The Hotel Built
with Meeting Planners in Mind

The Hilton Orlando, which opened in 2009 in the I-Drive district, is a modern, intelligently designed hotel that discreetly separates leisure guests from meeting guests. It has a central lobby, but meeting guests have their own wing (with 175,000 square feet of meeting space), which means suit-clad event attendees don’t brush elbows with guests decked out in swimsuits and flip-flops. The other big bonus about this hotel: short hallways. Because of its clever design, you don’t have to go through a maze to find your room when you exit the elevator. One hallway. Straight shot. Thank you, Hilton.

The Airport with Art Galleries

A 26-foot tall space robot with waving propeller arms greets visitors to Mineta San Jose International Airport’s futuristic terminal. A seven-story mural depicting the hands of 53 Silicon Valley residents covers a facade of the airport’s garage. There’s more art inside and out, befitting the airport’s status as a gateway to the art meets technology community. Other airports where design takes flight: Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson, Denver International, Sacramento International, Philadelphia International and Miami International.

The Place to Throw Your Next Party

Discovery World Milwaukee attracts kids and adults alike wanting to learn more about science, but it is also one of the city’s coolest venues for live concerts. Discovery World’s outdoor Rotary Amphitheater sits right on Lake Michigan, an impressive backdrop for a musical act at an opening or closing reception.

The Speaker Influencing Tomorrow’s Meetings

Dr. Jane McGonigal made a big impact at the 2011 SXSW conference in Austin, Texas. Attendees voted her the speaker whose presentation made the biggest impact on the digital community. McGonigal is a video game designer (as well as author of “Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World).” She argues that play is essential to human growth and well-being; it stimulates the mind and the senses. McGonigal is both a speaker to consider for your events and one who can lead you in a new programming direction (think: gaming).

The event you’ll never top

Take your next intimate VIP event to new heights—say, about 150 feet high. Have Dinner in the Sky (organized by the company of the same name) at a table hoisted by a crane high into the air over land or water. Up to 22 people can be seated at the table, and they’re served by a chef, waiter and an entertainer. The only problem? There’s no restroom in the sky, so take it easy on the drinks.

The Performance Venue with the Acoustics You Long for

Caesars Palace Colosseum, built to resemble the Colosseum in Rome, isn’t making our list for its aesthetic design. It’s making it because of its sound. The impressive megastar performance venue’s acoustics and existing decor reduce the amount of needed AV infrastructure. You haven’t heard a concert or keynote like you’ll hear at Caesars Colosseum.

What’s Out and What’s In

For the rest of the rest of the wonderful, whisical, sometimes strange, sometimes quirky, always cool world of meetings, check out the January issue of Connect magazine.

In the same way Cirque du Soleil changed the delivery of a circus, meeting planners need to change the way content is delivered at events, says Scott Klososky.

Sometimes change happens so fast we don’t recognize it. We don’t think twice about instinctively touching icons on our smartphones until we find ourselves trying to do the same on our laptops. We adapt quickly to changes in our workspace: How often do you use the scroll bar anymore?

The whole concept of meetings—whether conferences, conventions, events or other forms of face-to-face gatherings—has changed. The scope is larger, even if the attendee list or timeline is shorter. Tim Sanders, a “people-centric” business expert, says, “The only reason to have an event is to change the world.” Think about it. Hasn’t that idea crept into our subconscious and the language of meetings, much like the slide into touch-screen technology?

We’ve shifted from talking about logistics to meetings architecture. We are now confident that meetings make a difference, to local and global economies, to workers and to the environment.

We promise innovation. We seek out “influencers” or “cultural architects” rather than “speakers.” We give back to local communities and incorporate global charitable actions. We talk about engagement through social media, immersive learning, creative experiences and authenticity. We push for “convergence conferences.”

Still, the heavy lifting, the difficult aspect of change, smacks most of us in the face every time we begin the planning steps that lead to the next meeting: the will to make a conscious effort to implement change and then follow through on its execution. Plans and resources (education, equipment, training, testing, time, etc.) are necessary for deployment, but the first step before anything happens is acceptance—acceptance that we need to push or prepare for change.

Inside and outside the industry, there are creative pioneers who urge us to embrace social media, look for inspiration from the culture at large, think about content delivery as performance art and get more visual with presentation. Scott Klososky asks us to think about how Cirque du Soleil would deliver a business talk; to think about how they changed the delivery of a circus. “We need the same change in the experience of content delivery at events,” the futurist and social media blogger says. Jeff Hurt wants us to start planning for screens and stop planning for platforms. “It’s time for you to adopt this 21st century technology and prepare for screening,” he preaches. “We are fast becoming people of the screen.” If you don’t grasp what he means, read his blog.

Our industry also has its rebels. Joan Eisenstodt, a well-respected educator and consultant, has long challenged meeting planners and facility managers to consider the different learning styles, needs and safety of attendees when designing and setting up spaces. She contends that most meetings are boring and is not shy about calling out colleagues to join her efforts to shake up the status quo. Then, there’s Keith Johnston who aggressively delivers sharp criticism and insightful ideas at plannerwire.net.

Finally, most industry thought leaders point to TED and other social exchange conferences as evidence that people are the greatest event resource, not the over-the-top ballroom, the top chef menu, the big name speaker or the most popular seminar presenters. We need to embrace our attendees as active participants—turning our meetings over to them and tapping into their ideas, enthusiasm, experience, networking contacts, problem-solving skills, money and muscle.

The following pioneers open up about what changes they think are essential now. We invite you to think about how you can use these ideas, discuss them with your organizations and share them with us in the comment section below.

Ashely Muntan, Storyteller	Keith Johnston, Critic
Joan Eisenstodt, Critic and Pioneer	Jeff Hurt, Social Animal

“The Great Shift” is the first article in our Rethinking Meetings series. In future issues, we’ll explore change as it affects the design of convention and conference centers, hotels, seating and setups, production and programs, food and beverage, travel and every other aspect of what we do in connection with events. In the January 2012 issue, we challenge several well-known industry thought leaders, rebels and pioneers to answer one question: “What one thing would you change about meetings?” We invite you to think about how you can use concepts presented in this series, discuss them with your teams and organizations, and share your insights with us.

Logistics to Strategy: Meetings and events take on new importance
By Dianne B. Devitt

Meetings, no matter at what level, have a major influence on government, business and organizations. The hospitality, meetings and travel industries are multi-billion dollar industries that only recently, yet rapidly, have realized their clout as major contributors to the U.S. economy and matured beyond the umbrella of tourism or visitor business. Alongside that change, the expectations for strategic meeting and event professionals have grown.

Challenged with educating future generations, meeting membership organizations are reevaluating and upgrading course content and certification requirements. Universities, corporations and government entities are developing educational material on the intrinsic value of meetings and events in business. There are now advocates for the concept that business students at institutes of higher learning should be required to take an elective, special course or a minor in event management.

Where does the discipline of meetings and events belong in the contemporary academic curriculum and why? A little more than two decades ago, virtually any courses of study relevant to people in our industry were offered in the newly formed hospitality or tourism departments (the latter of which owed their name, their focus and their existence to the word “tourism’s” supposed ability to pull revenue into a given city)—or within some part of facilities management instruction. For many in the academic world, this is how courses of study on meeting and events are still understood: as footnotes to subjects like facilities management, as elements of other business-driven course offerings such as sports marketing or tourism, or perhaps as community college material in narrowly defined areas such as social and wedding planning.

In recent years, meetings and events have emerged as powerful tools for strategic messaging; public relations, marketing and advertising play a more important role. Clearly, well-planned, well-executed, well-branded events are having an impact on the bottom-line, forcing academic institutions to reassess their course offerings. Considering the glacial speed at which any kind of change tends to unfold within long-established academic silos, the shift that has taken place during the past decade has been remarkably fast, and  is accelerating. There has been a real reassessment of the business case for meetings and events as an academic discipline in its own right. What follows are some of the most interesting voices and insights from the emerging academic discussion on how, where and why to teach people to become meetings and events professionals.

