Iowa B&B Spring Conference

It'll be here before you know it! The Iowa Bed and Breakfast spring conference will be March 9th and 10th at the Lake Panorama National Resort and Conference Center in Panora, Iowa. We held the Iowa Bed and Breakfast 2007 Conference there last year, and were so pleased that we decided to repeat the 2008 Conference in the same locale.

We will feature two Nationally prominent speakers.

First, Pamela Lanier, Internationally known expert on the bed and breakfast industry will be conducting a seminar on " becoming a green bed and breakfast". This is an area of intense interest to the bed and breakfast industry, and becoming an important feature of "ecotourism" a fast growing segment of B&B visitors.

A second prominent speaker is Dana Wenstrand, Known for her expertise in the lodging and hospitality industry, Dana will be conducting an interactive session on how to grow your business, what industry trends tell us, and how to succeed in a changing marketplace.

A representative from the Iowa Tourism office will enlighten us on the trends of tourism in Iowa and Nationally, this is always an important part of our Monday luncheon, and we look forward to this presentation.

As is customary, the Sunday evening session will be more about Innkeeper interaction with an excellent evening of entertainment (the Iowa Poet will be there), cheese tasting, and a tasty meal as well.

I hope anyone serious about Innkeeping will take time to come and join the sponsoring Iowa Bed and Breakfast Guild for a meaningful and delightful Conference.

As more details become available, they will be posted on IBBG.com

New news about Conferences

As the fall IBBG Fun Conference approaches (Nov. 4, 2008) it sounds like a great time will be in store for participants. We will meet at the Living History Farms for a tour of the fabulous Flynn Mansion, built by a railroad magnate in the 1880s, and restored to it's former glory. We will then depart for the William Murray Conference Center where there will be a surprise display.

Innkeepers will then have a show and tell session about things they each do that is successful with their guests, or that helps bring guests to their property. The meal will be catered by Barratas Restaurant, and promises to be delish! So if you'd like to join the friendliest innkeepers anywhere having a delightful time together, call Shellie at 1-800-743-IOWA or email her at IBBG@NETINS.NET to reserve. Tickets are $25.00 per person, and are designed to just cover the cost of the meeting and meals.

The IBBG Spring Conference is firming up. It will be March 9th and 10th at the Panorama National resort, and here's a sneak peek. Featured Speaker will be B&B "superstar" Pamela Lanier. Pamela is to the B&B Industry in America what George Washington was to America (only a different gender of course). Back in the early 80s when B&B was a fledgling industry in the U.S., Pamela created the first National Comprehensive Guidebook to B&Bs, and opened up our industry to National attention. She has stayed at the forefront at championing and promoting the B&B industry in America ever since. Pamela will then hand the baton to Dana Westrand a premier facilitator in the hospitality industry. Dana will enable participants to create their market, increase their profitability, and learn techniques to keep ahead of the marketing curve. There will be more to come on the Spring Conference, so stay tuned.

Great State Fair

The IBBG booth at the Iowa State Fair was a terrific success.

This was our first year in the Varied Industries Building, and it couldn't have been better. Our location was perfect, as visitors could see us from the hallway, and many who did, made an unscheduled turn to come visit our booth. Our Innkeepers who manned (and womanned) the booth had a great time. We were the busiest booth in the room, and our visitors spent the most time there. We have already secured the same spot for 2008, so that our many visitors will know right where to find us.

We also had a presence in the Grand Hallway of the Iowa Tourism Hall at the lite 104 Radio Station Booth, where some of our member Innkeepers gave away a free night stay, in return for extra exposure at the booth plus radio ads through the week. Lite 104 FM is the official radio station of the Iowa State Fair, and we are already comitted to work with them again in 2008.

One of our newer Innkeeper- members just called excitedly to tell us that she had already booked three guests who saw her property at our booth at this years fair. She also related that bookings from the IBBG website were keeping her very busy.

We hope readers who are looking for that Special Weekend Getaway, will book rooms real soon!

We are sorry if you visited our booth, and we were out of 2007 Directories, the demand was greater than previous years. We anticipated that 8,000 would be enough for Fair Week, but we were well short. We'll be printing more this coming year, in anticipation of the increased demand.

Our Innkeepers are looking forward to our annual Fall Fun Conference on Nov. 4th at Living History Farms near Des Moines. We'll tour the Flynn Mansion, and then meet for short entertainment, a great meal, and much comaraderie, as well as a special surprise!

IBBG Innkeepers are like blondes, they have more fun!

