What would you add to Carol Krugman's ever-expanding list?
Obviously, planning a meeting outside of your home country brings new challenges. Longtime global meeting professional Carol Krugman, CMP, CMM, has created an A-to-Z checklist to help—a list of things to consider, from categories you might take for granted in your home country (such as language) to areas that might be completely new (such as V.A.T.).
“Effective risk management is based on an orderly approach to each component of the planning process,” Krugman says. “When the meeting will be taking place in an unfamiliar environment—where the language, culture, and business practices are not familiar to you or to your attendees—the potential ‘risks’ are increased. This A-to-Z exercise is one way to identify, anticipate, and organize your ‘what if…?’ scenarios. Add your own insights as you discover them.”
In fact, we invite you to post your ideas as comments below, and we’ll regularly re-post the list with the new entries. In particular, Krugman needs help finding ideas to go under the letter “Y.” All “Y” suggestions received by January 6, 2010, will be entered into a drawing to win an autographed copy of Krugman’s comprehensive book about planning international meetings, Global Meetings and Exhibitions.
Here's the list:
A
Accessibility
Airline service
Audiovisual requirements
Allocation of staff resources
Ancillary activities
Ancillary staff
B
Backup systems
Budget caps
Budget cuts
Business practices
C
Climate
Communications
Contingency funds
Credit
Crime
Crisis management
Culture shock
Currencies
Customs (materials entry)
Customs (social)
D
Décor
Developing countries
DMCs
Dress
Drugs
E
Economic stability
Electricity
Emergency services
Entertainment
Environmental responsibility
Ethnocentrism
Etiquette
Expectations of attendees
Excursions
F
Facilities for disabled attendees
Food & Beverage
Forward contracts
Freight forwarders
G
Gifts
Gratuities
Ground operations/operators
H
Health care services and facilities
Holidays
Hygiene
I
Immigration laws
Infrastructure
Insurance
Internet
Interpreters
J
Jewelry
Jingoism
Jokes
K
Kissing
L
Language
Laws
Leisure activities
Liability
Local resource network
M
Medicine
Metric system
Mobile phones
Money
Mores
N
Negotiations
Networking
O
On-site resources
Options contracts
P
Passports
Political stability
PCOs
Promotion
Protocol
Q
Quality assurance
Quality control
Quarantine
R
Registration
Religion
Resources
Rooms (meeting, sleeping)
S
Safety and security
Scheduling
Sex
Shipping
Shopping
Simultaneous interpretation
Site selection
Social networking
Software
Special events
Sports
Strikes
T
Taxes (VAT, IVA, GST)
Technology
Telephones
Temptations
Terrorism
Time (concepts of)
Time (zones)
Tipping
Translation
Transportation
U
Unexpected, unforeseen, unheard of
V
Vendors
Venues
Video standards
Visa requirements
VoIP
W
Water
Welcome materials
X
Xenophobia
X-ray machines (airports)
Y
Year-end reporting
Yield management
Youth activities/concerns
Z
Zero-base budget
