Here are a few questions you need to answer to determine if you should consider cancellation and interruption insurance:

◗ Does your show/event generate a significant amount of your annual revenue?

◗ Would a sudden, last-minute and significant downturn in attendance (5 percent or more) substantially impact your organization’s financial status?

◗ Could your organization cancel an event and not be significantly affected by the loss of profit?

All of these questions relate to the financial viability of the sponsoring organization. For those unfamiliar with this type of coverage, it protects your revenue—not your profits. Here’s an example, based on some very real stories:

You produce an annual event with 2,500 attendees. Each registrant will pay $500 for registration. Your event has a trade show component; 150 exhibitors each pay $2,500. And don’t forget your sponsors: Add another $500,000. Between all of the above, you’ll generate $2.125 million in revenue. Your profit will be based on the difference between what you spend to produce the show and your
revenue—an estimated $1 million.

Close to the start of your program, there is a health issue—say swine flu or SARS. Remember SARS? Your host city has a high number, or the highest number of documented cases.

A renowned medical agency publicly recommends, “Don’t go there because there’s a chance you may get sick.” It isn’t an epidemic, but suddenly your attendance starts falling. You’ve already contracted and committed based on 2,500. Now it may be 1,700 or as low as 1,200. Your revenue projections now look like you may break even at best. If you purchased an event cancellation/interruption policy, you can now get a good night’s sleep. Here’s why: The insurance will protect your top-line revenue. You’ll be able to pay your bills, protect your income and remain financially intact. A claim of this magnitude will take a while to settle and requires an enormous amount of documentation and substantiation.

There’s a reason we don’t drive without insurance: risk. Ask yourself how much risk you’re willing to accept for your association, organization or company. The premium for this type of coverage is expensive. You have to plan for it, budget for it and apply for it each time you want it. It may not be best for everyone, but this is where you need to do your homework, assess your risk, discuss the upside and downside, and be prepared to live with your decision.

Industry associations—the American Society of Association Executives, Meeting Professionals International and Professional Convention Management Association—have researched numerous providers and options and will serve as a great first step in determining which is best for you. So, take the time to make a well-informed decision.

We’ve all heard the term “meeting planner perks.” It can refer to the non-event industry’s view of a planner’s life: luxurious stays in posh settings, business class airline seats and hard-to-secure reservations at a celebrity cook’s restaurant. In reality we know that those perks, if ever received, are rarely used, turned over to VIPs or often wasted. After all, do event planners in a fast-paced industry with an expected 24-hour availability to their organizations’ needs really have time to take a vacation?

For those who do, complimentary hotel stays and airline upgrades seem to be a well-deserved reward for spending 12 hours on the trade-show floor, lifting heavy boxes and not having enough time to eat. While hotel loyalty programs were created more than 25 years ago for frequent travelers, the concept of tailoring a program to target meeting planners is at an all-time high. In a lumbering economy, hotels are looking to entice planners with complimentary hotel nights, discounts on group meals and credits to their meetings’ overall bills.

Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide customized its Starwood Preferred Guest program, the hotel group’s original rewards program for frequent travelers, and created a Starwood Preferred Planner program. Planners just don’t get points; they get “Starpoints,” implying a higher level of benefits for meeting planners over leisure or business travelers. The program is further expanded to offer “Instant Meeting Awards,” the ability to get up to a $1,500 credit on your group bill as long as you are a Starwood Preferred Planner with 15,000 Starpoints (and, of course, a signed hotel contract must be in place). But there’s a terms and conditions catch to get meeting planners to book with Starwood again. Starpoints earned for the group’s current meeting may not be redeemed toward that meeting. So if you haven’t reached 15,000 points, you’ll have to wait until your next meeting to earn the group bill credit.

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), the first company to introduce hotel points with its Priority Club Rewards for Holiday Inn in 1983, has also created a planner niche for its program. With the addition of one word to its title, the Priority Club Meeting Rewards becomes a program that awards planners for “qualified” meetings. Reading the fine print is also essential here. Planners must have a minimum of 10 rooms occupied in their block from a minimum of one night up to five consecutive nights depending on the brand in IHG’s portfolio of hotels. InterContinental and Crowne Plaza have an additional requirement that meeting-related food and beverage charges must be applied to the master bill.

IHG further adds the perk of giving planners different status levels depending on how many meetings they book. Similar to an airline’s status ranking, IHG bestows Gold Elite status to planners who host one qualified meeting in a calendar year and Platinum Elite status to those hosting two meetings per year. The benefits of status range from the gold level’s 10 percent bonus in points and priority check-in, ensuring your room and keys are ready upon arrival, to complimentary room upgrades and a 50 percent boost in bonus points at the platinum level.

Marriott’s “Rewarding Events” program also offers levels of elite status and allows planners to choose between hotel points and airline miles. For every $1 in total meeting charges, planners can earn three hotel points up to a maximum of 50,000 or one mile up to a maximum of 15,000.

Marriott’s limited-time “Meetings Matter” group promotion adds contract incentives and bonus points to its base rewards program. For each meeting with at least 50 cumulative room nights booked and held by Dec. 31, 2010, a group will receive: 35 percent allowable attrition; one complimentary room night for every 35 paid rooms; and a 2 percent rebate off the master bill for each qualified meeting exceeding 100 cumulative room nights. This promotion also adds triple points for master bills paid with any Visa credit card up to a maximum of 150,000 total points.

Marriott, IHG and Starwood have all received “Freddie Awards” honoring the best frequent traveler programs throughout the world for the last 20 years. Receiving an award by giving travelers rewards confirms the industry’s intense focus on points. But for meeting planners who are bound by industry guidelines and organizational policies, does redeeming points for personal gain step dangerously close to the edge of ethics?

