Hopskip

05/27/2026

71% of employees say past team building felt forced.

The problem isn't team building. It's team building that starts with a format instead of a goal.

We broke down the ideas that actually work, organized by what you're trying to achieve. Connection. Morale. Purpose. Fun. Each one earns its spot on the calendar.

Also: a note on why the venue matters more than most planners expect. 👀

https://hubs.li/Q04gS86_0

05/26/2026

Imagine never having to ask a repeat client what their preferred hotel brand is. Again.

Client Profiles on Hopskip store everything you learn about each client, their preferences, past events, must-haves, deal-breakers, so you're not starting from scratch every time.

Your clients think you're a mind reader. We'll keep your secret. 🤫

05/25/2026

Setup day. Client changes the entire AV setup and general session layout.

Kristen Hawley didn't panic. She called her hotel partner, made a few quick decisions, sent someone on a DoorDash run for extra monitors, and had everything sorted by morning.

No one in that room knew a thing had gone sideways.

Kristen is the Owner and Senior Event Planner at Kristen Hawley Events, CMP-certified, MBA in hand, and she's been planning corporate, association, and nonprofit events long enough to have strong opinions about what actually matters.

Spoiler: it's the food and the AV. Don't you dare cut those.

She sat down with us for our latest Planner Perspective, and she came with receipts.

👇 Check it out:
https://hubs.li/Q04gwdTc0

05/21/2026

Hot take: "sending proposals and hoping for the best" is not a sales strategy. 👀

If your current process involves any of the following, this webinar is for you:
❌ Sending RFP responses into the void
❌ Losing to competitors you didn't even know were bidding
❌ Having zero idea if a planner has even opened your proposal

Hopskip in Action is a free 30-min masterclass on May 29. Come learn how to fix all of the above.

Link to register 👇

Join us for “Hopskip in Action” — a hands-on masterclass built specifically for hotel and group sales professionals who want to maximise every facet of the platform.

05/20/2026

She lost her biggest contract in 2024.

Fell into depression. Didn't know how to continue.

Then grew 30%. Expanded into New York. Kept a 95% client renewal rate.

MelvaLaJoy Legrand of LaJoy Creative didn't get there by pivoting or rebranding. She got there by doing one thing most agencies underestimate: being relentlessly consistent.

Her take on attendee experience design might be the simplest, most useful thing we've heard all year:

"How do you want guests to leave feeling? Then design from that answer."

New Planner Perspective is live. 8 lessons from someone who's built something clients genuinely never want to leave.

Check it out: https://hubs.li/Q04gpqlw0

05/19/2026

A man starts a company from a kitchen table in Mountain View after cancelling his vacation to work the Atlanta Olympics.

Nearly 40 years later, he's still running events (and still has opinions, strong ones).

Joe Smith, President of StageOne Management & Events, sat down with us and didn't hold back.

On "setting client expectations":
👉 "It's nothing but an excuse for poor service."

On chasing industry trends:
👉 "None. Focus on the client."

On the difference between planners and managers:
👉 "Event Planners worry about running out of coffee. Event Managers empower their F&B partner to handle the coffee while they focus on the attendees."

Oh, and he once produced a 3-day virtual conference in 24 hours during a wildfire evacuation. Casually.

We turned his hard-won advice into a full blog packed with real talk, real data, and a few reminders that the fundamentals never actually change.

📖 Read it now: https://hubs.li/Q04f-Vyy0

05/19/2026

Every planner has gotten this email:

"Hi! We need a meeting. Not sure how many people. Probably a hotel? Or maybe not. Let me know what you find!"

Cool. Super helpful. Thanks, client. 🙃

Meeting Request Forms let you send clients a structured intake form that captures everything you actually need — group size, dates, budget, preferences — before you start sourcing.

Better intake = better brief = better proposals = happier client = you looking like a genius.

That's the whole funnel, right there.

Check it out: https://hubs.li/Q04dKRSt0

05/18/2026

Hotel group sales teams are using more tech than ever. But are they using the right tech? 🤔

Not all hotel portal solutions are built the same.

Some are great for managing leads once they arrive. Others connect you with planners who are actively sourcing right now. A few give you the comp set intelligence to actually win the ones that matter.

We broke down the top hotel portal platforms for group sales teams in 2026, what they do well, where the gaps are, and how to figure out which one your property actually needs.

Read it now: https://hubs.li/Q04fV_bY0

A ranked breakdown of the top hotel portal solutions for group sales teams in 2026, including Cvent, Tripleseat, Delphi, Groups360, and Hopskip. Compare platforms by planner connectivity, room block tracking, and comp set analytics.

05/13/2026

Raise your hand if you've ever spent 30+ hours on a single RFP. ✋

Now put it down because that's embarrassing and we're here to help.

Hopskip planners save an average of 30+ hours per RFP by replacing the back-and-forth email chaos with one streamlined sourcing workflow.

Send your RFP. Collect proposals. Compare. Decide.

All in one place. No inbox archaeology required.

Your time is worth more than a thread with 47 replies.

05/11/2026

She's sourced yachts last minute in foreign countries. She's coordinated K9 bomb sweeps. She launched her agency in the middle of a pandemic and never looked back.

Meet Christine Baker, owner of POP! By Christine, and the latest planner featured in our Planner Perspectives series.

Christine shares the hard-won lessons behind building a boutique agency, including why waiting for perfection is the biggest mistake planners make, how a single vendor relationship saved an entire event, and why asking questions is actually a superpower (not a weakness).

Plus: her take on AI, and what she thinks the future of events actually looks like.

This one is worth the read. 👇

https://hubs.li/Q04dPzgj0

05/07/2026

Your proposals used to live in 14 browser tabs, a spreadsheet your intern made, and vibes.

We fixed that. 📋

Decision Deck automatically compiles every hotel proposal you receive into one clean, branded comparison deck, side by side, apples to apples.

No more copy-pasting rates into a Google Sheet at 11pm.

No more sending clients a PDF that looks like it was formatted in 2009.

Just a polished, professional deck your clients will actually want to read.

That's fewer hours on admin. More time doing the part of your job you actually like.