Watchin' TV

Well, we weren’t exactly watching TV; we were watching videos in The 4EVER Group’s Artistic Achievement Awards competition. I moderated the panel of five judges, all of whom were experienced, professional videographers.

This was the second and final round of judging. The judges, who remain unidentified until the awards are presented in January, all gathered at a New York-area hotel to review the videos together. In the first round, the judges watched the videos in their own studios.

We had fifteen different categories in the competition, so that meant that judges had several long days of work. We started each day with an 8am breakfast meeting, so we could start work around 9am. The earliest we ended for the day 10:30pm, and we went to 12:30am one night. The judging went from Monday morning to Thursday morning.

There were some great videos in the competition, which will make for an outstanding banquet program at VIDEO 08, on January 21.

A word about the venue. This was the third year we’re hosted the final round near JFK airport. Tellingly, this was the third different venue we’ve used. We would return to a property if they met our needs. For a meeting with 6 people, you would think that the process wouldn’t be too complicated. Next year, we’ll be selecting our fourth venue in four years.

I believe that we run a pretty low-maintenance meeting. We have the room available all week, and we get breaks served at scheduled times. We ask for water pitchers, and that they get checked every 3-4 hours, along with the trash. We have lunch and dinner brought into the room as well. Even with the specific instructions I prepared for the hotel (having run this specific event several times, I know the routine), the hotel staff could not meet our needs.

Our meeting was held at the Hilton Garden Inn near JFK airport, in Jamaica Queens. While it was a clean and pleasant environment, my experience as a meeting planner was terrible. I outlined for the hotel staff, in detail, every day what the challenges were, and how to make our experience better. Even with daily coaching, they still could not get the details right.

That’s it for meetings that I’m running for this year, I believe. I hate to end up with a lousy venue, but the hotel industry has some clear challenges that they’re not meeting.