Tuesday, November 23, 2010

‘Cause We Are Livin’ in a Higher Ed World…

ACUI ConferenceI was recently invited to attend the ACUI Region 15 Conference in Reno, NV by our client partner the Joe Crowley Student Union, University of Nevada, Reno. I had not visited the campus prior to that invitation, and given that we are Associate Members of ACUI, this conference ended up being a great fit. The Joe Crowley Student Union is a beautiful, modern facility with sweeping views of the surrounding mountains from almost every room. The exhibitor portion of the conference was centered around a luncheon which gave us a great opportunity to interact with the students and faculty advisors in a very informal and relaxed environment.

Being the Higher Education Specialist with MeetingMatrix affords me the opportunity to work with some of the most unique facilities in the hospitality world. Increasingly, universities and colleges are competing with hotels and convention centers for business and are moving away from student organization or faculty sponsored-only events. Universities have very flexible space. Events can be hosted in ballrooms, outdoor malls (think the Mall in Washington DC), classroom areas and even gymnasiums.

Universities also tend to be on the cutting edge of technology. They have been applying what is new and available in the market to their day to day operations making them more efficient. From mobile space reservation to access of event information via an iPad, universities are pioneers in the technology world.

We’ll be attending the ACUI National Conference in Chicago from February 27th -March 1st, it will be my first time attending and I am very excited. We are proud to be partnered with ACUI and all of our Higher Education facilities.

Lydia Montgomery
Sales and Strategic Alliance Manager

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

West Meets East

MeetingMatrix Hong Kong
I went to our new Hong Kong office from August 23rd – September 8th, to train our two new Customer Service Managers, Alvin & Julie. This was my first time to Hong Kong. Believe it or not, I’ve been with the company 12 years traveling all over the world, and still haven’t ventured to Hong Kong. It was a very busy city, a lot like New York. If you know me, you know that I am a country boy and I am not crazy about big cities. I did enjoy the experience of going to Hong Kong, but it was a LONG flight- 16 hours from Newark.

I do not need to spend that much time in a plane again anytime soon.

With our new Hong Kong office we now are able to provide 24 hour tech support. Julie & Alvin are great. They will definitely be assets to the company!

I feel that once we have our HK (Hong Kong) office trained and we announce the office and 24 hour support we will grow tremendously in that market. The hotels and venues that have us there love our products & services. Now with having an office in HK we can handle their requests more promptly and will also be able to communicate better.

Our HK Team thinks our products & services will grow tremendously as well once we get the word out about 24 hour support and our most recent office addition.

Bob Dudlext
Director of Operations