Clear View Marketing, LLC

Published by staff on January 18, 2010

If you’re nervous about an upcoming job interview, consider getting some practice with automated phone interviews at Better Talking.

Visit the web site, sign up with your name and e-mail address, and you’re given a phone number and a pin number. Call the number and you’ll be prompted with various questions like “What type of work motivates you” and other common but generic interview questions. When you’re all done, you’ll be e-mailed a link to your interview so you can listen to how you sounded.

Better Talking is a free service that requires no sign-up other than an e-mail address.

by Janet Latremouille with WTTC.com

So your clients want to “green up” their conference. And, they’ve left it to you, the planner, to show them the way.

The organizers of this month’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP15) have taken some big steps (and a lot of little ones, too) to decrease the carbon footprint that comes with bringing together over 16,000 delegates from around the world.

COP15 organizers have been quite creative in their approach.

Delegates are being met at the airport with transit passes and bikes instead of the usual limousines and multi-passenger vans. And, when cars are necessary, organizers have opted for fuel-efficient hybrids.

The conference centre is being powered, in part, by wind turbines. The carpets are made from biodegradable materials, pens from recycled water bottles, and there will be no “official” conference gifts given to delegates. Water bottles have been eliminated and delegates required to get their water from water stations set up throughout the facility. Delegates who do not bring their own water containers can drink from biodegradable cornstarch cups that have been provided.
Continue reading…

by Janet Latremouille

As “green” becomes more important, planners who work with environmentally conscious clients need to be sure that the products and services they recommend meet environmental targets. And that includes hotels.

For event and meeting planners who are looking to “green” their events, booking clients into LEED® certified properties is an excellent start. But what exactly constitutes a LEED® certified property?

To obtain a LEED® certification, hotels must be constructed or renovated by a LEED® certified developer or builder. Under the LEED® system, builders are required to incorporate as much recycled material into their buildings as possible. Building products used in the finishing process, such as sealants, caulking, paints, etc. must be environmentally friendly. And, the building’s heating, air conditioning and plumbing systems must also be energy efficient with a focus on emissions reduction.

In North American, the move towards LEED® certification for hotels has been sporadic. According to Lodging Magazine, there are only a handful of certified hotels in the US and Canada. However, there are also over 500 hundred hotels registered to go through the certification process. Continue reading…

published by Wttc.com Staff

Find everything you need to make this holiday season a special one. Visit our latest destination city — WTTC North Pole — to browse or search for holiday discounts and deals from suppliers across North America. Another service of WTTC.com … helping planners search less, and find more.

published by: Wttc.com staff

Most of us don’t like to start thinking about Christmas before at least November, but in business it’s never too early… only too late!

And, no one knows this better than Dan Goldhar, co-founder of Toronto-based Admar Promotions Group. Dan has been helping companies get noticed since 1991 when he and partner opened their business. Today, Admar carries more than 1,000,000 promotional products, including everything from award statues to zippo lighters. In this post, Dan offers five smart ways to manage your holiday gift selections:

* Time — Time is one of the most crucial parameters for managing your holiday gift selections. We suggest you start by counting backwards from when you would ideally want to distribute your gifts. Allow 3 to 4 weeks for production, printing and delivery of your chosen products, add in a bit of contingency in case of unforeseen circumstances, and time to research and consider your options. If you want your gifts out the door by first week in December, then you’ll probably want to start doing your research now.

* Budget — Make sure you know exactly how much you have to spend, and how many gifts you need to buy. This will give you a figure per head to work with. Gifts don’t need to be expensive to work well, but do consider the demographic of your target audience when making your selection. This is a key time of year to give corporate or executive gifts to business contacts and clients. Gift-boxed items, digital photo albums, or embossed fleece blankets make distinctive and memorable executive gifts.

* Request a Sample — Ask you supplier to send you a sample product so that you can not only see but also feel the product.

* Choose your Supplier — Make sure you choose the right supplier. Choose a highly reputable online company, which supplies a good range of quality promotional merchandise and adheres to high standards of customer service. The quality of your gifts reflects the standards and aspirations of your company, so you need to be sure that your chosen items are professionally printed and presented, and that you will get the level of service you deserve. Having the help of an industry expert dedicated to your order will alleviate much of the stress associated with managing your gift selections.

* Order early — Whatever your reason for using promotional gifts, you should be aware of time lines. In order to get the best possible experience and be sure of getting your promotional items on schedule, you should order early and confirm your order well in advance. Holiday times are among the busiest times for suppliers, so time lines may be stricter than usual. Again, having the help of a reputable supplier will do much to make sure your holiday gifts are the best they can be…

Last week, Lindsay Coulter, the “Queen of Green” at The David Suzuki Foundation, talked with WTTC.com’s Janet Latremouille about what her role at the foundation and what actions planners could take to decrease the environmental footprint of their meetings and events.

