Meetings
Marketing series

scheduled

The eXubrio Group LLC will present the fourth session of its ongoing Business Marketing Workshop Series, "Evaluate your Marketing," at 8 a.m. Thursday, May 22, at the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, 665 Main St., Suite 200, Buffalo. Anyone in a senior marketing or sales support role, or a business owner or executive should be interested in attending the event, which costs $20. The workshop will explain how to evaluate what parts of marketing, advertising and sales promotions work; what parts don't; and how to put measures in place to help evaluate the effectiveness of these activities. Before attending, those interested are asked to read "Delivering Profitable Value," by Michael Lanning, at the eXubrio Group Web site, www.ex - ubrio.com/white-papers. For more information, visit www.thepar tnership.org.

BBB warns

vacationers

The Better Business Bureau is warning travelers that they could be spending thousands of dollars on deals that don't exist. With the vacation season approaching quickly, the BBB wants to keep people from joining "travel clubs." Recent complaints to the BBB show that many of the clubs promise discounts on hotels, airfare and cruises, but fail to deliver for members despite the high cost of joining. In the first quarter of 2008 alone, the BBB has received nearly 350 complaints against travel clubs in the United States, with thousands of complaints in the last three years. The complaints, they said, all tell a similar story of being lured into a high-pressure sales presentation with promises of gifts. But the BBB isn't alone in receiving complaints. Attorneys general in several popular destination spots for Western New Yorkers have received complaints as well. Because of the high complaint volume, the BBB has labeled these clubs as a suspect industry. Although there are reputable travel clubs, the BBB encourages potential club members to research them before signing up and paying as much as $8,000 for memberships.