Many of these points programs focus their advertising on the individual benefits rather than what the group receives. Marriott’s Rewarding Events section of its website sympathizes with planners that “times are tight, and budgets are tighter,” but it can be “business as usual for you,” urging planners to earn points toward free nights for “your ultimate getaway.” Starwood’s site tells planners that earning Starpoints will “bring you one step closer to your dream vacation.”

IHG ran a 2008 campaign for Holiday Inn Hotels and Resorts that masked the individual benefits by calling its promotion the “M.B.A.” (Masters in Business Accommodations), designed to engage the traveler and educate them “in the personality of the brand and our latest promotional offerings.”

So when do rewards points move from an acceptable gift to a breach of ethical guidelines? Joshua Grimes of Grimes Law Offices, a firm specializing in associations and the hospitality industry, says there is no industry standard on points; however, many companies have policies that employees and contractors must follow.

“Sometimes these policies require people earning points for business travel to credit them to the company account,” Grimes says. “Other times the [individual] may keep them.”

Sheila Evans, director of sales Southern region for Hilton Worldwide, has clients who create a “house account” for points. Similar to an escrow account at a bank, Hilton holds the rewards points for use as the group books meetings. This ensures that the points are going to the company and not the individual planner. “Some clients use their points in company giveaways or donate them to their favorite charity,” Evans says.

Grimes says that most hotels have a policy allowing the meeting sponsor to designate who gets the points, the only condition being that the points will be paid to only one person or entity. “This means that any recipient may be designated, Grimes says. “However, ethics considerations may dictate that the points should go to the meeting sponsor unless that sponsor designates another recipient.”

Evans says that it must be stated clearly, prior to the signing of the hotel contract, who will receive the points. “This is usually decided by the meeting planner or the person booking the program,” Evans says.

Ethical considerations can be stretched further when a planner bases a destination or venue decision on the rewarding of points. Kyle Greer, program manager for the Society of International Business Fellows (SIBF), books properties based on how they fit his organization’s needs, not by their points program.

“Our key concerns are location, meeting space and service level, Greer says. “It is critical [that] we pull off high-caliber meetings and events, and we’ve yet to find that a point system helps in any way.”

Paulette Hopkins, president of The Hopkins Alliance, puts a clause in her contracts listing the designated representative who will receive the points. “But it has never been the decision-breaker [over another property],” Hopkins says.

While Grimes says there is no legally correct answer, under the federal Sarbanes-Oxley law the points would have to go to the company or organization sponsoring the meeting. Otherwise, there could be an implication that the planner chose a particular hotel because he or she was personally earning points — a suspect incentive because it doesn’t benefit the meeting sponsor,” Grimes says. “The best policy is for the planner to give the company the points, or to disclose to the company that the hotel is offering the points and seek approval from company officials to keep them.”

Monica Compton is an event specialist with Pinnacle Productions Inc. based in Atlanta, Georgia. She has 18 years of experience as a global meeting planner, managing a variety of programs both domestically and internationally. She is presenting several seminars at Connect Marketplace.

A meeting planner in Washington, D.C., sees a loose bolt on her exhibit panel. She picks up a wrench to fix it and a union laborer standing nearby sees her and reports a grievance to his supervisor. A florist in San Francisco attempts to carry centerpieces up a hotel loading dock and a Teamster stops him. The meeting planner who hired the florist must pay union laborers to perform this service.

While these scenarios may seem far-fetched, they are based on actual experiences faced by planners holding events in cities with unionized labor. While union regulations vary from city to city, an understanding of the venue’s guidelines will allow you to budget and reduce your organization’s liability to union grievances.

Before contracting a hotel or convention center, ask if it utilizes a union labor force and specifically which departments are in the union. While banquet servers and bellmen may be under a union contact, conference services managers and administrators might be non-union. If the venue does employ union laborers, inquire as to whether the union contracts are expiring or up for negotiation. Labor disputes could cause a disruption in services, a strike and public demonstrations outside the venue, all of which can affect your meeting.

Your salesperson might downplay any union negotiations to make a sale or not know the full extent of disputes, especially if the salesperson is located in another state. It is best to perform further research outside the venue’s report. The official hotel guide of the Hotel Workers Union, Unite Here, provides a list of hotels that are at risk of dispute or on strike. You should also perform an Internet search on the property. Search with the venue’s name followed by the words “labor dispute boycott strike” or “picket lines protests union” to learn of any existing or pending labor disputes. You can also call the local branch of the Hotel Workers Union and ask if they are currently engaged in any labor disputes in hotels in your chosen city. Unite Here provides a list of branches per city at unitehere.org/about/locals.php.

Include a union clause in your contract to further protect your organization, even if you find that union contracts are not up for negotiation and no disputes are pending. Most force majeure clauses include strikes and labor disputes. However, it is wise to add language that allows you to cancel the agreement and receive a refund of all deposits should a dispute or strike occur within two weeks prior to the start of your event or at any time during your event.

Consider also adding a clause that requires the hotel to notify your group within 10 days after it becomes aware of any labor disputes involving the hotel and its employees. The clause should include notification of the expiration of a negotiated labor contact or the filing of an unfair labor practice charge by a union, which often leads to a dispute.

Once your contract is in place, it’s time to research the union’s regulations and uncover any additional fees that may be imposed. If you are using the venue’s exclusive service providers, they are fully aware of the regulations and will work with the local unions to ensure compliance. If you are using an outside production company, for example, make sure it has worked in the city previously and has an understanding of the guidelines.