Dianne Budion Devitt, CMP, is an adjunct professor at New York University Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management, where she imparts her knowledge of and experience in destination management, outsourcing, planning, design and production to the next generation of event managers. She is the author of “What Color is Your Event? The Art of Bringing People Together” and president/owner of D3Dimensions, which provides consulting, keynotes and wellness programs. 

Women will change the dynamics

A visionary, a pioneer and an advocate on behalf of the events industry, Dr. Joe Goldblatt, FRSA, is blunt about what he sees as a leadership imbalance in the meetings industry and how demographics will force changes.

“Men still make most of today’s decisions regarding business strategy, but moving forward, this male-dominated world will continue to change with the demographics of the workplace. Up to now, this strategic world has focused on quantitative data, and on returns that are measured in morale, productivity, retention and longevity. The future focus will not be strictly financial, but will also encompass social and education investments with human capital, a trend that places more and more strategic emphasis on meetings and events.

“Today, meeting planners are over 70 percent female and are typically supervised by a male. They are typically not business majors. Now, something like 50 percent of colleges have females majoring in business; the figure is about 60 percent in graduate schools. These women are learning the language of business, and they will contribute to the change in dynamics regarding events and meetings. There inevitably will be a change in attitude in the years ahead, as more and more women take their place as decision makers and stakeholders in the corporate environment.

“Meetings and events are powerful vehicles used to promote places and products, increase loyalty, build brand awareness, attract customers, tourists and new customers, inspire and motivate, communicate new ideas, celebrate historic occasions, recognize and reward performance, and most of all, to bring people together for a common cause. If these are just some of the reasons for meetings—and they are—then why are they not recognized within the business curriculum?”

Joe Goldblatt is a professor and executive director of the International Centre for the Study of Planned Events, School of Business, Enterprise and Management, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, Scottland.

We are in the communication industry.

Well known as one of the leading figures of the meetings industry in Australia, Elizabeth Rich has more than 30 years experience in business events, as an association manager, conference organizer, trainer and writer through her own company Agenda Pty Ltd. Formerly the chief executive of the Business Events Industry Council of Australia (BECA), a peak advocacy body representing the meetings, incentives and exhibition industry, Rich has in-depth knowledge of the development of the meetings industry in Australia and is a keen observer of the global market. In 1998, BECA produced “A National Business Events Strategy for Australia 2020,” a breakthrough document whose findings remain relevant to meetings and events professionals the world over. The paper was focused on business events, which BECA defined as: “any public or private activity consisting of a minimum of 15 persons with a common interest or vocation, held in a specific venue or venues, and hosted by an organization (or organizations). This may include (but is not limited to): conferences, conventions, symposia, congresses, incentive group events, marketing events, special celebrations, seminars, courses, public or trade shows, product launches, exhibitions, company annual general meetings, corporate retreats, study tours or training programs.” The document contains the following critical passage: “The [Australian] government recognizes and supports … [a] Meetings and Events industry accreditation program… to deliver business events, meetings or conferences.”

“Terminology is a critical part of our industry,” Rich notes. “If we are to move forward academically in a global effort, we must define our efforts, and that means emphasizing not just events, but planned events. Regardless of the location of the college or university, tourism is, of course, related to meetings and events; it is a product of the gathering. Most often delegates bring guests, but business events and planned events of any nature just do not fit under the traditional academic discipline of tourism. The industry must reach a point of clarity here in order to move forward in any institute of higher learning. We need to take ourselves more seriously. At our heart, we are there to communicate something from a business point of view. We are in the communication industry.”

Elizabeth Rich is managing director of Agenda Pty Ltd., a faculty member of International College of Management Sydney, and member of the Industry Advisory Board for the School of Tourism and Hospitality, Southern Cross University, Australia.

Projections point to strong growth despite setbacks.

No discussion about the place of meetings and events in education curriculum in the U.S. would be complete without giving Patti Shock a voice. Shock helped build a meetings and events concentration at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas and also serves as a consultant for The International School of Hospitality, helping develop online certificate programs. In recent years, the severe economic climate forced a cutback in the Harrah College program. Still, Shock remains optimistic about the relative strength of meeting planning as a growth career. “Meetings and events planning has been named one of the best contemporary careers by U.S. News and World Report, and the projections are for strong growth over the decade,” she says. “But the reality we had to face was that academic resources are sometimes scarce.”

Patti Shock, CPCE, is a professor at Harrah College of Hotel Administration, University of Nevada at Las Vegas.

It goes beyond ordering large amounts of cheese Danish.

What’s in a name? In this case, everything. Amanda Cecil’s department goes by the unusual name “Physical Education and Tourism Management,” a leftover categorization from the days when its emphasis on sports management came under the rubric of physical education.

“Since 2000,” she says, “the department has grown to 13 faculty supporting 350 undergraduate students. Now we are seeing business students taking events management as a minor, and events management students taking a minor in business. This trend demonstrates the correlation of the two disciplines. It is helping us to segment instruction into event strategy and design, as distinct from event planning and logistics.

“We need to remember that many professionals in the meetings and events industry, based on their respective specialty, came from theater, education and all forms of design. Ours is an interesting discipline combining in-depth knowledge of organizational behavior, psychology, project management, revenue management, logistical engineering, architectural design and much more—and yet the expectations on the planner are often completely out of touch with this profile, with many clients imagining that we simply order large amounts of cheese Danish for a living.

Amanda Cecil is assistant professor for the Department of Physical Education and Tourism Management, Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind.

We are waiting for academia to catch up.

One often-cited reason for resistance to acceptance of meetings and events as an academic discipline in its own right is the supposed lack of hard numbers supporting the proposition that events can deliver a measurable return on investment. Tim Brown’s visionary company offers evidence to the contrary.

“There have always been internal machinations and politics within colleges and universities, with certain groups coveting certain courses in curricula, especially those that are profitable. But there comes a point where we need to recognize that there is an injustice to the future business person and communication specialist who has not been given an understanding of the scope and strategy behind a well-designed, planned event.

“We are finally beginning to see some movement in this area, with broader acceptance of the Strategic Meeting Management Program. This is a disciplined approach to managing enterprise-wide meeting and event activities, processes, suppliers and data in order to achieve measurable business objectives that align with an organization’s strategic goals.

“SMMP was launched by Global Business Travel Association in 2004, but it did not pick up real momentum until the 2008 global recession. During the ‘80s and ‘90s, the big focus for meeting planners was wrapped around meeting execution and overall meeting and event logistics efficiencies. Now, there is recognition that meetings are big investments, and that those investments need to be evaluated with SMMP. This shift from logistics to strategic thinking is fueled by both the unstable economy and the accelerating impact of SMMP. This has clearly increased senior management’s awareness of meetings and events and the need for improved meeting productivity, meeting quality, cost savings, contract risk reduction/cost containment and ROI. In a very real sense, we are still waiting for the world of academia to catch up with SMMP.”

Tim Brown is CEO and founder of Meeting Sites Resource in Irvine, Calif.

Educating clients on value of meetings is key.

An industry veteran, Janet Sperstad helped develop the first associate degree program in meeting and event management in the U.S., located at Madison Area Technical College. Her conception of continuing education in our industry deserves the last word.

“Although many executives understand the value and appreciate the outcomes of meetings, educating executives on the strategic value of meetings and events remains the most critical responsibility of the corporate event planner today. The best way to fulfill this responsibility is with hard data. Years ago, as a planner for a leading hair products company, I produced a conference featuring a sponsored session that introduced new hair colors. I worked with the sales team to track data for three months following the event, and I was able to report back to the sales and marketing management team with hard numbers showing who purchased the product following the event and who didn’t. This enabled the sales team to target new customers—and it also demonstrated a clear ROI on the event. With the numbers to justify the decision, the company was able to go back and increase the sponsorship value for the next year’s events. This is the kind of internal corporate education that will eventually reposition meetings and events in the curriculums of our colleges, universities and business schools. I believe it is our responsibility to keep the momentum going by educating our own clients about the value we actually deliver.”

