Hardcopy Information Still Popular

Monday 4 July 2005

Hardcopy Information Still Popular

An estimated $50 million worth of bookings through the 2004 Conventions New Zealand conference planner highlights the planner’s value for the conference and meetings industry, even as internet use increases.

“Conferences are being booked throughout the country using the annual Planner as a reference point, equating to an estimated $50 million of convention business,” says Mark Graham, General Manager Dow Communications, Auckland. “This is quite impressive, especially in today’s climate where our on-line services are really taking off.”

The Conventions NZ Planner is published annually by Dow Communications on behalf of Conventions and Incentives New Zealand (CINZ) and lists venues, hotels, accommodation and activities throughout the country. Each year readers are surveyed about their use of the planner.

Mr Graham attributes the high use of the planner to the fact that many people still like to have a hard copy in front of them that is easily accessible, current and visual.

The survey results show that readers of the planner use it to book conferences and accommodation, multi-day conferences and functions. Users find the planner most useful for finding venue capacity, photographs of venues, location maps and floor-plans and room dimensions.

Planner readers go directly to hotels with queries and seek further information from the internet, also accessing the planner’s on-line next-generation interactive service, EasyFinder.

“EasyFinder is not only a valuable tool itself, but is also contributing to the planner’s success and appears to have generated additional traffic to the main CINZ website, with unique visitors to the site now topping over 25,000 per month,” Mr Graham says.

“And with over 350 events created on EasyFinder, an interactive service designed to deliver conference organisers results to their desktop, and in turn generate conference business leads for CINZ members, EasyFinder is certainly proving its worth.

“Not only is EasyFinder really starting to take off, but the improvements we have planned for coming months is going to make it indispensable for both conference organisers and the industry,” he says.

ENDS

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