Increased fees often come into play when your event requires union labor for longer than an eight-hour period, on holidays or weekends. Check with the venue to see what staffing guidelines are in place and how you might alter your schedule to reduce fees. For example, union servers might be restricted to three hours for a breakfast or lunch shift and four hours for a dinner shift, including setup and teardown time. If you request that the linens are placed on the tables 1.5 hours before your dinner begins so your florist can bring the centerpieces, you’ll have only 2.5 hours to set up, serve and tear down your dinner and chances are you will go into overtime. In this case, see if the florist can deliver the centerpieces at the same time the venue is setting up the overall tables.

If your program requires dedicated staff, taking them away from their regular schedule, you may incur additional fees as well. For example, if you require dedicated room service staff for your VIP executives, which means the servers would not garner gratuities from other guests, a hotel might then require a flat “attendant” fee to compensate for the lost income.

Always ask hotels if the unions will agree to negotiate fees for certain services. For example, hotels charge a certain amount per item for room deliveries, an amount that goes to the bellman as a gratuity. If you place an envelope on top of a box, that can count as two items. Try to negotiate a bundled fee based on the overall amount of deliveries. If you have a multi-year contract with the hotel or your program is generating a significant amount of revenue for the property, the hotel might be more willing to waive the fees for your group and pay the union staff out of its own budget.

By carefully researching the property’s union guidelines and strengthening the contractual language against disputes, you can successfully manage an event at any union facility.

Monica Compton, CMP, is an event specialist with Pinnacle Productions Inc., based in Atlanta, Ga. She has 18 years experience as a global meeting planner, managing a variety of programs.

By Don Sadler

There used to be a time when planners didn’t have to think much about proving the value of their meetings and events. However, the economic climate of the past couple of years has changed this perception drastically, and perhaps forever. Measuring a return on investment (ROI) has moved to the forefront.

“In the past, most people believed that meetings and events had value, but there was a lack of data to prove it,” says Brooke Dillier, the director of knowledge for Meeting Planners International (MPI). “Now, planners and CEOs want to make sure they have the information and research necessary to support their events.”

Applying ROI methodologies

Several companies promote ROI methodologies and systems to measure results. MPI has begun an initiative geared toward helping planners demonstrate the value of their meetings.

“The same ROI methodology that has been used in many other industries can be applied to the meetings industry,” says Terri Breining, CMP, CMM, the president of the Breining Group, LLC and co-author (along with Jack Philips, chairman of the ROI Institute, Inc.) of “Return on Investment in Meetings and Events.”

Two things are essential to determining meeting ROI, she stresses. First, there must be clear, measurable objectives for the meeting or event. And second, planners need to make sure they’re measuring the right things.

“For example, planners might say that one of their objectives is for everyone to ‘feel more connected,’” Breining explains. “But what does that really mean, and how do you measure it? A better objective would be ‘that 50 percent of attendees say they feel more connected to their coworkers.’ You can measure this by asking attendees afterward whether or not they feel more connected and then see if you achieved your goal.”

Casey Cote, the president of Meeting Consultants, Inc., says that there are two components to any ROI calculation: revenue and cost. “Costs are relatively easy to identify and measure, so we mostly help clients track the revenue they generate from an event so they can come up with a true ROI number.” This primarily involves capturing leads, putting them into a customer relationship management (CRM) module, and then tracking them through to an eventual close and sale.

“We focus on quantifiable, hard-dollar returns as opposed to softer, subjective returns, like brand awareness or education,” Cote adds. This isn’t to say that subjective returns aren’t important; however, they are harder to plug into an ROI calculation.

Tracking event revenue requires more than just an application or tool, Cote stresses. “It requires ongoing executive support, consistent processes and procedures, and a common platform for collecting, reporting and analyzing the data. And this data is more than just leads and surveys. For example, we’ve created an event brief that requires planners to set their objectives for the event beforehand. Then they can come back afterward and compare actual results to their goals.”

Levels of ROI management

In their workshops and presentations, Breining and Philips present a pyramid that describes five different levels of ROI measurement for meetings and events. These range from what they call inputs and indicators — such as assessing needs and setting objectives, which should be done for all meetings and events — at the base of the pyramid up to full financial ROI measurement (Level 5) at the top.

“Gathering, analyzing and monetizing all of this data is a lot of work,” Breining explains, “and requires more resources than most planners have available.” Therefore, Level 5 measurement is usually conducted only for the most expensive and important meetings. Measuring to the other levels is much easier and more accessible — and in most cases, is all that’s needed to make a compelling case about the value of a meeting.

“Smart meeting planners will review their portfolio of meetings and make decisions about which ones will be measured to what level of the ROI methodology,” he adds.

While there is now an emphasis on ROI measurement, MPI’s Dillier says there is a wide knowledge gap in the meeting planning profession. “This isn’t a natural skill set for most meeting planners, which is why MPI is putting a lot of effort into it this year,” she says.

Upcoming MPI programs in Sophia Antipolis, France (June 22-July 2), and Dallas, Texas (October 2-8), will include an ROI presentation, “Measurement & Metrics.” A two-day, pre-conference ROI workshop, led by Jack and Patti Phillips, is scheduled prior to the 2010 World Education Conference, July 24-27, in Vancouver. To learn more about these events, visit mpiweb.org.

