The 46 Places to Go in 2013 – NYTimes.com

 

The New York Times has come out with their list of the 46 places to visit in 2013. Ready to book your trip? Our travel concierge are at your service!

The 46 Places to Go in 2013 – NYTimes.com.

What other places would you add to this list?

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A Proud Moment

One of the biggest contributions I will ever make to the event industry is to be a professor! I have the great fortune of teaching at the University of San Diego’s Event Management Certificate Program (www.sandiego.edu/emp) and at San Diego Mesa College.  I thrive when I can engage and inspire future event professionals. I was very honored when the students selected me as USD Instructor of the Year for 2012. Wow!! Given the quality of my colleagues teaching in the program, this is a very exciting privilege!

Interested in a career in the event industry? Check out the USD & Mesa College programs! It’s one of the best investments you will ever make in your career!

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You Must Read: CeciStyle Magazine

Obsessed doesn’t even begin to describe how we feel about CeciStyle Magazine. Every Tuesday we look forward to the masterpiece popping into our inbox. Our friend, Ceci Johnson, is just about the coolest chic on the planet. Not only is she breathtakingly beautiful, a style icon and the Mom of a cute little button, she is also a kick-ass business woman with an unbelievable amount of creative talent. To say we have a bit of a chick crush is an understatement! Oh to be Ceci!!

Do yourself a favor and sign up for her Magazine. You will find creative inspiration and a visual vacation every week.

CeciStyle Magazine V127: CECI INSPIRATIONS – HAPPY NEW YEAR!.

We are giddy with excitement that we are currently working with Ceci New York on a major creative project!! Can’t wait to tell you more over the coming months!

 

 

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Top 5 Venue Pointers to NEVER Forget When Choosing a Venue | CUR8EUR

Every venue is not built the same; nor should they be lumped into one big category when you are trying to select the perfect venue for your event. Thanks CUR8EUR for asking us for our opinion on how to select the best venue! We are delighted to share our two cents…

 

Top 5 Venue Pointers to NEVER Forget When Choosing a Venue | CUR8EUR.

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The Help: Concierge Services Get Hyper-Personal

 

Great to see the concierge industry receiving some much need positive press! Check out a day in the life of a concierge business…

The Help: Concierge Services Get Hyper-Personal.

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Trick or Treat

No tricks, just treats….how much do you really know about Halloween?

• According to History.com, Halloween traditions began 2,000 years ago with the Celts. They believed that on the night before their new year, November 1, the boundary between the worlds of the living and dead became blurred.
• On the night of October 31 the Celts celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. To commemorate the event, Druids built huge bonfires where people gathered to burn crops and offer sacrifices to Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes made mostly from animal heads and skins.
• Halloween began to lose its religious connotation in the 1800s, becoming a more secular community-based children’s holiday.
• The holiday made its way to America with European immigrants. With rigid protestant beliefs in New England, Halloween celebrations were very limited.
• The first distinctive American celebrations included “play parties,” public events held to celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead, and sing and dance.
• Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious connotations by the beginning of the twentieth century.
• By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a community-centered holiday with parades and town-wide parties. During this time vandalism began to be a problem in many communities.
• Between 1920 and 1950, the practice of trick-or-treating was revived. Families could theoretically prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats.
• The American Halloween tradition was born and continues to grow. Today, Americans spend an estimated $6.9 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country’s second largest commercial holiday.

Read more: http://www.abc15.com/dpp/mobile_showcase/9-fun-Halloween-history-facts#ixzz2Aog4AovJ

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Working long hours? Heres how it may be costing you – USATODAY.com

As an active member of the International Concierge & Lifestyle Management Association, I am thrilled that the organization received recognition today in an USA Today article. Would you agree that working long hours is really costing you?? A concierge is your solution and NO, it’s not just for the super wealthy and celebrities. You really can afford to delegate your life to a concierge!!