Janet Sperstad, CMP, is program director for Meeting and Event Management Degree, Madison Area Technical College, Madison, Wisc.

Mills, CMP, is the director of the council on ADA sessions. Part of her job is overseeing the planning of the annual session and world marketplace exhibition, which took place this year Oct. 10-13 at Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas. Before joining the ADA, Mills was with another dental organization, headquartered in the same building in Chicago. When the position with the ADA opened up in 2009, she made the move.

Since she started with the organization, the annual session has changed, and this year added a virtual component to the event. Called ADA365, the virtual extension of the annual session, produced by bXb Online, streamed a few sessions live for non-attending members. The opening general session, which included a presentation by former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, was accessible to all online participants, who could also attend six education sessions with live dental patient procedures, as well as two discussion forums (virtual attendees could interact with speakers and ask questions in real time using email and other tools).

Mills talked with us about going live, the ROI and the importance of education.

What components are involved in the annual session?
It’s three and half days of continuing education and a three-day trade show. And this year we did add the virtual element.

Why did you decide to add the virtual extension to the event?
We’ve had a small one the last two years. When we were in Hawaii [in 2009], we knew a lot of students couldn’t come and we have six live operatory courses during the event. It’s a dentist who does a live patient procedure. It’s captured on camera and projected to the audience, and in 2009, we streamed it live and had a good turnout. A large percentage of schools participated over the three-day period. The next year, we expanded it to all membership, and people could email in questions live. The dentist would stop, take a break and answer the questions. So this was kind of the next step. We feel with this virtual component, we can offer this as a benefit to all our members. It entices them to want to come next year.

What was the response?
We thought if we could get 1,000 people that would be really successful, and we had 3,600 come through the environment. We tracked the time they spent there: 62 percent spent an hour or less within the environment, 38 percent spent one to 10 hours, and 500 people spent 10 hours or more. We know some of those 500 people will be coming to San Francisco [for the 2012 annual session]. That is one of the goals and we’ll be able to track it.

This year’s event was in Las Vegas. Next year, you’re headed to San Francisco. How do you choose host cities for the session?
Just logistically—we need to fit. We need enough hotel rooms and convention center space. We want to make sure there’s enough hotel meeting space that our affiliates can meet with us. We also like to make sure it’s a good partnership with our state organization because we rely on local volunteers.

So, you’re often looking at tier-one cities?
Yes, but we’ve been to San Antonio, Kansas City and other second-tier cities. When we ask our members, one of the No. 1 reasons they don’t come is because of location. But we don’t know if it’s because of the city or it’s because we’re not in a convenient location for them.

What else do you ask on conference evaluation forms?
Pretty typical information: What brings them, what did they find valuable, did they feel they got a return on investment.

Besides finding enough space, do you run into any special challenges planning this event?
I [started with the ADA] in 2009 and that’s when the economy had a downturn. We were in Hawaii, and attendance was lower, but [there were] also a lot fewer exhibitors. We found our biggest numbers down on the exhibit side. In 2010, we were in Orlando. We found that attendance in Orlando was down purely because it was a hard-hit economic state. We were in Orlando in 2004, and between that and last year’s meeting, there was a 10 or 12 percent slide on people who attended the meeting.

Why do you think people want to attend the national event?
A lot of people say location and destination; if it’s in a convenient place for them, they’ll come. Also, our education. With so many dental organizations, there are many dental speakers, but we are trying to get more diversity in speakers. And on our exhibit hall floor, we have traditional workshops where attendees can use equipment and practice procedures, but we also have an area called the LOC, which stands for Learn, Optimize, Connect. They’re pods of learning experiences. Some are lecture; some are hands-on experiences with equipment. For example, this year, we had a laser pavilion where attendees could sign up and go through a course and do hands-on testing with laser tools. So if a dentist is in the market for a laser, he’s able to test a number of them… It’s not all commercial for one company. We try to get multiple companies that do or sell the same thing. We don’t focus on the products. We focus on the education.

A CLOSER LOOK | Catherine Mills, CMP

Path to planning: Like many of us, I figured out what meeting planning was about four and a half years out of college. I got my degree in psychology but never really wanted to do anything professionally with it. I had quit my job working in the disability benefits department for Walgreens Corporation, not knowing exactly what I wanted to do but knowing what it would be made of. I wanted to plan stuff, travel and work for a smaller company. Two months later through a friend of a friend, I landed my first job at a small association management company.

Childhood career aspirations: Part of me still wishes I was smarter and good at science. I would have been a doctor or nurse—that was my childhood dream. But as I’ve gotten older, a foreign correspondent would be way cool!

Favorite destination or venue: Boston is a great historical city with so much for attendees to do and a very easy downtown to get around. Seattle, in the middle of all that water and hills and nature, is just a beautiful city. I really like how Seattle has chosen to run the convention center. They realize that their center is perfect for meetings that have outgrown a meeting in a hotel and need to transition. A lot of their operations are run closer to a hotel’s than a typical center, making the transition easier on those groups who meet in a center for the first time. As far as cities we are going to, San Francisco has always been a favorite. I am really looking forward to our annual that will be there in 2012.

Advice for fellow planners: Get involved with our industry. Join PCMA, MPI, ISES. Get to know other planners and get a mentor and be a mentor. I have found that I have grown and learned the most by being involved and networking.

| In Her Words |
When I’m planning events, I can’t live without chocolate and Diet Pepsi.
I communicate with my phone—texting, emailing, calling.
I most miss my family.
I am most inspired by my teammates.
I learn the most from my boss.
My favorite music is a lot of different music, but I’m a total U2 groupie.
One of my favorite authors is Elizabeth George.
My favorite movies are “The Shawshank Redemption,” “Schindler’s List,” “The Philadelphia Story,” “French Kiss” and John Hughes movies. And don’t tell, but I’m kind of a sci-fi geek.
My favorite quote is “Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point,” by C. S. Lewis.

From the Caribbean and Latin America to Europe and Asia, international destinations continue to be a growing consideration for meeting managers whose organizations have a global reach. According to the International Congress and Convention Association, the U.S. is the No. 1 country generating international meetings. And worldwide, there were 826 more international events in 2010 than the previous year. The ICCA attributes part of the increase to scientific and technological developments that require companies to discuss these complex changes face-to-face. While budgets remain tighter than ever, many international cities are pushing incentives to encourage planners to bring their meetings abroad.

When considering hotel and meeting venues in international destinations, it is important to craft a request for proposal that includes as much attendee demographic and historical information as possible, even if the meeting was not held in that country previously. It is also important to provide an estimated per person budget, keeping in mind that most international properties include breakfast with the room rate. Many countries also package the meeting requirements into a separate rate often referred to as the daily delegate rate (DDR). This rate would include the meeting space, coffee breaks, lunches in the restaurant, writing materials and basic audiovisual such as a projector and screen. If you are looking for a private lunch not in the hotel restaurant, this might incur a surcharge on top of the DDR. The hotel also will require international groups to pre-pay the cost of the meeting space in full. Transportation and tour companies require 90 to 100 percent pre-payment. Many international properties will charge a fee for payment by credit card. Inquire what the supplier’s policy is and request that the fees be waived.