Survey highlights planners’ concerns

The measurements most often requested of meeting planners:

• Event evaluations/satisfaction surveys
• Net revenues
• Sponsorships
• Attendance size
• Rate of repeat attendance
• Room night count
• Ability to stay within budgets
• Level of responsiveness to client needs
• Increased service per attendee per dollars spent

Source: Pre-show survey of planners attending the 10th Annual Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International’s (HSMAI) Affordable Meetings Mid-America Conference & Exposition April 14-15.

By Marty Bear

As industry professionals, we should always strive to work smart and cut costs. In the current economic downturn, saving money without sacrificing quality is a major challenge for all of us. Promotional products — those bags, backpacks, folders, pens, journals, lanyards and speaker gifts — are often neglected when considering bottom line expenses, especially as staff is reduced or responsibilities changed. It is important to understand how to communicate with your supplier in order to save time and money. The more details and specifics you provide to your vendor, the more satisfied you will be with your options and the outcome.

There are simple steps to saving money on your next promotional products program. It all begins with having gathered all the details before making contact.

Here is the basic list:

• When and where is the event? Where will you need the goods shipped? Sometimes, you have several options, e.g., ship to your offices or ship directly to the hotel, convention center or holding company.
• Do you have your artwork ready in the correct format so the supplier can have a visual of what you are planning to print? Many times people don’t show the art until the end of the process and problems can arise like higher prices due to additional imprint colors not originally quoted.
• Do you know the approximate quantity of the items needed for the program? In the current economy, attendance numbers will vary. Let the supplier know how many you ordered last year as well as your guestimate for this time around.
• Do you know your budget per item? Be open and honest with your supplier in order to get the best quality product. If you spent $4 per backpack last year for your youth retreat, but this year you might have to spend less, then have the vendor show you options between $2.75 and $4. This way, as budgets are finalized and registration numbers come in, you will not have to start the process over if you need to lower your numbers. You will already have all the samples and pricing on hand.
• Additional product input is also vital. If the product must be orange, or recycled only, or must have an outside pocket for a water bottle, the supplier needs to understand your requirements before they do their research.
• Let your supplier know what item was used last year and what type of feedback you received from the attendees. Many times, the attendees will complain about some element of the item. They may feel the size, quality, material or color did not work well for them. This helps your supplier narrow down options.Once your item selection has been narrowed down, it is very important to get some approximate freight estimates to your final destination. Many times, new people in charge of ordering promotional items do not realize how heavy ceramic mugs, pads of paper, padfolios and computer bags are. They learn the hard way when the final invoice arrives. New buyers also sometimes forget that shipping to their company address and then resending the shipment out to the destination wastes dollars. (I have seen many programs ship products from a factory in California to their offices in Virginia and then back out to California without realizing that the supplier factory was actually 20 miles from the final destination.) There are times, though, when the bags need to be stuffed with the program collateral material. It does pay to do some research into fulfillment options at the event site and compare costs.

Marty Bear is president of PMSI-Professional Marketing Services, Inc., based in Stratford, Ct. He has been a leader and innovator in the promotional products industry for more than 25 years. callpmsi.com

By Christine Born

Many convention and visitor bureaus are dealing with tighter budgets and more oversight. Hotels are feeling the crunch from years of ambitious expansions and a buyer’s market that now assumes bargain rates. Meeting planners are trimming their events, cutting corners where possible and even meetings when necessary.

There is movement among top establishment players that might result in some much-anticipated trickle down effect. Bold initiatives inspire confidence — whether it’s Rupert Murdoch’s plan to convert his Web sites to a pay model by the summer or another new device from Apple, which introduced new iPhones in 2009 and profited despite the downturn.

Buoyed by the knowledge that the best leaders know how to turn crisis into opportunity and that pessimism doesn’t stand the test of time, we turned to leaders in the hospitality industry and some association planners to discover what they see ahead.

Fabian De Rozario, President, National Association of Asian American Professionals

Brave New Move: De Rozario says we have to be constantly reinventing or challenging ourselves to do new things. “Play outside your sandbox,” he says. “Explore things outside your realm of business only to discover how inside your business it is.”

Advice: Get creative and extend beyond your core business to build relationships and resources. That doesn’t necessarily mean huge, expensive solutions. As an example, De Rozario suggests that hotels can use slow times to drum up business within the local market by inviting civic groups to a complimentary event introducing their facility and services, thereby creating momentum and a relationship that will generate future business.  “A bunch of small wins will often return more than the big wins we look for,” he says. “As a consumer, I would love to engage with hotel reps that are knowledgeable about services and solutions that are available in the local area. The better resourced the hotel rep is, the more likely I am to choose your hotel over another.”

Relationships mean business. “If you don’t keep good records about what’s important to the relations you make, if you don’t have a clear system to manage all that information, you’re going to lose this race,” De Rozario says. “We’re so good at executing our meetings, but often do a poor job of managing the data and records that are necessary to manage our relationships.”

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Stephen Hahn, Director Western Region Market Sales, Marriott International

A New Reality: Hahn’s message to hotel customers and managers is that both sides need to be partners in adversity. “From a contract standpoint, what might have been agreed upon a few years ago is no longer a reality,” he says. “It’s not a one-way street, or an ‘us and them.’ [In better times] it’s important for us not to say no to customers who were with us in the downtown.”

Advice: “You have to reset your expectation down without causing harm to those organizations you’ll want to do business with in the future. From a customer standpoint, you have to understand that the hotel industry has suffered significantly. We need good communication and flexibility and creativity on the customer’s part to help us maximize our business given what little there is out there.”

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Bonnie Wallsh, CMP, CMM, Meeting Management Consultant and Trainer

Recession-defying Moves: Continuing education, networking and, above all, outstanding customer service are the keys to survival in 2010, Wallsh says. “2010 has the potential of being the most challenging year since I started my business 31 years ago. During the last several months, I have reviewed my business plan, strengthened
existing relationships, reached out to help those around me, sought to become a
Renaissance person and became acutely aware of potential opportunities.”

