With a half dozen conferences being held this fall, vacation rental managers are deciding which conferences to attend. With the education being provided at each conference, determining which ones to attend isn’t an either/or decision.
Here is a guide to help you decide which conferences are the right investment for your team.
- Florida VRM Xtravaganza, Orlando, Sep 9-11 (for Florida property managers)
- Streamline Summit, Scottsdale, Sep 27-30
- HomeAway’s RezFest, Las Vegas, Oct 6-8
- LiveRez Partner Conference, Sun Valley, Oct 19-23
- 2015 Vacation Rental Managers Association (VRMA) Annual Conference, New Orleans, Oct 25-28
- 2015 Vacation Rental Housekeeping Professionals (VRHP) Annual Conference, Orlando, Nov 9-11
First, let’s differentiate between association conferences and user conferences. Then we will look at what each conference has to offer:
Association Conferences
Benefits of Attending an Association Conference:
- Industry news and trends
- Sponsors and vendors you may not have met before who can help you address your biggest challenges
- Unbiased educational sessions
- Industry knowledge and training for new employees (especially upper level and marketing executives)
- The ability to network with other vacation rental managers
- Information on regulatory changes and issues
Upcoming Association Conferences:
- Florida VRM Xtravaganza, Orlando, Sep 9-11 (for Florida property managers)
- 2015 Vacation Rental Managers Association (VRMA) Annual Conference, New Orleans, Oct 25-28
- 2015 Vacation Rental Housekeeping Professionals (VRHP) Annual Conference, Orlando, Nov 9-11
Software User Conferences
The software user conferences are great for 2 groups: 1) active software users and 2) companies considering purchasing software.
Benefits of attending a User Conference:
- Maximizing the use of your software
- Software knowledge and training for new employees
- New and upcoming functionality
- Fixes or work-arounds for your technology challenges
- Network with other software users
- The ability to find out the strategic objectives of the company and personally ask hard-hitting questions to the software executives
- Meet other suppliers and vendors who have existing relationships with your software
- If you are looking to buy a software platform, attending their user conference will give you all of the info and insight you need. The majority of the attendees are active users of that software so you can find out very quickly the challenges they face and get a feel for what your experience will be like. If you are deciding between software platforms, consider attending more than one.
- Be wined and dined
Upcoming User Conferences
- Streamline Summit, Scottsdale, Sep 27-30
- HomeAway’s RezFest, Las Vegas, Oct 6-8
- LiveRez Partner Conference, Sun Valley, Oct 19-23
Tips for maximizing conference attendance:
- Look at the agendas and sessions now and think about who in your company would benefit from the sessions.
- If you have new employees who need to understand the vacation rental industry better, consider which conference will give them the best education to excel in their positions.
- Use the opportunity to connect with vendors and suppliers and schedule face-to-face time.
- Plan to engage in networking sessions and round tables.
- Challenge each of your team members who attend the conference(s) to create a list of at least 3-5 action items from what he/she learned.
- Schedule a post-conference internal meeting to share with stakeholders in your company what each team member learned at the conference and what their take-aways were.
Conference Summaries and Highlights: Coming Soon
There is no faster way to learn about the industry and improve your company’s performance than to actively attend these conferences. We hope to see you there!
By Amy Hinote
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