April Fools’ Day – full of surprises

My mother will tell you childhood stories of how at the innocent age of four I wanted her to read the dictionary to me at bedtime.  I was fascinated with words and one of my first big vocabulary stumbles was the word “surprise”.  I just could not wrap my young mind around this word that was so wonderful yet so scary.

We have all experienced those brilliant little surprises one encounters on rare occasions - my husband cleaning off my car on a snowy spring morning or finding that long forgotten $10 bill nestled deep in the pocket of your spring jacket or finally taking home that shiny trophy after being nominated three years in a row.  That’s the good side of the word “surprise”.

It is when that little word creeps up from behind and bites you that things get ugly.

Here are a few of my tricks to dodge those nasty surprise situations –

AVOID AIRPORT SURPRISES.  You may not be able to avoid major hubs entirely, but you can at least minimize your risks by routing yourself through a hub not likely to encounter severe winter weather. During the first part of the year, Dallas/Ft. Worth and Phoenix generally report the lowest percentages of tardy arrivals. Despite lots of snow, Denver and Salt Lake City also do pretty well -- they know their snow and how to cope with lots if it.  Even though it's in the South, Atlanta doesn't do quite as well as other southern hubs. Don’t even think about Chicago/O'Hare or the New York airports. For travel to Europe, Washington/Dulles is a better winter gateway bet than airports to the north, and Los Angeles wins over San Francisco for travel to Asia as a general rule.

AVOID COST INCREASE SURPRISES.  For all of you planners who are still budgeting $3- $4 for room drop charges, you may want to check current going rates. Delivering welcome bags or specialty gifts to guest rooms can be as high as $7.  Check prices often – they sneak up on you. (Same goes for current gratuity rates)

AVOID THE “it doesn’t fit” SURPRISES.  Our team has a best practice rule about always asking hotels for floor plans and photos to be submitted with any proposal.  Let’s face it, those capacity charts on hotel and venue websites often don’t take into consideration audio visual set up, that low hanging chandelier or elbow room for that matter.  More and more hotels and conventions centers are working on APEX approved floor plans.  Check out the Accepted Practices Exchange (APEX), an initiative of the Convention Industry Council which promotes development and implementation of industry-wide accepted practices www.conventionindustry.org/index.aspx

AVOID THE FIRE ALARM SURPRISES.  Beware of Cotton Candy - cotton candy making machines emit a haze strong enough to set off certain smoke and heat detectors sounding off those fire alarms.

While we can’t anticipate all the twists and turns that the planning process can bring, with proper training and skillful maneuvering, we can manage to stay on track even if some unexpected surprises pop up along the way.

Hope my “Free Idea” makes your Friday!

To learn more, please visit www.andlogistix.com

P.S. Are you a wordsmith like me? – Check out these 10 new words changing up our vocabulary expression for better or worse.  It will be interesting to see if they last through the decade.

http://portal.brasilnews.ca/servicos/dicas-de-ingles/top-10-almost-new-english-words/