Frequently Asked Questions

Can you provide a brief overview of TPG’s meeting and event management experience?

TPG has a full-time staff of 35 experienced, in-house professionals who plan and manage high-profile events. We have developed and managed hundreds of client programs over the past ten years. Visit Comprehensive Services to view our full list of services.

Describe your employees. How do you staff adequately and cost effectively for peaks and valleys in activity?

Our full-time TPG employees average 13 – 15 years of event management and industry experience in costing and planning, account management, air services, registration, IT, creative, operations and accounting. We are thrilled to report we have the lowest turnover rate in the industry—less than 3 percent annually.

Knowing our industry has definite peaks and valleys, we have a select team of contract permanent freelancers who step in and support our in-house staff. They have worked with us for a number of years, know the TPG way and often are requested by clients year after year.

What are TPG’s planning and research procedures beginning with receiving meeting specs from a client to signing the meeting contract?

• Once the TPG account executive conducts a needs analysis with the client, that information as well as complete meeting specs is shared with our Costing & Planning staff. The team reviews the details and demographics for the event and then brainstorms possible destinations/properties as well as activities that meet the event parameters.
• Costing & Planning conducts an initial research stage for each proposal and sends the meeting specs to our national hotel representatives. A feasibility grid is created that summarizes the results of this search, the account executive shares this information with the client and makes recommendations based on our destination insights and the available information.
• A site inspection is held when a hotel(s) is/are identified and once the final choice of a hotel is made, we request a contract. We are known as fierce, effective and reasonable negotiators and have a list of more than 75 items we negotiate on our clients’ behalf to maximize spend effectiveness.

Describe services you have available to drive and facilitate process improvement.

• We take a "six sigma" approach to management of each program. Our fundamental objective of this methodology is to analyze processes, identify areas for improvement and put those changes into practice immediately. We do not wait until the end of a project to examine and improve our processes.
• We are constantly looking at strengths and weaknesses of each program and implementing ways to improve.
• We conduct roundtable focus groups on a quarterly basis with our clients, hotel representatives, travel directors and other partners to discuss industry trends as well as review services and processes that enhance client success.
• Our close client partnerships ensure that the lines of communication are open at all times allowing for the free flow of ideas and strategies.

In today’s seller’s market with hotels, how do you maximize your client’s budget to get the best prices?

TPG has the business maturity to analyze and understand how market trends shape negotiation tactics. Demand is up for hotel rooms and meeting space while supply is down. We also know that this seller’s market has resulted in a rise in room rates by as much as 6 – 20% based on location. In addition, as hotels increasingly track total revenue streams, TPG continues to aggressively leverage these revenue management practices to better negotiate on our clients’ behalf. We have an in-depth understanding of hotel contracts and use our knowledge to minimize our clients’ exposure by developing and creating liability-reducing contracts.

To cap costs, TPG determines what is negotiable, what variables affect pricing and where there are opportunities to leverage savings. Below are some factors we discuss with clients:

• Early booking—consider shoulder and off-season dates and rates to maximize spend
• Flexibility—be flexible on arrival/departure patterns and consider hotel value dates (for example: to fill a recent cancellation).
• Location—consider less pricey cities and best value destinations. Think Boston rather than New York City. Think Portugal rather than Italy.
• Bargaining power—leverage food and beverage, meeting package and overall miscellaneous group spend against room rate; leverage total program revenue package.
• Consider multi-year contracts—again, leverage purchasing power/history by contracting for one, two or three years.
• Consider one hotel chain—consolidating business within one hotel chain maximizes spend leverage.
• And, during the final billing/reconciliation stage, we provide each client with a documented cost savings analysis detailing areas of savings and associated dollars.

How do you manage knowledge transfer from prior programs or processes to enhance effectiveness on future programs? What steps do you take to maintain program history so it is useful in the future?

We retain a shared database—available to all TPG employees—for each specific program with information on venue research, budget development, onsite execution, attendee information, registration development and customer service.

We continually warehouse vital information like event successes, creative problem solving and memorable moments. We then use information from this ever-expanding bank of "best practices" to improve each client’s future event.

In addition, we conduct debriefing sessions with TPG team members and client representatives at the conclusion of every program. We identify areas for improvement or areas that worked particularly well and archive these findings. This information is reviewed during planning for upcoming programs with an eye toward putting this knowledge to use on future successes.