Advice: Customize your service and become a resource. “Identify needs and figure out how to fulfill them,” suggests Wallsh. “Work your network aggressively, sharing leads and opportunities regardless of whether they will benefit you personally. Maintain a positive attitude. Know about sports, the latest movies, books on the bestseller list, geography (try to learn the capital of every country) and current events. You never know when you can engage a prospective client.”

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Judy Randall, President and CEO, Randall Travel Marketing Inc.

Trends to Watch: Randall says the biggest trends she’s seeing are shortened meetings to cut hotel and other costs; mid-day meetings for drive-in attendees; and planners cutting out extracurricular activities so meetings start purposefully and stay focused
on purpose.

Advice: Content is king. “Everyone wants to know what is going on,” she says. “They want educational content that helps them sort through the volumes of information in their field. Where are the frontiers?” Randall also agrees it’s important to keep your network alive and strong.

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Lisa DeGolyer, Chief Executive, Conferences and Education, Construction Owners Association of America

A New Model: After experiencing a drop in attendance at her 2009 spring conference followed by a fall conference that exceeded all expectations, DeGolyer and her team developed a new model. “We used to move our conferences around the country to draw in new people, but now we are going to cities where we were successful, mainly because we have strong chapters there,” she explains. “We’re supplementing in between conferences with online learning opportunities and taking our course 101 on the road, doing in-house educational conferences for smaller groups.” Smart forecasting tools helped her track all the components of planning. One key element: education. “Change never stops and technology is coming at them so fast we need to educate them on the newest technology that is out there,” she says of the association members, mainly building owners. “Last year, the down economy was new, and people had to stop traveling. They didn’t have the money to spend on education, so we did other things to make up for it that made some money in between conferences. You have to spread energy centers to other things that are profit centers. Our meetings bring in the most ROI but they are labor intensive.”

Advice: “When you see something that works, you keep going,” DeGolyer says of her new approach. Her group also renegotiated all existing contracts to drop room rates and attrition. “We asked them to work with us to help us. You can’t do that with every one, but most worked with us. This is a good time to buy and negotiating is more viable now than it has been in the past.”

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Fran Bolson, President, Woodfiled Chicago Northwest Convention Bureau

Brave New Move: “Whenever we see a major shift in markets (as we see now), we step up prospecting and reevaluate our markets,” Bolson says. “Any ‘brave new moves’ may include dropping out of a market that is not showing ROI and increasing investment in the markets showing activity. We are very aggressive in the use of technology in tracking and communications within our direct sales efforts; however, we still feel strongly about the need for face-to-face meetings and business travel. We are going to use our media campaign to convey that message, using the findings from the Oxford Economics business travel ROI study.”

Advice: Bolson also stresses the importance of education in today’s world. “Be the best in whatever you are doing and if that role is changing, spend some time to see where your position or market is going and be at the cutting edge. Take advantage of any and every development and learning opportunity that is available.” Her final word of advice? “Always answer phone calls.”

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Deb Archer, President & CEO, Greater Madison, Wis., CVB

The Message is the Medium: Archer sees a need for everyone in the industry to collaborate and get the message out that “Meetings Mean Business.” The initiative, launched by the U.S. Travel Association, uses industry research to drive home the value of conferences and events to our economy. “Conferences and conventions are integral components to maintain and grow healthy companies and provide the foundation for generating discussions, ideas and creating solutions,” says Archer. “The GMCVB, the Wisconsin Association of Convention & Visitors Bureaus (WACVB) and the Wisconsin Department of Tourism (WDOT) are so committed to these principles that we will be forming a Wisconsin specific collaboration geared toward local political leaders, business owners and area meeting planners.”

Advice: “The best way to work through this industry-wide recession is to stay true to core competencies,” says Archer. She emphasizes the importance of service, embodied in the bureau’s trademarked brand strategy and statement, “Going Beyond Visit,” defined as the philosophy of going beyond the expected to enrich its partners, community and visitors. Or, as Archer says, “We don’t stop our services with the signed contract.”

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Bruce Turkel, CEO, Brand Management, TURKEL

Changing Perspectives: Turkel’s firm specializes in travel and tourism marketing, branding and advertising. He is an author and frequent speaker for the travel and meetings industry. His message? “Authenticity, affordability, activities, accessibility.” He’s talking about travel. “We look at what we’re good at and we find different ways to express that,” says Turkel.
“A lot of what you come up with after evaluating your efforts is in plain sight.”

Advice: “Stop focusing on what you do and start focusing on what your clients want. Unbundle what you have and deliver it in a different way.”

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[Marketing Moves]

Partnerships with Benefits

Partnerships can bring big returns for both planners and suppliers. Take a lesson from the George Clooney film “Up in the Air,” which is generating buzz for American Airlines and Hilton Hotels. Both are prominently and positively featured throughout the film, though neither company paid for its starring role. Instead, they provided locations and branding that helped defray what would have been huge production costs for Paramount Pictures — a grand example of a mutually beneficial partnership.

“If we were to go and rent an airplane for a movie, it would be very expensive. But if you can get somebody to loan you one as opposed to the production having to buy or rent it out of their pocket because they’d like their product seen in the film, it’s a fair trade for that exposure,” said LeeAnne Stables, Paramount’s executive VP-worldwide marketing partnerships.

Stables also pointed out that in this day and age of reality shows, fake brands would not work as well in a movie depicting the lives of real people, who are involved with brands every day of their lives.