Working long hours? Heres how it may be costing you – USATODAY.com

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The Dirty Little Secret – No One is REALLY Working 8 Hour Days

If you are reading this article, it’s more than likely between the hours of 9-5 and you are sitting at your desk (which is owned by the company), reading this on your computer (which the company provides) and taking a “break” from your “demanding” work (which the company pays you to do). From the outside, you look busy because your eyes are aimed at the screen. This should make your manager happy. The reality is that this virtual “smoke break” will not be just the standard 15-minute break from your workload. Instead, it will morph into 2.09 hours per 8-hour workday, not including your lunch break or allocated break time, according to American Online and Survey.com [1] That’s 2.09 hours PER employee. Now multiply that by the number of employees you see in your immediate eyesight and you realize that there is a whole lot of nothing being done each day. The research by American Online and Survey.com has shined a bright light on the fact that employees are wasting twice as much time as their employers think they are wasting. And to really add salt to the employer’s wounds, Salary.com ran the numbers and found over $750 Billion (yes, with a B!) is spent on salaries (translation= compensation for actual work) for work that was never performed. Who’s pulling a fast one on whom?

Now before the employees start muzzling me for exposing the dirty little secret, it’s important to take a look at why they are spending so much time sitting at their desks without actually producing any relevant work for their employers. Given the current economic implosion, it’s easy to justify the feeling of burnout most employees are experiencing and the overwhelming inability to manage work / life balance.

53% of employees would opt for a personal assistant rather than a personal trainer. [2]

Only 14% of Americans take two weeks or more at a time for vacation. The average American spends more time in the bathroom than on vacation. [3]

88% of employees say they have a hard time juggling work and life. [4]

70% of working fathers and working mothers report they don’t have enough time for their children. [5]

64% of Americans report that time pressures on working families are getting worse, not better. [6]

Work is inevitable but does it mean we have to give up our personal life for the sake of a paycheck? Not at all. It just means that employers should recognize that work / life balance is a huge motivator for employees. So if you can’t beat ‘em, why not join ‘em? A corporate concierge program can bring sanity to an otherwise scattered workplace filled with unsuspecting managers overseeing unproductive workers.

Texas Instruments is a perfect example of a company that understands happy, stress-free employees make for profitable champions for the business. According to the Texas Instruments website, in 2010, their concierge program served more than 2,900 U.S. employees and fulfilled more than 8,000 requests. They also expanded on-site services, providing 1,276 employees an opportunity to save a trip away from the work site during business hours. [7]

Implementing a corporate concierge program equates to:

• The ability to retain and recruit quality talent
• A far more productive and engaged workforce
• A reduction in absenteeism
• A lower level of stress within the workplace

Corporate concierge programs can be operated either virtually, with employees having access to the concierge through email or a dedicated website, or on-site, where employees can interact with the concierge in a face-to-face engagement. The concierge is retained to provide a solution to the employee’s work/life balance problem.

Frequent requests include:

• travel coordination
• errand running,
• household management
• personal shopping
• personal assistance and
• event planning

Imagine stopping by the concierge desk in the morning on your way into work with a request for designing and planning tonight’s dinner party; only to leave the office 8 hours later armed with the necessary groceries, a customized cd for background music, a paired wine selection and personalized favors for each guest. A corporate concierge becomes the one-stop solution for the time strapped employees. Without a concierge, the employee must manage this to-do list from their own desk and their lunch hour is spent running the errands.

As the workforce begins to shift from retiring Baby Boomers to Generation X & Y prodigies, employers need to evolve. What worked “back in the day” in terms of designing a workplace is completely foreign to today’s up and comers. Gen X & Y demand instant gratification because they have grown up in a world of access.

Although this might seem extravagant to those over the age of 45, the “children are the future.” (cue Whitney Houston).  I think this is what Darwin would call “survival of the fittest.” The strongest employee benefits package will become King of the Jungle. If you don’t make their life easier, I’m sure your competitor would be glad to invite them over. Now is the time to be a trailblazer and create a workplace that can be a place for a Gen X / Y’er to park themselves for a while because their work/life balance needs are met, versus just being a hop, skip and a jump on their resume.

Nicole R. Matthews is Chief Experience Officer of RECESS by The Henley Company, a concierge firm specializing in events travel and lifestyle experiences. She set out to create a company that gives clients the gift of time to experience life. Living a life that incorporates RECESS is a commitment, not just a hope and a dream.  Working with corporate clients, busy individuals and executive families, Nicole designs lifestyle management programs that create work / life balance. She champions the implementation of corporate concierge programs because she knows happy employees are productive employees. When she is not in the office, Nicole can be found with a Diet Coke in hand planning a trip to somewhere that requires her passport, kicking a soccer ball, drooling over fabulous accessories, scanning her social media sites (@henleyco / FB= Recess By The Henley Company) or belly laughing with her family. Follow her journey on her blog: www.henleyco.wordpress.com.

