helps save about twenty dollars. Now that is just way too much work. An easier way is just to go online and find a gift basket shop that will do it and deliver it. My wife and I argued over the expense, so to demonstrate my point I found a several of baskets at Baskets by Rita which is a Colorado based company. They have a Colorado wooden crate that is cooler than typical baskets. Even after the delivery cost, it turned out it was cheaper than us doing it ourselves. So getting back to the birthday gift idea I saw the crate and decided to order one and have it delivered to my house so I could see how it looked. It came and was great. My wife and I concluded that they do a much more professional job of putting it together and it looks amazing. Plus it turned out to be less expensive than doing it ourselves. They have a great selection so that is my plan from now on when buying Beer Birthday Gift Baskets. http://www.basketsbyrita.com

Monday, September 17, 2012

Ideas to improve corporate productivity

Today's article features tips reaped from a few companies about how to raise morale and not destroy great employees. Striving to keep the workplace positive should be of major concern to CEOs and bosses. Losing money and time is a huge concern. If workers are happy and like to come to work production rises. If they feel that they are part of the team and that they are respected they become engaged to the company. Factory made thank yous and predictable pats on the back even heightens and the common bonuses or gifts or treats reduce their impact after awhile. In fact employees begin to bank on expected gratitudes and gifts and treats. If you provide donuts every Friday it becomes the norm and just a natural part of the work schedule. If you supply a gift card for every 10 sales it becomes expected and if you miss one you will get frustration instead of thanks for the gift cards you gave. nuts and snack gift basketRemember the movie with Chevy Chase in the Christmas movie where he counts on the yearly bonus from work and when it is not given one year the manager becomes the bad guy in everyone's eyes. In the movie and in real life people just expect the bonus, money gift, turkey, whatever is the norm every year. Often they order merchandise or spend the money before it even comes in. For that reason corporations need to be very careful not to do the same thing week after week or month after month or year after year. Food treats should not be the same because they become predicted and actually become rather dull. Some would say that money is always the best way to go because everyone can spend it however they want. True, but it also can get repetitive. If you toss out a dollar at the weekly meeting one week for something, the next week you get a gourmet coffee cart. If you give a grocery card for Christmas one year you need to send a gourmet gift basket the next year. If you provide lunch a day one month you need to do something diverse the next month. Most executives feel that this type of talent is not a part of their positions and it is not important. Morale boosters are very important. Creative gift giving are the most effective way to say thanks for a job well done and to encourage hard work in the future. Most of the time companies use administrative assistants to find ideas and put together the thank you. For women bouquets and spa packages and gift cards work. For men beer tubs, hardware/home improvement gift cards are great. Restaurant gift certificates are good too. You just have to get ingenious. Corporate Gifts or Company gifts can be frustrating when you are including a lot of people in one office--it could be a gesture of encouragement or a thank you gift to a whole office or company. You either have food delivered or if you are worried about food spoilage send a big corporate gift basket with various items. My company has put the burden on me, the administrative assistant, to come up with two new creative ideas each month to spend only $300 on the 20 employees. They said I need to find gifts of appreciation to include everyone. I am looking for new creative ideas for next month but this month we have seen a huge difference in positive attitude around the office after my two appreciation gifts were done. The first was for each employee to find one dollar bills in various places during a week. This last week to thank them for their efforts, we had a large Nuts and Snack Gift Basket arrive to overpower the snack table. After hearing workers talking about the Aurora movie theatre shooting victims, we chose an Aurora gift basket company, Baskets by Rita and we were not disappointed. So remember to thank your employees and show appreciation for a job well done and to encourage hard work.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

A Token of Appreciation

 It is tough to acquire unusual and sincere and special ways of saying thank you to someone you value or endorse. To pay tribute to their abilities and work by commending them for support. You want them to know of your appreciation what they have done for you or for others or for the company. To recognize that is the first step. To let the person realize you sincerely and truly appreciate them and acknowledge them is very important. thank you gift basketGiving thanks is not just for Thanksgiving anymore. You must offer and endorse the behaviors you want to see continue. So the first stage is to be aware of showing appreciation and acknowledging it. That does not mean going overboard all the time and having to give lots of gifts or money for every little thing. Studies have found that people respond to acknowledgements of even the tiniest kind such as a nod or look of endorsement or an real pat on the back. Even a smile and a look of facial gratitute can be ways of endorsing self esteem and showing you want and recognize what has been done or said. These words of appreciation and commendation show tribute to the person and show that you value them. Saying thank you works. Now if you overdo it for every little thing it thanks and appreciation lose their value. It has to fit your personal way and must be genuine. Sincere gratitude and the word here is sincere is enormous. For a business praise of any kind is good but eventually and periodically you need to put your money where your mouth is and hand something as appreciation of services and recognition of gratitute. That token of appreciation could be money such as a raise or cash with a thank you note. And you have to mix it up a little bit too. If you know the person shops at a certain store or enjoys a particular coffee house or restaurant you could give gift certificates. They are always appreciated. This works if you also do not want to make a big deal or applaud out loud for everyone to see or hear. Sometimes you do and you want others to step up so they too will get those monetary awards. So the looks, the thank you words, the notes and the infrequent gift cards work. If you feel you want something with more of a wow factor then consider an genuine gift that wows. The problem with money or gift cards is that they are definitely appreciated but have an exact value and the amount given one employee can be perceived by others as a rating scale by what they get. My business has small gift cards that are consistent for certain things then we started going to get plaques engraved and people displayed them for a while but are now gone and seem to be old hat to everyone. The secretaries said it is taking too much effort to go out and shop for these prizes and that employees compare how much we spend on one compared to another. One of our secretaries found an Aurora based gift basket company that she now calls and has a gift basket or pail made up and delivered to us. It is so easy. Sometimes she just orders one of the baskets online from Baskets by Rita and tells them what to put on the card. More often recently she has been writing a note on the order or even calling and asking that the basket be original. She just gives the price we want to pay and they put together a different gift basket crate box or pail every time. That way employees have no idea what amount we spent and theirs is unique. It is awesome way to say, "Thank You!- A Thank You Gift Basket." http://www.basketsbyrita.com