Both American Airlines and Hilton are promoting the movie on their Web sites, where, besides viewing a trailer, visitors can enter “Up in the Air” sweepstakes. Hilton also is promoting the film on more than a million key cards internationally, a first for the chain, whose cards have never featured anything besides its own logos and amenities.

(Spoiler alert: There are also some interesting convention moments in the movie that will be all too familiar to meeting planners.)

Sources: Hotelchatter.com, nytimes.com

Many planners do not fully realize, nor adequately utilize, the services a CVB offers, many of which are free of charge. For planners who do not have adequate internal staff to assist with their meeting, or for non-profit or volunteer events that do not have full-time planning support, CVBs can become an extension of your team, saving you time and money. Their message is clear and you’ll hear it repeated over and over: “Tell us what success means from your perspective and your bosses and we’ll help you meet it.”

Request for Proposals

A CVB’s membership includes local businesses that generally supply services to the hospitality industry such as hotels, convention centers, restaurants, attractions and transportation companies. If your event has a need for a large number of suppliers or you are not familiar enough with the city to select providers, CVBs can create a request for proposal (RFP) for you and submit it to prospective companies. They will also take your own RFP document and disseminate it to a pre-approved list. It is important to qualify the companies you want to receive the RFP, especially if you or your client has a preferred brand for hotels. By being as specific as possible in the RFP document, you reduce an influx of e-mails and telephone calls from companies you have no interest in buying from.

Promoting Your Event

CVBs can assist in bolstering your meeting’s attendance through several promotional tools. When building your event’s Web site, you may need high-resolution photos of the location. CVBs can provide targeted images as well as video of accommodations and attractions.

Since destination information can be overwhelming and highlight attractions your attendees may not be visiting, simply listing the destination’s Web site link on your event information page can lead to confusion. Some CVBs will create a specific URL for your event which links to a welcome splash page with your group’s name. The custom page allows you to pick the information you want highlighted for your group. By listing only the attractions that appear on your event agenda, you reduce miscommunication with your delegates.

Media Contacts

If you are organizing an event that is open to the public, CVBs can assist in providing local media contacts and information for press releases. Most CVBs have a section of their Web site dedicated to public relations and media inquiries. Here you can find information to incorporate into your press materials, including stock story copy and quotes highlighting the destination’s offerings. CVBs will provide a list of e-mail addresses and telephone numbers for local and regional newspapers, television and radio stations.

Housing and Travel Assistance

If your meeting or event is large enough to require three or more hotels, CVBs can provide an online housing reservations system which can also include airline and ground transportation bookings. Many events have one online system to register attendees and gather housing and travel information. However, not all registration sites have the capacity to pass these reservations directly to the hotel or airline’s system. Similar to a third-party registration company, the CVB’s housing bureau can communicate with the hotel and disseminate rooming lists and travel itineraries. Note that CVBs in smaller market cities many not offer this service and there is usually a fee involved.

Tour and Attraction Booking

A CVB provides information and contacts for booking tours and attractions and can also refer their member destination management companies if your needs are more extensive. Similar to a hotel’s structure, a CVB will assign your group a convention services manager (CSM) who will work with you on all the pre-planning details. The CSM can act as your liaison in contacting their member suppliers. Since each member company is paying dues to fund the CVB, your CSM cannot suggest one company over another. They can, however, narrow your choices by telling you which companies provide the specific service you are requesting.

Additional Supplier Listings

CVBs can provide suggestions for services well beyond hotels and attractions. These include: program speakers and entertainers; exhibit freight services; equipment rental for your onsite planner office; floral designers; car rental companies; foreign language translation services; and even babysitting services.

On-site Staffing

Many planners have the capacity to organize a large event with a small staff, but then require supplemental support once onsite. CVBs can provide different levels of temporary staffing from attendee material collation to registration services. It’s important to qualify your needs and give the CVB a detailed job description of what is required. Do you have a registration desk that requires no more than a greeter to hand out delegate badges? Or is your registration more complex, requiring computer skills and knowledge of online software systems? Communicating your specific needs to the CVB will ensure the right match for each task.

By partnering with a CVB, you can reduce time in researching what a destination has to offer and quickly define which local suppliers meet your requirements. Rather than having to become an expert in a destination, you can save time and costs by utilizing the CVB’s expertise. With streamlined destination knowledge and preferred supplier information, you can now spend your time on more strategic planning elements. All it takes is delegation to your newly extended team — the CVB.

Defining Destinations

A convention and visitors bureau (CVB) is the dominant form of a destination marketing organization (DMO) in the U.S. While each state has a department of travel and tourism, most counties and/or cities also have their own CVB to promote a more geographically narrow area.

Although there are many government and chamber of commerce bodies with responsibility for marketing a destination to visitors, most convention and visitors bureaus (CVBs) are non-profit organizations, working independently under the direction of a board of elected directors. They are usually membership organizations bringing together businesses that rely on tourism and meetings for revenue and are funded primarily through the collection of “bed taxes” on visitors.

Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI) is the world’s largest resource for official destination marketing organizations. The organization provides members with educational resources, networking opportunities and marketing benefits worldwide. It also maintains an online bookstore and resource center, an e-mail discussion list for members, professional certificates and designations (PDM, CDME), an accreditation program and an official online travel portal: OfficialTravelGuide.com.

DMAI was founded in 1914 as the International Association of Convention Bureaus to promote sound professional practices in the solicitation and servicing of meetings, conventions and tourism. In 1957, the association changed its name to the International Association of Convention and Visitors Bureau (IACVB), to reflect the growing importance of consumer travel. In 2005, it changed its name again to become Destination Marketing Association International.

