Dana Miller was promoted to director of sales and marketing at the InterContinental Boston after more than a decade of service at the waterfront property.
Miller sat down with Meetings Today to answer three questions about his new role.
Meetings Today: Which industries does the property serve the most for meetings?
Dana Miller: The property primarily services the financial industry. We're right across the street from the financial industry in Boston. I would tell you we are very corporate in general. Our goal really is to expand on that and grow into other segments, but for the most part, really, it's corporate meetings.
We do very high-level executive leadership meetings—it's right in our wheelhouse, and that's really why people continue to come to us. We're known to excel in those very high-level, high-stakes kind of meetings. And you know, generally, when we have one, they come back year after year.
[Related: From Super Bowls to Omaha: Adam Straight's Dynamic Meetings Career]
We have probably about 12 that come every year. We really pride ourselves on delivering a service and continuing to up the game every year, so that they continue to come back to us and be creative and adapt and change to what's going on in the world, to make sure that they get a new experience every time that they come here every year.
Meetings Today: What trends do you consistently see with your groups?
Dana Miller: We're seeing the lead times change. You know, as the environment changes year over year, you never know what's going on in the world. That really affects business, whereas pre-Covid, I would say we would consistently get leads further out. And now I feel like it's a little bit closer to time of arrival within the year.
We’re definitely signing stuff one year to two years out, but we're definitely seeing a lot more larger programs in the year, for the year signing. We're able to deliver on that, so it's no big deal to us, but how do you budget for that? And how do you prepare for something like that?
You’ve got to have a lot of faith that you're going to be able to replace something that isn't coming back and know that, historically, you're going to have something that usually lands in a certain set of dates. I think that's what's good about me being here for 11 years. I really understand the trends of the hotel, what dates really get filled for the most part, and what dates don't, and I think that it's really important for a strong sales team to have some team members that have been there for years and know the historical data of what's going on and what tends to be busier times, and where you need to flex a little bit on the slower times.
Meetings Today: As an expert in the location, what are some unique aspects of the waterfront neighborhood?
Dana Miller: I think the one thing that I really talk a lot about is the water taxi. You can actually take the water taxi right from the airport to the back of the hotel. You can take that water taxi to other parts of the city.
The reason why I say that's something that's unique is, instead of having this stress getting to the hotel from the airport, you could have more of an experience of arriving at a city via boat; it's such a cool, unique thing to do. And I tell everybody, they should at least do it once. It's a little bit longer, maybe 15-20 minutes longer than Uber, but it's about the experience.
Read about more moves and appointments in the meetings industry
