[ Back ]

January 5, 2008
Tourism Richmond Launches MeetingsEasy™

Tourism Richmond is pleased to announce the installation of MeetingsEasy™ software in late January 2008. Due to increasing interest from the meetings industry, Tourism Richmond has chosen MeetingsEasy™ to streamline the conference-planning process for both organizers and venues alike. By enabling faster online service and more comprehensive quotes for potential meeting and event organizers, Tourism Richmond hopes that the MeetingsEasy™ software will positively increase Richmond’s event market.

MeetingsEasy™ is a Web-based RFP system where planners submit a pre-formatted form or can easily attach their own specs to the website, which rapidly returns proposals from participating venues and suppliers back to the organizer. Designed to allow Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) and Convention Bureaus (CBs) to easily and quickly provide RFPs to potential organizers after receiving requests, MeetingsEasy™ acts as an electronic middleman between the client and DMO. Potential organizers are quickly provided with venue and supplier quotes at no cost, which eases the planning process for the organizer, and increases the opportunity for Richmond to be chosen as a host city.

MeetingsEasy™ was successfully developed and implemented by Ottawa Tourism, a key factor behind Richmond’s decision to purchase the program. With Richmond’s quickly expanding selection of venues capable of handling large-scale meetings, as well as with the City’s role as a Vancouver 2010 Olympics venue city and the proximity to the Vancouver International Airport, meetings and events are an increasingly important market for Richmond.

Gayle Morris, Director of Sales for Tourism Richmond, is confident that the decision will be a positive step forward for Richmond’s meetings and events industry. “MeetingsEasy™ will prove to be an effective way to work more efficiently, not only from our members’ perspective but that of our planners. Since we are providing planners with an automated step in the sourcing and booking process, we believe that planners can invite more properties to bid on a program without adding to their workload. MeetingsEasy™ goes beyond the sourcing process. Planners will have the ability to actually book their event online and view full member profiles and images with ease! MeetingsEasy™ is Tourism Richmond’s answer to connecting our members with our planners while tracking leads and conversion.”

Tourism Richmond looks forward to introducing this innovative software to the local meeting industry in late January 2008.