Admins at Hollands Logica turn to tech to control meetings!
When business consulting, technology systems integration and outsourcing company Logica's team of administrative assistants in the Netherlands were tasked with developing processes for greater control over the company's meetings program last year, they took it upon themselves to implement technology to track spending, garner discounts and preferred relationships with meeting venues and manage their requests-for-proposals process. In September, executive assistant to the managing director of human resources for Logica's Benelux region and her fellow administrative assistants began using Dutch meetings technology firm Meetingselect’s Web-based software, giving them capabilities to compare venues and manage the RFP process. Through the tool the company now has access to more than 64,000 hotels in Europe and can see its meetings volume at specific properties. Now, for the first time, they are negotiating with properties with which they have significant spending. Two or three years ago that was not possible within the company. Meetingplanners just had to take the offered price of locations. Now they have direct insight in contracted rates and preferred partners which enables the company to directly steer business towards preferred suppliers. Read more

Nominate Meetingselect for de Business Travel Awards 2011
Entries are now being accepted for the prestigious Business Travel Awards 2011. The glamorous ceremony on London’s Park Lane recognises the achievements of the industry’s leading companies, teams and individuals judged to have been outstanding in their field over the last 12 months. The categories have been carefully chosen to reflect the range of areas and skills that lie at the heart of a successful travel business or department. An independent panel of judges, including leading travel buyers and industry experts, will choose the shortlist and winners. To enter or nominate a company, team or product that you think deserves wider acknowledgment for the contribution they make to the industry please click here.

Hotel Okura opened surprisingly new culinary centre
Hotel Okura Amsterdam, a member of The Leading Hotels of the World, is an international five-star deluxe hotel situated on one of Amsterdam's beautiful canals.  If there is anything you want to celebrate, or if you fancy a festive meal, Hotel Okura Amsterdam is the place to be. How about an exquisite dinner, or a sumptuous Western or Japanese buffet? Why not throw an unforgettable party on our 23rd floor, with a view of all of Amsterdam? Or create your own diner in Okura’s cooking studio.

The quality of your event, conference or corporate party is largely determined by its setting. Hotel Okura Amsterdam offers you the latest facilities, including our Executive Lounge, a business center, Wi-Fi (wireless Internet access), four restaurants, two bars, a cooking studio and a giant elevator. More than 19 rooms and 2 foyers can accommodate 10 to 2,500 people.
Our Grand Ballroom is the largest (900 square meters) and most luxurious room in the Amsterdam hotel industry and provides room for product launches with up to 1,155 guests and dinners for up to 720 guests.

Planning to organise an important meeting or conference? Please click here for the latest offers. Searching for a culinary event? Visit Okura’s culinary center online.

• Bookable from today in all 55 hotels in The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, UK,
  France and South Africa.
• NH Hoteles is ‘the place to meet’ with a sustainable character.
• By implementing the Ecomeeting concept, NH Hoteles gives meaning to their ambition of becoming the most sustainable company within the hospitality industry.
  

Pricewaterhouse Coopers - Greetje van Vroonhoven
I got in touch with Meetingselect through the Management Support event at the Jaarbeurs (which takes place again at 4th and 5th November this year). I have had an informative and nice conversation and what a service to receive 3 proposals within 24 hours without having to put in any of my own time.. that sounded very interesting. That’s why I gave it a try. First for a simple assignment for a meeting location for which I indeed received 3 proposals within 24 hours. Very nice!

Last spring I have had a more complex assignment. I was looking for a location easy to reach, in the Rotterdam region, where 80 delegates could participate in an interactive way in 6 different meeting rooms, where we could have drinks exclusively for our group, could stay overnight and where there is also sufficient parking space. For this search, I had more time than 24 hours to receive offers.
When I received 3 offers for suitable venues, we encountered a problem. The excursion which was included in our program by ourselves, could not take place. It took some time before we found an alternative for this, which in the end turned out to be at the other side of the country. This meant we had to move the whole ‘project’ to the Arnhem region. This change of plans was easily and smoothly picked up by Meetingselect. Also, a late additional request from my side to include a certain location in the overall search, was very well answered to. This resulted in 4 complete proposals which I could happily continue with. We have been able to make a good decision and have had a very successful event and the evaluation was very positive, also for the selected location.