A2Z Meetings & Events

Assist in formation of meeting purpose, budget and goals. We will find the best value in a great facility and keep all the details organized with regard to all aspects of speaker and sponsor travel, contracts, bios, photos and promotional copy. The agenda and production needs are carefully orchestrated. We asist and manage food & beverage selections and tastings. Marketing and registration is managed by our team. We manage tradeshow placements including vendor packets and special needs. Props, themes, entertainment and unique venue options are orchestrated as needed. VIP arrangements, special concession management and service assurance agreements are standard. We provide the expert research and you make the decisions.

A2Z Meetings & Events is ready to customize your next meeting or event. Awarded Meeting Professional of the Year by Meeting Professionals International Tampa Bay Area Chapter.

You don’t use independent planners because that is what your organization pays you to do?
Your CEO or Executive Director just wants the results of a great meeting and your performance will be based on the outcome of that meeting. If you use someone to do all the research, negotiate a great unbiased deal, there is no cost to your organization, you make the actual site selection, you sign the contract and you have that extra time to do all the other aspects of your job, you have been a good steward of your organization’s resources.

You use another independent planner to do your site selection?
That is wonderful that you have already experienced the expertise of an independent planning service!!! You already understand the benefits. Do they do everything from A2Z? Have you ever needed that extra on site staff person to be sure the details are managed so you can attend to other details? You bring an office team member who is not well versed in all the pop ups and changes. Taking them away from their daily functions in the office is lost productivity there and they are not quite as effective on site as it is out of their realm. On site management is an optional service A2Z provides at a nominal fee when you consider that the meeting day is 24 hours and you only pay that person when they are needed. There are no fixed payroll costs or benefits.

What qualifications does A2Z have?
Linda Elland, President of A2Z Meetings & Events, has devoted 30 years to the hospitality industry. Elland has worked in both the front and heart of a hotel and understands what makes your event flow and areas that can be negotiated. Prior to opening A2Z Meetings & Events, Linda was the Vice President of Sales, leading the overall group sales, reservations, revenue management, conference services and catering programs for 800 rooms and with over 800 meetings per year in over 50,000 square feet of meeting and event space.

Elland has a long history in hotel management from pre-opening to renovation and redesign. Throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s, Linda served as an officer or committee chair on the Southwest Florida Chapter of the Hotel Sales and Marketing Association. She was Past President when the chapter won First Runner Up for Chapter of the Year. Elland also served as VP of Education for Meeting Professionals International Tampa Bay Area Chapter.

A veteran of the hospitality industry, Linda has also held management positions with Sanibel Harbour Resort & Spa, South Seas Plantation and The Hotel Pontchartrain in Detroit, Michigan.

Linda attended Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan and obtained her Certificate of Specialization in Hospitality Sales & Marketing and acquired a Certified Hospitality Marketing Executive designation in November 1989.

We have experience in managing live streaming conferences as a hybrid event while your landbased meeting is going on or as a virtual event.