After the interview, Lindsay was kind enough to provide us with a list of links and resources compiled by the foundation especially for the meetings, incentives, conventions and events industry. For more information, visit The David Suzuki Foundation Website or use the site’s search engine to find additional resources and comments helpful to the industry. You can also contact the foundation with your specific questions by emailing contact@davidsuzuki.org. There is also the option to sign your company up for the David Suzuki “At Work” Program. Follow the link to read some of the program’s success stories.

Resources Links:

How-to Guide To Doing Business in a New Climate (Book, PDF)

How to Host a Sustainable, Carbon Neutral Conference of Other Events

Other Ways To Make Your Event More Sustainable

Guide To Making Sense of Paper Labels (PDF)

Guide To Offset Vendors (PDF)

by; Andrew Maxwell – Wttc.com

An issue that is currently top of mind for many businesses in the meetings, incentives, conventions and events industry is how to attract new business sales during tough economic times. Just do a Google search for “selling in a recession” and you get over 21 million returns, a statistic that is indicative of the level of anxiety that is out there.

To work against this rising tide of recessionary selling, it is best to take small steps and focus on things that require more of you — and less of your pocketbook.

* Are you losing business to competitors who are undercutting your bids? A lot of people react to this by discounting the discount … just to get the business. Instead of this “glass half empty” approach, why not consider offering something of additional value such as a meet-and-greet service. Something like this doesn’t cost much but makes a big impact by adding a personal touch. Continue reading…

by: Janet Latremouille
Hotels reduce their use of water and chemicals by giving guests the option of reusing their towels. Restaurants source local suppliers to reduce their carbon footprint. Planners make sure that their suppliers recycle plates and glassware. Many companies in our industry are trying to act “green”. But truthfully, it’s sometimes difficult to know how effective their efforts are.

The hospitality industry has taken steps to create “green” designations for hotels, restaurants and service suppliers. Many hotels are committed to building “green,” working with developers who build buildings that are LEED certified. Houston-based “Green” Hotels Association is building a green hotel community and a green marketplace that features environmentally responsible suppliers. The Hotel Association of Canada has its “green key” designation while the American Hotel & Lodging Association provides comprehensive guidelines to help the industry “green up.” Continue reading…

Plunge into the deep darkness of the desert night with Arizona’s most unique tour, Desert Storm Hummer Tours Nite Storm Adventure. One of National Geographic’s “Top 100 Adventures in America” it is an intense night-vision experience that gives you hands-on with some of the most powerful nite vision and thermal image equipment available.

Lights Out! Your guide will be driving the Hummer in the dark! That’s right-cruise through the desert night in the dark with no lights on the Hummer, complete darkness. You’ll be ready for wildlife with your GEN 3 Nite Scope in hand as you ride, 95% of our wildlife move at night, so our chances of spotting owl, rattlesnakes, tarantulas, scorpions, deer, wild pigs, fox, badger and the list goes on.

Halfway into the heart of the trail we’ll stop and get out for 30 minutes in the sand, here you’ll get hands on with Raytheon’s Thermal Image Scopes, this scope works off body heat of wildlife allowing you to see them in the dark up to 500 meters! If the weather permits you’ll stargaze with Celestron’s new Sky Scouts, this unit has 6,000 GPS targets on it’s computer chip. You just point to the planet, star or constellation and touch the target button for a four minute talk by way of headphones. Kids will take a short walk with their guide for a scorpion hunt with custom black lites, they turn yellow when the lite hits them so their guide can catch them and talk about them!

Tour Times: Please call for Seasonal Departure Times

Bottled Water, Soda, Ice, and Coolers Included.

* ITT GEN 3 Nite Vision Scopes
* Raytheon XP200 Thermal Image Scope
* Scorpion hunts are a blast for the kids
* Celestron’s new “Sky Scout.” Your personal planetarium with 6000
GPS targets with a touch of the target button
* Your guide is the best of the best. Our guides have been with us
an average of eight years. “WE KNOW WHAT WE’RE DOING” in
other words.

Clear View Marketing is proud to announce that it is now an Authorized Distributor for Send Out Cards.

With this incredible tool, not only can the businesses we work with remember people and share appreciation, they can motivate, uplift, encourage and truly make a difference. Here is the interesting thing, the more our businesses do this, the more they realize that that their business, the sender of these cards, benefits the most.

Clear View Marketing… Helping Build Strategic Business Relationships One Card at a Time… If you would like to Send a Card on us Click Here!