Please enjoy the following guest post from our friend and member Dave Gabri, President and CEO of Associated Luxury Hotels International!

Understandably it can be easy to get discouraged lately, if you watch the evening news or the Sunday morning news talk shows.

We were optimistic that the tiresome onslaught of negative economic news was behind us. After all, we have definitely seen positive signs in our meetings demand that business is back in the “business of business,” which includes an impressive growth in demand for face-to-face meetings.

But the recent stories about the latest challenges to the economy and markets could make you feel like everyone should hunker down and not spend a nickel.

Before reacting too quickly to change course, and cut meeting and incentive program expenditures which are needed for the developmental success of your organization or business, you should take a step back and analyze what we learned from the recent economic downturn of ’08 and ’09, even if we haven’t yet seen the “full” recovery. For one, we now realize the quantifiable value of in-person meetings, as it has been documented by intense research.

While business leaders have always intuitively understood and appreciated the value and benefits of face-to-face meetings and incentive/recognition travel programs for years, we now have the research to prove it. Studies like the “Return on Investment of U.S. Business Travel” by Oxford Economics show the indisputable value of meetings.

Quantifiable Value of Meetings

As you may recall, the authoritative study, conducted by a respected economic analysis firm, found that face-to-face meetings allow customers to convert 40 percent of prospective customers, versus just 16 percent without such a meeting. In addition, the average company generates 5 to 20 percent of new business through conference and trade show attendance.

The study also identified that each dollar invested in business travel (including meetings) drives approximately $12.50 in sales and $3.80 in profits. Furthermore, the average business would forfeit 15 percent of its profits in the first year of eliminating business travel, and it would take three years for profits to recover.

Additionally, the study found that 85 percent of the corporate executives surveyed perceive Web meetings and teleconferences to be less effective than in-person meetings with prospective customers, and virtually 63 percent believe virtual meetings are less effective than in-person meetings with current customers.

When it comes to incentivizing the achievers, companies now know they would need to increase an employee’s base compensation by 8.5 percent to achieve the same effect of incentive travel, but then would not capture the allegiance generated through incentive travel programs.

More Proof

A survey published by Harvard Business Review entitled “Managing Across Distance In Today’s Economic Climate: The Value of Face-To-Face Communication” provides additional verification. It found that 79 percent of the respondents said “face-to-face meetings are the most effective way to meet new clients to sell business,” while 89 percent said “in-person meetings are essential for sealing the deal.”

Also, a recent study by the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research found face-to-face meetings enhance attention, trust, empathy, social networks, and mirroring (such as responding to body language). The research also found that in-person meetings are better at inspiring a positive emotional climate, and for relationship-building.

So look at the big picture, rather than just these sensational headlines, to see what is in your organization’s or company’s best interest. Certainly a leadership lesson learned from ’08 and ’09 is that in order to keep the boat steadily moving forward, meetings make a difference to advance our objectives. So rather than retreat, forge ahead!

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Eight members of the ConventionPlanit.com Meeting Planner Advisory Council met recently at The Donovan House in Washington, DC to discuss current issues facing the meetings industry and how online search directories such as ConventionPlanit.com can help address them.

ConventionPlanit.com Staff and Advisory Council Members at the November Meeting

Some of the issues included:

• Demonstrating the Value of Meeting History – Providing a hotel with historical data from previous meetings is essential in negotiating room blocks, rates, and food and beverage costs.  “Everybody complains about not having the history of hotel room pickups and meeting attendance, but nobody does anything about it,” one planner said.  “Just once I want a hotel to come to me with this information – I always have to hunt it down myself.”  Other planners shared similar experiences, and their common wish is for hotels to be more proactive about providing this information.  As electronic information-sharing in common formats becomes more common, this should improve in the future.

• Unauthorized Third-Party Housing Companies Selling Non-Refundable Rooms – This is a lightning-rod issue for many planners, who often see their room blocks erode and subsequent attrition fees assessed as association members book rooms outside the block. These unauthorized companies often launch aggressive marketing campaigns to association members, making it sound like they are the official housing provider.  Attendees that book the rooms find they are non-refundable and sometimes cannot reach the companies by phone.  Meeting planners agreed that strong communications to prospective attendees warning them of these tactics is necessary, plus legal action against these companies if appropriate.

• “Resort Fees” – Resort fees that typically cover Internet access, spa use, and other amenities are increasingly common.  The problem is that government employees cannot usually be reimbursed for these fees when they attend a meeting, and planners noted that the fees are often non-negotiable.  Their wish is for hotels to better understand the effects of these fees and be more willing to negotiate them if needed.