Sanphet Prasat Palace, Thailand

Contract concessions typical in the United States, such as complimentary meeting space and a 24-hour hold on that space, are not the norm and should not be assumed. “In terms of Asia, the priorities and objectives of the hotels can be very different than in North America,” says Joan Orentlicher, CMP, assistant vice president, meetings, conference and travel for LOMA and LIMRA, both worldwide organizations in the insurance and financial services industry. “Hefty fees for meeting space are always a part of the contract, but you may get many inclusions.” She says that because Asians take great pride in the appearance of the meeting, these inclusions might be chair covers, high-end tablecloths and floral centerpieces. VIP waiting rooms and built-in translation booths are also standard inclusions. Orentlicher says it’s also difficult to negotiate a 24-hour hold on meeting space in Asian countries where local social events take high priority and are often associated with the country’s royalty or government officials.

It’s then important to allow more time for the contract negotiation process when dealing with foreign countries. Ping He, CMP, director, global sourcing and partner relations for Experient Inc., suggests building in more time to account for time zone and language differences as well as forming a relationship with the sales person. “Sales people are not as incentivized to close the deal as they are in the U.S.,” he says.

When writing the RFP and negotiating the contract, be careful not to use words that would be understood by American suppliers, but unclear to service providers abroad. For example, requesting a “light lunch” might have a different meaning in Latin America and even more so in Asia. It is better to provide the number of courses required and use basic descriptors such as a meat, poultry or fish entree, starch, vegetable and dessert. “Use simple English in your communication with non-English speaking countries,” he says. “We know what ‘How many rooms have been picked up?’ means in the states, but a manager of a small Italian hotel will not understand. Say instead, ‘How many rooms have been used or actualized?’ and you will get a quicker response.”

Understanding the culture and business protocol is very important when planning international meetings. “There are many international protocol books available and the local hotel staff is usually more than willing to help navigate through the differences,” Orentlicher says. “Never assume anything is the same as you experience in North America.”

Paulette Hopkins, president of the Hopkins Alliance, suggests contacting the destination’s tourist board and working with a local destination management company to help navigate cultural disparities. “Research the country’s holidays and bank holidays,” Hopkins says. “Unlike America, other countries honor their holidays and most businesses are closed.” She points to an example where the word “weekend” does not always mean a Saturday and Sunday for Muslim countries. “For most Muslim countries, ‘weekend’ means Friday and Saturday as Friday is a Muslim holy day,” she says.

While planning your budget, be aware that hotel room rates, meals and services will include a value-added tax or VAT, which could be as much as 15 to 20 percent. Because visitors or non-residents of the country do not technically owe the tax, groups can request a refund to reclaim all or part of the charges. It is important to request that the VAT amount be separated so you can keep track of the charges and file for a refund. “I recommend working with a VAT reclaim services company,” she says. “It can be a complex process and take up to a year to reclaim.”

Click on the image to read "Border Crossing" for information about Canadian meetings

Airport entry fees and visa requirements are also budget considerations. Argentina, for example, charges a $140 entry fee, which is valid for up to 10 years and multiple visits. A passport is required to enter and leave most foreign countries and if your attendees include young adults, it is important to verify that they have this essential travel document. The U.S. State Department strongly advises American citizens to register their travel abroad with the Department of State. Registration makes it possible to contact the traveler in the event of a family emergency back in the U.S. or to alert of a crisis in the visiting country. Note that U.S. medical insurance is generally not accepted outside the country, but short-term policies can be purchased for travel abroad.

When considering a hotel, venue or mode of transportation for your group, remember that the Americans with Disabilities Act is a North American requirement. Historic hotels, which are often smaller in European destinations, may not contain elevators or be accessible to attendees with special needs. International shipping requirements also vary from country to country. To avoid delay of your shipment in customs, it is best to use a broker based in that country who is familiar with the guidelines and has influence to move your materials if necessary.

“Running international meetings requires a different skill set,” Orentlicher says. “But once you dive in, you will become a global specialist in no time.”

TIPS | Read additional information about passports, mobile phones, fees and more here.

In 1998, I was “down under” and down to the wire coordinating my first international meeting for the top executive of a global organization. Although I had been managing public events for six years, I quickly learned how different this Australian endeavor would be. The public events involved concerts and festivals at mostly outdoor venues—an amphitheater or city park—and involved managing a wide variety of food and beverage suppliers, from stand-alone concession trailers to high-end wine importers and microbreweries. Decor ranged from throwaway, red-and-white-checkered tablecloths to high-end linens suitable for the title sponsor’s VIP guests. The health department had to be satisfied with our water and sanitation systems, and vendors had to have current permits.

The highlight of this major meeting was also outdoors—lunch on the lawn of a summer estate in New South Wales’ Southern Highlands. Exclusivity was paramount: Only the executive’s top associates were invited. Though the goal was to make the event more personable—we used the word “home” on the hard copy, four-color printed invitation that was mailed via postal service (remember, this was 1998)—no plastic, disposable tablecloths were ordered for this event. Unlike back in the states, Australia was approaching winter. I wasn’t thinking about the difference in temperature or considering the wind tunnel that would eventually sweep across the front lawn. Heavily weighted vases filled with seasonal blooms traditional to that area of the country, our centerpieces added color to the table display and complemented the flair of the locally themed food. But more importantly, they became anchors for the luxurious and wispy table sheers I had chosen.

No matter the reason, season or continent, food and beverage is the centerpiece of your planning, but how your event fares depends on so much more.

The Lavish ‘90s
The dot-com bubble of the 1990s brought unrestricted food and beverage budgets, bountiful buffets and lavish stations combined with free-flowing passed hors d’oeuvres. The more food, the better, even if it went to waste. In fact, no one seemed to care about waste back then; going green was not yet a household term.

At the time, the specific budget number allocated to food and beverage was always higher than what my budget-conscious training expected. In fact, we always had a surplus budget at the end of each event, which we simply rolled into the next. Before I knew it, the last event of the year had double the budget, which meant more food, more bars and more passed everything—from hot canapés to cold hors d’oeuvres to flutes of champagne.

Then, in 2000, the bubble burst. Suddenly, dollars began to shrink and there was no surplus anymore. The detailed budget template I had worked so hard to create finally mattered, each line item crucial to keeping the bottom line in the black. Stakeholders’ heads turned in circles, trying to balance the conflict between what was and what needed to be—extravagance brought back down to reality.

Executive meetings were the most difficult to reconcile. After all, we couldn’t serve hot dogs and hamburgers at a board meeting. Caviar was never a consideration, but wasn’t there some middle ground? Hence the budget belt was tightened not one, but several notches, and I was challenged to become more creative with less.

21st Century Changes
The change in how I planned catered functions was magnified further the first few weeks after Sept. 11. I was planning a meeting for U.S. delegates attending the Tokyo Motor Show in October of that year. Only a couple of weeks out from the start of the event, it was too late to make any major changes to our menu selections. At that point, we couldn’t reach the busy stakeholders to get approvals. I was able to decrease our attendee guarantees before the 72-hour deadline at The Hotel New Otani and the Imperial Hotel Tokyo. The banquet managers understood the travel limitations we were facing; they were having the same conversations with planners bringing groups to the motor show from around the world.

In this case, we kept the lavish dinners because we really had no other choice. Perception played a large role in deciding how to commemorate relationships with international auto dealers without appearing too celebratory. And because food is a key element in cultural celebrations, I was challenged to keep the theme of the event, feed everyone abundantly and acknowledge a somber situation with a global ripple effect.

Fast-forward about six years: transportation curtailment lessened; budgets grew slightly. While not as extravagant with our menus compared to the ‘90s, we felt confident we could add additional amenities such as mashed potatoes in a martini glass and maybe a bar upgrade from house to premium liquors.

Then the tide of change rolled in again. Some argue it started in 2008, but many said they didn’t feel the effects until 2009. The economy was on everyone’s minds, whether you were in the meeting-planning industry or not. The events I managed went from a slight increase in luxury to the strongest belt tightening I had experienced in 19 years. The belt became a noose to thematic creativity: How could you incorporate your brand, meeting goals and objectives into a decor and food and beverage theme if you didn’t have a dime, not a penny, left over to spend?