 

[1] Salary.com, 2005

[2] Circles, 2001

[3] The Families and Work Institute

[4] Aon Consulting, 2000

[5] Family Matters Survey; The National Partnership for Women & Families, 1998

[6] The National Partnership for Women & Families; Family Matters Survey, 1998

[7] Texas Instruments, 2012

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Living the Life Thanks to Lifestyle Villas in Cabo San Lucas

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If you have been following our blog lately, you know that we recently took a trip down south to visit our office in Cabo San Lucas…and by “office” I mean the palapa next to the pool overlooking the ocean! There is certainly nothing like the creativity bolt that you get when your view is the Sea of Cortez, your co-workers for the day are the marine life swimming past and your employee lunch room is a 5-star catered meal poolside. To say that I love my job is an understatement!

The creative masters behind my flawless trip was the amazing team at Lifestyle Villas. When they invited us down to do a site visit and to “experience” their villa offerings I knew I was going to be impressed. I was not prepared to be blown away! Talk about a first class operation! My interaction began several weeks before my trip as my Destination Specialist, Susana, worked with me to ensure a smooth trip. Lifestyle Villas makes it their priority to make sure that your trip exceeds every expectation. Susana made sure that our villa was stocked with the appropriate amenities: tequila, margarita mix, guacamole…you get the hint! It was nice to have the comforts of home, including my beloved Diet Coke, in the refrigerator.

The airport pick-up could not have been smoother. Immediately upon exiting the baggage claim, a Lifestyle Villas representative was on hand. He immediately whisked me to a beautiful SUV and handed me a cold bottle of water. Within 20 minutes, we were safely delivered to our gated estate, Villa Anna-Lei, which is over 6000 sq. feet of beach front loveliness. Villa Anna-Lei is located in the corridor, about half way between San Jose del Cabo and Los Cabos. It is one of the most breathtaking pieces of property in the world. My consumption of the view was only interrupted by the heaping plate of guacamole and salsa that welcomed us into the property. I can easily lose my focus with chips & dips! Our personal concierge, Daniel, was at the house upon our arrival and made our transition easy. Within minutes we had a tour of the house and our luggage was tucked away into the appropriate bedroom. Daniel was on hand throughout the weekend to make sure we had everything we needed. The level of personal assistance that we had far exceeds any 5-star hotel.

Lifestyle Villas went all out to ensure that we had a very VIP treatment. The spa experience we had with Suzanne Morel Mobile Day Spa, followed by dinner by A Matter of Taste, requires their own blogs. I was stunned by the “experience” that both created for us. As an event planner, I feel very jaded about design, decor and good food because I come in contact with so much of it. Most is good; rarely is it remarkable. Both A Matter of Taste and Suzanne Morel are remarkable.

For anyone looking to get away, Cabo is an easy jaunt from Southern California. The flight time is less than 2-hours from San Diego/LA. With a direct flight, you are easily sipping margaritas under perfect sunshine by 2:00 p.m. Cabo is wonderfully safe, exceptionally clean and the level of service in the restaurants, bars and attractions is first-rate. It feels like worlds away from San Diego, while just being a stones throw away.

Muchas gracias Lifestyle Villas for a wonderful weekend! I look forward to the partnership we have established. I have every confidence that you will take care of my clients at the same level you took care of me!

I hope you will enjoy the slide show – the photos don’t really do the property and the experience justice. It was all breathtaking – from beginning to end!

For those looking to do events in Cabo, the go-to team is:

Lifestyle Villas

www.lifestylevillas.net

@lifestylevillas

Festa Fina  - Rentals & Event Design

www.festafina.com

Cabo Floral Studio

www.cabofloralstudio.com

Suzanne Morel Luxury Mobile Day Spa

www.suzannemorel.com

@suzzannemorel

@cabolinens – they also did the linens for the spa/dinner

A Matter of Taste Catering

www.cateringincabo.com

@cateringincabo

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“Cute as a Button” Guest Feature « SWEET DESIGNS – AMY ATLAS EVENTS

The very talented Amy Atlas has a great blog that I follow regularly. She continually shares great party themes! I love this “Cute As A Button” Baby Shower theme. Simple but elegant!

Check out the rest of the post on her blog by clicking the link below:

“Cute as a Button” Guest Feature « SWEET DESIGNS – AMY ATLAS EVENTS.

 

 

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