• E-Blasted RFPs – Some companies e-blast RFPs out to numerous properties with little regard for qualifying them in advance.  This wastes the time of hotel salespeople as they respond to RFPs that don’t match what their properties offer.  It leads to complacency that can cause them to not respond to viable RFPs that could bring them business.  ConventionPlanit.com pre-qualifies properties to ensure that only those that are a strong potential match receive the RFPs, dramatically increasing the success rate for hotel proposals.

• Hotel Proposals Lacking Necessary Information – When planners send out RFPs, they need all the information requested in order to do an apples-to-apples comparison of prospective properties.  The planners agreed that hotels are not doing themselves any favors by not providing complete information – it forces them to follow up and spend extra time getting information that should have been provided in the first place.  When RFPs are submitted through ConventionPlanit.com, incoming proposals are checked to make sure they are complete to save planners the hassle of chasing down information.

“This discussion was extremely valuable for both the planners and our staff,” said ConventionPlanit.com Principal and Co-Founder Katherine Markham, CHME.  “We found that much of what we are already doing helps to address many of these concerns, and it helps spark ideas for new solutions we can launch in the future.”

We are always looking for fresh faces to contribute to our council!  If you are an avid user of ConventionPlanit.com and would like information about joining the Meeting Planner Advisory Council, please contact Katherine Markham, CHME at katherinem@conventionplanit.com.

What improvements would you like to see on the site?

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Please enjoy the following guest post from our friend Sarah Vinning with the National Conference Center, who hosted Event Camp DC earlier this month!

Seven.  It’s the total number of Event Camp conferences that have been held in the past year.

The Event Camp series is a concept that first started with Jessica Levin, a meeting planner, and a few friends on Twitter who had the idea to host a bar camp for event professionals in New York City.  Its intention was to offer meeting and event professionals an opportunity to come together in an unstructured format without a pre-planned agenda and “just be,” as Levin describes it.

The main selling point behind every Event Camp is that each one is different in its own unique way.

Conference organizers make decisions such as venue selection, conference format, if there’s a virtual component and the content (unless the organizers follow the peer conference concept in which attendees determine what happens).

“I’ve been to one, they’re all the same,” is not applicable to these conferences.  Over the first weekend in November, there were two Event Camp conferences held over the same dates across the globe – Event Camp Vancouver and Event Camp East Coast (also referred to as Event Camp DC due to The National Conference Center’s proximity to the Nation’s Capital).

Event Camp East Coast was a genuine peer conference where the attendees reveal in a round table discussion their area of expertise, what they want to learn during the conference and how they hope to get there.  The purpose of a conference like this is to ensure attendees learn what they intended to get out of the conference.

On the first night of Event Camp East Coast, we wrote topics we were interested in learning based on our own interests and expertise.  Then, the conference committee established an agenda that was posted on GoogleDocs that night.  Sessions included improv for eventprofs, exploring why some events sell out and others don’t, online community management, hybrid events and the impact on attendance and face to face shyness epidemic – making events warming.

For Event Camp Vancouver, the conference ball-game was another story.  Their agenda was established prior to the conference and posted on their website, which can be an easier sell for someone when approaching their supervisor about attending.  It also helps them set personal expectations prior to arriving.

Vancouver had a virtual component like Event Camp Twin Cities did for attendees who couldn’t attend.  The pre-determined sessions at Event Camp Vancouver included the future of hybrid, what does fair trade mean and how do we find it in our sourcing, room for thought, think before you eat, defining yourself and your brand in the age of social media.

Throughout the entire conference, attendees played Get Your Green On, a gaming app based on sustainability that was initially built for GMIC’s 2011 conference; the app presents attendees with green challenges and they can earn as many points as possible by performing different acts of green.

The Room for Thought at Event Camp Vancouver, a green space designed for participants to have a place to reflect and rejuvenate. Photo provided courtesy of Greenscape Design & Decor.

The sessions in Vancouver and in D.C. had differences but prove for an interesting case study.

Session topics at Vancouver were pre-determined while those at D.C. were created on-site, yet there was clear overlap: brain-friendly food for meetings, where we’re going with hybrid and the future as well as improv.

With unique organizers for both Event Camps and unmatched conference formats, it’s fascinating to see perhaps we’re all influencing each other through social media in the #eventprofs community and as a result, we’re interested in similar topics within the industry.

To find out more about Event Camp conferences, visit EventCamp.org.

Thank you to Sarah for writing this post for us!  To contact Sarah with questions about these events or the National Conference Center, please call 703-724-6263  or email her at svining@conferencecenter.com.

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This gorgeous photograph was sent to us by our friend (and CP member) Julie Dodds with the Anchorage CVB:

The Northern Lights shown over Anchorage at the end of September  around midnight.  Can you imagine seeing such a sight in person?

This would surely make for a memorable meeting setting!

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How do you get 240 meeting planners and suppliers to take time out of busy schedules to attend a luncheon event?  Combine the Rocky Mountain Chapters of both MPI and PCMA in Denver to listen to Bruce McMillan and Deborah Sexton discuss the state of the industry and how it affects their membership.