A New Decade
Today, as we struggle to understand what “The New Economy” means for our program budgets, one thing is clear: Reduction in the food and beverage line item is eminent. According to PKF Hospitality Research, an advisory firm specializing in the hospitality industry, the No. 1 area where planners are cutting the most in their program budgets is food and beverage. However, in the areas hoteliers are willing to negotiate, food and beverage is No. 4 on the list. Why is there this disconnect? Simply this: Banquet-related revenue was the greatest source of food and beverage income for hotels in 2010. Planners are eager to cut; suppliers are holding the negotiation reigns tight.

The good news is we are all riding this economic seesaw together. Collaboration between planners and suppliers is a key trend that will keep us in balance. I spoke with other industry professionals to find out what they are doing now to be creative while keeping food and beverage costs down.

Advice, Tips and Trends
A planner and 22-year hotel industry veteran, David Fowler, CMP, gives a unique perspective on food and beverage trends in the current economy. As a former director of convention services for Marriott and Hilton hotel brands, Fowler provides an insider’s view of how hotels are working their seat on the economic seesaw.

“With food costs soaring at all levels, hotels have been pushed to keep their food costs in banquets around the 28 percent range for a plated meal and slightly less on a buffet,” says Fowler, the director of meetings and conferences for UniPro Foodservice Inc. “To do that, the portions, especially the protein on the plates, have gotten smaller. Hotel menus have become leaner in terms of offerings—not as much variety. To their credit, for the most part, hotels have tried to keep the pricing affordable, knowing that a higher-priced item just won’t sell these days: Buffets that would have had three proteins on them [are out]; now they have just two with more salads, vegetables and fillers. But probably the biggest impact that I see is the pricing on refreshment items, i.e., coffee, sodas, etc. Those prices have gone through the roof, often jumping 10 percent. And who can blame a hotel? The greatest profit area is coffee and hot tea, and it is the one thing that everyone seems to want at every meeting.”

Fowler’s tips for holding costs down: “The greatest money-saving item—while at the same time the best visual/sensory item—is a pasta station. What says lavish better than pasta scented with garlic being prepared in the room? And there is always more pasta than your order would indicate, simply because it is the cheapest food item. If I have 1,200 for a reception, I’ll order it for 400 and still have leftovers.”

An expert in the spirits industry, Carter Perks gives insight on beverage buying trends and brands that can provide value for your event, yet still stand on craftsmanship.

“Consumers are looking for value but that does not always mean price,” says Perks, the vice president, director of sales, on-premise spirits for National Distributing Company Georgia. “They still want quality, heritage and craftsmanship. A brand these days can’t just be a marketing image, it has to be authentic. Premium brands are actually on an increase as consumers see spirits as their last affordable luxury.”

Perks’ tips for holding costs down: “Pinnacle Vodka is one brand in particular that offers value and is imported. It’s the fastest-growing vodka in the United States. A meeting planner can be confident in offering this French triple-distilled vodka at any function. Wine selections have gravitated back towards recognizable brand names. The market is cluttered and the consumer is confused. Offer a winery with tradition and heritage. Classic cocktails are on the rise. Pre-batching these beverages at a classic cocktail station provides speed of service.”

A planner and finance specialist, Kathy Hall Hunt is cutting back on food and beverage ordering for her programs and thinking outside the box when working with hotels.

“Let the chef know your budget and what you have in mind and most…are able to accommodate you,” says Hunt of Air Line Pilots Association, International—Delta MEC. “For receptions, I try to stay away from passed hors d’oeuvres. I have found that if I look at the station menus and select a meat to be pre-sliced, it saves money. I don’t pay the attendant fee to slice it if it’s served in a chafing dish.

“Save the dessert from the lunch menu and put it out for the afternoon break instead of ordering something else,” she adds. “Remove the beverages minutes prior to the meeting breaking. This stops attendees from grabbing several drinks to take to their room. Don’t allow the hotel to put out paper cups. This tends to encourage people to take a cup to go.”

A senior vice president for the California Hotel and Lodging Association, Jennifer Flohr, CAE, CMP, consults with the hotel’s chef to infuse cost-saving creativity.

“Don’t be afraid to ask the venue which foods stretch, what’s popular and what’s not. Give the chef your wish list and a price range within reason, and let them be creative. You can still order a duo plate (beef and seafood); however, each portion can be smaller to save costs. Cutting down on variety also helps. Instead of ordering 10 types of hors d’oeuvres where the most popular run out, order four different kinds and you’ll have plenty. For a buffet, instead of having five main dishes, ask for only three, which could shave $10 off of the price. Removing the soup can also save a couple of extra dollars.”

Jacki Labat, senior executive assistant at American Safety Insurance, has the budgetary challenge of planning meals for discerning attendees wanting healthy meals.

“I generally let suppliers know what dollar amount we are working with and request quotes as to the best they can offer at that rate,” she says. “I rarely stick to the menus that are sent to me. We have a very healthy group and several vegetarians. We have the property include a specific number of vegetarian plates/meals based on the number of those attendees.”

Labat’s tips for holding down costs: “In an effort to minimize some of the banquet/catering costs of a recent meeting, we made one of our dinners ‘on your own’ so that everyone could dine casually at the local restaurants on-site. Some people ate light; others had nice, big dinners. Overall it was a large savings over a plated, sit-down, fully catered meal at the hotel. Don’t be afraid to venture off the beaten path and come up with your own creative ideas. We’ve done a lot of cookouts lately as well—casual, yet filling and fun.”

Whether casual and fun or elegant and upscale, how you serve up the food and beverage reinforces the event’s message as much as the keynote speaker. Trends come and go, budgets shrink and expand. What remains is the challenge—often rewarding—of creating a memorable meal.

Your book is about the power of networking and you were certainly in a position and place to witness and participate in networking at a level most of us don’t experience. Planners often stay behind the scenes at their events. Can you give us some quick pointers about how planners can better leverage their position and why they should?
First of all, the power of reaching outside of your circle is one of the really neat things I learned throughout my years at the White House. Jackie Kennedy made a rule that at any White House event, guests and staff can meet and talk with anyone at the threshold but once they move into the dining room, they cannot choose to sit with those they are comfortable with. A White House event can be quite intense, and even people in power want a safety nest. I’d give them some conversation starters, some information about who they are sitting with. You should sit with someone new on every trip on that shuttle. When you’re at a fun event, you want to sit with your friend but you miss opportunities. Exercise your skills. If you’re not comfortable socializing, start by giving yourself a specific task: I will meet one person tonight, then two.

As event planners, we plan every minute of our event, so why not take a moment to prepare, write down some goals, do some research? Who else is going to be there?

Find out more about sponsors, vendors and colleagues by going to their websites and seeing what projects they are working on. Help connect them to someone who can help them. You don’t have to promote yourself to make an impression. You get something to build the relationship on when you do some research. Have a list. Have an agenda—whether it’s a social event or a business meeting.

The key to bringing it all together, from doing research to reaching your goal, is timing. Being on time is the most important thing you can do. Right away you signal to the person you are meeting with that they are important. You get to greet people when they arrive. You meet the key people you wanted to meet and will be able to find them in the crowd later.

Planners are under pressure to prove the ROI for face-to-face meetings. Can you give our readers some more ammunition?
I believe the most intimate form of communication around the world, across cultures and across socioeconomic circumstances is breaking bread, whether around a five-course meal in Washington, leftovers the next morning or for coffee. There is a great validity to breaking bread together. It connects us. It’s where our core mission lies in life. That’s where I saw the biggest deals being made when I was in the White House. There are certain things we cannot accomplish with technology; it’s great and it helps but there is no substitute for face-to-face meetings.

