Conference organizers direct the smooth management of conferences, conventions and any other activities at their line of specialization. Their work is primarily to plan the event and if possible they should be available during the event.
The characteristics of the event organizer must rhyme with his skills. The event organizer must be attentive to any details. In our case the organizing party must ensure that nothing passes without having knowledge at. They should therefore be keen enough to analyze the behavior of the delegates on bases of their possibility to attend the meeting, any expenses that may be on their side. This is a vital traits since it helps one to avoid over and under-budgeting. They are also diplomats. Since it is their work to provide conducive environment for conferencing, they must have the ability to convince both suppliers of conference equipments and the delegates who will attend the meeting. Since also since these delegates are senior people in the field of tourism, the organizers must understand their position and should be in a position to address them in case of any problem occurring (Greenhill, 2000).
They must also be tolerant and hard working and able to work under high pressure. Organizers of this conference should posses the character of being able to work for many hours and under tough supervision since as tourism is one of the chief sectors of the economy, any decision that is made regarding introduction of a new booking system in this industry will lead to either increment or decrement of tourists. With the sale skills they are able to convince the delegates or their sponsoring parties to pay and are able to show them how the attendance will be beneficial to them.
Delegates are the major determinants of the decision of the decision to be reached. Delegates they have the characteristics of either over spending or under spending. The delegates who are attending the conference are mostly managers. Managers are known to be high spenders and the same is expected in this conference. It is well known that since most of these managers are coming from Europe, they will attract so many costs and this is the base to expect them to be high spenders. Also these delegates are expected to be skillful and literate in terms of computers. Since the conference will involve use of computers the delegates must be computer literate since there is no way they can use enhanced feature of computers like video conferencing without prior knowledge.
In this conference we may need suppliers of conferencing equipments, and providers for services like catering services. In organizing this event, I will seek the help of intermediaries like the airport staffs in order to establish how the delegates will travel once they arrive at the airport, for those from Europe, and for those from U. k I need to work with their secretaries in order to ensure that they are attending the conference. I might also need the help of the police department to ensure that maximum security for delegates is put in place. The most suitable venue for the event is a hotel which is customized to be used for conferencing purposes. This is because if we use a hotel it is possible that the process is less likely to be interrupted by work environment (Rapaport, 1991).
Roger argues that even though the advancement in technology allows for delegates or people to video conference it stands out that these people at one time have to meet and discuss some issues ‘face to face’ (Rogers, 2008). Munro had predicted that due to this advancement in technology ‘face to face’ meetings will end in the next 50 years (Munro, 1994).
I tend to believe that tony was right and am still right in his assumption since there is no way that face to face meetings will end. By Munro saying suggesting that soon face to face meeting will come to a halt she seems so confident and fails to understand the fact that people are different and they respond different when confronted with different situations. It is known that most people tend to express their sincere thoughts while they are together than while they are apart.
Munro also fails to understand the problems associated with too much reliance on technology. She fails to recognize that the network that is being used can even fail on that day or the computers used might in some way get corrupt due to some virus which implies that the conference cannot go on (Hiltz, 1993).
Munro also fails to understand that the security of the new technology in some cases it cannot be trusted. Today, hackers are increasing in number so it becomes difficult for private conferences to be held over a network since there is no complete guarantee that no one is eavesdropping on the connection. This explains why even though video conferencing dominates we cannot single out face to face conferencing due to security related issues (free-press-release.com, 2010).
Video conferencing as a part of advancement in technology as indicated by Munro cannot be mostly be used by parties in the first time holding a conference on buying and selling. Today with an increase in internet theft no one can be obliged to hold a meeting with another person may be far through the internet in order to discuss anything to do with money the first time. This illustrate the need of face to face conferencing since when a potential buyer and seller meet in person, it is possible to trust each other and then the buying/ selling process can kick off (Gibson, 2000).
In case the conference was meant to convince some parties on a certain issue, or the parties were disagreeing in an issue, then video conferencing will never work on this one. It is well known that the power to convince a person lies in the facial expression and how well the convincing party is presenting him or herself. I strongly believe that use of network to hold diplomatic conferences can only result to heated arguments rather than solution to the problem.
From the above discussion, is evident that video conferencing will never work alone but when incorporated with the traditional way of conferencing, the business arena can blossom and more so in the tourism and travel industry (Briggs, 1998).