Spring has Sprung

"Spring has spung and the grass has ris" as the poet said, however the grass is under a fresh coat of snow today, so it's a good day to post to the blog.
This is the time of year to begin planning when to visit your favorite Iowa B&B. Many of our properties are filling up their reservation books now, so he who hesitates is lost.
When you contact your favorite Innkeeper, it's a good idea to have two or three dates in mind when you might be able to come, so that if your first choice has already been filled, you have a second or third option in mind.

Over one half million visitors visit the ibbg.com website every month, so chances are pretty good that new travelers are going to try to book your special room.

All innkeepers want to find a time for you, but keep in mind, if you have a favorite place to go, it's very likely that many others feel the same. Protect yourself, book early and often.
If you would like to see a special topic covered here, please e-mail it to ibbg@netins.net and we'll see if we have the resources to follow through.

What a Great Conference

The IBBG Spring 2007 Conference was held March 11th & 12th and was well attended and well received. The venue for the Conference was the Panorama National Resort at Lake Panorama in Panora Iowa. The Conference Center was spacious and comfortable. The service was superb,and the food was delicious and plentiful.

Sunday afternoon, Avis Pohl , Campus B&B in Ames, an Innkeeper and Innkeeping Consultant, presented a workshop for aspiring Innkeepers. The three hour workshop was extremely helpful to neophytes to Innkeeping. Avis is available for Innkeeper Training Seminars throughout the state either independently, or sponsored by IBBG. (campusbandb.com/training )

Sunday evening we were treated to a murder mystery dinner. This was sponsored by the IOWA GAMING ASSOCIATION The mystery was produced by Sherrie Hansen-Decker of the Blue Belle Inn in St. Ansgar (bluebelleinn.com), and was delightful. Parts were played by various Guild members, who turned out to be talented (ham) Actors, and the audience was much amused. Dinner was a prime rib buffet featuring succulent prime rib, lucious pork loin, and magnificent chicken breast as well as twice baked potatoes, varietal veggies and super salad followed by a cheesecake desert bar (prepared by Ray and Dorothy Spriggs, Carriage House B&B Grinnell). Guests left happy and well fed. A wine tasting experience was sponsored by Danish Countryside Vines and Wines near Elkhorn and Summerset Winery near Indianola.

Monday morning began with Continental breakfast sponsored by The Iowan magazine followed by introductions of the attendees. The morning speaker was Theresa Propes a CPA and Nationally Recognized Business Coach who showed us how to increase our bottom line exponentially with small improvements in various areas of performance. Our lobbyist Craig Walter was unable to give us his annual legislative update because of pressing business at the Capitol, he supplied a report which was passed on to members by IBBG co-chair Terry Moore. Current bills and proposed legislation effecting B&Bs was presented.

An excellent guest services video was shown prior to Luncheon. The program called "Give 'em The Pickle", supplied by the Iowa Tourism office, was a reminder of the importance of good attitude and consistant perfomance in our business.

A "State of the Guild" presentation was given by co-chair Terry Moore, current successes as well as new projects were discussed as well as the growing heavy traffic on the IBBG members website. The conclusion was that the State of the Guild is "GREAT!"

Our Luncheon Speaker was Nancy Landess, Manager of the Iowa Tourism office, with an update on Tourism successes and trends in Iowa. Nancy is always informative and upbeat and helps us focus on ways we can bring more travelers to our area. She reminded us of upcoming events such as the Unity Luncheon on April 27th in West Des Moines and the State Tourism Convention to be held in October in Dubuque, and the bi-monthly regional meetings held by the Eastern, Central, and Western Tourism Regions.

After Lunch our speaker was Andrea Chase of the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, who told us of a joint effort by IBBG, Iowa Museum Association, Iowa Trails, and Iowa Wineries to put a comprehensive trail site on the internet with the assistance of the DNR. This is to encourage bike tourism in Iowa.

A presentation by Carolyn Tenney of The Iowan magazine was good news. The Iowan will be publishing a cookbook featuring the best of Iowa B&B recipes with exclusive input from IBBG member B&Bs. The cookbook will use recipes as well as anecdotes from our members. Recipes should feature Iowa products as much as possible. It will be in bookstores throughout the midwest, and innkeepers can sell them for a fair profit.

The Haverkamp award was presented this year to Shirley and George Curry of the Stephen H. Taft House in Humboldt (ibbg.com/stephenhtaft.htm), Shirley and George have given much to the Guild and the Iowa B&B industry, and are very worthy recipients. Their house was recently featured on HGTVs "If these walls could talk".

Recognition of LIFETIME MEMBERS was presented by Carol Sheldahl Special Moments B&B, Orient(ibbg.com/specialmoments.htm) Clarence and Dorothy Haverkamp were present to receive theirs.

