Overview
Our Chapter events provide our members with peer networking, professional development, and Professional Development Units (PDU) opportunities throughout the year. Planning and executing these monthly events is a major volunteer team effort across the multiple Operations committees in the Chapter. Our Chapter members and non-members alike provided valuable feedback in 2017 regarding our event venues, event pricing, and speaker selection. Feedback indicated that our choice of venues was a significant factor for why our chapter members do not attend events regularly, more frequently, or even at all. In response to this feedback, the Programs Team initiated a project to reevaluate our venues for 2018 and beyond. The dedicated volunteers of the Programs Team are delighted to share the methodology and results of our 2018 Venue Source Selection
Methodology
Our first step was to identify the goals for revisiting our choice of event venues. We identified the following two: (1) maximize the Chapter’s member satisfaction, and (2) maximize Chapter Event program attendance. Next, we identified the evaluation criteria for which we would weigh candidate proposals. One of the most important criteria was venue geography. We sought to balance distributed geographic locations with the desire to minimize different venues. We considered the candidate venues (Figure 1) , some of which look familiar along with some new ones:
Figure 1. Candidate 2018 PMI-MN Chapter Venues
We solicited bids from multiple venues across the Twin Cities
Other key evaluation criteria included affordability, parking availability, and compliance with our requirements for multiple break-out rooms, audio/visual support, and other similar event details. We prepared a Request for Proposal (RFP) and solicited bids from the venues identified above for both chapter breakfast and dinner events.
Results
Starting in 2018, our Chapter Breakfast events will span an east-west axis across the Twin Cities. We have chosen to retain the contracts with Hotel Metro in St. Paul (soon to be renamed the DoubleTree East Hotel St. Paul) and the Crowne Plaza Plymouth hotel on the west side. We are pleased to introduce a new, premium location at the Midland Hills Country Club in Roseville (Figure 2) . We anticipate that this central location to draw equally from members located in Minneapolis and St. Paul and have booked five monthly breakfast events accordingly at this super location.
Figure 2. Midland Hills Country Club
This premium, central location in Roseville is ideally suited for our Chapter Breakfast events
Similarly, our 2018 Chapter Dinner events will span a north-south axis across the cities. We have retained the contract at the Crowne Plaza AiRE MOA in Bloomington, and have added the DoubleTree Park Place (St. Louis Park) and Marriott Northwest hotels to serve central and northern target members, respectively. The DoubleTree Park Place once hosted the Chapter's events and has since been renovated (Figure 3) .
Figure 3. DoubleTree Park Place Hotel Ballroom
This modernized central location in St. Louis Park is easily accessible from throughout the Twin Cities
The Minneapolis Marriott Northwest (Figure 4) will serve our north and central members. We chose the Marriott Northwest over renewing our contract at the Crowne Plaza Plymouth primarily based on geography, particularly due to traffic along the I-494 corridor during evening rush hour!
Figure 4. Minneapolis Marriott Northwest
This modernized northern location in Brooklyn Park is a welcome addition to our list of venues
Summary
Our 2018 Venue Source Selection project addressed one of three key factors influencing the Chapter's member event satisfaction based on 2017 event feedback. We welcome the Midland Hills Country Club, DoubleTree Park Place, and Marriott Northwest venues to the Chapter’s family. 2018 promises to be a great year for Chapter Programs with these new venues, simplified and reduced event pricing, and an emerging lineup of top-notch speakers. We look forward to seeing you soon and often at our monthly program events!
Adam P. Cherrill
Chair Programs 2018
