The hospitality marketplace is an entanglement of choices that meeting and event planners must sift through when selecting a venue. In the past several years, due mainly to the efforts of Unique Venues and our partner educational organizations such as ACCED-I, ACUHO-I, ACUI, CUCCOA and NACAS, we have made the option of using a college or university campus a more viable and “top of mind” option.
But for YOUR campus to be top of mind with planners, Unique Venues highly recommends implementing these critical best practices for marketing your campus conference and event venue.
This 5 part series of posts campus venues can learn the 5 best practices for marketing your campus.
Part 1: Know who you are.
Each and every campus has its capabilities and its limitations based upon facilities, access, scheduling, mission and other factors. In order to build awareness of your campus in the marketplace, you must be able to articulate who you are to the right audience.
Know who you are and be honest in how you present your facilities, services and amenities. There are many organizations seeking the no-frills accommodations and educational meeting spaces that campuses offer. At the same time, if your facilities are higher end and more like a traditional conference center, be sure to communicate that to the right audience as well. There is plenty of business out there. You just need to know how to position your campus to attract it.
Author Bio: Chuck Salem is the president of Unique Venues, a marketing membership organization that brings together collegiate campus venues with meeting and event planners. Prior to Unique Venues, Chuck was employed as the Assistant Vice President for Conference and Auxiliary Services at the University of Pittsburgh's Johnstown campus where he established the award-winning Conference Center at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown. Chuck is a past president of the Association of Collegiate Conference and Events Director International (ACCED-I).