It was hard to be optimistic on a day when the Stock Market plummeted 390 points before lunch – but the panel did their best!

Here are some of the highlights:

Hybrid Meetings – will drive attendance, broaden the brand and encourage global connections.

Advocacy for the Meetings Industry – Value of Face to Face meetings is still not clear, so everyone needs to become a “lobbyist” for the cause.

Technology – replacing old models.  Planners need to understand how technology will help take job performance to the next level (i.e. using online search engines as RFP portals)

Staffing Concerns – we all need some time to turn off and avoid burn-out.  The increasing pace of the job requires keeping company talent from being overworked.

Publishing – Is print advertising working?  Many suppliers are opting for fewer print ads because it is difficult to measure ROI.  Digital ads take a lot of guesswork out of the advertising equation.

A la Carte Options for Membership – both MPI and PCMA see the traditional model changing to offer individual options that are relevant to the specific interests of their member demographic.

Design your own Annual Meetings – no longer a fully programmed event; future annual conferences for PCMA/MPI will be developed around interactive participation where the attendees design the content.

Miscellaneous facts cited by the panel:

• The Chinese can build a 2.5 million square foot conference center in less than a year and a 15 story hotel in 6 days. We can’t get a Washington D.C. Metro (subway) line repaired in 9 months.  The message here – Just get out and do it! There are too many obstacles in the U.S. to getting the job (any job) done.
• Extent of the growth of mobile technology: there are more cell phones in the U.S. than toothbrushes.  (This could explain people choosing to phone or text rather than meet face-to-face – or breath to breath!)

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These new rates, announced by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), are for non-standard areas (NSAs) of the continental United States, and are in effect October 1, 2011, through September 30, 2012.

The complete FY2012 rates can be viewed at the GSA per diem website.

Highlights:

• The standard continental United States (CONUS) per diem rate for lodging applies to destinations that are not listed as specific destinations remains at $77 per night.

• GSA noted that its data shows that the ADR for hotel rooms has not yet returned to its pre-2008 levels and that while some areas have increased, others have remained flat or fallen below FY2011 levels.

• Of the NSA rates that did change from FY2011, most rates did not increase or decrease more than $5.

Information courtesy of the American Hotel & Lodging Association.

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We went straight to the source to find out the scoop.

The guru is an elaborate marketing campaign for St. Louis during the months leading up to the ASAE Annual Meeting, August 6-9, 2011, at the America’s Center® convention complex in St. Louis.

“The inspiration for The Meeting Guru was Michael Scott’s character on the television show The Office,” explains Brian Hall, Chief Marketing Officer for the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission.  In the show, Michael Scott plays the role of the boss, who Hall describes as “arrogant and cocky but oblivious to the fact that he is a bumbling idiot.  We wanted to create a Michael Scott-like character that people would enjoy laughing at.”

We found The Meeting Guru to be most similar to “Ace Ventura,” one of our favorite Jim Carey characters.  His exaggerated body language and eyebrow raise are spot on!   (All righty then!)

Yours truly and CP Sales Director Carol Mills had the distinct pleasure of chatting with the Meeting Guru at the Springtime Expo in April

The Meeting Guru has been patrolling the meetings industry,  promoting his “book,” The Meeting Guru: The Quintessential Guide to Successful Events.

At every turn, there he is, with a Mr. Spock-style raised eyebrow, an all-knowing smirk and even his own entourage.

“I’ll sign a copy of my book for you at the ASAE Annual Meeting,” he claims, “If there are any left!” (Don’t expect to find any).

In a series of funny videos on The Meeting Guru website under the “Guru Speakers Series” tab, the Guru delivers interesting and useful facts about St. Louis as a meeting destination, amidst a blizzard of half-baked business advice (with PowerPoint) and self-promotional one-liners.

The website also features “Guru Resources” (guess what city they are in) and a “Guru Gift Shop” (most items are “sold out”).

The website also claims that The Meeting Guru “has held event planner positions on 6 of the 7 continents.”  But Hall insists “he has only planned meetings here in St. Louis because he knows better!”

“Thousands of people have visited the website and checked out the videos,” Hall adds.  “The number of people who have clicked the social media sites has been really encouraging.  People enjoyed the joke and thought the antics of The Meeting Guru were very entertaining.  We wanted to find a way to get people’s attention in an unconventional way and put a smile on their faces.”

Hall says that in the St. Louis booth at the ASAE Annual Meeting the meeting planner wannabe will “meet with the real meeting gurus of St. Louis who are members of our Customer Advisory Group.”  Together they will explain to attendees what makes St. Louis a great place to hold meetings and events.

Hall says that in real life, The Meeting Guru is an accomplished St. Louis-based actor who has appeared on television network programs.

