With a stubborn pandemic still making companies wary, incentive travel organizers might not be packing their bags quite yet. But it’s not too soon to set the groundwork, and a new Incentive Travel Toolkit just released by the Incentive Research Foundation is aimed at planners working to establish a program or re-justify their incentive travel spend.
Highlights of this soup-to-nuts package of resources includes:
• an incentive-program design worksheet, created in Word to be used as a working document, as well as articles on effective design
• an RFP template for incentive travel
• a previously published 32-page report on how to measure the return on investment for incentive travel
• an eight-slide PowerPoint that lays out the business case for travel incentives, including corporate, economic, and individual benefits, and why travel is a better motivator than cash
• a white paper accompanies the business-case PowerPoint, taking a deeper dive into the impact of incentive travel
• a financial budget template in Excel
• a detailed document on incentive event communications, including a timeline on when various communications should go out and what they should cover
• an overview of operations best-practices
“This was supposed to be released earlier this year, but we ultimately delayed release to now, when more firms are at least thinking about incentive travel,” said Andy Schwarz, the IRF’s vice president, content & communities.
Schwarz credits the efforts of dedicated volunteer behind the new toolkit, including Jim Adams, Performance Strategies; Min Choi, Germania Insurance; Krzysztof Celuch, Celuch Consulting; Jerry Klein, Animate Growth Partners; Rick Low, Topnet, Inc.; Mike May, Brightspot Incentives & Events; Mike McWilliams, Next Level Performance; Lisa Meller, Meller Performance Events Group; and Michele Sarkisian, Avenger Capital.
All elements of the Incentive Travel Toolkit are free and available on the Incentive Research Foundation website.