Our featured afternoon speaker was Mark Volkers who is a faculty member at Dordt College, His background is in photojournalism and documentary production (for which he has received 15 Telly Awards). His subject was getting your message seen in the Media, primarily the internet. He showed us cutting edge techniques for presenting our message, such as streaming video, podcasting and visual presentations beyond traditional websites and blogging (Outdated technologies?), and going forward with higher tech solutions. We will endeavor to enlarge our scope into the next phase of electronic media!

Our traditional afternoon Tea was provided ever so exquisitely by Dorothy and Ray Spriggs from The Carriage House in Grinnell (ibbg.com/carriagehousegrinnell.htm). Dorothy has an incredible gift when it comes to providing "Goodies" for an afternoon Tea. Perhaps growing up in Ireland gives Dorothy an advantage over we colonists when it comes to presentation, her teas are always perfection.

Because of unforseen delays, the Innkeepers panel was cut short. Because of the late hour, only a few of the Innkeepers gave a brief presentation of their topic. Fortunately, the fall Conference is designed solely for Innkeeper Networking, so perhaps we can revisit their topics in October. Stay tuned for information about that after the summer rush.

Thanks to Margie Moore, Brass Lantern B&B, Greenfield(brasslantern.com) for being our emcee.

Our innkeeper surveys were very favorable overall (4.4 out of a possible 5). There is always an area that doesn't interest every innkeeper, but generally all topics appealed favorably to a large majority of attendees.

Preparing for a conference is extremely difficult, so any constructive suggestions are always welcome. Our committee is set up in six regions with other at-large members, so each regional or at-large committee member brings something to the creation of our conferences. We govern by consensus rather than by majority, so that any committee member has veto power. That makes sure that we are all on the same page, and agree unanimously about the direction of the Guild. In most situations that would be an untenable way to conduct business, but since we all have the same interests, it works beautifully, because in discussion, ideas are honed and improved before we all agree on them.

We would like to thank our exhibitors who helped make our conference a success;

Allan and Carol Petersen

Danish Countryside Vines and Wines

Fine Wines

Al and Phyllis Hammer

Prairie Wellnes, Cherokee

"Get Green" products and Cinch Healthy Tea

Shannon Mark

Summerset Winery, Indianola

Fine Wines

Mary O'Halloran

The Pampered Chef, Pella

Pampered Chef Products

Michelle Bliss

Harvest Moon Innkeeping, Altoona

Interim Innkeeper

Julie Fisher

Inn of the Six-Toed Cat, Allerton

Home made soaps and recipe

Carolyn Tenney

The Iowan Magazine, Des Moines

Magazines by Pioneer Communications

Lynn Manson

The Pennington House B&B, Sumner

Cookbook by Lynn

Sherrie Hanson-Decker

The Blue Belle Inn, St. Ansgar

Norwex & Enviro Cleaning Products

Shellie Petek

IBBG Exec. Administrator, Winterset

Homemade Afghans

Also we would like to thank contributors to the silent auction as well as contributors to our welcome bags and table favors. Thanks to Carol Sheldahl for the table decorations.

Thanks to the 2007 Spring Conference Committee; Carol Sheldahl, Special Moments B&B, Orient; Roger Steffens, S.F. Martin House, Atlantic; Terry and Margie Moore,Brass Lantern B&B, Greenfield; Marie Fitzgerald, Four Mounds Inn, Dubuque

Thanks to all of you who attended!

ibbglog

ibbglog
Spring Conference 2007 is right around the corner (March 11 & 12) at the Panorama National Resort. We have 109 members now so there will be a lot of new faces to get acquainted with. It should be lots of fun as well as informative. Sunday the 11th is a fun night with a prime rib buffet, and a Murder Mystery to solve. It takes place at a Las Vegas wedding and promises to be full of surprises. Anyone considering hosting Murder Mystery weekends should be sure not to miss this one. Monday the 12th will be full of useful information from Award winning speakers with successful backgrounds, who have done the things they are telling us how to do. We'll have a State Tourism update, and two new IBBG projects updates which are designed to improve your bottom line. We also have saved time for an innkeeper panel, with successful ideas to increase business. There will be vendors tables and door prizes as well as a silent auction.As always we close with an Innkeeper tea, where you can meet and share your thoughts with the cream of Iowa Innkeepers. If you are serious about Innkeeping, you won't want to miss this conference!

ibbglog

ibbglog The Holidays are past, and we look forward to Spring. The Spring Conference is just around the corner. This year it will be March 11 & 12 at the Panorama Conference Center at Lake Panorama near Panora. This is a beautiful facility and will give us plenty of room for all of our activities. Any B&B Innkeeper or interested party will find this Conference helpful. To reserve a place call Shellie at 800-743-4692. The speakers will help us find new inexpensive ways to put more guests in our rooms. An evening of fun is planned for the 11th and rooms are available at $59.00 per night.