Click here to learn more about St. Louis.  “It’s cosmo without the clutter,” according to the Guru.

And, if you’re attending the Annual Meeting, be on the lookout for ConventionPlanit.com team members Maureen Pickell (a frequent blog contributor), Julie Roberts and Al Rickard at Booth #2421.

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Again sticking close to home, your traveling ConventionPlanit.com Blogger headed down the mountain from Breckenridge on 3/16 to attend the Meetings Industry Council of Colorado Educational Conference and Trade Show in Denver.

Instead of getting ready for St. Patrick’s Day, an enthusiastic audience of over 700 planners and suppliers convened to find new and innovative ways to get the business of meetings done.

The Denver Convention Center did a great job of welcoming the group with a tasty continental breakfast and a perfect climate controlled environment…not too hot or too cold.  Other Centers with break out rooms approaching the temperature necessary to cure meat could take a lesson!

Educational sessions covered topics such as the Meetings Industry: State of the Economy, The Power of Service – How to Provide Customer Service that Rocks! and Mastering Magical Persuasion.  (Check out a future e-Alert for more on this subject.)

ConventionPlanit.com Colorado members Denver CVB, Colorado Springs CVB, Lowes Denver Hotel, and the Keystone Resort & Conference Center exhibited while the Anchorage CVB sponsored a Massage Therapist to help ease the strain of viewing over 120  booths on the trade show floor.

All in all, the one day event was an enervating mix of education and networking that had everyone departing on a “Rocky Mountain High!”

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Want the inside scoop on how our music video came to be?  You’re in the right place!

ConventionPlanit.com Co-Founder and Principal Katherine Markham, CHME is the mastermind behind the concept and idea of the video.

She was inspired when she learned about a talented singing group called Buffalo Stance, who are based in her hometown of New York City.

The totally awesome Buffalo Stance

The group is named after the “Buffalo Stance” song from the 1980s…and appropriately, the all female vocal group sings a lot of 80s music!

“We thought it would be fun to rewrite the lyrics to a popular song and sing it in the video,” Markham said.  “We chose ‘Flashdance,’ which has a strong, dramatic style that really captured the excitement we wanted to convey.”

She then got to work writing the script for the video and lining up the production team.

Markham asked meetings industry veteran Roman Holton, who runs a video and filmmaking company called Ascension Media, to shoot and produce the video.

“When she called with the idea I said, ‘It may not be as easy as you think,’” Holton recalled.  “But she persevered, so we got the crew together that would do the job for her.”

Some familiar faces from the meetings industry were sprinkled into the video.  Can you spot them?

• Bob Gilbert, President & CEO of the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI), offered the association’s offices to shoot the video.  Gilbert also appears in several scenes in the video.
• Windy Christner, CMP, Senior Director, Meetings & Expositions for the American Pharmacists Association, played the role of a “new age” fortuneteller
• Association Vision President Al Rickard, CAE, played the office receptionist
• Association professional Sallie Hyman appeared as an office visitor and as an office employee

“The whole video conveyed the idea of how much easier it is today for meeting planners than it was 25 years ago, thanks to technology such as ConventionPlanit.com,” Markham explained.

Have you been involved in a video production?  What was your favorite part?

Don’t forget to check out the music video and submit your own predictions for what you think the future of meeting planning will be like.

The predictions will be put to the vote by your peers, and the grand prize winner will receive a trip for two to Cancun, courtesy of the JW Marriott Cancun and Continental Airlines!

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Meetings Mean Business, along with the Convention Industry Council and PwC US, has just released a study:

The Economic Significance of Meetings to the U.S. Economy

The study reveals that the meetings industry directly supports:

• 1.7 million jobs
• $263 billion in spending
• a $106 billion contribution to GDP
• $60 billion in labor revenue
• $14.3 billion in federal tax revenue
• $11.3 billion in state and local tax revenue

This is the first study ever to truly measure the economic impact of meetings to help the industry tell the story about the value of meetings to policymakers, the business community, and the public.

Katherine Markham, CHME, our Co-Founder and Principal, attended the press conference today on the study.

She says:

“The best thing about the study is that it shows how critical meetings are at a time when our recovery depends on steadily increasing business activity.

“Fortunately, we are seeing a steady recovery in the meetings industry. The fact that this study measured data for 2009 – one of the toughest years for the meetings industry – shows that meetings are an even greater force in the economy than most people realize. The data for 2010 and beyond are no doubt even stronger.

“As meeting professionals move into the future, they are also depending even more on technology to help them plan meetings, and that’s where ConventionPlanit.com helps them with our online search directory. By connecting meeting planners to hotels and meeting venues as rapidly as possible, we hope we are doing our part to help speed the recovery and book more meetings for the future.”

To learn more, read the full study.  What do you think the survey means for our industry?

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