Innkeepers Conferences - Worth The Cost?

In the era of webinars, Skype and virtual worlds, are actual conferences obsolete? A growing amount of the educational content at conferences is available through technology, and vendors can show you their wares online. So what are the benefits of attending? After all, attending a Bed and Breakfast Innkeepers conference costs both time and money.

A generation ago, the community of Innkeepers was relatively small and annual gatherings provided an opportunity to socialize, compare notes, collaborate and network. As our industry grew and matured, our professional associations became service (vs. social) entities. The ascendancy of our industry coincided with the growth of technology and today professional organizations can deliver a huge array of services virtually and electronically. Why have conferences?

Cornell’s School of Hospitality just published a paper on The Future of Meetings. The authors assessed the value of face-to-face meetings for corporate meeting planners and reached this conclusion:

Face-to-face meetings are the best approach for building human networks and relationships, and for inspiring collaboration.

These are the very benefits that brought Innkeepers together a generation ago!

That sounds great, but is it worth your time and money? How can you know? Inn guests make a value calculation when choosing your Inn, deciding “Yes” when they expect the value received to meet or exceed their expectations. The goal of The Mid-Atlantic Innkeepers Conference is to combine information value with people value. It is designed by Innkeepers and former Innkeepers. I suggest that you learn more about the 2011 conference and make your own value calculation. I think you will come!

Eliot Dalton Inn Broker and Consultant Bed and Breakfast Real Estate (610) 717 8083