Lynette Owens & Associates (LOA) is taking advantage of new communications technologies to provide up-to-date information to its hotel and insurance clients. The a nine-year-old, Rancho La Costabased hotel marketing and respresentation firm specializing in the life insurance industry, now has a Web site. At www.lynetteowens.com, meeting executives and hoteliers can get information on the services LOA provides and the hotels it represents. Still in development, the new LOA address will soon include links to sites that customers might find useful, such as LIMRA International, at whose meetings LOA regularly hosts hospitality events for executives in the life insurance industry, and Continental Airlines, which serves as the LOA official airline.
As an alternative to the Internet, Lynette Owens & Associates has also produced a CD-ROM. The new disc takes viewers on a "personal tour" of each hotel and resort that LOA represents, with facts on meeting space, guest rooms, recreation facilities, and other services. The CD-ROM also includes information on Continental Airlines meeting services. To order a CD, contact LOA's San Diego office at (619) 759-0510; fax (619) 759-9194.
In other developments, LOA has a new member supplier, Scottsdale, AZbased Set Solutions, a full-service event production company. Owned by Karin Alderton-Kilburg, Set Solutions features a comprehensive line of theme parties, props, staging, backdrops, lighting, linen, and centerpieces. With full-time artists on staff, Set Solutions can custom-design to a meeting planner's needs. In addition to Scottsdale, the company serves Palm Springs, San Diego, and Las Vegas and works in other destinations as requested. A division of the company is based in the Vail, CO area. To see photos, color renderings, or a customized proposal, contact LOA.
LOA Speaker Showcase The highlights of the board's business program were two professional football figures, Stanford All-American and five-time National Football League All-Pro Brian Holloway and NFL referee Jim Tunney. Both bring a sports metaphor--and something more--to the podium.
Brian Holloway has been working as a corporate trainer and speaker since he retired from the NFL in 1992. His motivational message blends stories of leadership challenges in the NFL (at 23, he was voted in as the youngest vice president of the NFL Players Association) with several years studying organizations at work. He challenges his audience to reach their goals through focus, commitment, and determination. "The most essential ingredient for being great is desire," he says, "the winning, championship spirit. I was never good at the first part of the play, but I was great at the chocolate sauce--the second effort. . . . In my industry, everyone has exactly the same product. Success has nothing to do with ability."
Tunney picked up on many of Holloway's themes with eloquence. Veteran of three Super Bowls and 29 playoff games, he talked about what it takes to build winning teams and "get the most out of ourselves." Building the acronym PRIDE, Tunney discussed five key concepts:
Power: "Personal power, not position power. . . . Believe in yourself. . . . The biggest killer of self confidence is self doubt."
Responsibility: Take responsibility for learning, for customer care, and for your health.
Innovation: "Creativity is not correlated with intelligence. Creativity is imagination--the capacity to ask, 'What if?' The most important factor affecting your life is change. You need to be able to visualize the possibilities."
Determination: "Setting goals is one thing, but prepare, prepare, prepare."
Everyone: "Treat all employees like they are important. You build teams by building people."