Sources: destinationmarketing.org, Wikipedia.com

By Loyd Carter

Very few industries in the U.S. have escaped the recession unscathed, and the magazine industry is no exception. A number of high-profile titles have ceased publishing this year, while others have cut back on frequency and/or shifted to an online-only model to cut costs.

The magazine industry has always been very active when it comes to conferences and events, but these have been among the casualties of the recession. Early this year, the organizers of several industry-leading shows announced the cancellations of 2009 events, including the Magazine Publishers of America’s (MPA) American Magazine Conference, one of the biggest industry events of the year.

However, some magazine associations decided that the show must go on, despite the challenging economy. One of these was the Magazine Association of the Southeast (MAGS), which held its 20th annual conference in Atlanta on April 29-30.

Moving forward, cautiously

“We were well aware of some of the major event cancellations in our industry this year,” says MAGS Immediate Past President Don Sadler. “In fact, we were shifting into planning overdrive in February when word broke about cancellation of the MPA’s American Magazine Conference.”

This was about the time that the economic storm clouds appeared the darkest. “When you see that one of the biggest events in your industry is cancelling, it definitely makes you stop and think twice,” Sadler says. “I’ll admit there were a couple of moments when I second-guessed our commitment to holding a conference this year, but everyone on our board believed strongly that we should move forward with the conference unless it just became completely unfeasible to do so.”

The result was a conference that, given the economic challenges faced by the magazine industry, can only be described as a tremendous success. Sadler says the foundation for this success was laid back in the fall of 2008 when planning first started for the 2009 conference.

“We knew that cost control was going to be critical,” he says, “so we sat down with Susan Stottlemeyer and Lenora Kopkin from our association management company to dig into the numbers and look for any and every opportunity we could find to keep our costs down.”

Stottlemeyer’s company, Your APG, manages 23 other associations in addition to MAGS, so she’s got plenty of hands-on experience when it comes to conference and event expense management. “Right now, I’m encouraging all my clients to go with the lowest risk factor possible,” she says. “You can always upgrade from chicken to steak later if you want to.”

The MAGS board knew it would be able to spend less on the 2009 conference than it did in 2008, when its conference was held at the Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta. “We were in a strong cash position in 2007 and early 2008 and wanted to make the event extra special, so we booked it for the Ritz,” Stottlemeyer says. “We knew we might not break even but were OK with that. Obviously, our mindset was different for the 2009 conference.”

New Location, Fewer Frills

The MAGS board chose the Hilton Atlanta/Marietta Hotel & Conference Center in Marietta, Ga., as the site for its 2009 event. According to Stottlemeyer, other cost-cutting measures the association implemented included:

• More RFPs and bidding. In particular, MAGS put out a strong RFP for audio/visual, which is one of its higher expenses after food and beverage. “We let respondents know that price would be a deciding factor,” Stottlemeyer notes.

• Conservative food and beverage estimates. “We watched the numbers very closely to make sure we didn’t over-order and have a lot of waste,” she adds.

• Downgraded food and beverage choices. At the GAMMA Awards Dinner, which is the climax of the MAGS conference each year, the entréte was downgraded from steak and salmon to chicken, and fancy between-session snacks (like Dove ice cream bars) were eliminated in favor of soft drinks and popcorn.

• Strict negotiations with past vendors. Stottlemeyer says she negotiated with vendors MAGS had used in past years (like the photographer and GAMMA Dinner emcee) to try to hold prices at 2008 levels.

Also, by committing before the event to holding it at the same facility again in 2010, MAGS was able to lock in 2009 room rates, as well as this year’s room and food and beverage minimums, for next year.

Numbers down but profits up

Not unexpectedly, the numbers for the 2009 conference were down from the year before: Registrations this year totaled 174, compared to 243 in 2008. But these were almost in line with the board’s projections, and the percentage decline was considerably lower than the average 60 percent drop in association event attendance this year that was recently reported by True North Consulting.

By projecting attendance and revenue conservatively and cutting costs aggressively, MAGS cleared a profit of more than $15,000 on its conference this year, shaving conference expenses by a total of more than $37,000.

According to Sadler, those who attended the conference didn’t seem to mind the no-frills approach. “Everybody realizes what’s going on with the economy and industry and I don’t think anyone expected another Ritz experience this year,” he says. “We received lots of positive comments from attendees about the overall quality of the sessions and the speakers.

“Our members really seemed to appreciate the fact that not only did we host a conference this year, but that we were good stewards with the association’s money and resources,” Sadler continues. “This stewardship and the financial success of the conference have helped lay a firm foundation for MAGS in the upcoming year.”

Read “Trade Shows Evolve” in the January 2010 issue for more on how other organizations are adapting — and benefitting — from downsizing, as well as other trade show trends.

When event stakeholders request a comprehensive ROI analysis, where do you begin? It may seem challenging to determine ROI for a new event or even for a program you’ve been planning for 10 years. The first step is a basic one: Determine your event’s essential objectives and plan every aspect of the program according to these goals. For example, if you’re planning a trade show to educate attendees about the health benefits of locally grown food, then these educational objectives should be the basis for planning your program content. From selecting a keynote speaker who is an expert in organic farming to booking exhibitors who adhere to sustainability standards, every element should contribute to your key objectives.

While education is the main goal of many meetings, showing financial ROI is usually an objective of every program. If your goal is to make a certain profit percentage, then your expenditures can be negotiated and tweaked throughout the planning process to meet this goal. If you need a certain number of attendees to achieve your revenue objective, then your marketing plan should be aligned to generate this volume.

