Familiarisation (FAM) trips are a great part of being an event professional, but they’re also a necessary part. Viewing hotels, venues and locations in person gives the important opportunity to understand the experience you’re creating from the perspective of your attendees. Have you ever expected a holiday to be incredible and then found the location to be a bit disappointing when you get there? A FAM trip ensures that doesn’t happen at the worst possible moment, when it’s too late and 100 delegates are already on their way! Here’s our 10 reasons getting to go on familiarisation trips are an important part of being an event professional.
Story telling is a great way to market a product and create a memorable experience. Pitching to a potential client can include stories from the places you visited. This can help build a better image in the client’s mind, giving them more reason to go with it.
Immersing yourself is the best possible way to gain an insight into your clients’ perspective. For example, it’s good to get the feel of a hotel so you don’t end up putting your clients somewhere that looks beautiful online but ends up being secretly depressing in person.
You can develop a stronger relationship with your suppliers when you’re there.
Being there in person will better equip you to know what could potentially go wrong and having an informed plan will help prevent any mishaps.
Have you ever tried giving someone an opinion about a place and then they find out you’ve never been there? It may go wrong pretty quickly.
The free products and services venues and suppliers sometimes give you are the products you might be giving your clients in future. You’ll want to know how they work long term before investing in them.
You can’t taste food through the internet. Making sure your delegates get the best food experience isn’t achievable without a FAM trip.
You deal in experiences; shouldn’t you live in them too?
Moral of the story: FAM trips can be a fun part of working in the events industry, but they’re also an important and valuable one. They help improve the skills and knowledge of planners and give suppliers the best opportunity to showcase their products.