Puerto Rico first destination featured in centralized education portal for meeting planners.
SAN JUAN – The Puerto Rico Convention Bureau has launched an exclusive online education program tailored to meeting planners. Puerto Rico Smooth Meeting University, the meeting and convention industry’s first centralized education portal, was developed with Questex Hospitality+Travel, the owners and publishers of Travel Agent, one of the most respected travel trade publications in the industry.
Through a series of online courses, Puerto Rico Smooth Meeting University provides meeting planners with the latest and most comprehensive industry education available on hosting a meeting in Puerto Rico. After completing a series of courses on topics such as meeting hotels, the Puerto Rico Convention Center Pedro Rossello, history and culture, golf, shopping, dining and nightlife, planners earn a Puerto Rico Smooth Meeting Specialist designation, complete with a rewards component. In addition to detailed lesson plans, Puerto Rico Smooth Meeting University also provides detailed room layouts, an online RFP form and other helpful tools for planning a group program on the island.
“Puerto Rico Smooth Meeting University offers busy planners a thorough understanding of Puerto Rico as a meetings destination and a centralized location for planning and booking tools,” state Neil J. Mullanaphy, acting president & CEO, Puerto Rico Convention Bureau. “We are confident that planners completing the series of online courses will not only have superior knowledge about Puerto Rico’s sophisticated meetings offerings, but will also understand the benefits of bringing their groups to this world-class destination.”
Meeting planners who want to attend Puerto Rico Smooth Meeting University can visit meetinguniversity.com to create a login and ID. Planners browse course and reward programs via the lesson plan landing page. Going through the detailed lesson plan, planners check their knowledge in preparation for the final exam.
In addition to the educational component, planners are able to submit PRFs, print room layouts, note A/V requirements and utilize other tools to plan the perfect meeting in Puerto Rico. After becoming a Puerto Rico Smooth Meeting Specialist, planners can obtain rewards from suppliers, as well as collaborate with other meeting planners via a set of available social media tools.
“We saw a clear need for an online professional development resource for the MICE Market and we sought a partner who shared our commitment to training meeting planners through dynamic content offerings and greater flexibility for how and when they educate themselves,” remarked John McMahon, executive vice president, Questex Hospitality+Travel. “The Puerto Rico Smooth Meetings Specialist course and Meeting University are a big step to evolving the way meeting planners obtain the tools and knowledge they need to meet varying customer requests worldwide while shortening the sales and implementation cycles.”