It is also important to prioritize your objectives based on the needs and wants of your attendees and stakeholders. For many association and specialty meetings, the objective is to simply break even or have enough money reserved at the end of the event to plan for next year. While the objective isn’t to lose money, it may be more important to generate audience exposure for your niche activity than to make a substantial profit. Education and awareness are then prioritized as the main ROI while financial objectives are secondary.

Basic financial goals are easily tracked through your operating budget. A post-event analysis could be a simple profit and loss spreadsheet or a more detailed graphing of the rise and fall of expenditures and income throughout the planning process. For trade shows where exhibitor fees are a large revenue contributor, the planner might create a pie chart showing the percentage of income from exhibitor booths versus attendee admission fees and other areas of income. Line charts are ideal for events that take a year to execute and have a seasonal quality. This analysis will show which months the most revenue is generated, allowing the planner to spread out payment of expenses accordingly.

These charts and graphs can be created from an existing Microsoft Excel budget format. Simply highlight the information you want to graph and insert your desired chart type. You can customize the graph’s color, style and legend information to match the design of your overall report.

Determining ROI becomes more challenging when the objective is intangible. It is more difficult to attach a value to the goal of customer relationship building than it is to determine the ROI of a budget number. With the latter, you either met the financial goal or you didn’t; the performance percentage will show by how much you came over or under in accomplishing the goal. With the former, it is more challenging to attach a numeric value to the customer’s future likelihood of making a purchase or following through on an association’s goal based on the relationships they formed at the event.

When the ROI is less tangible, surveying attendee and customer responses immediately after the event and at multiple times during a sales cycle will provide quantitative results. Ask attendees if the event contributed to their decision or response now, in six months or within the next year. These responses can then be graphed as percentages, similar to the tracking of tangible budget numbers.

If your ROI reporting determines that you did not meet all or some of your objectives, it is important to analyze areas that didn’t work and submit solutions for improving these elements for next year’s program. If you find that some goals were not met due to internal challenges, interview all team members – staff, committee leaders and volunteers – to gain insight for future improvements. Summarize the feedback from all event stakeholders into an “Executive Summary” that will open the narrative portion of your ROI report. It will be easiest to write the summary after you’ve performed the statistical analysis. You can then include the overall performance percentages in this introduction.

The last step is inserting visual documentation of your event. From photos of the exhibit floor to the line at the registration desk, document every element that might need to be reviewed and changed for future programs. If you sell sponsorships to your event, take a picture of each company’s trade show booth and insert it into their proposal for next year. Document the design and placement of signage to assist in changing themes from year to year. Elements of your ROI report can then be customized for each sponsor to show the value of their financial contribution.

Review your report at multiple intervals as you plan the next event. Even if the program is different, you can apply the experience of crafting objectives and analyzing solutions. Your ROI report then becomes a template for planning successful events.

By Charles W. Allen

While driving home on the same busy route I take home every evening, I couldn’t help but notice a man dressed in a gorilla costume. He was waving a “car wash” sign. The obvious fashion in which the gorilla stood out from the collage of signs and billboards led me to a conspicuous conclusion. All impressions are not created equal. And that’s an important consideration when thinking about sponsorships for your event.

Sponsorship Research International (SRI) estimates that each of us is bombarded every day with more than 5,000 promotional messages. Successful event marketers must cut though the promotional clutter in order to effectively deliver their marketing messages and engage their target audiences. And meeting planners must increasingly partner with exhibitors and event marketers to offer sponsorships that provide real value.

Traditionally, impressions have been the standard metric relied upon in the meetings and trade show industry. As a result, impression metrics have driven sponsorship pricing and decision-making. This model seems a bit simplistic and outdated since so many static impressions fail to impress anyone in this age of media saturation. Sponsors are seeking higher quality impressions, and are willing to pay more for sponsorships that involve and engage target attendees. Thus, savvy meeting planners are increasingly incorporating interactive and experiential marketing sponsorships into their programs.

The Hanging Banner is Dead
The hanging banner has been a staple in sponsorship programs. Indeed, a banner in a superb location garners many impressions, but not ones that are necessarily interesting and memorable. It’s no longer just about “how many people saw it.” Rather, it’s about which people saw it, and how long they viewed or interacted with it. Did it deliver an experience memorable enough to really influence purchasing decisions? Simply put, the value of a millisecond glance has given way to the value of creating an “experience,” which results in stronger and longer lasting impressions. Interactive and experiential sponsorships get attendees involved with brands, products, and marketing messages.

Medium is the Message
Many new interactive and dynamic displays are now available within our industry. One example: at the 2006 Detroit Auto Show, General Motors drew crowds with a waterfall display and light show that spelled out its name and marketing message. Innovative sponsorship opportunities are available at all budget levels, not just the high-end of the market.

For a moment, let’s think outside the box, or exhibit booth as the case may be. Think about what an experiential “Innovation Zone” at your event’s front entrance communicates to your audience. Think about how your sponsors could benefit by truly engaging their target audience in an entertaining way. After all, exhibitors and sponsors utilize events to introduce their newest innovations. Shouldn’t they introduce them in an innovative manner? Increasingly, the medium is the message.

Next time you see a gorilla waving at you, be mindful of what got your attention. Sometimes standing out in a crowd is a good thing. I’m thankful for the waving gorilla I noticed. I now have a new favorite car wash.

Charles W. Allen is the Chairman and CEO of The C.W. Allen Group, Birmingham, Alabama. The firm is a leader in sponsorship sales, consulting and event marketing.