RGI develops, markets and manages meetings in locations all over the United States and Canada each year. These meetings range from small committee meetings (4-8 people) to major trade expositions that attract hundreds of exhibitors and thousands of attendees.

Our negotiating power with hotels is a plus for our clients... our combined annual meeting budgets for our clients exceeds $3 million. This level of meeting planning business translates into savings for our clients... which makes their meetings much more efficient, effective and profitable. All of our association meetings have a trend of growing attendance and all have shown a profit.

Site Selection. By using national hotel representative contacts together with our knowledge of the hotel inventory, we find the best locations -- at the best prices -- for the associations we manage.

Budget Development and Financial Management. RGI does all of the budgeting and financial management of all our association's meetings. And, since meetings represent a large source of revenue, we are very good at making sure we come in on our budget so the association makes money. Conversely, when we plan such non-revenue generating meetings, as board meetings and committee meetings, we are very careful about the cost of the meetings so they will not have a negative impact on the association's bottomline.

Contract Negotiation. We put considerable effort into negotiating with hotels for our clients. We get the best value and protection possible. Once we have inked a deal with the hotel, we become "partners." The reason for this philosophy is straightforward: we want our members' stay at the property to be the best it can be, and we want the hotel to work with us, not against us!

Development of Conference Timetable. In our business, we live and die by timetables. We understand that a meeting is going to be held on a specific date and if we are not ready we cannot ask the meeting attendees if they could come back next week! All of our meetings have written time frames and assigned responsibilities.

Conference Resume Preparation. As with timetables, we prepare detailed resumes that we send to the hotels. We are very specific about what we put in our resumes because we have learned that the more information we can give to a hotel, the better prepared it will be for our meetings. It helps smooth the process.

Marketing and Promotion. With our extensive background, we have the expertise to develop programs that will effectively sell the meeting. Since meetings are one of the principle revenue sources for associations, this is a major benefit to using RGI.

Registration Processing and Onsite Staff. Most of our meeting registration is done online. However, we are equipped to handle any method of meeting registration that the association might want to use. Additionally, we have specific meeting equipment - computers, credit card machines, badge printers, etc. - that we take to meetings - not to mention an experienced RGI staff to make them run smoothly and professionally.

VIP Management. As with most professional meeting planners, we understand that some people deserve to be treated a little better than others. It is our policy that the presidents of all our associations get suites - complimentary, per our contract - at all major meetings. Additionally, we establish lists of people who will receive VIP treatment - airport pick-up, special rooms, amenities, etc.

Speaker Contracts and Management. We routinely secure speakers, negotiate their contracts and manage their participations through planning meetings.

Food and Beverage Selection. We establish all menus for our meetings, all within the budgets that have been established. We have very experienced meeting planners, plus we work hard to get to know our associations, so the food fits the group.

Exhibits Management. RGI does seven meetings per year that have an exposition element to them. At two of these meetings, we will have more than 120 exhibitors; another has between 75 and 90 booths and the rest will have 15 to 40 exhibitors. We handle everything from selling the exhibit space to coordinating all of the vendors necessary to stage a major exposition. We understand the importance of these expositions not only for the opportunity of our members to see what is new in their industry, but also as networking opportunities. We structure our expositions so they will provide maximum traffic for the exhibitors and comfort for the attendees.