Meeting Industry Council of Colorado

Today I'm blogging from the Sheraton in Denver, where MIC is celebrating its 10th anniversary. The week started with supplier receptions and culminated with the event today. Its filled with great workshops for both planners and suppliers as well as a supplier trade show in the afternoon. Everyone in the Denver event planning business is here, and the speakers have been awesome. If you haven't heard of Colleen Stanley, check out her website at www.salesleadershipdevelopment.com. This is the second time I've heard her speak on sales and ideas to grow you business and each time she surpasses my expectations of the past. No matter which industry you are in, she is one to follow. Brian O'Malley was the keynote during the lunch and he is owner of www.adventurespeaking.com and wow is all I can say. His topic at lunch was finding your Everest, your passion, something that keeps you awake at night and conquer it. Thank you MIC for a great 10 years in the business we all love.

Airlines, Airlines, Airlines

Well, I was going to start off with my usual bemoaning of the airlines because we are only 13 days into the New Year and they have already announced increased fees. However, we also got some exciting news to report as well!

Southwest and United Airlines are offering a two for one sale for Colorado Customers. The United deal is this: 1) Tickets must be purchased by Feb 15th for travel by March 5th, 2) Travel must originate and end in Colorado and 3) It must be booked in a certain class of service meaning it may not be the cheapest flight out there. For Southwest you must purchase a Business Select fare in order for the two-fer promotion to be used.

In other good news, JetBlue has been offering a fantastic New Year promotion with $29one way fares. If you want to go somewhere, hurry up because you must book by 11:59pm tonight.

Ok,so now for the not so good news...both Continental and Delta have announced increased baggage fees. If you check in online 24 hours prior to your flight on their websites you can pay for your checked baggage in advance and it will be a discounted fee. And while Frontier did lower their change fee, it was conveniently offset by an increased baggage fee.