02/09/2017

Associations Help Attendees Embrace Life of Bleisure

Junkets are long gone, but a little leisure should be a part of every successful conference

Meeting attendees are looking for more ways to mix business and leisure on the road. From post-conference tours to day trips to planned downtime, associations are stepping up to help them maximize their “bleisure” time.

Chris Williams, CAE, executive director of the National Child Support Enforcement Association (NCSEA), remembers the bad old days of conference travel for staff: Fly in to set up. Spend 14-hour days in a convention center. Fly back as soon as the last sign is packed up. Williams saw the displeasure on colleagues’ faces at past association conferences, and he knew that once he had an executive role he’d do things differently.

“The last thing I want for my staff is to be so burned out toward the end that they’re not friendly, they’re not at their very best for our members, so that our members have a negative impression,” he says.

Please click here to read the complete article from Associations Now.