What do you consider your most valuable asset as a meeting planner, or a characteristic most planners share?
Collaboration. No team of one can do anything and I certainly learned that at the White House.

What’s the quality you seek in other team members?
Always being ready to help no matter how small or how big the task. Some people just want to help when it’s big stuff, exciting stuff. You have to remember everything is a stepping stone.

What surprises you most about attendees?
Oh, boy—those who drink too much. What a missed opportunity to have conversations and extend beyond your circle. You’re a guest for a reason; it’s sad when you see missed opportunities.

What do you consider your greatest accomplishment connected with a White House event?
The best one we did every year had no U.S. Marine Band, no pomp and circumstance. It was the Children’s Miracle Network event. We tried to schedule it when the president was in town so he could stop by and spend time with the families. He always made it. It was not about pomp and circumstance; it was about the moment in time: Let’s just make it the best four hours we can.

It all comes down to the emotion your guests leave with, whether you’re successful or not. What’s your thread to the event? Six months later, guests won’t remember the color of the linen or the flowers. They’ll remember the message they connected with; the way they were feeling; the nicest person they met.

When I talk about the art of the event, I like to talk about it like a painter approaches his art. You see every color, every brush stroke, everything in the painting when you’re in front of it. Later, you remember the emotions it evoked.

How do you accomplish that?
I like to do things differently. The message can be accomplished without a lot of step and repeat. You show the message with the people you invite, with the style of the host. If it’s a nonprofit event about children and family, you have children and families attend even if it’s black tie. You don’t just need signage to get the purpose across.

I like to take some time and, instead of running through the event as a schedule, think of it like a play with characters. Set the stage. You need someone who is good at greeting, maybe your chairman? Who can talk about why you’re all there celebrating? You need someone to introduce speakers. You need someone to deliver the key message with true conviction, so guests leave with the emotion that they matter. They met the CEO, who really cared about their experience. It makes a great impact. They leave thinking, at that moment—and in comparison with other events—the president or the owner was there to greet me. And they’ll remember the event.

How did you choose who would attend and who the key speakers would be?
It depended on the organization and purpose of the event. Who do we need? Where are they? What groups do we need? We’d work through those organizations and find someone who could connect, especially with someone at home if it was televised. We’d find a compelling individual to put on the program.

You also need to include a person who you have to give a nod to. I always had to know who should open something. Did the message relate to someone on the Hill, the president or someone at home who needed to understand how the message affected them, whether it was 20 people or 3,000?

Were your venue choices at the White House limited by tradition or access?
The nickname for the White House property is 18 acres, which includes the North and South Lawn, the residence in the middle, and the East and West Wing. There are the Rose Garden and the East and West Garden. Then, there is the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, including the White House Briefing Room, news office and ceremonial meeting room. They were all within my responsibilities, including bill signing, press conferences, family events, etc.

I loved the really grand events because we had a lot to work with. The Rose Garden requires no staging. We had a president and first lady who were very willing to do outdoor events. There are so many areas. There is the Children’s Garden…the First Lady’s Sculpture Garden. The lower end of the South Lawn with its Japanese maple provided a great backdrop. I would grab lighting experts and photographers to take a look at how it would work depending on the sun at different times of the day. I’d get their buy-in; give them what they needed to make it happen. You have to build external and internal working relationships.

Do you have any advice for planners on choosing venues?
Grab your stakeholders and get their buy-in. (I would get the president ahead of time and show him what I wanted to do.) Empower clients. Just like that ballroom can get stale year after year, so can the South Lawn. How can you do it differently? If it’s a ballroom you’ve used year after year, bring along the vendors. Get them involved. Can we do this? What kind of workaround can we do? Do it well in advance; bring them into the fold.

The best thing about those trade shows is the access to vendors. It’s your chance to ask, “Have you ever done anything like this?” They may say yes, and here are the flaws, or yes, this will work. Even hotels that have standard ways to set up ballrooms want to do things differently.

How many White House events did you coordinate?
We counted them up: I directed more than 1,000 events at the White House. The average size was 200 guests. For a seated dinner, we might have 1,400. For big head of state arrival ceremonies, 6,000 to 7,000. For public events, like the Easter Egg Roll, 10,000—though not all at the same time or sitting down.

What was your budget for events?
We don’t discuss budgets. The details are too much and too varied for me to go into with any accuracy. Each division has its own budget. For example, there is a budget allocated for state dinners. There are different pockets but we always were aware of that.

How big was your staff?
It was very small. We had five in the White House office. We also used three calligraphers who did everything from Office of the Chief of Protocol for things like food allergies, likes and dislikes. There were all-day meetings the day ahead of the event with military attaches, personal aides, etc. We’d walk through the entire schedule. Someone from the White House kitchen was always there and we went through culture protocols.

The five branches of the military each had a social staff aide…special commissions to escort and seat guests, start conversations and help move people out so we could close off rooms at the end of the event.

What reporting requirements did you have after events? Did you do formal post-event reports?
The days were very long. I would arrive at 5 a.m., check all details, do walkthroughs and meetings, and at 4 p.m. would shower (we had showers and changing rooms near our offices). We would immediately break down the event that night when we were still wired. Of course, we talked about what everyone wore. If there was a problem, we talked about how it was resolved. We’d jot some things down and usually didn’t go home until after 3 a.m. The next day, we would set aside some time in the morning meetings to discuss the event further. There wasn’t always time for a written report. We’d talk with everyone involved. How many more volunteers do you need next time? We’d touch base with the chef and florist and see what people liked. The Clintons would give feedback, and we’d have to follow up with the people responsible for every aspect of the event.

It’s just as important to get feedback from the guests. They’re seeing it from a different perspective. How did it match up with what you thought?

Do you have some food and beverage tips or favorite ideas from all those White House dinners?
Well, I never had a mashed potato bar, but I love those. My biggest thing about food—and you can do this on any budget—is to remember for standing receptions that people are going to have a drink in hand and want to socialize and shake hands. Give them morsels that won’t force them to lick their fingers or have napkin in hand…no sauces. You need food at every event; some people come with an empty stomach so I like to have some carbs and things that are easy to grab—chicken, veggies, finger sushi. And you have to think about vegans and offer gluten-free choices.

What was the best thing about your White House job?
Interacting with so many people who were so talented. People who would say, “OK, I’m going to figure that out and let you know,” not “I’ll get to that tomorrow.” The dedicated staff and volunteers were a big part of everything. We had about 20 regular volunteers. I wanted to empower volunteers and interns by giving them responsibility and access. I’d include them in walkthroughs.

The worst?
The isolation from family and the hours. I don’t regret any of it. It was an incredible journey, though it takes a toll on you physically and personally. I was lucky. My parents came out so we could visit, and they volunteered, too. It was a wonderful opportunity for me to include them, but I wasn’t always present.

What was (is) your smartest business idea?
Honestly, translating what I did at the White House into the lives of corporate America, nonprofit America, academia and small business. For eight years, I didn’t have time to stop and think; I was just doing…and suddenly when it’s over, it’s over. You’re gone. You’re out of your office. You have no badge, no Air Force One. For a few years, I traveled with President Clinton for the Clinton Global Initiative and took time to travel on my own. I didn’t want to be in an office. How was I going to translate what I did for eight years into something that I could be just as passionate about and dedicated to, but also have a life? I didn’t want to miss any more birthdays or anniversaries.

I started thinking about the fact that as social as any event may appear, it is still business. The word “networking” was my biggest struggle. It can often be manipulative: “What can you do for me?” rather than “What can I do for you?” “How can I help you?”

‘What will help you with your next meeting?” “…with your life?” Everything I have done in my life has been about positive relationships and giving back. It works. I felt a need to find a message that would cross all borders—cultural, geographic, social and economic.

What advice do you have for meeting planners—other than reading your book?
The moment you queue the gates to open your event, you’re done planning. You’re managing.

