Hopskip

A tent company bailed on a major event at the last minute. 🎪

No backup, no easy replacement, no time to spare.

One phone call fixed it.

Not because Tessa Lavoie got lucky, but because she had spent a decade treating vendors like partners instead of line items.

In our latest Planner Perspective, the founder of Strategic Event Management Ltd. shares the hard-won lessons behind eight years of building an agency that survived a pandemic and came out stronger:

→ Why vendor trust is your real insurance policy
→ How to treat attendee experience as a mindset, not a feature
→ Planning for a more unpredictable, global events landscape
→ The one instinct most new planners are too afraid to trust

All backed by data every planner can use. Read it here 👇
https://hubs.ly/Q04pNk0p0

Sourcing a venue for your next event?

Here's the checklist that'll save you from the 3 mistakes that quietly wreck corporate events every time:

→ Room blocks sized on gut feeling instead of pickup data
→ "Spacious" meeting rooms that can't actually fit your agenda
→ F&B minimums and AV markups that show up on the final invoice, not the first proposal

We broke down exactly what to ask before you sign anything, from room block math to comparing proposals apples to apples.

Read it here: https://hubs.li/Q04qyCxc0

What's the detail that's bitten you on a past event? 👇

Yesterday's webinar with Kelly Bagnall and Barbara Dunn was one of the most practical conversations we've had on AI in the events industry. 🧠

A few things that came up that stuck with us:

→ AI is a drafting tool, not a legal advisor, and the distinction matters
→ The clauses most likely to get planners in trouble aren't the obvious ones
→ Hotels are watching how AI-generated documents are being used on the other side of the table

The full recording is now available. Worth watching if you missed it, or want to share it with your team.

Watch now: https://hubs.li/Q04lL8_l0

Thank you to our speakers and to SITE Florida & Caribbean for sponsoring.

Using ChatGPT to draft your event contracts? 🤔

That could be putting you at legal risk. 😅

In "Legalese with the Ladies," two industry lawyers, Kelly and Barbara, break down exactly when AI helps and when it hurts your contracts. What to watch for, what to avoid, and where the line actually is.

60 minutes now could save you a legal headache later.

Watch on demand: https://hubs.li/Q04rnKc90

Your attendees will forget Slide 27.

They won't forget the person they met at lunch.

Alexis Dean, founder of Two Roads Team Building and Training, has built her agency on one deceptively simple idea: design for connection as intentionally as you design for content.

In our latest Planner Perspective, she breaks down:
→ Why the best vendors prevent crises instead of saving them
→ How to engineer real connection into your agenda (not just "networking time")
→ Why participation beats passive consumption every time (the retention data is brutal)
→ How preparation, not improvisation, is what makes event-day look effortless

The events people remember aren't the ones with the most slides.

They're the ones that brought people together and made it matter.

Read her full playbook 👇
https://hubs.ly/Q04pm5TJ0

Tomorrow. 12:00pm EST.

Two industry lawyers. One honest conversation about AI and event contracts. 📝

If you're a planner using AI tools in any part of your workflow — especially anything touching contracts, proposals, or legal documents — this one is for you.

Kelly Bagnall · Holland & Knight LLP
Barbara Dunn · Barbara Dunn Law

Free to attend. Register now before seats are gone: https://hubs.li/Q04lLBN-0

Sponsored by SITE Florida and Caribbean

Word of mouth is the best kind of marketing. 📣

Glenn Blind, Director of Events and Meetings at COSSBA, tells every planner he knows to use Hopskip.

Cost-effective, high value, no complicated pitch needed.

That's the kind of endorsement we work for every day.

Book a demo and see why planners keep recommending us: https://hubs.li/Q04r2YbF0

Every proposal shouldn't start from scratch. 📋

Hotel sales teams are retyping the same concession language, contract terms, and question responses on every single RFP, with slightly different wording each time.

We built something about that.

Proposal Response Templates on Hopskip lets you save your best responses and apply them in one click, directly inside the proposal builder. Build the library once. Use it every time.

Your best proposal language is already written. You just haven't saved it yet.

Get started at https://hubs.li/Q04mHTqM0

Hoteliers, we released four new major features you're going to love.

Four new features, one quick watch:

📊 Market Insights Dashboard — real time demand trends and rate benchmarks, so you walk into negotiations knowing your market instead of guessing at it

🎯 Promotions 2.0 — a fresh promotions experience built to actually stop a planner's scroll

⚡ Proposal Response Templates — save your best lines once, apply them in one click, stop
rewriting the same RFP responses

👥 Admin Roles + Permissions — finally, real control over how your team is set up

Watch it on demand, whenever works for you: https://hubs.li/Q04qRmwp0

Planners, we're heading to Toronto this August. 👋

Hopskip will be exhibiting at the Canadian Meetings + Events Expo, August 11–12 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

If you're a planner drowning in RFP spreadsheets and chasing hotels for proposals that never come back on time, come find us at booth 633.

We'll show you what sourcing looks like when it doesn't eat your entire week.

Want guaranteed time with us instead of hoping you catch us between sessions? Book a demo slot before the show. 👇

Book a demo: https://hubs.li/Q04nDl4J0

See you in Toronto.