| Panama
City Beach, FL � October 2010 � This year, Convention South
magazine released its annual Meeting Trends in the South Report for 2010,
in collaboration with PKF Hospitality Research, exemplifying �light at
the end of the tunnel� for the corporate group sales segment. According
to Convention South�s report, the next 18 months will yield increased
meeting business with demand for more events.
This and other top meeting
trends are evident at The Resort
Collection of Panama City Beach. Steve Bailey, Director of Sales for
Edgewater
Beach & Golf Resort, a property of The Resort Collection of Panama
City Beach, understands these trends and uses every opportunity to utilize
his unique approach for keeping his team motivated to book meetings. Although
the corporate market has been the last to recover in the hospitality industry,
positive signs show that things are looking good for corporate meetings.
�We are on target and
anticipate a gradual increase by the end of 2010 in our forecast for group
business,� said Bailey. Also one of the trends for booking meetings, Bailey
sees growth in �smaller and consolidated meetings versus larger conventions.�
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The Resort Collection staff
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With over nine years
of experience in sales and marketing, Bailey currently oversees all group
sales aspects including corporate accounts and business development for
The Resort Collection of Panama City Beach. A native of Panama City Beach,
Bailey graduated from the University of Alabama with a degree in hospitality
management and a minor in psychology. He is also involved with the Alabama
and Georgia Meetings Associations and Sports Market.
Some of Bailey�s unique
tactics to motivating his sales team include:
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Aggressive Incentive/Sales
Bonus�change from quarterly to monthly payouts.
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Small prizes for conversion
ratios�measure closure rates in addition to the revenue produced. Incentives
include prizes such as spa treatments, rounds of golf and dinners for two.
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Sales and personal movie
days once a month�this includes motivational movies such as The Blind
Side, Remember the Titans, Jerry McGuire and others.
In 2009, Edgewater Beach
& Golf Resort completed an extensive $250,000 renovation of its meeting
facilities. As one of the largest conference center properties in Bay County,
the resort has more than 32,000 sq. ft. of flexible meeting space and currently
hosts more than 2,000 meetings, conferences, weddings and sporting events
each year.
About The Resort Collection
of Panama City Beach
The Resort Collection of
Panama City Beach includes the family-friendly Edgewater Beach & Golf
Resort, the intimate Majestic Beach Resort, the new, luxuriously appointed
Emerald Beach Resort, the relaxing Long Beach Resort, the exclusive En
Soleil, and the distinctive Marina Landing�all properties managed by The
Edgewater Beach Resort Management, Inc. They boast more than 1,000 full-service
gulf-front suites and golf villas, 90,000 square feet of combined indoor
and outdoor meeting space, six Plexicushion tennis courts, an outdoor basketball
court, batting cages, 21 luxurious pools, a 9-hole executive golf course
and 27 holes of championship golf at the Hombre Golf Club on Northwest
Florida�s Gulf Coast. For information on The Resort Collection of Panama
City Beach, call 866.203.1164 or visit www.ResortsPCBeach.com.
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Contacts:
Lisa
Burwell
President & Founder
Cornerstone Marketing &
Advertising, Inc.
850-231-3087, ext. 1
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Michelle
Lacewell
Marketing Director
The Resort Collection of
Panama City Beach
850-235-4977
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