Learn more about Laura Schwartz by taking a closer look here.

Maurilio Amorim

“In the past, national campaigns went out over two networks and hit everybody,” says Maurilio Amorim, CEO of The A Group, a full-service marketing and media firm. The current move is to micro-campaigns that target specific groups via specific mediums, says Amorim. The shift is a result of the explosion of social media, web-based tools and the use of mobile devices.

No longer passive consumers of information, we play an active role, subscribing to RSS feeds and following Twitter users to get the information we want, when we want it and on the device we choose. Marketing events is getting more complicated, but also more exciting. Planners would be smart to incorporate the following advice into their marketing plans.

1. A robust website is a must.
What’s the first thing most people do when they hear about an event or, for that matter, anything they want to learn more about? They Google it. And what they’re looking for is a website with information. If your event doesn’t have a website, it needs one. And if you don’t have a good one, you should invest a little money to improve it.

Chris Uschan

An event site should have registration information, persuasive messages on why to attend, destination facts, attendee blogs and speaker Q&As. “It should have strong calls to action on each page and connect with visitors emotionally,” says Christopher Uschan, director of Internet marketing for Omnipress, the leading producer of educational meeting materials. Uschan recommends providing a list of 10 reasons to attend to help employees convince their supervisors an event is worth the cost and time away from the office. “Give potential attendees the tools to negotiate because the money’s probably not coming out of their pocket.”

A website should also include post-event resources, such as blogs, articles and highlights from keynote speeches. “Get the content out there for three months after the event,” says Uschan. “Every two weeks you have a new piece of content that drives people back to your website, [which becomes] marketing for your event in the future.”

Liz King

2. Social media is your friend.
It’s time you stopped saying you’ll get around to social media—it’s not going anywhere. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and blogging can help you connect with potential clients and attendees on a personal level. For planners new to social media, establishing a presence on social networks begins with selective strategizing, says Liz King, social media entrepreneur and owner of Liz King Events. You don’t necessarily need to be present on every tool. “Look at what [your audience’s] interests are, what their goals are and why they would use social media,” she says. An organization with a number of young professionals might find potential event attendees on Twitter, but an organization that skews older might consider LinkedIn first, based on user statistics for those outlets.

With social media, consistent communication is key. “Social networking is not as effective if you can’t [regularly] update,” says King. When planners use social media, they’re generally focused on their message and what information they want to get across. They’re also focused on boosting friends and followers in an attempt to justify social media costs or find new clients. “Take a step back and remember that the power is in relationships,” advises King. “If planners can only update two to three times a week, maybe Facebook is the best option. With LinkedIn, it’s acceptable to [update] weekly.”

Planners already active in social media can take the next step and brand themselves as authorities. Avoid selling to your target audience; create dialogue instead. “As you form more relationships, people remember you and start to think of you as an expert,” says King. “The bigger your network gets, the more difficult it is to connect with every person, but I suggest following up with people who follow you, who engage on Facebook, who watch videos and respond to comments and, whenever possible, meet face-to-face. When you’re not coming from that marketing/sales perspective, people are much more receptive to hearing what you have to say.”

Allow attendees to share an event registration link on Facebook or other social media sites after they sign up. If they’re connected to a number of industry peers, sharing a link creates impressions and gets others interested. “I can send as many emails as I want and will typically reach about 20 percent of my target audience,” says Uschan. Talking about your event is great; getting other people to talk about your event is even better. This becomes especially important after an annual event has had a few successful years, and the objective becomes getting people back year after year. King recommends having speakers and attendees blog about the event on a semi-regular basis. “Think of it not as an annual campaign but a yearlong campaign,” she says.

3. Don’t ignore email marketing.
Social media is the new kid on the block, but email is the direct marketing juggernaut. To best market using email, keep messages clean and concise with a peer-to-peer mindset. “If you’re in a hotel lobby and you ask me what I do or what our company does, I give you an explanation,” says Uschan. “Then you go to my website and you get the standard ‘we provide world-class service’ copy. That’s not what I sound like in the lobby. Don’t speak to me like someone in the marketing communications department who [only] writes in big words.”

Don’t spend unnecessary dollars going after new clients when you’re more likely to have greater success by emailing already-established connections. “People often forget about ‘low-hanging fruit’—the audience you already have a relationship with,” says Amorim. “It’s much more difficult to get brand-new clients through marketing than it is to incentivize your supporters, giving them tools to recruit for you.”

4. Not all print is dead.
“Sometimes email marketing doesn’t work,” says Amorim. Direct-mail pieces can be expensive and they’re definitely competing with and struggling against new marketing tactics. “But you’ve got to measure success not in ‘trendy’ or ‘cool’ but in actual cash and results,” he says. “A mix of marketing [that includes] direct-mail campaigns, depending on the event, will help you assess what has worked well and why.”

Today, direct mail is effective for the same reason email campaigns were a decade ago. “My email inbox has 150 inbound messages a day,” says Uschan. “But when I look at my mailbox, it’s one or maybe two pieces per day, and 10 years ago, that was flipped around. If I get something in the mail worth reading, I’m going to read it.”

5. You get what you pay for.
Consider your audience’s demographics when looking into paid advertising such as TV, radio, Google or online spots. “It’s expensive to do a traditional marketing campaign today, like buying air time, so think about your audience. Is it a Google AdWords campaign that matches your product?” asks Amorim.

Google AdWords helps you micro-target, says Uschan. “For example, for someone looking for engineering education, my website might not show up, but I might have a Google ad for the 2011 Mechanical Engineering Conference. You can target [an ad] to keyword searches. You can set your budget for $100 a month, two to three months before your event. You’re only set back $300 and you can measure results.”

Uschan also recommends placing banner ads strategically on websites that already have your audience’s attention. “I’m amazed at the number of associations that don’t have house ads for their events,” says Uschan. “Don’t place the ad on just one page and expect that to be the only place I look. Also, industry bloggers and community websites within your industry [are] areas to place banner ads. Set up an agreement with the blogger to place an ad on [his or her] page; give them a discount to the event.”

Adrian Segar

6. Think ahead.
Marketing tactics continue to evolve, and it’s important to keep up with the trends that will continue in the near future. First, relationships and the social aspect of events will take center stage. “We’re moving from a broadcast mode and returning to a two-way mode,” says Adrian Segar, a 30-year planning vet and author of “Conferences That Work: Creating Events That People Love.” “People want to have relationships with the people whose events they’re thinking about attending. They want to be able to ask questions, get answers. They don’t want to just see static information.”

King echoes this sentiment. “It’s going to become much more about the relationship. It’s our responsibility as event planners to make sure that people can figure out who else is coming to our event and that they have consistent emotional contact with the brand.”

Amorim believes marketing will become extremely individualized. “Search engines and social media aggregators have information on people that will allow [marketers] to customize information. I was in Singapore not long ago, and there were signs [in the mall] to ‘turn on your Bluetooth if you’d like to get a coupon for this.’ I see that continuing.”

In the future, personal connections will precede the proffering of services. “I see more mobile videos as a way to get information in front of people,” says Uschan. “People spend a lot of time in front of their mobile devices but no one wants to be sold to anymore. They didn’t want to be sold to years ago. Smart marketers will realize that and connect with their potential attendees on an emotional level.”

Read more advice about marketing events here.

Behind the Numbers
Manthey is one of the 1.7 million workers the industry supports, according to this year’s Economic Significance of Meetings to the U.S. Economy study by the Convention Industry Council. And his business is one of hundreds of thousands of small businesses around the country that exist largely off the support from meetings. The numbers in the survey are important. They provide empirical evidence of the importance of meetings and events to local economies. But it’s the people behind the numbers—the fishing boat captains, restaurant servers and small business owners—who really matter.

Barry Freed says his Michigan-based company, Art Craft Display Inc., depends on the meetings industry. Art Craft has been in business for 55 years, providing event furnishings, displays and support services such as floor-plan design, convention management, freight handling and labor to event planners. Freed’s company has more than 160 employees and three locations in Detroit, Grand Rapids and Lansing.

“At least 85 to 90 percent of our business is with conventions and meetings,” he says. “We wouldn’t be here without it. It’s so important for so many companies, especially the service industry.”

Art Craft Display works with an average of 700 to 900 meetings per year in its three market cities. Freed says the industry has always been important in Michigan, but it often has been underappreciated and overshadowed by the auto industry. But now that industry has taken a nosedive, and the impact of meetings and conventions is becoming more apparent.

“People working on the auto industry lines likely had no idea what conventions or trade shows brought [to the state],” he says. “It is an economic key in Michigan and a lot of people aren’t aware of it.”

In Florida, travel and tourism is the state’s number one industry. More than 80 million people visit the state each year, accounting for 22 percent of total tax revenue, according to Visit Florida, the state’s tourism marketing corporation. Tourism employs more than 1 million workers in the state, many of whom are part of the meetings industry.

Manthey’s tour company, Yacht Starship, has 40 employees. He relies on weddings and regular visitors, but said the ease of booking groups from conventions in Tampa plays a large role in keeping his yachts afloat. The Tampa Convention Center sits on the bay in downtown Tampa, and Manthey pulls his yachts up to the dock to take groups out for dinner cruises and receptions. Group business provides more stability for his company. “Conventions are just easy. It’s the most cost-effective, convenient part of our business,” he says.

“We likely wouldn’t have enough business to survive without the meeting component,” he adds. “That accounts for almost half of our business and we adjust our schedules to cater to them.”

One job certainly wouldn’t persist without meetings: planners. Michelle Minyard has been in the industry for 20 years, most of them spent at the New Orleans CVB and Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. She started her own meeting planning business two years ago and helps companies find hotels, facilities and transportation in the Big Easy. Her clients have included Rotary International and the American Physical Therapy Association. She says that while those in the industry have long appreciated what meetings and events do for the city, some didn’t understand the full impact of the industry until 2005. After Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans didn’t host any major conventions for almost a year.

“Conventions are the economic engine of New Orleans’ tourism and the trickle effects of it are monumental,” Minyard says. “It is my lifeline. People finally realized what it meant when they saw Bourbon Street empty.”

Dependent Cities
In some cities that live off tourism, it’s often hard to distinguish meeting and convention delegates from regular tourists. Las Vegas, for example, hosts more than 18,000 business events per year, from 10-person meetings to the annual Consumer Electronics Show that attracts 120,000 attendees. In total, more than 4.5 million delegates come to Vegas every year, bringing with them more than $4 billion in non-gaming revenue that helps support more than 35,000 jobs, including that of Chris Meyer, CMP, vice president of sales for the Las Vegas CVA. While gaming and tourism are tremendous visible economic drivers in Las Vegas, Meyer says meetings keep the neon lights glowing.

“When they travel to a destination, they just spread money around because they’re doing so many activities,” he says. “We use an average of $1,059 per convention delegate, and that is a conservative number.”

As Minyard suggests, in New Orleans, tourism and conventions are the lifeblood of the economy. The city hosted 725 meetings last year that collectively brought more than 900,000 people to town. Nikki Moon, vice president of convention sales for the New Orleans CVB, says the meetings spend flows into all types of businesses, even during low season: “The impact meetings have on the economy and employment is massive. It touches so many people and businesses beyond just the hotels and restaurants.”

Like many convention cities, New Orleans reinvests in its convention infrastructure to keep groups coming to town. The constantly expanding Ernest N. Morial Convention Center is the sixth largest facility of its kind in the country and features more than 1.1 million square feet of exhibition space. It stretches 11 blocks and is more than a half-mile long.

Meetings can make an even bigger impact in smaller cities such as Grand Rapids, Mich. Doug Small, president and chief experience officer of the Grand Rapids CVB, sees his organization as an economic development agency. Measured by room revenue, 2010 was the city’s biggest year for tourism, up 11 percent over 2009.

“It is amazing how those dollars turn over and continue to affect the small businesses,” Small says. “It’s not just hotels and restaurants; it’s second- and third-tier businesses that see a big impact.”

Businesses benefit from direct spending at events, but they also benefit indirectly from the exposure they get from visitors during their stay or from a trade show. Houston often hosts events in the oil and gas, tech, medical, education and finance industries, which also are prevalent industries throughout the city. “[Events] allow local companies that are exhibitors to get a home field advantage and to showcase their products at greater cost efficiency,” says Greater Houston CVB President and CEO Greg Ortale. “A lot of people don’t understand how much business happens at trade shows. Last year, Houston hosted 237 conventions that attracted more than 480,000 delegates and translated into an economic impact of almost half a billion dollars.

While large conventions generate local buzz, Ortale points to the importance of more frequent, smaller conventions and meetings. The 1.8 million meetings included in the study averaged 114 participants per meeting.

“A lot of people don’t realize the majority of conventions are not the big monsters. They’re going to be a lot smaller with people spread out all over town,” he says.

In mid-sized cities like Grand Rapids, the impact of small meetings and conventions is a lot more visible and recognizable. The annual ArtPrize event, which attracts artists and art fans from around the world, has an average $4 million impact on downtown businesses. Small says the publicity from the event is priceless: “It’s only two years old, but the press and media coverage of this thing is unbelievable. It puts a spotlight on Grand Rapids that I can’t buy with 10 years of budget.”

Getting the Word Out
At the beginning of the economic downturn, politicians quickly came to the rescue of America’s automakers, bailing out failing corporations such as GM and Chrysler. Yet at the same time, government officials cracked down on the meetings and events industry. The media demonized large corporations such as AIG and Wachovia for spending taxpayer dollars from bailout funds to pay for meetings and events. In 2009, the meetings industry contributed $106 billion to the GDP. By comparison, the auto industry contributed $79 billion.

“It’s a quiet giant and a very powerful thing for people to get their arms around,” Meyer says. “Until this point, we never had the empirical data to point to.”

The auto industry has a footprint in every American home, but meetings and conventions are rarely in the public eye. Because conventions usually take place in centralized locations in market cities, locals aren’t always aware of their presence. And though their impact reaches so many businesses, it isn’t always visible. Deborah Sexton, president and CEO of PCMA, partly attributes the industry’s invisibility to a lack of promotion and educating the public.

“As an industry we haven’t done the best job of articulating the importance of what meetings mean to the overall economy: why people meet, the reasons they meet and the benefits connected to that,” she says. “We need to better educate the public on the fact that meetings provide benefits not only to our economy but to U.S. productivity. I’m committed to [making] sure we get this clear, concise message out so they can really understand what this industry means.”

On a local level, some organizations already have begun to convey that message.

In Grand Rapids, the CVB works with the local media to host meetings and press conferences to present findings and announce new conventions it’s landed. “We’re very transparent and want to show to the community that we’re out there working. And [the local media] seems to be very interested in talking about what we produce for the community,” Small says.

In New Orleans, the CVB established the Tourism Matters campaign. The CVB publishes a bimonthly, 16-page publication celebrating the people and success stories of the city’s $5 billion tourism industry. It lets locals know how conventions find their way to New Orleans, highlights CVB member companies and lets readers know what meetings are coming to town.

“We’re trying to get the word out locally and bring home the importance of visitors and the dollars that they bring,” Moon says.

Finding the 40: Coming up with the top 40 young industry leaders wasn’t easy. We asked planners, hoteliers and destination partners for their recommendations. We wanted to hear from people working in the industry every day. A number of suggestions didn’t make the final cut, but that’s why we plan to make “40 Under 40” an annual story. If you know someone you think should be considered for next year’s list, please send the name and a brief summary of the person’s achievements to editor@collinsonmedia.com.

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